Madonna defends New York comments

Madonna has insisted that her recent comments about New York were taken out of context.

The singer was quoted by Vanity Fair as saying the city had "lost its buzz" and was no longer the cultural capital of the world.

She told New York magazine that her remarks had been misinterpreted, saying: "I really love New York. That's where my career started. I was referring to, in a way, missing those early days when the art world, the downtown scene, the music world were colliding.

"So it was a reference to missing that time and a lot of those people. I am not plugged in the way I used to be, and I miss those days."

However, she reiterated her belief that New York is lacking the kind of artistic characters who made it such an exciting place to live in the 1980s.

She said: "When I first came to New York my friends were Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

"There was this crazy interface for me of art and life, and I don't see that so much anymore in New York."

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