London: Pop superstar Madonna believes she would not have succeeded on shows like "American Idol" early on in her career.

Madonna had to endure years of rejection before tasting success and believes she would have failed in talent hunt shows, reports ananova.com.

She said: "I did it the hard way. I played in crappy little clubs for years before anybody would even pay any attention to me. I had to take my tape around to record companies and have them shut the door in my face. It took a long time. I came up the hard way.

"I went to a lot of auditions for musical theatre and conventional mainstream things and I always got cut immediately, so I'm pretty sure the same thing would happen to me (in talent shows)."