The queen of pop has been criticized this week for promoting her album with altered images of Martin Luther King. In a statement on Facebook, Madonna begged for forgiveness: "I'm sorry. I'm not comparing myself to anyone. I'm admiring and acknowledging there Rebel Hearts [sic]."

In a promotion for Madonna's new album, Rebel Heart, the singer released pictures on Instagram that superimposed her album's black rope artwork onto three important role models: Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley. The pictures are all captioned with quotes regarding Madonna's album. For Bob Marley, the pop star wrote, "This #rebelheart sang about ONE LOVE!"

Several Instagram users found the artwork offensive, and lashed out. On Friday night, Madonna denied that the posts were examples of racism. Rather, these posts were meant to be a display of her admiration for the role models' bravery.

Madonna insisted that these pieces of art were created in a show of support to the famous individuals, and are not meant to reflect her at all. Plus, she was not even the one who created these controversial images in the first place.

In a public statement, Madonna said, "Am I saying I am them NO I'm saying they are Rebel Hearts too. And I didn't do it My fans did And I just re posted those photos My fans aren't racist either If they put me in the same category as these other people Thank you."

To the fans who designed the doctored pictures, the star added, "I'm very flattered and I hope one day to live up to 1/100th of what those people accomplished."