Long story short: Madonna began performing "Give It 2 Me" at Madison Square Garden, welcomed onstage a special guest, and suddenly she was headlong into a duet of "Gangnam Style" with the song's maestro, PSY. Take a look:
First things first: Madonna can dance. She is damn athletic, and even if she's not exactly the provocative thruster and twirler that we remember from American Bandstand, she's got moves. Now, this duet.
You just hate to see Madonna sharing a stage with ephemeral pop phenomena. It felt contrived enough when she equipped Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., two fame-worthy and original stars, for "Gimme All Your Luvin," but PSY? PSY is the Los Del Rio of 2012, except his music is a sped-up Dance Dance Revolution aerobics mix. Here's where it ranks on my list of Madonna duets, ranked great to awful. (Pardon if I've forgotten any obvious ones.)
1. With Jellybean Benitez, "Sidewalk Talk"
2. With Me'Shell NdegeOcello, "I'd Rather Be Your Lover"
3. With Prince, "Love Song"
4. With Ricky Martin, "Be Careful With My Heart"
5. With Justin Timberlake, "4 Minutes"
6. With Justin Timberlake, "Dance 2Night"
7. With Missy Elliott, "Into the Hollywood Groove"
8. With Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., "Gimme All Your Luvin"
9. With PSY, "Gangnam Style/Give It 2 Me"
10. With Britney Spears, "Me Against the Music"
So, phew: It's not the absolute worst. But then again, the absolute worst was unthinkably bad. I'll settle for "not unthinkably bad" today.
