Madonna reveals men offered her record deals for sex

Pop icon Madonna. Photo / Getty Images

Madonna was offered a record deal in exchange for sex.

The 60-year-old singer admitted she lost count of the number of unwanted advances she turned down at the beginning of her career and she wishes more women in the music industry were more "outspoken" about their experiences.

She said: "I can't tell you how many men said: 'OK, well, if you give me a blow job', or: 'OK, if you sleep with me.' Sex is the trade, you know?

"I feel like maybe there isn't a movement so much because we're already used to expressing ourselves in a way, or fighting for things, although I do wish there were more women in the music business that were more political and more outspoken about all things in life, not just ... the inequality of the sexes."

But the Vogue hitmaker thinks musicians are able to speak for themselves in a way that actors are not because they don't face the same pressures from producers or studios.

She told the Guardian newspaper: "It's all the same - there are people abusing their power everywhere, in all areas of life, not just film and not just music.

"A musical artist is allowed to speak in a more personal way and be themselves and talk about issues in a way that say, an actor is not; they don't have a voice, the voice and the opinions belong to the director or the studios.

"And if you're a movie star and you want a part in a movie, there are a lot of people, mostly men, who are willing to exploit and abuse that power to degrade women. And they're untouchable."

Madonna recently admitted Harvey Weinstein "crossed line and boundaries" when they worked on her 1991 documentary In Bed With Madonna and she thinks it is "scary" that so many people knew how the disgraced movie mogul allegedly behaved but simply turned a blind eye and "accepted" his antic.

She said: "Harvey Weinstein was untouchable. His reputation was universal - everybody knew he was, you know, the guy that he was. I'm not into name-calling, but it was like, 'Oh, that's Harvey, that's what he does.' It just became accepted.

"And I suppose that's the scary thing about it. Because if people do things enough, no matter how heinous and awful and unacceptable it is, people accept it. And that certainly exists in the music industry, too."

-Bang! Showbiz