Maria McCloy
SOUTH AFRICAN pop star Brenda Fassie has often been referred to as the “black Madonna”. But a local music magazine has taken the comparison a bit too far.
The May 1997 debut issue of e’Vibe, “the only specialist pop magazine in the country”, has run an interview with Fassie titled Talking with Brenda – The unbridled truth. Problem is, in the November 1992 issue of American magazine Newsweek there appeared an interview with Madonna about her Sex book. The title? Talking with Madonna – The unbridled truth.
e’Vibe has lifted, almost word for word, the Madonna interview and replaced her name with Fassie’s. Shamelessly plagiarising David Ansen’s Newsweek interview, e’Vibe begins its story (by Kerwin Chiya) on Fassie’s new album as follows:
e’Vibe: So do you think you can change people’s attitudes with this album?
Brenda: I think that it can start the machinery going for change. I do in a way see myself as a revolution at this point …
Newsweek’s Madonna interview, began:
Newsweek: So do you really think that you can change people’s attitudes with this book?
Madonna: I think that it can start the machinery going for change. I do in a way see myself as a revolutionary at this point …
e’Vibe has changed the odd phrase, but so it goes on, question after question, “Fassie” uttering Madonna’s lines. Newsweek is asking Madonna about the experience of taking risqu public sex and fetish photographs. Brenda has never been involved in such a project:
Newsweek: Did people know who you were?
Madonna: I don’t think so. We didn’t plan, we just drove around, and then we’d see something, go, “That looks good,” and jump out.
e’Vibe’s version goes:
e’Vibe: Did people know who you were?
Brenda: Of course everybody knows who Brenda Fassie is, but we didn’t plan, we just walked around and then we’d see something, “That looks good,” and jump out.
Other changes occur in phrases like “yebo” where Madonna says “yes” or a mention of “pap” where Madonna refers to “rice”. Things became a bit trickier for e’Vibe when the Madonna interview got into a discussion on SM (Sadomasochism). Newsweek asks Madonna: “What is it about bondage and SM that’s interesting to you?” e’Vibe asks Brenda: “What is it about bondage and sex mags that’s interesting to you?” Madonna: “I’m fascinated by it. I mean, there’s a lot of pain equals pleasure in the Catholic church and that is also associated with bondage and SM.” Brenda: “I’m fascinated by it. I mean, there’s a lot of pain equals pleasure in the church and that is also associated with bondage and sex magazines … “
In his editorial in e’Vibe, publisher Thabo Mosoahle writes, “What you are holding this very moment is a product of months of painstaking research and planning …”
Attempts to contact Mosoahle or editor Andrew Molefe proved fruitless. Fassie’s managers responded that the interview was “absolutely unbelievable”. The Mail & Guardian’s legal advisers say that Fassie has a huge case against e’Vibe and could sue for unjustifiable defamation and that Newsweek has a strong copyright case.