diff --git a/package/madplay/madplay.mk b/package/madplay/madplay.mk
index e1a78bd7d7..91ee44ab5f 100644
--- a/package/madplay/madplay.mk
+++ b/package/madplay/madplay.mk
@@ -15,6 +15,14 @@ MADPLAY_DEPENDENCIES = host-pkgconf libmad libid3tag $(TARGET_NLS_DEPENDENCIES)
 # Also 0003-configure-ac-use-pkg-config-to-find-id3tag.patch
 MADPLAY_AUTORECONF = YES
 
+# madplay uses libmad which has some assembly function that is not present in
+# Thumb mode:
+# Error: selected processor does not support `smull r8,r9,r2,r4' in Thumb mode
+# so, we desactivate Thumb mode
+ifeq ($(BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_THUMB),y)
+MADPLAY_CONF_ENV += CFLAGS="$(TARGET_CFLAGS) -marm"
+endif
+
 # Check if ALSA is built, then we should configure after alsa-lib so
 # ./configure can find alsa-lib.
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_MADPLAY_ALSA),y)