A video has gone viral on the Internet in which an American singer allegedly throws a blue and yellow pawn off a chessboard. It is alleged that in this way she “predicted Ukraine’s complete failure in the Northern Military District.” We have verified the authenticity of this video.
The video appeared on the Internet in mid-February 2023 and exists in three versions: short (duration 5 sec.), a little longer (11 sec.) and full (12 sec.). Moreover, the first two options are cut off not only in terms of timing, but also in the picture, since only in the full video it is clear that this is a recording of an Instagram story* of the artist. On the blog of the Tsargrad TV channel in Zen explained, that in her video the singer predicts complete failure for Ukraine: “These are the published immediate plans of Western puppeteers. Madonna is a long-time adherent of the mystical teachings of Kabbalah, which is followed by many of the world's business and political elite. The metaphor is clear even to those who do not play chess. Around the Ukrainian pawn there is a bishop, two rooks and other pieces. Then the woman’s hand, with a slight movement, knocks over the pawn (at the same time, the face is not visible in the footage, so it is impossible to establish the identity of this person. - Ed.). This is not the first time that a shocking pop diva is trying to convey the prospects of Ukraine to the world in this way. In December, Madonna published a video on her social network in which she puts the Ukrainian flag in her mouth, chews it for a few seconds and spits it out.”
In the TV presenter’s Telegram channel Ruslana Ostashko (120,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) Madonna was called “a lover of chewing ukroflag” and noted that she posted a video of knocking down a pawn before the address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly, which took place February 21. The viral clip also appeared in other Telegram channels (examples here, here, here And here), public pages on VKontakte (here, here And here), "Odnoklassniki"and on news websites. At the same time, the authors of some publications claim that a song is playing in the background of the video with the words “Do you want to apologize? Absolutely no one is apologizing.”
In December 2022, a video, also made in the form of a story recording, actually went viral on the Internet, in which Madonna allegedly chewed the Ukrainian flag and then spat it out. "Verified" sorted it out That video established that the artist did not post it on her social networks and that it was edited. Moreover, the words “I would like to apologize... to absolutely no one” were heard in that video with the flag, and in the new viral video with the pawn a different composition was used - Hey Mickey! from rapper Baby Tate (there are no mentioned lines about an apology).
As for the new video, then, as in last times, we couldn't find it on Madonna's Instagram page. Firstly, stories available in the profile only for the first 24 hours, after which they are hidden from third-party users. Secondly, the singer did not post this video as a separate post and did not save it in special albums. In addition, there are no notes about this provocative clip in any foreign media or on any fan portal dedicated to the life and work of Madonna, and the same recording circulates on the Internet. This seems strange, considering that at the time of writing this text, almost 18.9 million people have subscribed to the pop diva’s page. Moreover, after February 24, 2022, Madonna posted on her Instagram many times expressed support for the Ukrainian people.
The earliest publication with the new video “Verified” was found in the Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir"(163,000 views), which mentioned in our investigations more than a dozen times in connection with the dissemination of fake photos and videos, as well as other false messages. There, a five-second version of the clip was posted on February 17, 2023 at 11:57 Moscow time. At the same time, in the full version of the recording at around 0:12 it is clear that Madonna’s profile last published a post for February 11 (the next entry on the singer’s page was posted only February 14). It turns out that a recording of a story, available on the page only for 24 hours, appeared on the Internet almost a week after the video was created.
In addition, in the viral video, at the 0:08 and 0:11 marks, two other stories with photographs of Madonna are visible: the first one says the word “your”, the second one says “bitch”. We found these stories on the website Daily Mail And several fan resources on Facebook*, according to which two entries were preceded by a third with the word “not” to end up with the phrase “Not your bitch”. However, this story is missing from the viral video.
Analyzing the fake video with the Ukrainian flag, we found the unedited original is on the singer's tiktok, so we started searching from there again. Fortune did not let us down: in Madonna’s TikTok there is a video that interests us appeared December 18, 2022 and received 1.8 million views. There are no chess pieces or references to Ukraine in that video - it is edited differently, and music from Madonna's track plays in the background Back That Up To The Beat.
Another detail also indicates that the viral video with a pawn in the colors of Ukraine was edited and passed off as a publication by Madonna. The inscription 19h (means that the story was posted 19 hours ago) is not written in the same font as used on Instagram (this is especially visible in the number 9).
Thus, Madonna did not share the clip in which she knocks a pawn off the chessboard in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The viral video was edited, and it is based on the singer’s real video, which she published a couple of months ago.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: screenshot “Verified” / Madonna — The Power Of Good-Bye (Official Video)
Fake
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