BuzzJack Music Forum _ Madonna _ Madame X ● 14th Studio Album
Posted by: liamk97 3rd September 2017, 12:25 PM
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The energy of Portugal is so inspiring. I feel very creative and alive here and I look forward to working on my film LOVED and making New Music!!! ❤️🇵🇹. 🎼🎤🎬🎥. This will be the next Chapter in My Book! 📚📕📚📕📚♥️ It's time to conquer the world from a different vantage point!! 🌏🎉🌈🙏🏻
I'm guessing work on her film will still take priority, but it's still great to hear confirmation that new music is on the cards. I imagine the current world state has got Madonna inspired - totally here for American Life: The Sequel!
What's everyone wanting/expecting from #M14?
Posted by: HausofSZA 3rd September 2017, 08:47 PM
So excited to hear this news! I really need another album from her soooooon please
Posted by: Liаm 4th September 2017, 12:19 AM
Another American Life is something I would LIVE for, so yes please
Posted by: liamk97 4th September 2017, 05:50 PM
Just speaking freely here as I doubt this would actually happen, but it would be great if we got like an EP or a "mini-album" or whatever at some point next year - a small collection of politically-driven songs with some videos the same standard as her tour interludes and short films to accompany them. I feel like Madonna needs to strike whilst the iron is hot as it's likely to be Spring 2019 at the earliest that she'd actually release a new album and I fear that the themes explored on it may have lost relevancy by this time or at least has been exhausted by other artists.
Posted by: vibe 5th September 2017, 07:44 AM
She will celebrate being 60 with some new music and a massive show somewhere i think.
Posted by: liamk97 5th September 2017, 01:32 PM
Would be great if she did something to commemorate her 60th. I do recall their being a bit of a media buzz at her turning 50 during the Hard Candy era so would be a good opportunity to drop some new music this time around.
Posted by: slowdown73 8th September 2017, 09:41 AM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Sep 4 2017, 06:50 PM)
Just speaking freely here as I doubt this would actually happen, but it would be great if we got like an EP or a "mini-album" or whatever at some point next year - a small collection of politically-driven songs with some videos the same standard as her tour interludes and short films to accompany them. I feel like Madonna needs to strike whilst the iron is hot as it's likely to be Spring 2019 at the earliest that she'd actually release a new album and I fear that the themes explored on it may have lost relevancy by this time or at least has been exhausted by other artists.
I think gone are the days when Madonna will release something new and inventive. She used to set the trends but now appears to just follow them. I wish she'd go back more to her roots and release something which reflects her age and maturity rather than working with some of these new producers like Diplo and the end result is something which sounds crap.
Posted by: liamk97 8th September 2017, 12:34 PM
I don't have a problem necessarily with her working with people like Diplo as Madonna's always made music to get people on the dancefloor, I just want the music to be fresh and exciting and something that feels unique to Madonna.
Posted by: liamk97 18th September 2017, 03:25 PM
Taken from her interview with Entertainment Weekly:
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You worked with some notable fresh talent on Rebel Heart, like rising hitmaker MNEK and a pre-Coloring Book Chance the Rapper. Who has your ear right now? Well, as you know I moved to Lisbon, and I’ve been listening to a lot of music here, like fado, which is the music of Portugal. There’s such a cultural mix of people and music here. You could go out every night and hear different kinds of music. There’s a great jazz scene here. So right now I’m listening to a lot of local artists I’ve never heard of before, and that’s been really inspiring.
Definitely feels like we're going to see Madonna be a bit more innovative than she's been in recent years with this upcoming album; her move to Portugal seems to have brought on a new chapter in her life and she seems refreshed with lots of new ideas.
Posted by: HausofSZA 18th September 2017, 03:26 PM
Sounds promising! She did the cultural shift brilliantly with Ray of Light so i'm excited for what this could potentially have in store
Posted by: liamk97 18th September 2017, 03:32 PM
Yes it's giving me ROL vibes too! That might be a bit too ambitious of an end goal, but it's got similar foundations i.e. taking something that's not mainstream and giving it the pop treatment whilst still being interesting and emotional. Gah I just need new music!
Posted by: liamk97 23rd September 2017, 11:42 AM
From DrownedMadonna:
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Madonna talks about the songs on her Next Album
Talking about the songs on her next album, Madonna says that we can expect political criticism.
Political criticism will be part of her next album, but Madonna specifies that she won’t necessarily talk about Donald Trump. “I already expressed my point of view on him,” says Madonna to Brazilian magazine Veja. Also because she doesn’t “know who will be the President when my album comes out.”
Her new songs will also be a political critic, but “not particularly about a person”.
“World leaders are sinking society into insensitive and conservative thoughts,” adds Madonna. “With the economy collapsing, people think that it is better to elect successful entrepreneurs to run a government. But that’s not how things work. Being the leader of a nation requires diplomacy, experience, and intellectual ability. It’s a colossal job, but more and more unqualified people are elected for that role.”
“On my songs I want to talk about how we got to this point,” Madonna says. “We can not continue to blame our leaders, we have to blame ourselves. We need to get involved and ask for the changes that we want.”
Veja: After thirty years of career, aren’t you tired of rebellion?
“No, no, no. I’m not tired. I feel even more energetic. Stronger to fight for what I believe. I’m a rebel and I’ll be rebellious till the end.”
Madonna adds that the cultural and musical scene in Portugal will be a big inspiration.
Talking about American Life album, Madonna says that “society does not feel comfortable with a woman, especially a pop singer, talking about politics.”
When American Life came out, “people were especially irritated because I criticized the United States – the lifestyle, the American dream, the belief system, government, politics,” adds Madonna. “Americans do not want to hear criticism. They want to think that they live in a country where there is justice and equality, an example of democracy and freedom. We know that none of this is true, especially today.”
Posted by: liamk97 8th December 2017, 11:17 PM
"When are you going back on tour?"
"Soon...2017 was soccor mom and Portugal; 2018 I'm coming back, I'm coming for you!"
YAAAASSSS!
Posted by: HausAlone 11th December 2017, 07:34 PM
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Definitely going to see her live again <3
Posted by: liamk97 11th December 2017, 09:05 PM
I wasn't expecting her to be touring so soon, assuming a tour does go ahead next year, but I'll definitely be seeing her, no matter the cost. You went to the Rebel Heart Tour didn't you, Bal?
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 12th December 2017, 01:12 AM
It'd be nice if we did get it within the next year!
Posted by: HausAlone 12th December 2017, 09:20 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Dec 11 2017, 09:05 PM)
I wasn't expecting her to be touring so soon, assuming a tour does go ahead next year, but I'll definitely be seeing her, no matter the cost. You went to the Rebel Heart Tour didn't you, Bal?
I did! I had my whole "losing ticket on the way" fiasco will never, ever forget it lmao. This one will be DRAMA FREE I PROMISE x
Posted by: liamk97 15th December 2017, 06:55 AM
Oh yes that's right! Oh God I definitely hope there's no repeat of that!
I'm so excited at the prospect of her going on tour next year; I was expecting it to be a while away yet. Could possibly be to mark her 60th birthday? Sort of like a 'greatest hits' tour but with something a bit different to make it more exciting for Madonna herself. Perhaps more of a focus on the 'forgotten gems' if some of the song choices from the Rebel Heart Tour are anything to go by and perhaps with new music premiering too.
Posted by: vibe 15th December 2017, 06:41 PM
I must start saving
Posted by: dandy* 16th December 2017, 10:14 PM
Oh thank god. From the home page you just get "Madonna confirms work on new m..." and I feared it was another movie.
Posted by: liamk97 16th December 2017, 11:46 PM
Haha! I think there is a movie she's directed that goes by the title of Loved that's due at some point although I've heard very few details about it. I loved W/E so wouldn't mind another film directed by her, but of course music is what I most want from Madonna so I'm glad the film project doesn't seem to be preventing her from creating music too.
Posted by: liamk97 14th January 2018, 01:17 PM
Madonna listed on Rolling Stone's most anticipated albums of 2018:
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Album: TBA Release Date: TBA Now living outside Lisbon, Portugal, the shape-shifting superstar hinted that she'd be returning to the pop world when she dropped by Live with Kelly and Ryan in December. "2017 was soccer mom in Portugal – 2018, I'm coming back, baby," she told fellow guest Anderson Cooper, who asked about her tour plans. "I'm traveling the world right now and listening to lots of different music," she told Entertainment Weekly in September. "I'm getting inspired by people and I'm just soaking things up right now. ... It's time for me to take a different approach and really get back down to the beauty and simplicity of music and lyrics and intimacy."
Can't believe we could be getting new albums from Madonna, Kylie and Britney all in 2018!!
Please don't try to be 'current' Madge! I think she has the potential to make a really great album about where she is now in her life and that's something I'd really love to hear - Queen was a starter along those lines and I wish she would be brave enough to make a more reflective album.
Posted by: liamk97 17th January 2018, 07:58 PM
Agreed! Perhaps I'm getting too ahead of myself by envisioning a direction she could be going in, but with all that's gone in the world and with her really enjoying Portuguese culture and music, she's got some great potential for really fascinating lyrical and musical material.
Posted by: liamk97 17th January 2018, 08:35 PM
Photographed leaving a studio in London today!
Posted by: liamk97 19th January 2018, 09:54 AM
From DrownedMadonna:
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Madonna is writing and recording new music with Starrah and Billboard.
From what it’s possible to understand Madonna is recording in the Green Room at Sarm West Studios in London. The Green Room is their “perfect suite studio”. She recorded there part of Music, American Life and MDNA.
Madonna posted about two pictures in the studio with Starrah, and mentioned Billboard with a tag. Billboard flew to London a couple of days ago to work with Madonna.
Starrah's writing credits show she worked on Rihanna's 'Needed Me', Katy Perry's 'Swish Swish', Camila Cabello's 'Havana' and Calvin Harris' 'Feels'.
Posted by: vibe 20th January 2018, 07:16 AM
I love that Madonna called out her fans for callin Starrah a rapper on Social media.
That Brunette Life Tho..............👩🏻🎓👩🏻🎨👩🏻⚕️ 😂 #hair #fun #change #life
Madonna going brunette for this era? Gimme dat American Life vibes!!
Posted by: Alberto! 26th February 2018, 08:51 PM
Madonna commented on Guy Oseary's latest IG post, where he praised the consistency of ROL and its success in standing the test of time:
guyoseary 20 year anniversary of �� @madonna RAY OF LIGHT album.. One of the greatest albums of all time.. It was the first @Madonna album I worked on.. You can see from this video the kind of relationship we had then.. NOTHING has changed.. If you filmed us today, it would be the same dynamic.. Love this woman. Love this album. One day she will hopefully do a tour for this album.. It deserves to be performed from start to finish.. ❤️���� respect to @williamorbit for his brilliant work on this album.. ���� .. Also two groundbreaking videos #Frozen by Chris Cunningham and #rayoflight by my dear friend @jonasakerlund .. those were really fun times..
She sharply replied:
madonna Can you help me now please!! �� madonna Remember when i made records with other artists from beginning to end and I was allowed to be a visionary and not have to go to song writing camps where no one can sit still for more than 15 minutes…………….���������� coming soon
I do believe Madonna ultimately had the final say on more than she wants us to think by choosing her words, but maybe it's a step in the right direction..
Posted by: HausofTroye 26th February 2018, 08:56 PM
Wow what a reply! Stand your ground and make YOUR music Madonna
Posted by: vibe 28th February 2018, 02:02 AM
You’re Madonna
No one forced you to write in song writing camps.
Posted by: liamk97 28th February 2018, 03:42 PM
Marina (and the Diamonds) tweeted a screenshot with the caption "Epic!" and went on to tweet "I want to write with @madonna! ⭐️".
I think the forum would explode!
Posted by: liamk97 1st March 2018, 08:49 AM
Interesting Huffington Post article here, encouraging Madonna to step away from the 'songwriting camps': http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/madonna-step-away-from-the-songwriting-camps_uk_5a95789ae4b0699553ccb0da
Posted by: HausofTroye 4th March 2018, 08:34 PM
A brilliant article.
Maybe, safe in the knowledge that no amount of Julia Michaels, Ed Sheeran or even Sia co-writes are going to give Madonna a hit in the streaming era (and that no matter what, a full Madonna album and world tour are always going to make money), you should take a look at her pretty spotless track record and leave her to her own devices this time around.
This rings true. She won't get a hit again, so stop chasing one and just make DAMN GOOD music that is true to who you are and from your heart and mind.
Posted by: vibe 5th March 2018, 07:10 AM
She could so get a hit again but by being her .
Posted by: liamk97 8th March 2018, 10:51 PM
QUOTE
Be Patient Bishes...............I have not forgotten what GOD put me on this 🌏🌎🌍 to do! 🎼🎤🎶🎵🎶🎼🌪🌪🌪 😂🌈💕🎉#music #makes #the #people #come #together 👑 #patience 🙏🏻 @nunoxico
She tagged Mirwais in her last Instagram post about recording. If she does an entire album with Mirwais again I will forgive her for the past decade
Posted by: blacksquare 17th April 2018, 12:49 PM
This is music news of the year worthy
Posted by: liamk97 17th April 2018, 01:17 PM
That would be great news! Mirwais had some very interesting production ideas but there was also a subtlety to it and room for Madonna's vocals to shine, which I think has been missing from big productions from Madonna's recent music.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 17th April 2018, 01:54 PM
OOOOOH
Posted by: liamk97 17th April 2018, 02:31 PM
OCC are reporting on this too: http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/madonna-is-recording-new-music-with-mirwais-who-produced-her-american-life-and-music-albums__22535/
They seem eager for new Madonna music, even including her on a list of "albums still to be released in 2018" article, despite it probably being Q1 2019 at the earliest it'll arrive, unless Madonna's been secretly going hard in the studio in amongst her MDNA Skin work.
Posted by: vibe 17th April 2018, 04:39 PM
She may be revisiting old material . She has loads left over with him.
Posted by: HausofTroye 17th April 2018, 05:32 PM
Really nice to hear! He's helped produce some classic eras for her. Hopefully it's more of the same
Posted by: Regina 17th April 2018, 06:35 PM
I'm more excited about the fact she is now doing multiple takes again rather than just doing one and moving on.
Posted by: liamk97 17th May 2018, 01:24 PM
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That I never Learned.............Coming Soon! 🎶🎤🎧🎹 #music #magic #mirwais 👑
Studio version of 'Beautiful Game' coming?!
Posted by: HausofTroye 17th May 2018, 04:43 PM
Omg!
Posted by: liamk97 17th May 2018, 07:23 PM
OCC seem to suggest it's going to be a single? Maybe they're getting ahead of themselves, could just be a 'buzz' single of sorts.
This https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi4c033h4qa/?taken-by=_aldodiazwas posted on insta. Intro to the studio version of 'Beautiful Game'?
Posted by: vibe 17th May 2018, 09:46 PM
I’m so excited
Posted by: liamk97 20th May 2018, 02:57 PM
Quite a few news outlets are saying Beautiful Game is the first single but I think they've all just got their info from what the OCC said.
What's people's thoughts on Beautiful Game, just judging from the live clip?
Posted by: vibe 20th May 2018, 04:30 PM
I think it is instantly catchy .
Posted by: liamk97 27th May 2018, 11:17 AM
Things seem to have gone quiet again. I'm just so eager to stan another Madonna era!
Posted by: vibe 28th May 2018, 07:18 AM
I think this is all lies sadly .
Posted by: liamk97 31st May 2018, 12:39 PM
Apparently details of Madonna's album have been leaked online, specifically some song titles and their content:
Those titles include Risky Places – which, it’s claimed, lists off the places where Madonna would like to have sex (which apparently includes Kendrick Lamar’s bathroom) – Dos Hermano (which is partly sung in Spanish) and Turn Back Time. Two other tracks – Smartgun, which tells the story of a black boy who is shot by police, and Persistence – have also been brought to light in the leak.
'Risky Places' is said to list off where the 59-year-old star would like to have sex, including a golf course, church, her father's basement, a cemetery and hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar's bedroom.
The 'Into The Groove' hitmaker is also believed to rap parts of the song.
'Dos Hermano' is partly sung in Spanish and is a slow ballad about two brothers who are separated by immigration laws.
Whilst 'Turn Back Time' is believed to have been co-written with Joe Henry - who last worked with Madonna on 2012's 'Falling Free' - and reportedly sees Madonna reflect on having an abortion when she was young and all the things the child has missed out on.
'Smartgun' tells the story of a black boy who is shot by police, and 'Persistence' features the repeated line: "If you want something, you have to ask for it."
Posted by: HausofTroye 31st May 2018, 05:06 PM
Not going to lie, it sounds like a mess :')
I thought it was going to be a really personal, stripped back album but it sounds like a mix of MDNA and the horny parts of Rebel Heart.
Good to see she's discussing some very important issues facing the world right now though in the middle of the horn~
Posted by: liamk97 31st May 2018, 11:48 PM
Yeah, safe to say most people will eye roll when they read about 'Risky Places'! The rest sounds promising though - as you say, Bal, it's nice to hear Madonna is discussing topical issues through her music: that feels much more like the Madonna of old and it's what people have come to expect from music in this day and age. I was hoping her becoming more familiar with Portuguese culture/music since taking residency there would have an effect on her music and I feel 'Dos Hermano' could be an example of this.
Like Rebel Heart, I guess you have to accept that the sexy side of her music is always going to be there, just as long as there is plenty of gold amongst it (it's not even Madonna involving sex in her music that's the problem, it's just that it's not done, in many people's eyes, very well. Like, give me modern day Erotica by all means if it's witty and clever).
Posted by: UltraReputation 1st June 2018, 12:20 AM
The person who posted that stuff on Reddit has confirmed its fake!
Posted by: liamk97 1st June 2018, 11:02 AM
Aww, I was quite enjoying the non-Risky Places details.
Posted by: ebae 3rd June 2018, 10:31 PM
Damn, it sounded messy but interesting haha. Well it is better to not have leaked details out there,
Posted by: juicemore 9th June 2018, 08:47 PM
QUOTE(UltraReputation @ Jun 1 2018, 01:20 AM)
The person who posted that stuff on Reddit has confirmed its fake!
Phew - was sounding very messy. Lets hope there are no more Minaj Collabs too.....
Posted by: liamk97 14th June 2018, 12:46 PM
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Session # 3 finished with Disco God 🕺🏻Mirwais 🤐🤐🤐 #music #method #magic #mothership @mirwais.official
Posted by: vibe 14th June 2018, 12:59 PM
Madonna Mirwais Disco sounds amazing !!!!
Posted by: liamk97 14th June 2018, 10:01 PM
I mean, I definitely want some Portuguese influence on the album but an edgy disco sound is something I'm definitely down for too.
Posted by: liamk97 11th July 2018, 11:19 PM
Latest rumour is that she's worked with Drake on a song.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 12th July 2018, 06:06 AM
I wonder if that could bag her another hit?
Posted by: vibe 12th July 2018, 11:10 AM
Rumours flying that she is dropping a song tomorrow .
Madonna's new album: what do we know so far? It's her 14th (!) studio album 36 years since her debut single, the Queen is preparing for her 14th studio release
Madonna is gearing up for the next instalment in her immaculate collection, three years after the release of Rebel Heart.
The Queen of Pop has been slowly drip-feeding details about her 14th (!) studio album, and luckily for her fans, this writer is hooked up to her IV.
So here’s what we know!
Back to basics For long-time, and some may argue long-suffering, fans of Madonna, news that she is apparently hunkering down with producer Mirwais has come as a welcome sign of things to come. And a welcome change from the recent norm.
Madonna produces her best work when she picks one producer and the two huddle away without distractions. It’s that process that brought us focused epics such as the Stuart Price-helmed Confessions On A Dancefloor, and her William Orbit-assisted masterpiece Ray Of Light.
From 2008’s Hard Candy onwards however, Madonna has made a habit of collaborating with every so-called hot producer she can get her hands on. Or so it seems.
In an unexpected response to her manager Guy O’Seary’s gushing praise for Ray of Light on Instagram, Madge expressed her anger at being sent to ‘songwriting camps’.
‘Remember when I made records with other artists from beginning to end and I was allowed to be a visionary and not have to go to songwriting camps where no one can sit still for more than 15 minutes…’
Madonna has been accused from fans and critics alike of an obsession with chasing trends, by working with the likes of Kanye West, Pharrell, Timbaland et al for the last decade. By reuniting with the man who gave his magic to 2000’s Music, as well as 2003’s underrated American Life, we may yet see a return to the experimental yet cohesive work Madonna built her legacy with.
‘Secret’ collaboration It might of course be too much to ask of Madge to completely forego at least one guest feature. And all signs are pointing to one Miss Minaj. The two grabbed each other on the red carpet at the Met Gala in May, with Nicki seemingly itching to reveal some sort of ‘secret’.
Two months prior, Madonna posted something cryptic to Instagram about secret songwriters.
Nothing official has been announced, of course. But should Minaj feature anywhere on this album, it would make the as-yet-untitled release her third Madonna album in a row to guest on. Which is a world record, in terms of pop music.
Minaj has already featured on two official Madge singles (Give Me All Your Luvin’ and Bitch, I’m Madonna) and performed alongside her at the 2012 Super Bowl. Why not go for a hat trick?
Speaking of tricks, Drake is also rumoured to feature on the new album, according to stories doing the rounds today. Given that he named a song after her and that infamous snog, it’s probably about time.
Portuguese influence In the summer of 2017, Madonna relocated to Portugal with her ever-growing army of children. Being the culture-vulture she is, it was almost inevitable that she’d find something to pilfer for her next project.
Her latest European excursion seems to have led her to Batuque music. The singer posted footage of some sessions with a female band from Cape Verde at a Lisbon studio. Batuque is the oldest music genre in Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Atlantic ocean colonized by the Portugese in the 15th century.
The Batuque is also a traditional women’s dance, banned by King Manuel of Portugal during colonialism as it was considered a precursor to a slave rebellion. So perhaps expect to see some of that on the inevitable tour.
Steven Klein music video? In May, Madonna fansite DrownedMadonna reported that a music video had allegedly been filmed in London by Steven Klein.
Klein is responsible for some of the her more memorable concert backdrop videos and photoshoots, not to mention her 2013 short film SecretProjectRevolution.
So far no music video has yet surfaced. Yesterday, however, Madge posted to her Instagram a hyper-stylized video of her reciting poet Rupi Kaur. The video was shot by none other than Steven Klein.
It begins with Madonna apologizing to, ‘all the women I have called beautiful’.
The lead single for her next album is heavily rumoured to be Beautiful Game, a snippet of which she performed at the Met Gala in May.
Release date? There isn’t one.
Madonna teased on her Instagram that new music was ‘coming soon’. That was in May. Not soon enough obviously.
We’re dying to hear what she’s got tucked away up her lacey sleeve, but until that time her social media is the best thing we got.
We know in our (rebel) hearts it’ll be worth the wait. Stay tuned!
Posted by: vibe 12th July 2018, 02:47 PM
Rumours of her and Ariana Grande doing something from an Ariana tweet thanking M .
Posted by: dandy* 12th July 2018, 03:48 PM
QUOTE
Nothing official has been announced, of course. But should Minaj feature anywhere on this album, it would make the as-yet-untitled release her third Madonna album in a row to guest on. Which is a world record, in terms of pop music.
LOL!
Posted by: liamk97 28th July 2018, 01:24 PM
Load of articles have come through saying how Madonna's not touring for her 60th birthday (didn't expect her to anyway lmao) and is enjoying the "semi-retired life". That's probably taken way out of context and she's probably just enjoying time with the family and wants to be with them to celebrate a landmark birthday, but maybe this will mean a new era will be on hold until later in the year?
Madonna's new album will be "infused" with Portuguese fado music
New details on Madonna's upcoming album emerge from a trade journal.
Portuguese music will be a huge source of inspiration for Madonna's new album, it has been revealed.
The legendary popstar is the cover star of Vogue Italia's August edition to celebrate her 60th birthday on August 16. Pictured in Lisbon, Portugal where Madonna is currently based, the icon of music and fashion is seen striking a pose (pun intended) across two collectable covers in all-black Saint Laurent.
Vogue Italia's creative director Giovanni Bianco - who is also a close friend of Madonna's - discussed the shoot for trade journal Women's Wear Daily, explaining the influences Madonna is soaking up during her tenure in Portugal.
“She is an incredibly hard worker, I have learned so much from her intensity and dedication,” said Giovanni, before the interview explains that Madonna often visits her favourite bar in the Tejo region "where she regularly goes to listen to Portuguese and African music."
Giovanni elaborates: "She knows the musicians there, it’s like a laboratory, there’s music from Cabo Verde and she loves fado [a Lisbon-based music genre],” a style that "will infuse her work".
Beautiful Game is expected to be the lead single from Madonna's upcoming fourteenth studio album. She performed the song at the 2018 Met Gala in new York, and then teased the song as "coming soon" on social media.
Madonna worked with the French producer Mirwais on the song, whom she previously worked with on her Music and American Life album.
Madonna covers the latest issue of Vogue Italia ahead of her 60th birthday on August 16, and the star-turned-self-proclaimed soccer mom catches readers up on her life in Lisbon, Portugal, and new music.
In the interview, Madonna describes how her international setting influenced her upcoming album. “I’ve just met lots of really amazing musicians, and I’ve ended up working with a lot of these musicians on my new record, so Lisbon has influenced my music and my work,” she said, according to People. “How could it not? I don’t see how I could have gone through that year without being informed by all this input of culture.”
Her 12-year-old son, David Banda, inspired the move to chase his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. But that move created a culture shift for the singer where her new music took shape and “will be collected in an album that will be released by the end of the year,” according to the translated cover story. This will follow Rebel Heart, her most recent album from 2015.
Dino D’Santiago, Kimi Djabaté, João Ventura, Ricardo Toscano, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Celeste Rodrigues, Diogo Varela Silva, Gaspar Valera, Ive, the Bela Quarteto, Branko, Lura or Ritchie Campbell are some of the many artists that Madonna met in Lisbon.
Some of them ended up playing on her upcoming album – like Kimi Djabaté, Dino D’Santiago and Gaspar Valera – while others have been just a great inspiration.
Madonna likes Brazilian pianist João Ventura so much that she wanted him to perform with her at the MET Gala this year. João Ventura also recorded a composition for Madonna’s new album.
“I think Madonna wants to connect with African rhythms, Portuguese tradition, and with Portuguese, African and Brazilian musicians too”, said João Ventura to Diario de Noticias.
5 Things We Want From Madonna's Next Album Hark! Celestial trumpets are sounding from the clouds hovering near the heavens! It can only mean one thing: Her Madgesty, the Queen Of Pop, has new material on the way.
Let’s reign it in a bit, though. With all due respect, we’re still waiting for Madonna to release a great album this decade. But the good news is that her 14th LP is on its way, and she’s absolutely got it in her to give us a batch of tunes to be reckoned with. After all, you don’t become the queen without capturing lightning in a bottle multiple times over.
Her unrivaled string of hit releases in the 1980s seemed to all be building toward the golden -- actually, make that quadruple-Platinum -- Like A Prayer in 1989, an album that would have been an enviable career best for any other artist if they’d simply stopped there. But this is Madonna! She proceeded to triumphantly march forward by eschewing the big, glossy sound that helped make her famous and stripping down -- both the music and, um, herself -- and giving us 1992’s brilliant, confessional house-pop hybrid Erotica. The Queen of Pop would end the second decade of her reign with her pièce de résistance, 1998's reflective Ray of Light. Her seventh studio album, it saw her pick up a staggering 10 statues between the Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards alone.
Subsequent years have seen tireless Madge raise her kids, direct films, open schools, launch a chain of gyms and launch clothing and skincare lines. Those consistently fantastic full length releases, meanwhile, tapered off after 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, a bumping, peak-hour trek through clubland that earned the singer yet another Grammy. That’s not to say Madonna’s post-Confessions studio albums are all bad by any means -- the urban thump of 2008's Hard Candy remains a mostly satisfying experience, thanks to the focus of collaborators Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams; while 2015's Rebel Heart, though spotty, contains about seven playlist-worthy tracks throughout.
Looking on the bright side, the best could very well still be to come with Madonna’s 14th studio release. What do we want from it? Nothing short of everything, of course. But we’d settle for any (or all!) of the following.
Let Madonna Sing
You know what needs to be hung up? Auto-Tune. At least in the Queen of Pop's case. This is Madonna, and she’s amassed a loyal army of fans, sold hundreds of millions of records and inspired countless Gwens, Britneys, Katys and Gagas by simply being herself.
Cuts from the last decade like “Ghosttown” and “Messiah” off Rebel Heart, MDNA’s “Masterpiece” and Hard Candy single “Miles Away” seem, for the most part, to be devoid of too much technical wizardry affecting her voice. And she sounds great on each one! Alas, for every one of those, there’s been a “Bitch I’m Madonna,” “Girl Gone Wild” or “Give It 2 Me” -- performances that find the singer coming off like she downed a vocoder smoothie before stepping to the mic.
Madonna, voice included, is a national treasure. Also, she kicked ass performing live at the Met Gala in New York three months ago. Just give it to us plain and simple going forward.
Stick With One or Two Producers, Rather Than Ten
This is something we all want, including Madonna! In February, upon her manager Guy Oseary commemorating the 20-year anniversary of Ray of Light on Instagram, the pop legend lamented the following in the comments: “Can you help me now please! Remember when i made records with other artists from beginning to end and I was allowed to be a visionary and not to have to go to song writing camps where No one can sit still for more than 15 minutes…”
Well, damn. That’s quite to the point. Think of Madonna’s work with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray on Like a Prayer; Shep Pettibone and Andre Betts on Erotica; William Orbit on Ray of Light; or Stuart Price on Confessions on a Dance Floor. They were cohesive, ahead-of-the-curve albums, one and all. Now try to count the writers and producers she was thrown together with for her two most recent LPs, MDNA and Rebel Heart. There aren’t enough fingers and toes.
What’s promising is the fact that Madonna appears to be collaborating once more with French “Disco God” Mirwais Ahmadzai, the lone producer behind her 2003 fan-favorite release American Life. Like the above-mentioned albums, American Life is noteworthy for its singular sound and vision.
A European Influence
Who doesn’t love hip-hop, right? But okay, let’s try this: Who wants to hear Madonna rapping? Exactly.
From the role Spanish music has played in classic cuts like “La Isla Bonita,” “Who’s That Girl” and “Deeper And Deeper” to her work with European collaborators like Orbit, Ahmadzai and Price, Madonna has typically been strongest with she aims for a more global vibe. Let’s hope her current status as a resident of Lisbon -- and, again, her hitting the studio with Ahmadzai -- has the superstar singer brewing some cutting edge beats once more, a la when she cranked out Confessions during her years spent living in London.
No Features Necessary
When was the last time you shot up out of bed and said, “I really can’t imagine how hollow ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ might have been if LMFAO hadn’t lent their angelic pipes to the ‘Party Rock Remix’”? Never, that’s when. Likewise, who in the world was asking for Mike Tyson to pop up on Rebel Heart track “Iconic”? Madonna probably doesn’t even remember the fact that M.I.A. appears on ridiculously unnecessary MDNA bonus cut “B-Day Song.”
One of Madonna’s impressive feats is that for the first 25 years of her career, she largely managed to avoid recording a duet with another artist. When the Justin Timberlake-featuring “4 Minutes” came along as Hard Candy’s lead single in 2008, sure, it went on to become one of her biggest hits in the digital era. But it played, vocally, like Timberlake had hijacked Madonna’s own song from her.
Fans have shown up to the Madonna party for four decades now. They’ll likely keep doing so even if Nicki Minaj isn’t in the credits.
A Return to Upbeat, Escapist Pop
Remember “Borderline”? “Open Your Heart”? “Express Yourself”? “Vogue”? “Deeper And Deeper”? “Ray Of Light”? “Beautiful Stranger”? “Jump”? Irresistible and hooky, one and all. More of that, please.
Yes, artists evolve and mature. But you know what would be revolutionary 35 years into the Queen of Pop’s truly remarkable story? Getting back to her roots! We don’t need her to save the planet. Nor are we looking to her to fix the political system. Upon the release of Confessions on a Dance Floor 14 years ago, Madonna stated, “I feel that I just want to have fun; I want to dance; I want to feel buoyant. And I want to give other people the same feeling. There's a lot of madness in the world around us, and I want people to be happy.” That’s a distraction we’ll still gladly accept from her.
In the end, all we really want from Madonna is to put the current state of the world on a shelf for a bit, and get into her groove as we have so many times before.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 19th September 2018, 11:28 PM
Agree with all of that previous post!!
For me her last truly good album was Confessions although Hard Candy, MDNA and Rebel Heart all had special moments on each what I loved. Also I hope this comes out next year as a q4 release would probably see it be her first album since her debut to miss the top 5. Come back next year and get that record breaking 13th #1 album.
Madonna fans will have to wait a little longer than they might have hoped for her next album.
The Queen of Pop revealed that her 14th studio record is currently in the works and scheduled for a 2019 release - a slight delay on the 2018 release she teased earlier this year.
In an interview with WWD about new products on her MDNA Skin line, Madonna teased: "I’m finishing my record, which I’m going to release next year.
"Yep, in between rose mist spray and serums, I’m actually making music. Can’t quit my day job."
The album follows Rebel Heart, which narrowly missed the top spot on the Official Albums Chart in 2015. See where all of Madonna's singles and albums have charted in the UK.
Album coming next year. Thought it was too good to be true to be coming this year after nothing came of 'Beautiful Game' which was teased back in May.
Hopefully we'll get something before the year is out.
Posted by: vibe 2nd October 2018, 09:31 PM
I’m happy it is next year !! She best make sure it does not leak this time !!
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 2nd October 2018, 11:22 PM
At least we have her new BEAUTY ROLLER to tide us over in the meantime.
Posted by: Voodoo 19th October 2018, 05:18 PM
Random thought that has just crossed my mind:
Do you think Madonna has decided to delay the album because she is mad about the HUGE success Lady GaGa is currently having with her acting debut on the big screen? If GaGa gets an Oscar nomination, I don't think Madge will be able to handle it. You know what she's like...
Posted by: liamk97 19th October 2018, 08:38 PM
I doubt it will bother her that much! I don't think she'd risk sitting on an album until next year after all the leaking issues she's had over the years.
Posted by: Voodoo 19th October 2018, 08:51 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Oct 19 2018, 11:38 PM)
... after all the leaking issues she's had over the years.
Madonna has leaking issues? From where?
Posted by: HausofTove 19th October 2018, 09:14 PM
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 22nd October 2018, 07:46 PM
Posted by: liamk97 26th October 2018, 02:09 PM
From DrownedMadonna:
QUOTE
Madonna will change and merge pop music with Portuguese and African rhythms, especially from Cape Verde. Dino D’Santiago – who collaborated on Madonna’s new record – is absolutely sure.
In an interview to Portuguese Journal I, Dino D’Santiago talks about his new album – defining it a legacy for the future of music – and Madonna’s upcoming album.
Dino is sure that Madonna‘s new record will also be a legacy and will merge Portuguese and African rhythms with pop music, and reinvent them.
He said that also Madonna understood that the trend is now changing: instead of using typical Drake’s beats, it is time to “use Portuguese rhythms” and “it is possible to use modern sounds and get them into a semba or marrambenta. The same with fado.”
My New York producer Rusty Santos realized the same thing: “You have to export this before Drake takes it.”
This has me excited! This is the sort of thing we want Madonna to do. Bring me them Ray or Light vibes!
Posted by: liamk97 7th November 2018, 10:07 PM
From PopJustice:
QUOTE
I cut and pasted the snippets she posted on instagram and created a loop of the bassline in the clip, so we can get a better idea of what to expect. Of course the strings will progress throughout the song, so try and disregard them in this version and focus solely on the beat. It's just a little something so you can hear it run a little longer then the 2 seconds she gave us. Hope you like it...
Omg this has my heart pumping!
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 7th November 2018, 10:10 PM
Mine too!
Posted by: vibe 8th November 2018, 08:11 PM
Sounds so good
Posted by: liamk97 11th November 2018, 04:09 PM
Seems like the album is in its final stages. Feels so close now! Would love to get the lead single before the year is out but I imagine they'll wait for the new year (assuming we don't get a Rebel Heart style leak!).
Madonna is currently mixing her new album with Mike Dean and Lauren D’elia.
Last night she posted an Instagram story – that she then deleted – where it was possible to hear one of the tracks in the background. You can even hear Mike saying something like “No, fade out on the end.”
But for sure, the juiciest thing is that Madonna unconsciously revealed the titles of the 15 tracks that she is currently mixing:
Killers Extreme Occident ++ Dark Ballet * I Don’t Search, I Find God Control ++ Batuku ** Funana ** Medellin *** Future I Live Crazy Faz Gostar **** Loca ***** Back That Up ****** Come Alive
Please, note that this is not a tracklist, but a working board with the tracks they are currently mixing. Those ticks are related to the mixing.
It is very probable that there are other tracks already mixed. Also, note that not all – and not necessarily all – these tracks will end up on Madonna’s new album.
++ Madonna used Extreme Occident as a hashtag. Same for God Control.
* Madonna recently commented on a Mirwais post on Instagram with “Dark ballet“. And he added: “Very dark.” Absolutely not casual. The screenshot is from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange movie.
** The Batuque (or Batuku) is a music and originally forbidden dance genre from Cape Verde. The Funaná is a music and dance genre from Cape Verde. It is perhaps the most upbeat form of Cape Verdean music. Madonna used those hashtags several times.
*** Medellín is a city in Colombia, which used to be very violent and poor, and now it is a model of transformation. Also, note that Maluma was born in Medellín.
**** “Faz gostar” in Portuguese means “something that you like.”
***** “Loca” in Spanish means “crazy.” We cannot exclude that Loca is the Spanglish version of the track number 11 called Crazy.
****** Back That Up is the title of one of the unreleased demo tracks Madonna wrote with Pharrell Williams for Rebel Heart album. Of course, this can be only a coincidence.
Madonna is doing a terrific job using her social network presence to keep the fans up-to-date on the finishing touches to her upcoming album. We learnt a lot from the horse’s mouth about collaborations, producers, we even had a couple of glimpses at the chart/tracklist of the ongoing work in the recording studio (well, one of those glimpse was a bit of an oversight, but we don’t complain!).
What is still missing is a solid release date for the record that’s coming out next year. As rumours float – and we won’t comment on the accuracy of what you may have read on the internet lately – MadonnaTribe is happy to report that we hear that the album is currently scheduled for a Q2 release.
Time goes by so slowly for those who wait…
Posted by: Tyler 8th December 2018, 10:33 AM
I’ll explain later thank u
Just let me say this. Regardless of my comment saying Madonna was out of line... it’s only because she has NOTHING to prove. She’s sold the most, broken records over the best and most respected in the industry. Has reinvented herself like the master of the trade that she is. NO one can take that away from her except herself. But, she is doing that here.
Gaga’s launching image was influenced heavily by Madonna mostly, but also Annie Lennox, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones amongst more.
Born This Way she admits to the production influence but really Madonna turned a huge moment for the gay community into a press release about her. Gaga used the pendulum of her peak to celebrate loving yourself being gay and being proud. Madonna couldn’t just take it as a stride in knowing hey I influenced a female to celebrate not only herself but the community that put her on the map.
Madonna killed it with Hung Up and yes she smashed it it’s my favorite track released that year. But did you hear ABBA going on and on about how their sample was responsible for her having a major reprise in her career?
How about Britney going off and on about how she originally recorded telephone but turned it down before Gaga?
This is shit you see the likes of Taylor Swift ignoring as its not cute for her tact as a business woman that depends on respect as a formula for her success. And this is why we cant have nice things
If Britney could let Justin Timberlake dog her to the media and use their breakup as a launching pad to his solo career after failing to be a smash hit with his first attempt...
If Michael Jackson can have the very people in business knocking off his work while telling the press lies for profit.
IF KESHA CAN WISH HER EX PRODUCER WELL AFTER ASSAULTING HER...
Madonna can let Lady Gaga continue to be exactly what she markets herself to be and that is a high caliber take on a perspective fueled by the pop culture that created it.
Enough of these Stan wars. I love Britney Spears to death. Her struggles and music saved my life. We should be focusing on what Gaga’s role in ASIB and her (IMO) respectful, positive and overwhelmingly well matured behavior as a human being is shaping those who watch her. NOT if Madonna is getting enough attention for saying a known phrase in a career spanning almost half a century.
To bring up my girl Britney again... her brand is still thriving because of her reputation to be a kind person. And the wonder is how could such a shallow figure be so human. Madonna used Britney to hype herself up. And she did it by bringing two generations together and them wowing us with an original concept and visual illustration of pop culture. Xtina skipped for Justin’s reaction, Mary j bilge telling xtina she will never touch Britney’s success even if she has the voice because she’s not humble (demanded a kiss on the hand from blige), Beyoncé fan girling cute af when Britney came out while Avril Lavigne, Kelly osbourne, And Timberlake look on with disgust to contrast Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Snoopdogg and the cast for queer eye dying from excitement.
That’s real entertainment. Madonna just doesn’t have America’s girl next door to stem off of like Britney to extend her career another 3 albums.
Embrace the culture of today without acting like it needs an autugraph from your iconic yet conceited Lisa Frank acting ass.
Posted by: liamk97 8th December 2018, 10:59 AM
I feel like I missed a chunk of the conversation. What's this, Tyler?
Posted by: Spiceboy 8th December 2018, 02:30 PM
Haha me too, where did that come from?
I do agree Madonna behaves quite pathetic sometimes. She then sprouts stuff like "if I'm a bitch for being a woman that knows what she wants..." No you're a bitch because you're rude no other reason.
We all have flaws though, Madonna's is her ego pure and simple. On the contrast she is one of the greatest popstars ever and I guess alot of that comes from having the ego and guts to go for it.
Posted by: Tyler 8th December 2018, 02:32 PM
I apologize I got in a kind of show off on Wendy’s Williams thread but my comment got a lot of likes and now I’m getting hate mail from l u v u wanna.
Posted by: Tyler 8th December 2018, 02:39 PM
I needed a place to paste and I didn’t realize I went off that much. But I haven’t been petty over pop in years.
Wendy: Madonna is throwing shade at Lady Gaga and Kenya Moore is being accused of being "thirsty" for attention.
Gaga uses a phrase of 100 ppl can be in a rooom and it only takes one to believe in you. On several stops promoting ASIB. Madonna throws shade showing her saying something BARELY similar in her 30 years as a promo blitz queen of pop!!! Like bitch you’re the queen of pop leave Gaga alone if you didn’t get her cancelled with born this way you aren’t gonna get it cancelled.
So I said;
Madonna sounds insecure. 🙄
Gaga never claps back. Madonna may be the queen of pop but she lacks class. The more her star wanes the more embarrassing she becomes.
Response 1: Tyler Farmer O Madonna got nothing but class u all need to put some respect on that when you say Madonna respect baby 🚼
ME: Melvin Stephens you are confusing her brand with her actions as a human being. Doesn’t seem classy to me 🤷🏻♂️
Response 2: Tyler Farmer you nailed this ! Best comment on here ! Madonna does not have enough brains to nicely age gracefully (always pushing the envelope and she looks old and desperate !) step aside and maybe let the younger talent be in the spotlight. Madonna is not grabbing onto her past youth she’s clawing at it. Sad !
3: 100% Tyler
4. MADONNA IS OBLY QUEEB
5. MADONNA IS NOT QUEEN TYLER
ME: You catch my drift. It is a title she has been given by multiple respected outlets. I’m not here to argue as if an official celebrity hierarchy has been published.
Because it hasn’t and it sways from my point entirely.
6. MADONNA FANS ARE NOW MESSAGING BUT YOU CAN TELL THEY ALL KNOW BETTER THAN TO TRY ME WITH BRITNEY A D I RESPECT IT A LOT.
7. Melvin apologizes in his own way for not being intelligible during bar hours; 😞😭😭
8Sorry album sales and success says otherwise (like Bitch when did I try to say anything of the sort)
9: Maybe but we all knew she was a no class heifer way back. Talented though
10: Madonna is always better than this copycat.
Me: Just let me say this. Regardless of my comment saying Madonna was out of line... it’s only because she has NOTHING to prove. She’s sold the most, broken records over the best and most respected in the industry. Has reinvented herself like the master of the trade that she is. NO one can take that away from her except herself. But, she is doing that here.
Gaga’s launching image was influenced heavily by Madonna mostly, but also Annie Lennox, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones amongst more.
Born This Way she admits to the production influence but really Madonna turned a huge moment for the gay community into a press release about her. Gaga used the pendulum of her peak to celebrate loving yourself being gay and being proud. Madonna couldn’t just take it as a stride in knowing hey I influenced a female to celebrate not only herself but the community that put her on the map.
Madonna killed it with Hung Up and yes she smashed it it’s my favorite track released that year. But did you hear ABBA going on and on about how their sample was responsible for her having a major reprise in her career?
How about Britney going off and on about how she originally recorded telephone but turned it down before Gaga?
This is shit you see the likes of Taylor Swift ignoring as its not cute for her tact as a business woman that depends on respect as a formula for her success. And this is why we cant have nice things
If Britney could let Justin Timberlake dog her to the media and use their breakup as a launching pad to his solo career after failing to be a smash hit with his first attempt...
If Michael Jackson can have the very people in business knocking off his work while telling the press lies for profit.
IF KESHA CAN WISH HER EX PRODUCER WELL AFTER ASSAULTING HER...
Madonna can let Lady Gaga continue to be exactly what she markets herself to be and that is a high caliber take on a perspective fueled by the pop culture that created it.
Enough of these Stan wars. I love Britney Spears to death. Her struggles and music saved my life. We should be focusing on what Gaga’s role in ASIB and her (IMO) respectful, positive and overwhelmingly well matured behavior as a human being is shaping those who watch her. NOT if Madonna is getting enough attention for saying a known phrase in a career spanning almost half a century.
To bring up my girl Britney again... her brand is still thriving because of her reputation to be a kind and genuine person and youll find that proceeds talent when it comes to having a fan base that will follow you anywhere (hey britney jean and madonna... acting like regina george but looking like a cool mom reminiscing on how she ran the 4H club better than her own offspring) And the wonder is how could such a shallow figure be so human. Madonna used Britney to hype herself up. And she did it by bringing two generations together and them wowing us with an original concept and visual illustration of pop culture. Xtina skipped for Justin’s reaction, Mary j bilge telling xtina she will never touch Britney’s success even if she has the voice because she’s not humble (demanded a kiss on the hand from blige), Beyoncé fan girling cute af when Britney came out while Avril Lavigne, Kelly osbourne, And Timberlake look on with disgust to contrast Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Snoopdogg and the cast for queer eye dying from excitement. Meanwhile Britney just wanted to show madonna she can share the stage and capture every demographics opinion. The icing on the cake? Christina accusing of kissing madonna for attention. BUT BRITNEY DIDNT HAVE TO BE PETTY OR EVEN ADDRESS THE FACT SHE KISSED HER AS WELL AND WAS PISSED SHE DIDNT GET ATTENTION. She flipped her hair and released toxic and we did the simple addition ourselves.
That’s real entertainment. Madonna just doesn’t have America’s girl next door to stem off of like Britney to extend her career another 3 albums.
Embrace the culture of today without acting like it needs an autugraph from your iconic yet conceited Lisa Frank acting ass. I’m out The Wendy Williams Show
Posted by: Tyler 8th December 2018, 02:50 PM
There’s a tingle of spite thanks to the rude Madonna fan that rated my personal business 1 star.
I’m a f***ing kayaking rental and white water guide. Dude. No one cares.
Posted by: liamk97 8th December 2018, 03:10 PM
Stans can be the worst and will just blindly accept anything their faves do or say and will attack anything that offers a different perspective. Don't listen to the haters Tyler!
I think most Madonna fans do realise she can be her own worst enemy at times and social media in particular has given her the platform to put things across that just paints her in a bad light. I tend to ignore anything that perpetuates the Gaga vs Madonna fued as I just have no time for it. There's still a lot to love about Madonna, she's my favourite artist after all, but yeah, I'm not blind enough to think she can do no wrong.
Posted by: vibe 9th December 2018, 10:10 AM
Why is this in this thread ?
Delete
Posted by: Spiceboy 9th December 2018, 10:05 PM
I'm more disgusted that there is a Wendy Williams thread, that is a vile woman that needs to be told to do one!
Madonna can easily be her own worse enemy no doubt about it.
Posted by: liamk97 9th December 2018, 10:31 PM
Haha, yeah I cannot stand Wendy Williams.
Posted by: liamk97 21st December 2018, 10:15 AM
From Madonna Online (Google translation from Portugease to English):
QUOTE
The MadonnaOnline knew that finally the new album creation works are completed. Living back to London a few months ago due to her professional commitments, (she has only gone to Lisbon for a few days), Madonna reunited her closest friends for an exclusive audition of the new work. The general comment is that the album is unlike anything we have heard of it, in a fusion of pop with African and Portuguese songs , references that Madonna has had for a few years and, mainly, having spent much of 2017 and 2018 in Portugal.
With musical direction of Mirwais , there are several participations, like Dino D'Santiago , Nakhane , João Ventura , Vânia Duarte, Batucadeiras and as already boasted, Brazilian Anitta.
Their track, FAZ GOSTOSO , is a funky pop produced by Mirwais (who also produced the funkeadas Music and Die Another Day) but it's not the big surprise of the album. (we did not hear the track and we can not tell if the funkeado is more for the American funky / groove or more for the Brazilian style).
The most surprising track for most is that Madonna sings in Portuguese, BATUKA , and is said to be spectacular! The album's production also has Starrah and Matt Billboard .
Spending the holiday season, work is now on the visual design of the album. A new artistic team was hired for art direction. There is still no information on the photographer who will do the cover (whether it be a little friend, such as Klein or Mert & Marcus, or someone new) or confirmation of the album name (she has been using Magic hashtag for months when referring to new songs ). After, it will be the turn of the first single to be defined, as well as the direction of the clip.
Madonna still insists on having a release date for the album and does not surprise him on digital platforms (helloooo). The launch will be in the first half of 2019.
She will continue in London for at least the spring to reconcile the work of strategy and promotion that includes those dozens of interviews. The only scheduled social engagement is his annual Oscar party on February 24 in Los Angeles.
Another important information we had access to: the new tour is also being discussed at the same time, but we do not have any further details. But remember our eternal tip, right? Go and collect your money ...
To remind you, weeks ago Madonna announced without wanting to name the tracks of the new album. Are they:
● Killers ● Extreme "Occident" (?) ● Dark Ballett ● I do not Search, I Find ● God Control ● Batuka ● Funaná ● Medellin ● Future ● I Live ● Crazy ● Makes Yummy ● Crazy ● Back That Up ● Come Alive
Posted by: Spiceboy 21st December 2018, 10:28 AM
Makes yummy that's an interesting title
Posted by: liamk97 21st December 2018, 11:16 AM
I thought that too! Well, if we get a unique and experimental album then I can forgive her for one 'Candy Shop' moment!
Posted by: Spiceboy 22nd December 2018, 09:03 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Dec 9 2018, 10:31 PM)
Haha, yeah I cannot stand Wendy Williams.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 18th February 2019, 07:08 PM
Really excited for this. Can’t believe that it’s coming up to 4 years since Rebel Heart and that BRITS moment!
Posted by: liamk97 23rd February 2019, 10:16 AM
DrownedMadonna has revealed that Madonna's album will be released in June, with the lead single due April (or early May at the latest).
Also, despite recent hashtags, the album will not be called 'Magic'.
Posted by: HausofTove 23rd February 2019, 05:41 PM
AHHHHHHHHHHH
Give us the Summer bops ~
Posted by: liamk97 23rd February 2019, 06:09 PM
Guess it makes sense if she's rumoured to be performing at Eurovision!
Posted by: HausofTove 28th February 2019, 05:24 PM
Could Magic be the name of a single?
Posted by: Jordan Lee 1st March 2019, 12:59 AM
Magic does sound like a single title to me or possibly a character / alter ego for the campaign?
Gives me 'What It Feels Like for a Girl' videos vibes!
Posted by: liamk97 2nd March 2019, 01:38 PM
You recently posted some photos of you and Madonna in the studio. How did that collaboration come about? It all started when I performed at the [2018] VMAs. She was there in the crowd, and my manager told me Madonna wanted to meet me.
We then met again in Los Angeles last week. She was in the studio working with different composers, producers. Everything was organic and we started making music. We were cooking some ideas, that’s all I can say. We were cooking some beautiful songs.
Will any of those songs appear on your upcoming album? I can't say. Madonna has everything in her control right now. [Laughs.]
It’s A Wrap............🌸🌸🌸🎀💝 @mertalas @isamayaffrench @andylecompte
https://www.instagram.com/mertalas/ Mert Alas @mertalas https://www.instagram.com/isamayaffrench/ Isamaya Ffrench @isamayaffrench https://www.instagram.com/andylecompte/ Andy Lecompte @andylecompte
New day, new wig. she looks like Gaga near the end
Posted by: liamk97 1st April 2019, 07:58 PM
Madonna has updated her insta with nine images that shows an 'X' when you view them all together. Fans seem to be thinking it means something is coming in 10 days time. Bloody hope so!
More of the block image has been uploaded! Could the blank square reveal the album title?
Posted by: HausofTove 12th April 2019, 06:37 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Apr 12 2019, 04:49 PM)
More of the block image has been uploaded! Could the blank square reveal the album title?
I thought it was an error or mis-post. She needs to delete it and repost to continue the words :')
Posted by: vibe 12th April 2019, 07:07 PM
7 days !!!
Posted by: liamk97 12th April 2019, 07:51 PM
QUOTE(HausofTove @ Apr 12 2019, 07:37 PM)
I thought it was an error or mis-post. She needs to delete it and repost to continue the words :')
She's been adding to it bit by bit the past week (I think she did mess up the first time by posting them in order instead of back to front lol).
Posted by: HausofTove 12th April 2019, 08:41 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Apr 12 2019, 08:51 PM)
She's been adding to it bit by bit the past week (I think she did mess up the first time by posting them in order instead of back to front lol).
Madonna on social media is a mood.
Still, the latest post is blank so she needs to delete it and post a pic to complete the words.
Posted by: liamk97 12th April 2019, 11:18 PM
What's going on?! Addicted is a tune tho.
EDIT: Doesn't seem to be showing but it's a playlist titled '#magic' with 'Material Girl', 'American Life', 'Don't Tell Me', 'Addicted', 'Music' and 'Express Yourself' on with this image that she uploaded to instagram last month as the playlist photo:
All those looks! Also I adore Madame X as a title.
Posted by: HausofTove 14th April 2019, 04:06 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Apr 14 2019, 05:05 PM)
I ran to the bathroom at work so fast!!!
!!!
Dodgy dinner last night?
Posted by: liamk97 14th April 2019, 04:25 PM
QUOTE(HausofTove @ Apr 14 2019, 05:06 PM)
!!!
Dodgy dinner last night?
Omg!
Posted by: jakewild 14th April 2019, 04:30 PM
an era i think i can get behind..
Posted by: tommie 14th April 2019, 04:37 PM
Holy pretentia.
Meh, I hope she covers Madame X's Just That Type of Girl
Posted by: liamk97 14th April 2019, 04:54 PM
Posted by: blacksquare 14th April 2019, 05:05 PM
What excites me the most about this is how it seems to be full concept and the first album in a while where she isn’t purely looking for a hit or potentially trend chasing. MDNA and Rebel Heart were thematically too similar and disappointing.
I have faith in Mirwais as a producer, just hoping her vocals don’t sound too underwater robo-chipmunk.
Posted by: blacksquare 14th April 2019, 05:18 PM
That entire video and persona is so camp and ridiculous. Obsessed.
Madame X is the original international cock destroyer! (~cock destroyer~)
Posted by: liamk97 14th April 2019, 06:48 PM
Now on YouTube:
Absolutely agree with the above! When I heard about how her move to Portugal had inspired her new music, I was excited at the prospect of a focused and interesting album. I'm so pleased that seems to be becoming a reality.
Posted by: HausofTove 14th April 2019, 08:31 PM
Yep, most excited about a conceptual album again because it's what she does best.
Posted by: liamk97 14th April 2019, 10:15 PM
I really love that, no matter what the charts or radio or the younger generation may suggest, it is always a really big deal when Madonna releases new music. We haven't even had the first single and literally everywhere is reporting this. Madonna is still a huge deal and pretty much the only one of her kind.
Posted by: liamk97 15th April 2019, 01:27 AM
I wonder if we'll get any vocal collaborations on the album aside Maluma? I'm guessing a Nicki collaboration is off the cards now! I feel like this will be more Madonna focused but I'd still be interested in hearing a more equal or authentic collaboration. I mean, I loved Iconic and I thought Veni Vedi Vici worked really well on the last album but they still felt like a tag on rather than a joint effort and rose organically.
Posted by: HausofTove 15th April 2019, 10:00 PM
QUOTE
Madonna is not the first to conjure the image of a mysterious women with the anonymous name. The title Madame X first gained notoriety in 1884 when John Sargent painted a portrait of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, an American socialite living in Paris. When the final painting, A Portrait of Madame X, was displayed, the low cut of Gautreau’s dress was seen as scandalous. Parisians turned their noses up at the smut, and it only became a classic after later exhibitions in New York.
Since then the title Madame X has popped up repeatedly in popular culture, mostly famously as an Alexandre Bisson play about a mother whose son is taken from her after it is discovered she is having an extramarital affair. It was also the name of cryptology computer used by the US army and a glam metal band.
In the 21st century though, the name has been almost entirely associated with the British DJ Madam (no “e”) X, whose real name is Crissi Vassilakis. Vassilakis has become an important figure in underground dance music over the past five years, founding the influential Kaizen record label
It’s not clear which iteration of Madame X inspired Madonna – her publicist didn’t respond to request for comment – but Vassilakis says she was taken by Sargent’s painting and its subject: “I liked the idea of this American expat who became famous in Paris for her infidelities and scandals”.
1) MEDELLIN FT. MALUMA 2) DARK BALLET 3) GOD CONTROL 4) FUTURE FT. QUAVO 5) BATUKA 6) KILLERS WHO ARE PARTYING 7) CRAVE FT. SWAE LEE 8. CRAZY 9) COME ALIVE 10) EXTREME OCCIDENT 11) FAZ GOSTOSO FT. ANITTA 12) BITCH I'M LOCA FT. MALUMA 13) I DON'T SEARCH I FIND 14) LOOKING FOR MERCY 15) I RISE
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 06:23 PM
Quavo? Swae Lee?
Posted by: Bjork 16th April 2019, 06:36 PM
If someone made that tracklist up I would totally believe it but looks like it's legit
Posted by: Jay ☆ 16th April 2019, 06:43 PM
Supposedly out on the following formats? Not sure if it's true:
2 CD Deluxe Hardcover w/ 32 p Deluxe Boxset Vinyl Limited Rainbow Picture Disc 2LP Vinyl Deluxe Cassette
~
Album is 1 hour 5 minutes long!
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 06:53 PM
I'm liking the longer time lengths, particularly for the lead single. Some interesting titles too.
Bring on the double cassette! *.*
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 16th April 2019, 07:06 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Apr 16 2019, 07:23 PM)
Quavo? Swae Lee?
Yes! I am SO disappointed if this actually transpires. This sort of hopping on trends and featuring artists who are currently "cool"/already featuring on everyone else's records is the last thing I wanted from her this time around.
Posted by: Liаm 16th April 2019, 07:09 PM
Swae Lee and Quavo features are disappointing but Anitta *.*
Posted by: jakewild 16th April 2019, 07:12 PM
i'm already here for 'bitch i'm loca'
Posted by: Jay ☆ 16th April 2019, 07:23 PM
Credits:
Medellin: Madonna Ciccone, Mirwais Ahmadzai, Maluma Londono & Barrera Dark Ballet: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai God Control: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Future: Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Pentz, Brittany Talia Hazzard & Quavious Keyate Marshall Batuka: Madonna Ciccone, Banda & Mirwais Ahmadzai Killers Who Are Partying: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Crave: Madonna Ciccone, Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown & Brittany Talia Hazzard Crazy: Jason Evigan, Madonna Ciccone & Brittany Talia Hazzard Come Alive: Jeff Bhasker, Madonna Ciccone & Brittany Talia Hazzard Extreme Occident: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Faz Gostoso: Carmo, Nuno, Oliveira, Seabra, Vieira, Rodrigues & Madonna Ciccone Loca: Madonna Ciccone, L. D'Elia, Maluma Londono, Barrera, JAMES, Rodriguez & Stiven Rojas I Don't Search I Find: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Looking For Mercy: Madonna Ciccone & Brittany Talia Hazzard
Agree Liam, so many interesting titles! I'm particularly hyped to hear Killers Who Are Partying and Bitch I'm Loca *_*
Posted by: tommie 16th April 2019, 07:32 PM
Wait I thought that was a joke tracklisting? Bitch I'm Loca and Looking For Mercy, really?
Posted by: blacksquare 16th April 2019, 08:02 PM
QUOTE(Jay ☆ @ Apr 16 2019, 08:23 PM)
Credits:
Medellin: Madonna Ciccone, Mirwais Ahmadzai, Maluma Londono & Barrera Dark Ballet: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai God Control: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Future: Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Pentz, Brittany Talia Hazzard & Quavious Keyate Marshall Batuka: Madonna Ciccone, Banda & Mirwais Ahmadzai Killers Who Are Partying: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Crave: Madonna Ciccone, Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown & Brittany Talia Hazzard Crazy: Jason Evigan, Madonna Ciccone & Brittany Talia Hazzard Come Alive: Jeff Bhasker, Madonna Ciccone & Brittany Talia Hazzard Extreme Occident: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Faz Gostoso: Carmo, Nuno, Oliveira, Seabra, Vieira, Rodrigues & Madonna Ciccone Loca: Madonna Ciccone, L. D'Elia, Maluma Londono, Barrera, JAMES, Rodriguez & Stiven Rojas I Don't Search I Find: Madonna Ciccone & Mirwais Ahmadzai Looking For Mercy: Madonna Ciccone & Brittany Talia Hazzard Agree Liam, so many interesting titles! I'm particularly hyped to hear Killers Who Are Partying and Bitch I'm Loca *_*
The amount of Mirwais on this album!
This is everything I have wanted since American Life, and I truly didn't expect them to ever work together again.
Posted by: blacksquare 16th April 2019, 08:03 PM
The artwork is her best in forever too.
I'm so perched and have faith, which is something I haven't had with her in a decade.
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 08:15 PM
Snippet of 'Looking for Mercy' posted on her insta ages ago:
I love the titles I love the artwork I love the different versions
I love that this is conceptual
Things are looking promising (apart from my bank balance)
Posted by: jakewild 16th April 2019, 08:26 PM
QUOTE(Wall @ Apr 16 2019, 09:17 PM)
That artwork is horrific
i hate agreeing with u
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 08:33 PM
I like the cover although I can see why people wouldn't. Feel quite American Life to me.
Apparently the back cover is a close-up of Madonna grabbing her crotch.
Posted by: HausofTove 16th April 2019, 08:51 PM
I too like the cover. Could it be a still from the music video?
The tracklist.. some I am insanely excited about but some just sound like Rebel Heart/trying to be ghetto and jump on bandwagons, especially with some of the features. Hopefully i'm proven wrong though.
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 09:46 PM
QUOTE(HausofTove @ Apr 16 2019, 09:51 PM)
The tracklist.. some I am insanely excited about but some just sound like Rebel Heart/trying to be ghetto and jump on bandwagons, especially with some of the features. Hopefully i'm proven wrong though.
I thought the opposite tbh in regards to song titles! 'Bitch I'm Loca' is the only one that gives me 'Unapologetic Bitch'/'Bitch I'm Madonna'/'S.E.X' vibes.
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 09:48 PM
Other forums are saying Shazam tells them 'Dark Ballet' is 'Beautiful Game' (which she performed at the 2018 Met Gala) and 'Extreme Occident' is the song heard in the Madame X trailer.
Posted by: Jay ☆ 16th April 2019, 10:15 PM
She's doing different covers for different editions again - this is said to be the standard version:
Posted by: jakewild 16th April 2019, 10:19 PM
i can f*** w/ THAT cover ^
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 10:20 PM
I think I'd like it if it wasn't for the Times New Roman title slapped across the cover.
Posted by: jakewild 16th April 2019, 10:21 PM
the frida brow typography with the sewn lips is ITTTT
Posted by: HausofTove 16th April 2019, 10:23 PM
The text over the lips sewing them together is genius.
Would be better without Madonna over the top though.
Posted by: blacksquare 16th April 2019, 10:26 PM
QUOTE(Jay ☆ @ Apr 16 2019, 11:15 PM)
She's doing different covers for different editions again - this is said to be the standard version:
I'm shook by how good this is
Posted by: liamk97 16th April 2019, 10:29 PM
I really love the photo but the logo is too jarring. Also what's with the drop-shadow on the stitching?
Posted by: HausofTove 16th April 2019, 10:31 PM
I do wish the hair colours on all images could've been the same for consistency/era aesthetics purposes #ignoreme
Posted by: blacksquare 16th April 2019, 10:35 PM
The name placement is very 2019 and in design-wise, which is surprising considering it's a Madonna album
Obviously would have preferred some consistency between all three artworks released thus far though~
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 17th April 2019, 06:10 AM
I really, really don't like the way her name is emblazoned across her eyebrows on the standard version.
Posted by: vibe 17th April 2019, 06:39 AM
Pleased that beautiful game has just had a name change . Love how historic looking the covers are !!!
She has worked with more and Starrah for most of the album. It’s an interesting mix .
Posted by: liamk97 17th April 2019, 12:58 PM
I'm getting used to the text over the eyebrows but look how good it is without it!!
MadonnaTribe reveal there are more covers on the way:
QUOTE
While it will come as no surprise to die-hard collectors that Madonna‘s new album will be released in several formats with different covers – some of which have already started circulating on the internet yesterday – there are two little jems planned to make Madame X even more special.
The new album will also be released as an incredibly eye-catching limited edition rainbow-coloured picture disc set and on compact cassette.
Posted by: slowdown73 17th April 2019, 01:04 PM
Don’t really like the artwork but hoping the new music sounds better!
Posted by: liamk97 17th April 2019, 01:15 PM
Two bonus tracks for the French edition. Two new songs or remixes, hmmm?
Posted by: Mullo 17th April 2019, 02:24 PM
MADONNA TO RELEASE HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED 14th STUDIO ALBUM MADAME X GLOBALLY ON JUNE 14th
FIRST TRACK “MEDELLÍN” WITH MALUMA IS ZANE LOWE’S WORLD RECORD ON BEATS1 TODAY
MTV PRESENTS MADONNA LIVE & EXCLUSIVE: “MEDELLÍN” VIDEO WORLD PREMIERE ON APRIL 24
PRE-ORDER MADAME X NOW ALBUM PRE-ORDERS INCLUDE DOWNLOAD OF “MEDELLÍN”
Madonna’s highly-anticipated 14th studio album Madame X will be released on June 14th globally from Live Nation, Interscope Records and Maverick. The first track from the album “Medellín,” with Colombian superstar Maluma, will be Zane Lowe’s World Record today on Apple Music’s Beats 1. Madame X is now available for pre-order. Album pre-orders include a download of the first track which is available across Apple, Spotify (pre-save), Amazon and all DSPs. Select additional tracks will become available before the album release.
Madonna will exclusively unveil the world premiere of her video and single “Medellín” with Maluma, during a globally televised MTV music event, “MTV Presents Madonna Live & Exclusive: ‘Medellín’ Video World Premiere,” on Wednesday, April 24 at 9:00 pm BST / 4:00pm ET/ 1:00pm PT. Madonna will join British DJ Trevor Nelson and fans live from London for a conversation about the influences of her new album, and the creative forces behind her transcendent career. “Medellín” collaborator and Colombian pop star Maluma will join live from Miami. Madonna will also take questions during the global event via satellite from MTV’s Sway Calloway and fans in New York City, with additional MTV-hosted events in Milan and São Paulo.
Influenced creatively by living in Lisbon, Portugal over the past several years, Madame X is a collection of 15 new songs that celebrate Madonna’s career-long affair with Latin music and culture as well as other global influences. Singing in Portuguese, Spanish and English, highlights on the album include “Medellín,” which was co-produced by Mirwais and captures the spirit of Maluma’s hometown, the anthemic song “I Rise,” the Jamaican dancehall vibes of “Future” featuring Quavo, and co-produced by Diplo, as well as the sonically innovative Mirwais produced “Dark Ballet.” Recorded over 18 months in Portugal, London, New York and Los Angeles, Madonna collaborated on Madame X with longtime producer Mirwais, as well as with producers Mike Dean and Diplo, among others.
“Lisbon is where my record was born,” Madonna says. “I found my tribe there and a magical world of incredible musicians that reinforced my belief that music across the world is truly all connected and is the soul of the universe.”
Madame X will come in a standard and deluxe version of the album. A Target CD version will feature the deluxe version of Madame X plus an additional two tracks. Pre-order the Target deluxe at Target stores or online at Target.com. A variety of special bundles of Madame X with one-of-a-kind limited merchandise, as well as special vinyl and cassette versions of the album, are available now for pre-order as well HERE. Further details regarding the album, videos and appearances will be announced in the coming weeks.
The full track listing for Madame X standard and deluxe versions are: 1. Medellín with Maluma 2. Dark Ballet 3. God Control 4. Future ft. Quavo 5. Batuka 6. Killers Who Are Partying 7. Crave ft. Swae Lee 8. Crazy 9. Come Alive 10. Extreme Occident **deluxe version only 11. Faz Gostoso ft. Anitta 12. Bitch I’m Loca ft. Maluma 13. I Don’t Search I Find 14. Looking for Mercy **deluxe version only 15. I Rise
Posted by: HausofTove 17th April 2019, 02:30 PM
QUOTE(liamk97 @ Apr 17 2019, 01:58 PM)
I'm getting used to the text over the eyebrows but look how good it is without it!!
STUNNING
New phone wallpaper ~
Posted by: LMLou 17th April 2019, 03:16 PM
Really looking forward to this, looks like great visuals and concepts Pretty meh with the features and hope it doesn’t define the album
mirwais.official Madame X is a global futuristic album. It may be the first of it kind. I am beyond proud to be part of this adventure!! Stay tuned... Thank you Louise!! @madonna
Posted by: HausofTove 17th April 2019, 10:20 PM
! Sounds so exciting.
Posted by: liamk97 17th April 2019, 10:58 PM
The boxset versions include three bonus tracks:
1. Fuana 2. Back That Up to the Beat 3. Ciao Bella
Apparently 'Back That Up to the Beat' is the scrapped Pharrell song for Rebel Heart, presumably re-worked:
Posted by: 365 17th April 2019, 11:48 PM
The deluxe is one of my favourite artworks ever from her I think?
Posted by: Medellíam 18th April 2019, 01:38 AM
I'm looking forward to hearing Medellin going into Dark Ballet (Beautiful Game) going from what we heard at the Met Gala. I reckon that'll be a sudden, striking change in mood and theme and I'm here for it.
Posted by: slowdown73 19th April 2019, 09:52 AM
I wonder what the two additional tracks will be on the target edition.
Posted by: Medellíam 20th April 2019, 10:46 AM
Four songs will be released before the album:
I Rise – 3 May Crave (feat. Swae Lee) – 10 May Future (feat. Quavo) – 17 May Dark Ballet – 7 June
I'm guessing I Rise could be what she performs at Eurovision?
Posted by: HausofTove 20th April 2019, 10:55 AM
! Exciting.
Most intrigued about Dark Ballet ~
Posted by: slowdown73 21st April 2019, 09:23 AM
Vogue was no1 29 years ago today. Hard to believe it’s the same artist releasing trash like her latest output.
Posted by: blacksquare 21st April 2019, 09:48 AM
QUOTE(slowdown73 @ Apr 21 2019, 10:23 AM)
Vogue was no1 29 years ago today. Hard to believe it’s the same artist releasing trash like her latest output.
It's almost as if 29 years is a long time and artists change.
Who knew.
Posted by: slowdown73 21st April 2019, 01:07 PM
QUOTE(blacksquare @ Apr 21 2019, 10:48 AM)
It's almost as if 29 years is a long time and artists change.
Who knew.
Yes artists change but when they were releasing far better music in their earlier career then that says something.
Another snippet of new music can be heard in this clip. Apparently Shazam says it is 'Extreme Occident', which was used in the first album teaser that was released.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 22nd April 2019, 11:09 PM
UK wise it seems Will Young is at present her only real contender for #1 on release week.
Avicii and Emeli Sande releasing the previous week but I don’t think either will be much of a week two threat.
Hoping Madonna can extend her #1 record though with this album and add to her tally of chart toppers.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 23rd April 2019, 06:33 PM
I suppose we have to keep in mind that last time an album that had been out a year kept her off #1.
Posted by: HausofTove 23rd April 2019, 08:29 PM
Still so pissed off about that, f***ing Sam Smith >_>
Posted by: Jordan Lee 23rd April 2019, 08:57 PM
Did Sam have promo that week or a price reduction? I remember it being Mothers Day but initially she was ahead in the midweeks
Posted by: vibe 23rd April 2019, 09:12 PM
He also performed at the brits and he would have picked up sales for mother’s day.
Her sales were low tho. I wonder if the leak did actually mean a huge loss in sales ?
Posted by: dandy* 25th April 2019, 09:36 AM
I don't think it did, it's simply that there isn't the same level of interest in her from casual music fans any longer.
Posted by: Medellíam 25th April 2019, 07:52 PM
Bruce Springsteen releasing the same day. Grrr.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 26th April 2019, 07:57 PM
Can’t see Bruce Springsteen not debuting at #1.
Gutted he’s releasing the same day. Not that chart positions are the most important thing but a #1 debut would’ve been amazing.
Posted by: Medellíam 27th April 2019, 02:37 AM
Done a bit of research...
In the UK, Rebel Heart debuted with 37,245 in March 2015. Bruce Springsteen's last album, High Hopes, debuted with 48,620 in January 2014. In the US, Rebel Heart debuted with 121k and High Hopes debuted with 99k. I feel like there's more versions and formats of Madame X than Rebel Heart so hopefully that will be enough to push it ahead of Bruce Springsteen in the UK despite his last album debuting with 10k higher than Madonna's last. For comparison, Kylie's Golden debuted with about 48k and also had multiple formats, although her UK promo was presumably stronger than Madonna's will be. I think it could be tight but I do feel Madonna could beat Bruce; she did have a headstart on pre-orders and her promo will no doubt be a lot stronger than Bruce's.
Previous US sales suggests Madonna should beat Bruce there, but I know tour ticket bundles can have a big effect on US sales so it depends what sort of deals they do there.
Hope that made sense, I'm rambling a bit and speaking out loud.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 27th April 2019, 11:18 PM
QUOTE(Medellíam @ Apr 27 2019, 03:37 AM)
Done a bit of research...
In the UK, Rebel Heart debuted with 37,245 in March 2015. Bruce Springsteen's last album, High Hopes, debuted with 48,620 in January 2014. In the US, Rebel Heart debuted with 121k and High Hopes debuted with 99k. I feel like there's more versions and formats of Madame X than Rebel Heart so hopefully that will be enough to push it ahead of Bruce Springsteen in the UK despite his last album debuting with 10k higher than Madonna's last. For comparison, Kylie's Golden debuted with about 48k and also had multiple formats, although her UK promo was presumably stronger than Madonna's will be. I think it could be tight but I do feel Madonna could beat Bruce; she did have a headstart on pre-orders and her promo will no doubt be a lot stronger than Bruce's.
Previous US sales suggests Madonna should beat Bruce there, but I know tour ticket bundles can have a big effect on US sales so it depends what sort of deals they do there.
Hope that made sense, I'm rambling a bit and speaking out loud.
I mean number one isn’t everything but I would love her to get one. But I’d take a #2 or even a low top 5 peak if it meant better longevity as that’s the real factor of success. Like I’d rather her go 2-7-12 than 1-25-40. Streaming wise I imagine more would stream Madonna than Bruce even if it was just to criticise her so that could help her out.
I wonder if we’ll get a TV special. I remember Rebel Heart having a Jonathon Ross special. I hope she does some interviews and performances around the release time. Eurovision should help her pre orders out though. It’ll probably also put her GH collection back in the chart.
Madame X performing like Kylies album did would be amazing. Kylie really had strong promo for the Golden era. I hope Madonna can get some promo lined up later in the year. A special show like Ariana and Buble had would be great or a Strictly slot in Q4 (I can dream).
I just really really hope that nothing from this album leaks until she officially releases it herself.
Posted by: Medellíam 28th April 2019, 01:51 PM
Yeah I hope we get some decent longevity. Rebel Heart did pretty well to begin with but disappeared very quickly once it dropped from the Top 40. Having some promo towards the end of the year would be great but she never performs on talent shows and she'll probably be focusing on touring at that point.
I hope she has Graham Norton or Jonathan Ross lined up but I'd rather she was on a regular show instead of a special; I'd just like to see her interact with other guests. She's already done a special with each so I guess it's unlikely there will be a second.
Posted by: vibe 29th April 2019, 05:25 PM
It has been revealed by drownedmadonna.com that I Rise is a ballad.
It could be a gay anthem that will be remixed for the clubs.
Posted by: Medellíam 29th April 2019, 05:51 PM
Thanks for that! Here's the article from DrownedMadonna:
QUOTE
We at DrownedMadonna.com learned some exciting info regarding “I Rise,” from Madonna’s Madame X album. Precisely, that the track is a Ballad and exactly a Pride Anthem.
You might have noticed that, in the press release for Madame X, it was announced that “I Rise” will be an anthemic song. What we heard is that the song is something very special for our LGBTQ community, precisely a Gay Anthem.
Unlike “Medellín”, we at DrownedMadonna.com are glad to reveal that “I Rise” is NOT a dance track, but a ballad. Anyway, we also learned that it will be remixed specifically for the clubs.
As you probably know, “I Rise” is one of the 4 songs that will be available from Madonna’s Madame X album, before the release of the full album.
It is not a coincidence that “I Rise” has been chosen as the first of these 4 tracks. In fact, the day after it will be available, Madonna will receive the prestigious Advocate for Change Award at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
“Madonna always has and always will be the LGBTQ community’s greatest ally and it is only fitting to honour and celebrate our biggest advocate at GLAAD’s biggest event ever,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “From the HIV crisis to international LGBTQ issues, she fearlessly pushes for a world where LGBTQ people are accepted. Her music and art have been life-saving outlets for LGBTQ people over the years and her affirming words and actions have changed countless hearts and minds.”
This will be a very exciting Madonna‘s week, with a very epic performance at the Billboard Music Awards, the release of “I Rise” and the GLAAD Award acceptance.
Could this be the drag queen music video then? Rumours were that it was for a disco track (likely 'Killers That Are Partying') but 'I Rise' being a "gay anthem" fits the bill.
Posted by: HausofTove 29th April 2019, 09:14 PM
Sounds exciting! Two singles in one, with a ballad and hopefully a solid uptempo remix to go with
Posted by: Medellíam 29th April 2019, 11:34 PM
Was meant to post this before... 'Faz Gostoso' with Anitta is a cover/interpretation of this song:
Faz Gostoso an original production by the Portuguese duo No Maka, popularised by Blaya, from Buraka Som Sistema, has been chosen by Madonna for a duet with the Brazilian megastar, Anitta, and included in her new album, titled, Madame X. The 11th track of Madonna's new album is co-authored by Blaya, Rodrigo Carmo, Mateus Seabra e Luis Vieira.
Faz Gostoso was a huge hit in Portugal, it was five consecutive weeks at number one, it was awarded a platinum single distinction, and it reached more than 30 million views on YouTube, there's no scale to imagine what will the song achieve performed by two world class singers such as Madonna and Anitta.
Reflecting on this achievement, Portuguese DJs and Producers, No Maka, stated, "When our career started, many years ago, it was beyond our wildest dreams to imagine one day Madonna would choose one of our songs to one of her albums, especially in a duet with Anitta. It's a tremendous honour and we're thrilled with this true conquest, that we share with the song's other authors, Blaya, Rodrigo Carmo, Mateus Seabra e Luis Vieira."
Madonna spoke with Billboard’s Keith Caulfield backstage at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday (May 1), chatting about preparing for her performance with Maluma, why she wanted to team up with Swae Lee on "Crave," the process of creating her new album Madame X, and from where she drew the inspiration for its title.
To prepare for their BBMAs performance of their collaborative song “Medellin,” Madonna tells Billboard that she started rehearsing many months ago to nail down the technology, the green screen personas, and the actual performance with Maluma.
She also opens up about how she joined forces with Swae Lee on the song "Crave," explaining that it was one of the first songs she had written when she first started on her new record, but she put it on the backburner when she began working with other musicians in Lisbon.
Upon listening to it again, she realized she needed to recruit a collaborator. “I thought I need to sing with a man on this song cause it’s a song about desire and longing,” she says. “I liked the tone of his voice, so I asked him to be on it with me.”
“I think he’s really talented," she adds of Swae Lee. "I think he’s a very good writer, I think he’s a great singer, and he’s so cute…He has good energy.”
Speaking of narrowing down the tracks on the album, Madonna confesses that she had no idea how many songs she would end up with. “The record was born in Lisbon," she says. "Originally, I’d worked with a lot of Portuguese musicians, and sang several songs in Portuguese, and then it kind of expanded to different countries, to Brazil, to Colombia, and then interspersed working with Mirwais, the French producer, so the song kind of, it’s really a global album.”
When asked if the record is a concept album, seeing as she takes on different personas, such as equestrian rider and teacher, she downplayed it.
“I do all those things,” she notes. “Believe it or not, I do clean my house, so I consider myself a housekeeper. And I ride horses and I love it. And I can teach you how to do the cha cha if you want. So it’s saying that I am all these things.”
Madonna also reveals how she decided upon the title, Madame X, explaining that it was a name given to her when she was 19 years old and first moved to New York City.
“A woman who I looked up to and admired [Martha Graham]gave me that name, because she said she couldn’t recognize all my different personas because I kept changing the way I looked,” Madonna recalls. “That was in the beginning of my career when I didn’t think about who I should be or what I should be. I was experimenting. And so I felt like I had come full circle and gave the record that name, cause I’m in the same frame of mind.”
Posted by: Jordan Lee 2nd May 2019, 04:24 PM
Bastille are now also releasing on the same day as Madame X is released.
Four way battle for #1 now
Madonna vs Bruce Springsteen vs Bastille vs Will Young
Posted by: Medellíam 2nd May 2019, 04:53 PM
I don't feel like Bastille have made much less an impression this era but I reckon they'll still be able to sell a respectable amount. Think their last album opened with similar sales to Rebel Heart.
I can deal with Madonna taking #2 but #3 would be a bit underwhelming.
Posted by: vibe 2nd May 2019, 06:53 PM
Bruce is biggest competition . Will won’t stand a chance . Do like his new song, he did do a tour album bundle tho.
Posted by: Medellíam 2nd May 2019, 08:29 PM
DrownedMadonna claiming that 'Crave' will be the second single:
QUOTE
EXCLUSIVE – We at DrownedMadonna.com are excited to reveal that Crave is planned to become the second single to be released from Madonna’s Madame X album.
Crave is a very cool and eclectic dance track. Someway, Medellín is like a set-up for the big single. Crave is indeed even a stronger single than Medellín.
We don’t have to wait too long for listening to it, because Crave is one of the 4 selected “pre-sale” tracks that will be available before Madame X release.
Precisely, Crave will be available next week, on May 10th, 2019.
Crave (feat. Swae Lee) is written by Madonna Ciccone, Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown and Brittany Talia Hazzard.
Not sure if this is actually official or if it's just speculation passed as fact. Seems to be a lot of whispers and rumour about what the next single is.
Inside Madonna's Ambitious 'Madame X' Album Campaign: Augmented Reality, Multiple Tracks, Tour Prep and TikTok
Less than an hour after she delivered one of the most imaginative awards show performances in a career full of them, Madonna stood backstage in an eye patch at the Billboard Music Awards, explaining how the seeds of her forthcoming album, Madame X, were planted more than three decades ago.
“[Madame X] was a name given to me when I was 19 and I first moved to New York, by a woman who I looked up to and admired,” Madonna told Billboard's Senior Director of Charts Keith Caulfield. The woman she was referring to was modern dance genius Martha Graham, who influenced Madonna’s choreography as a mentor, prior to her death in 1991. “And she gave me that name because she said she couldn’t recognize all my different personas, because I kept changing the way I looked.
“And that was in the beginning of my career, when I didn’t think about who I should be or what I should be -- I was experimenting,” Madonna continued. “And so I felt like I had come full circle, and gave the record that name, because I’m in the same frame of mind.”
If the title of Madame X, Madonna’s fourteenth studio album due out June 14, reflects the complex, multifaceted nature of her pop aesthetic, so will the way in which the full-length is unfurled. There’s already been “Medellín,” the mid-tempo, multi-lingual Latin pop confection alongside Colombian heartthrob Maluma released last month, as well as its opulent, cinematic music video for the track, which clocks in at nearly seven minutes.
Then there was the pair’s Billboard Music Awards showcase of the song, which combined live dancers and light BDSM play with augmented reality technology, which allowed multiple avatars of Madonna to seemingly grace the stage on the ceremony’s telecast. Madonna says that she came up with the concept for the eye-popping set piece “many, many months ago,” and required weeks of rehearsals to properly configure her AR personas for the green screen.
Yet as ambitious as the visual presentations of “Medellín” have been, the song represents just the first piece of the multi-track pre-album rollout that Madonna has planned over the next six weeks. The Maluma collaboration has already been followed by “I Rise,” the theatrical solo song that closes out the Madame X track list and was unveiled on Friday (May 3). The inspirational track features a sample of speech made by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting survivor Emma González.
Next up is “Crave,” the combustible team-up with Swae Lee, on May 10; the Rae Sremmurd rapper is currently riding a hot streak as a featured artist thanks to his appearance on French Montana’s “Unforgettable,” Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” and Ellie Goulding and Diplo's “Close to Me.” After “Crave” comes “Future,” a Quavo collaboration that was also produced by Diplo, on May 17, and finally June 7 will bring “Dark Ballet,” one of the more multi-dimensional songs on the new album, according to President of Maverick Music Greg Thompson.
“[The album] is a journey, and there are a lot of chapters,” Thompson explains of the decision to slowly trickle out five tracks ahead of the release, a deviation from Madonna’s previous rollouts. Her last album, 2015’s Rebel Heart, suffered leaks months ahead of release, resulting in six songs being rushed out early for an iTunes pre-order. “In a world where we’re more song-driven than we’ve been in a long time as an industry, it became a real question and a challenge: How do we make sure that people really understand this album by the time it comes out, but still have songs that can be hit singles in certain areas?”
To that end, “Crave” with Swae Lee will become the de facto pop radio single upon its release, with an official music video to soon follow. Meanwhile, “Medellín” -- which received a global television launch across Viacom networks in April -- will continue being pushed in Latin markets. The decision to lead with “Medellín” instead of “Crave” came down to the belief that it was “the signature track to the body of work, and the right place to start telling the story,” says Thompson. He adds, “I think we have a good shot to get a top five club record with some [‘Medellín’] remixes, and get that song into people’s spaces that they might not anticipate.” (Madonna has notched a record 57 top five-charting hits on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.)
Aside from the upcoming song and video releases, Madonna confirmed to Billboard that there have already been production meetings for her next tour, which would follow the 82-date run in support of Rebel Heart. The Madame X campaign will also feature a few more surprises -- including further use of the growing short form video platform TikTok, where Madonna launched the "Medellín cha cha cha challenge" earlier this week. “She started playing with it,” Thompson says with a laugh, “and we’re having some fun with it. We think it’s cool.”
Above all, the rollout is designed to capture the multi-continent creation of Madame X, after Madonna relocated to Lisbon in 2017. “Crave” was one of the songs that was conceived in Portugal as the pop superstar started to focus on the follow-up to Rebel Heart, while other tracks -- which range in language, from English to Spanish to Portuguese -- were birthed in Colombia, Brazil and the States, among other locations.
So out of that 13-song track list, what do those five pre-release tracks represent to Madonna? “A little smorgasbord of delights,” she says with a wide smile. “Appetizers from around the world.”
Posted by: Jordan Lee 9th May 2019, 01:52 PM
I’d seen on twitter several posting the albums leaking.
I hope it’s not true and that they’re just referring to that one track “Crave” that leaked.
Also just pre ordered the book Edition of this. It stated it contained bonus tracks is that just the extra tracks on the deluxe or is there more on this. The cover is different to both standard and deluxe it’s an image of Madonna with black hair and a guitar.
Excited to hear this in full though. If it has leaked I’ll be avoiding those until June 14 or at least try too!
I’m a bit confused over how the album is political
I haven’t got that vibe yet based of anything we’ve heard.
Posted by: Medellíam 21st May 2019, 04:18 PM
I'm sure that side will show when the album's released. It's an album that shares personal experiences and social commentary of the world and politics will be part of that: the snippets of 'Dark Ballet' that we've heard are quite politically charged; 'God Control' is about gun laws in America; 'Batuka' has a line that possibly refers to Donald Trump; 'Killers Who Are Partying' could also be another.
Posted by: Medellíam 21st May 2019, 05:17 PM
Posted by: vibe 21st May 2019, 05:39 PM
Is she being clever tho ? She could be turning off people bothering to listen .
Only one banger is a shame .
Posted by: Medellíam 22nd May 2019, 11:24 PM
Madonna appeared on the cover of French magazine TÊTU, published yesterday, which also includes an interview that reveals some more details about the album:
QUOTE
TÊTU: Madame X that we just listened is clearly your most political record since American Life. What is your state of mind concerning the world? Are you scared? Are you angry? Haven’t you had enough?
Madonna: A bit of all of this at the same time. I am scared. I am frightened by so many things that happen in the world. Just like you, as I am sure. But I am also optimistic. I have the impression that the future has never been that open. I hope that I succeeded in managing my rage and my anger to create a music full of joy. And I would like, with these new songs, to inspire people to act. Because this is what we have to do with our anger. We will not change the world with fury. I feel precisely each feeling that you mentioned. And in many ways, this new album is, indeed, a continuation of American Life.
TÊTU: On ‘Killers Who Are Partying’, you sing « I’ll be Israel if Israel is imprisoned / I’ll be Islam, if Islam is attacked ». What should we understand? That you want to join the minorities?
Madonna: What Mirwais and I try to say in this song is that we don’t see the world in a fragmented way, but as a unity. And I am part of it. I see myself as an aspect of the Universe’s soul. I don’t see the world through categories and labels. But society loves to categorize and separate people: the poors, the gays, the Africans… because it gives us a feeling of safety. What I say in this song is that I will embody each case in which people try to lock us in. I will be in the front line. I will take the punches, the fire. Because I am a citizen of the world and because my soul is connected to all humans souls. So I am responsible for everybody. If one person suffers, I suffer. To me, to song is an act and a declaration of solidarity.
TÊTU: Mirwais produced 6 songs on this album. How was the reunion?
Madonna: We never fell out of touch. It was great to work together again. ‘Killers Who Are Partying’ is the first song we created. It’s a political song but everything Mirwais and I do always becomes political because it’s his way of thinking. The guitar that we hear at the beginning of the song is a sample that I recorded during a fado session. The sound of this guitar is exactly what I wanted. I really felt inspired by the melancholy and the feeling of this music, by the sound of Cesaria Evora, the morna and Cape Verde. The authenticity of the music that I hear everywhere in Portugal has touched me. I wanted to appropriate this music and make it more modern. I asked to Mirwais: «What do you think you can do with this? Does it inspire you?». Of course, he really liked it.
TÊTU: In the song ‘Dark Ballet’, you say «Your world is full of pain». You are not a part of «our world»?
Madonna: I am not saying that your world is not mine anymore. I am just saying that this world where people are ruled and dominated by the illusion of fame and luck, ruled, dominated and slaved by social networks, ruled and dominated by oppressors who discriminate endlessly people.. this world, I refuse to be a part of it. This song, Dark Ballet, was inspired by Joan of Arc and her story. It’s like a junction point. Madame X and Joan of Arc come together. I speak her words and her language and I say: «I am not afraid to die for what I believe in.» And this is exactly what I feel.
TÊTU: A year ago, you commented on a post about the 20 years anniversary of Ray of Light on Guy Oseary’s Instagram: “Do you remember when I could record with producers from the beginning to the end and I could be a visionary?». Have you been allowed, this time, to be a visionary?
Madonna: I think you are taking things out of their context (her publicist steps in and says «It’s not clear. Do you have another question?», but Madonna goes on.) I don’t remember exactly what I wrote at this time. But I was not critisizing Guy Oseary. Nobody ever forbid me anything. Yes, people criticize me but nobody ever forbid me to be a visionary. But people often warn me and say «be careful» (she moves her finger from the top to the bottom like we would do with a child).
TÊTU: Do you think this album will shake the music industry?
Madonna: I wouldn’t use this word to describe my music. Provocative, conflicting, emotional, passionated: here’s the words I would use. And «Inspiring» also I hope.
TÊTU: In ‘I Rise’, we can hear a sample of Emma Gonzales’ speech, one of the survivors of the Parkland school’s shooting who became an icon of the fight against guns. Do you feel that you inspired this generation?
Madonna: I hope so. That’s what I am looking for. I see Emma as a spokeswoman and pioneer of her generation. I just keep doing what I have always done. I fight for women’s right and all humans in general. I fight for equality.
TÊTU: In Medellin, the first single of the album, you seem to remember your debut when you were 17. What do you think of your career?
Madonna: I think I’ve taken a lot of shit! (she laughs). That’s true. I have the impression that I broke many boundaries for the women who came after me. But I know that our fight is far from being over. And to be honest, I have the impression that I still fight for the same things today.
TÊTU: ‘Like A Prayer’ was released 30 years ago and caused controversy. Are you trying to reproduce this controversy today?
Madonna: Honestly, when I wrote ‘Like A Prayer’, I didn’t know that the song would cause such controversy. It’s the video that shocked people: the fact that I kiss a black saint, that I dance in front of burning crosses…people saw that as a sacrilege. But I didn’t think for one second that this would be seen like this. All of this was very controversial but it was not my first intention. However, this time, I entend to be subversive!
TÊTU: Provocation has always been a way for you to catch people’s attention on important matters like LGBT+ rights, racism, women… But today, do you think conservatives are using provocation as their way to spread their message?
Madonna: Give me examples!
TÊTU: People like Trump or Marine Le Pen…
Madonna: If you are a narrow minded person and you want to use provocation, then it will be your message. Everything depends on the provocateur’s intention. (Laughs). I am not a narrow minded person. I am not provocative in order to pull down people and erect boundaries or to tell them «stay where you are». I am at the opposite off that. To destroy with provocation is not my intention.
TÊTU: Do you feel connected to your LGBT+ fans? Do you claim the status of the gay icon?
Madonna: I think it is weird to say that I am an icon. I am lucky to have a voice and to be able to use it to fight for the rights of those who are less heard. I think the word «Icon» is a word that people can give me but I can’t claim it for myself. Do you think I am an icon?
TÊTU: You are the definition of the word
Madonna: If Têtu thinks I am an icon, then I am an icon!
TÊTU: Is this album a tribute to your life in Portugal?
Madonna: You heard it. Do you feel that it payed tribute to Portugal and to Fado? Not only fado. There are a lot of influences that I took since I live there. But obviously this is where the album was born. Even if there are other influences, this album is the expression of the time I spent in Portugal. I have a house there and I go there very often. My son is playing football in the Benefica club. But you know, I live on airplanes. The sky is my home. (Laughs). I hope my Portuguese is good. I had a good coach, Dino D’Santiago. He helped me a lot and introduced me to amazing musicians. He was essential for the creation of this record.
TÊTU: We don’t know well Dino D’Santiago, could you tell us more your collaboration with him?
Madonna: He was kind of an interface. He is from Cape Verde and most of the musicians from Cape Verde I worked with don’t speak English. He was with me in the studio when we were recording and was telling them what I wanted. He helped me musically to give life to these songs because I had no other way to communicate with them. Well.. in a way I did with the music. We wrote a song called Fuana that will be a bonus track. I have another song called Ciao Bella which is not on the deluxe version of the album. The singer Kimi Djabaté who comes from Guinée-Bisdseau sings on this track. Once again, it’s Dino who introduced me to him. When he came to record for this album, he didn’t speak English at all. Only créole. Dino was the translator and really helped me. When I recorded Killers Who Are Partying and Extreme Occident which are influenced by the morna, I sent them to him to have his feedbacks. I wanted to know if he was feeling the authenticity fo these songs. His approval was very important to me.
TÊTU: How do you choose the people you collaborate with, like Maluma for example?
Madonna: It happens in a very organic way. All my collaborations are decided when I meet the people. We share a glass of champagne, we get along and we talk about the things we could do together. To tell you the truth, there is nothing really deep in that. It’s very instinctive. I am a fan of each person I collaborated with.
TÊTU: You worked a lot with French people: Jean-Paul Gaultier, JR, Martin Solveig, Mirwais…what’s connecting you to them?
Madonna: Yes! What’s this connection with French people? It’s like I can’t get rid of them (laughs). They are the authors of my biggest collaborations. Mondino, Gaultier, Mirwais…I think I love them because the are very… Têtu (means stubborn). They stand up to me. The people you mentioned are very intellectual people, extremely creative, very cultivated. We share a beautiful synergy. (She knocks her glass on the table and scream « Aqua por favor! ». Everybody jump and she points her finger to a photograph and screams « who let the paparazzi in!? Who are you? Do I know you? ». The photographer stops, frightened. « It’s Ricardo, Madonna’s official photographer » says the publicist. Everybody laughs.)
TÊTU: On the album, you sing in Portuguese and in Spanish. Is it a way to challenge the hegemony of English in the pop culture?
Madonna: That’s exactly what it is! I like the idea of worldwide music. I hate compartments. We don’t want to do it with people, why should we do it with music? I like to turn on to the radio in New York and listen to people sing in Spanish, take my car in Lisbon and listen to reggaeton or dancehall. It’s great. To use other languages was a challenge but you might have noticed that I like challenges.
Posted by: vibe 23rd May 2019, 01:12 PM
So exciting to read that dark ballet is inspired by Joan Of arc.
Hopefully Joan Of arc makes the setlist for the tour , that is a must for me !
Posted by: Jordan Lee 25th May 2019, 10:57 AM
Less than 3 weeks to go!
Has anyone else ordered the 18 track edition yet with the book edition?
I cancelled my amazon order as the info on it said there was only 15 tracks so I’m hoping HMV has it.
Her site was a lot to pay for shipping fees.
Posted by: Medellíam 26th May 2019, 12:09 PM
Posted by: pippa 30th May 2019, 02:37 PM
From what i have heard from the album to date i don't think it will be an album i will be purchasing. The material so far doesn't have the Madonna feel to it. Is anyone else feeling the same?
Posted by: vibe 30th May 2019, 05:47 PM
No
Posted by: Jordan Lee 30th May 2019, 05:54 PM
I’m still holding out until album release until I make up my mind but I’ve ore ordered as I have all her studio albums.
Often reviews leave me worried then I end up liking it myself. It’s better to make up your own mind as reviewers tastes can be different and at times influenced by how something’s fared commercially.
I felt so nervous as a P!nk fan before I heard Hurts 2B Human then I heard it and thought it was great.
Im confident that the better tracks for me are on the album. We’ve got the majority of the collaborations first as the artists on those songs have a high streaming platform.
Posted by: pippa 30th May 2019, 06:56 PM
Reviews don't change my decision on any album. I base everything on what i hear musically myself and to date the music from the album has not made a good impression. That said, the album is sure to house at least 2-3 tracks that i will like. For now, i am holding off on purchasing the album.
Posted by: Medellíam 31st May 2019, 02:43 PM
I'm still really looking forward to the album. I've enjoyed all the songs released so far and it seems like there's still better to come. It's pleasing that Madonna has a set vision for the album and has brought an exciting concept with it that feels true to her.
It feels like everything has suddenly gone really quiet though. I hope some more big promotion is announced soon.
Posted by: slowdown73 31st May 2019, 10:57 PM
I won’t be supporting the album neither. I don’t like any of the tracks released so far. Very disappointed. The style doesn’t suit Madonna and isn’t credible for her age. She was doing stuff miles better 20 years ago.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 2nd June 2019, 09:24 PM
I won't deny, at this point my interest in the campaign has pretty much waned but I'm still looking forward to hearing the Mirwais stuff on the album.
Posted by: vibe 3rd June 2019, 06:37 AM
The four songs that she has released have all been great. For me this sounds like Madonna again. We get Dark Ballet later this week which I am excited about .
"I Don’t Search I Find harks back to the Nineties with an ambient trance beat"
Colour me intrigued! Tbh it all sounds very exciting. I think those who haven't been too impressed with the songs released so far should definitely still give the album a chance because it sounds like there's a lot more to offer.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 3rd June 2019, 10:16 PM
Graham Norton confirmed for June 14th too
Posted by: Medellíam 3rd June 2019, 10:23 PM
QUOTE(Jordan Lee @ Jun 3 2019, 11:16 PM)
Graham Norton confirmed for June 14th too
I noticed that on DrownedMadonna but the guests for the 14th June show have already been announced:
QUOTE
Among the guests on Graham’s sofa: acting legend Sir Ian McKellen, talking about touring and turning 80; director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionnaire) and actors Lily James and Himesh Patel, talking about their new comedy fantasy Yesterday; and singer Sheryl Crow, who performs her new single Still the Good Old Days.
Perhaps it's for the following week. To be honest, I'd rather Madonna have some post-release promotion sorted out.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 3rd June 2019, 10:33 PM
In a way I would rather it be shown the next week.
It could potentially help it’s second week drop be smaller.
Posted by: Medellíam 3rd June 2019, 10:37 PM
Yeah, that was my thinking. The first week sales will be fine thanks to pre-orders and its many formats, plus there's no way she's going to beat Bruce Springsteen to number one, so she may as well think about giving the album some sort of longevity.
Posted by: Medellíam 4th June 2019, 12:46 AM
This review from The Times has me hyped:
QUOTE
Ever since she emerged from New York in the early 1980s, Madonna’s moderate abilities in music, singing and dancing have been more than made up for in searing ambition, an ability to work with the right people at the right time and a brittle form of bravery, with outer toughness masking inner frailty. Now comes probably her boldest, certainly her strangest, album yet. Madame X veers between pop, Latin and clubby dance music, jumps from the personal to the political and is bound together by an exotic, breezy mood that feels strangely intimate, as if she is revealing a hitherto hidden part of her soul. She isn’t really, of course, but she does a good job of pretending she is.
Dark Ballet, recorded with the French producer Mirwais, throws all of these qualities into one three-part experimental epic. Over piano-led, minor-key pop, Madonna variously tells us that she can dress like a boy or a girl as she wishes, castigates the world for being obsessed with fame and concludes by saying that some unnamed people, at a guess Donald Trump and his team, are naive to think that we aren’t aware of their crimes. At one point she says something indecipherable in a half robot, half Disney princess voice. It is quite a trip.
Then there is Killers Who Are Partying, on which Madonna goes the full Bono as she identifies with Africa, poor people, exploited children and pretty much everyone else who isn’t a rich, old, golf-playing white man. “I’ll be poor, if the poor are humiliated,” she claims over a touch of Portuguese fado, and although you suspect that she isn’t really about to give up her life as the most successful female pop star yet and wander the Earth as a penniless ascetic, the sentiment is there. “I’ll be Islam if Islam is hated,” she continues. “I’ll be Israel if they’re incarcerated.” World peace through song may be a naive endeavour, as John Lennon found out five decades ago, but this flash of idealism at a time of rising global division is welcome nonetheless.
There are straightforward pop songs, such as the country-leaning Crave and the English/Portuguese Crazy, but the most captivating moments push the boat out. The Latin-tinged Batuka has a wayward quality reminiscent of Brazil’s late-1960s tropicalia movement and features the unequivocally Trump-bashing line “Get that old man and put him in jail”.
It wouldn’t be a Madonna album with a bit of overt sexuality and Faz Gostoso (“make it tasty”) pours the sauce over a samba rhythm, while on I Don’t Search I Find she reconnects with her core audience via the medium of high-energy, pumping house music. Finally comes I Rise, an empowerment anthem with a sample of the now-famous speech by the Parkland shooting survivor Emma González.
We all get old, but never at the same age. Some of us are old when we’re children, bringing briefcases to school and talking to adults at family parties; others leave uni with the thrill that they never have to go clubbing again. Most of us think we’re doing pretty well, then we find ourselves nodding appreciatively at something in a Boden catalogue and suddenly death is real.
For years, Madonna outpaced all of this. In 1996, Evita looked like ushering in her middle age, but she did an about turn, delivering convincing, idiosyncratic trip-hop on Ray of Light (1998) and convincing, idiosyncratic electro on Music (2000). Confessions on a Dancefloor (2005) was even better, its Abba samples and smooth deep house a way for her to stay out past 4am with dignity, rather than trying to score ketamine off teenage fashion influencers at the afters, musically speaking.
But she couldn’t run forever. Perhaps it began pre-Confessions, when she kissed Britney Spears as if to parasitically extract her youth. Certainly by Hard Candy in 2008 she was playing catch-up, spurring Timbaland and the Neptunes to some of their tamest work, a good five years after their pomp. MDNA (2012) tried to keep pace with stadium EDM, while Rebel Heart (2015) struggled to get its head around a newly global, musically cosmopolitan pop market, and just randomly glued hip collaborators together. The woman who had once led was following, and sluggishly.
To her credit, she has not done what many in her position would then do: lick their wounds and sell a jazz standards album to Radio 2 listeners. With Madame X, Madonna instead grits her teeth, puts on a glitter-encrusted eyepatch, looks in the mirror with seriously reduced depth perception and says: “Bitch, I’m Madonna.” And by drawing on the Latin influence of not just reggaeton-crazed recent pop but also her new home base of Lisbon, she has, at 60, produced her most natural-feeling, progressive and original record since Confessions.
It’s also one of her most bizarre and sprawling, and features some of her worst ever music. Killers Who Are Playing finds this American multimillionaire – already not shy of white saviourhood – play empath to the world’s huddled masses: “I’ll be Africa if Africa is shut down. I will be poor if the poor are humiliated. I’ll be a child if the children are exploited …” We pause for presumably more of the same, this time in Portuguese, and then: “I’ll be Islam if Islam is hated. I’ll be Israel if they’re incarcerated. I’ll be Native Indian if the Indian has been taken. I’ll be a woman if she’s raped and her heart is breaking.” It’s well intended but fails to read the room – the room here being the entire planet.
The dog’s dinner of Dark Ballet, aired in part at Eurovision, features vocodered vocals sung to a melody from the Nutcracker, and irritatingly gnomic pronouncements about commerce blinding us to reality. Extreme Occident, only available on the deluxe version for a very good reason, sees Madonna trying to “recover my centre of gravity” in a politically polarised world – a really worthwhile topic, but expressed in witless lyrics. “I guess I’m lost / I had to pay the cost / The thing that hurt me most …” (at this point you’re ready to bet your house on the final line being about a ghost, but no) “… Was that I wasn’t lost.” Tablas arrive with stupid kneejerk exoticism. It ends with her asserting “life is a circle” about 20 times.
These shockers are suitable only for schadenfreude lovers or scholars of extreme camp, but another of these wildly messy tracks actually matches its vaulting ambition. God Control was presumably made after an all-nighter on Reddit – a rambling “Wake up sheeple!” screed that confronts gun reform, disenfranchised youth, democracy and the man upstairs. One section has her rap “Each new birthday gives me hope / that’s why I don’t smoke that dope”, and that her only friend is her brain – all with the peppy naivety of Tom Tom Club’s Wordy Rappinghood. And all of it set to hi-NRG disco with cascading strings and Daft Punk vocoders, for over six minutes. It is – only just – brilliant, and will become an equally beloved and despised curio among fans.
All this baroque weirdness knocks the album off its axis, but most of its 64 minutes are actually full of very decent pop songcraft. Future is her go at pop’s next big trend, roots reggae, and while there is a slight, perhaps unconscious but audible white-person Jamaican accent, it is catchy and full-bodied, producer Diplo shamelessly ripping off the brass from Outkast’s SpottieOttieDopaliscious. She returns to Deeper and Deeper-style house on I Don’t Search I Find, its strings and fingerclicks a clear nod to Vogue. Crazy is beautiful and brilliantly catchy, a midtempo soul ballad that you could imagine Ariana Grande singing, but which has clever detailing like an accordion that has surely been influenced by Lisbon’s fado scene. The most emphatically Latin tracks are all strong, particularly Faz Gostoso with Brazilian superstar Anitta, whose frenetic beat is somewhere between baile funk and Angolan kuduro – another Lisbon-influenced rhythm that also flits through the polyrhythmic Come Alive. Bitch I’m Loco, the second track to feature Colombian star Maluma after lead single Medellín, is reggaeton roughage, but will be satisfying enough booming out of a club system. Perhaps there isn’t an absolutely diamond pop chorus on Madame X, but the singles I Rise, Crave, and Medellín all have elegant, sinewy melodies that twine around you rather than jabbing you into submission.
Throughout, there is more density and musical adventure than at almost any other point in her career (perhaps this is the influence of Mirwais, who produces numerous tracks here and gave Music its fiendish intricacy). Her voice is remarkably plastic, pitched down one minute and up the next, into a Sia-like bleat and out into robotic polyphony. Often, around the seabed of the mix, is a swirl of aqueous psychedelic sound, profoundly different and much more interesting than her earlier R&B and EDM minimalism.
Killers Who Are Playing ends with the questions: “Do you know who you are? Will we know when to stop?” The untamed, batshit Madame X suggests that Madonna doesn’t have the answer to either – and that her strength is in never knowing.
Posted by: vibe 4th June 2019, 12:00 PM
Are the reviews not coming out too early ?
Posted by: Medellíam 4th June 2019, 12:05 PM
I think there was some sort of album party yesterday which is why we're getting the reviews. It helps build the hype before release week, I guess!
Posted by: Medellíam 4th June 2019, 01:59 PM
Posted by: HausofTove 4th June 2019, 08:17 PM
I have absolutely NO idea what to expect with this album now
I like two of the songs heard, and don't enjoy the other two. These reviews have confused me further... guess I'll just have to wait until I listen.
I am thinking it may be a mixture of sounds and vibes, much like Rebel Heart as opposed to a consistent sound and style a la Confessions et al.
Posted by: Medellíam 4th June 2019, 09:14 PM
It seems like there will be a mix of sounds but I'm getting the vibe that there will be a running thread that strings them altogether. Probably a lot more consistent and thought out than Rebel Heart was, I reckon.
Bold, bizarre, self-referential and unlike anything Madonna has ever done before, 'Madame X' finds the star with a glint in her eye (the one without an eyepatch, that is)
Madonna’s latest persona ‘Madame X’ borrows her name from the historical figure Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau: a socialite and occasional muse who scandalised genteel French society when she bared naked flesh – her entire shoulder, would you believe it – in a portrait. And while Madge’s own eye-patch wearing interpretation prefers taking a more enterprising approach to the current job market (Madame X is a mother, a child, a teacher, a nun, a singer, and a saint many among other things) it’s a fitting moniker for a record that restlessly explores all sides of contemporary pop at full divisive pelt: visiting Latin pop, all-out Eurotrash, gloomily percussive trap, NYC disco, house, and reggaeton.
During its most reckless moments, ‘Madame X’ is bold, bizarre, and unlike anything Madonna has ever done before. The frantic ‘Dark Ballet’ harnesses gloomily spun strings and robotic overlord vocals; it’s as villainous and foreboding as ‘Ray of Light’s darkest moments, or her ‘Die Another Day’ Bond theme. Then, quite out of nowhere, an extended piano interlude morphs into a mangled, glitching excerpt of ‘Dance of the Reed Pipes’ from Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ – it’s brilliant, overblown ridiculousness. “I want to tell you about love…. and loneliness,” Madonna husks dramatically.
Touching heavily on both these things, ‘Madame X’ explores the state of the world (spoiler: it’s not doing great) at large – as well as Madonna’s place within it – from her new base in Lisbon. ‘Madame X’ isn’t flawless in its vision: at times, Madonna’s attempts to lead the future revolution can come off as ham-fisted. ‘Killers Who Are Partying’ features some absolute clanging missteps: booming lines like “I’ll be Islam if Islam is hated” and “I’ll be Native Indian if the Indian has been taken” seem like tone-deaf expressions of solidarity, especially from a wealthy white woman who seems to be planting herself at the centre of multiple minority narratives. And moments like ‘I Rise’s rehashed quote from the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre – “Freedom’s what you choose to do with what’s been done to you” – can border on inspirational fridge magnet territory, too broad to establish real connection.
‘Madame X’ is a far more interesting prospect when the focus moves back onto Madonna herself. ‘Crazy’ – produced by Jason Evigan and Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean – is a self-referential accordion bop: “I bend my knees for you like a prayer,” she sings, pointedly name-checking her 1989 album, and flipping from the original’s religious innuendo, towards doomed, dead-end infatuation “oh god, look at me now”. Elsewhere, the rhythmic whisper of “cha cha cha” on opener and lead single ‘Medellín’ recalls ‘Hard Candy’s ‘Give It 2 Me’.
‘Bitch I’m Loca’, meanwhile, is the sort of swaggering anthem that campy Disney villain Ursula might belt out from the depths: Maluma (who also appears on lead single ‘Medellín’) the ideal sidekick. “Where do you want me to put this?” he drawls with a comedy wink. “You can put it inside” she replies. It’s like Madonna’s diva sketch at the end of ‘Act Of Contrition’ turned Carry On… Madame X. Her cover of ‘Faz Gostoso’ – originally by Brazilian pop star Blaya – is equally great fun. And the House-inflected standout ‘I Don’t Search I Find’ – bringing to mind Shep Pettibone’s production on ‘Vogue’, and repurposing a quote from Pablo Picasso for its title – is just as playful. “Finally, enough love,” Madonna announces.
Throughout her 40-year career, outrage has always tailed Madonna closely; a point which is referenced on the likes of ‘Extreme Occident’ and the vulnerable admissions of ‘Looking For Mercy’ (“flawed by design, please sympathise,” she pleads) . “People have always been trying to silence me for one reason or another, whether it’s that I’m not pretty enough, I don’t sing well enough, I’m not talented enough, I’m not married enough, and now it’s that I’m not young enough,” Madonna recently told Vogue.
In reality, if age wasn’t the chosen topic of the moment, the star would be “too much” of something – anything – else: too sexual, too attention-seeking, too weird, too controversial, too outspoken, too unwilling to disappear quietly into the good night. Instead, Madonna will do no such thing, happiest dancing said night away to the beat of her own creative drum.
For the first time since ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’, perhaps, there’s a glint in Madonna’s eye; her visible, un-eyepatched one, at least. Sonically restless, ‘Madame X’ doesn’t imitate current pop trends as much as it mangles them into new shapes. A record that grapples with being “just way too much”, ultimately, it refuses to tone things down.
Posted by: dandy* 6th June 2019, 04:40 PM
This is getting really promising reviews in general I think... I'm getting the sense that it will have it's share of awful tracks like her other recent albums have had but it sounds like we'll be able to make a decent album once the dross is cut out.
I Don't Search I Find sounds like it has the potential to be great! *.*
Posted by: Medellíam 7th June 2019, 10:05 PM
Track-by-track review from The Sun (Dan Wootton unfortunately):
QUOTE
BOLD experimentation, controversial political comment and downright epic pop.
That’s why Madonna’s highly anticipated new album marks yet another phase of her groundbreaking chart career.
For the creator of some of the biggest pop choruses in history to throw caution to the wind and create some of her most daring music ever, at the age of 60, is a welcome reminder of why Madonna has remained at the cutting edge of music for four decades.
It’s further proof that none of her young rivals are coming anywhere close to making pop music this exciting and boundary-pushing.
Here’s my track by track rundown of what you can expect from Madame X, a global trip of an album, out next Friday.
MEDELLIN: From track one, it’s clear Madonna’s new home on the Iberian peninsula has provided the inspiration for the Spanish sound that runs through the album. The chemistry with Colombian rapper Maluma is sizzling. Slow down papi, indeed.
DARK BALLET: One of Madonna’s most experimental and thrilling tracks, this is the album’s mission statement as she sings: “I can dress like a boy, I can dress like a girl. Cos your world’s obsessed with fame, cos your world’s in so much pain, cos your world’s in flames.”
The intro is reminiscent of the title-track of American Life, which makes sense as Madame X is her first major collaboration on a studio album with French producer Mirwais since their divisive 2003 record.
But beyond the intro of the Joan Of Arc-inspired song, things really get creative, as a sparse piano is introduced and the track slowly reveals itself to be an exhilarating multi-genre experience. Imagine Madonna making a 2019 version of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Between edgy beats and random sounds, we’re treated to the kind of heavy breathing, blowing and airy gasps not heard since Erotica, although rather than sounding orgasmic, here we’re entering a desolate, altogether more disturbing territory.
Key lyric: “People tell me to shut your mouth – keep your beautiful lies because I’m not concerned.”
GOD CONTROL: A strong one-two punch of edgy Madonna tracks. Long rumoured, Madonna takes on the issue of gun control in the US with this heady six-minute plus track where powerful lyrics and gun shots run under a swirly electric beat that becomes euphoric. There’s a Vogue-style rap for good measure too.
Key lyric: “People think that I’m insane, insane people think I’m mad.”
FUTURE: Performed at Eurovision with the rapper Quavo, the reggae-infused track is a message of hope following the bleak God Control. It’s a Sunday afternoon in the park vibe, very of the moment.
BATUKA: This features Portuguese instruments and Madonna recorded it with locals.
The powerful chanting chorus became a family affair with her daughters contributing some vocals. And I’m told son David Banda is even credited as one of the writers.
The song feels like the beginning of a revolution. Queen Madonna is rallying her troops, ready for battle. It’s empowering and – helpfully – feels like you can actually dance to it.
KILLERS WHO ARE PARTYING: Here Madonna invokes many minority groups – full list: gay, African, poor, children, Islamic, Israeli, Native American – and a woman, in one of the more controversial moments on the album.
Key lyric: “I’ll be a woman if she’s raped and her heart is breaking.”
CRAVE: Already released, this sweet grower of a song sees Madonna layer her vocals to great effect as she sings of the risk of her cravings, presumably romantic or sexual, “getting dangerous”. The closest we get to a Madonna love song on the album.
CRAZY: My highlight track, this is a soaring, stripped-back pop masterpiece. The chorus is musically joyous but the lyrics are full of the pain of being let down by a lover or family member. It’s the “last time I wake up for you”, she insists. Her Eighties prowess is still in full effect when she wishes to access it.
Key lyric: “If you think I’ve been foolish then I’ll only let you fool me once, so baby shame on you.”
COME ALIVE: Another moment of spectacular pop, smack bang in the middle of the album. The ethereal song has no traditional chorus, but great use of Auto-Tune and a fabulous choir.
EXTREME OCCIDENT: Middle Eastern beats power another experimental moment where Madonna examines her place in the world and decides “life is a circle”. She remains defiant, with the ongoing theme being her unwillingness to bend to the way society tries to mould her: “I don’t want to blend in, why do you want me to?”
This has been an ongoing thread throughout Madonna’s career. When will her detractors get the message?
Key lyric: “I guess I’m lost, I paid a handsome cost.”
FAZ GOSTOSO: Most out and out fun moment on the album – a Latin celebration of how to move your body and party. The street party vibe near the end of the track is total euphoria.
BITCH I’M LOCO: Maluma returns for the naughtiest track on the album, where Madonna sexes it up once more.
The highlight is the two of them speaking with each other flirtatiously towards the end. When he asks her, “Where do you want me to put this?” she replies: “Oh you can put it inside.”
Ooh la la!
I DON’T SEARCH I FIND: Harking back to her Ray Of Light and Confessions era, Madonna pushes her vocals over a stomping club beat.
She appears to pay tribute to her own career with various self-referential moments, including the famous clicks from Vogue and an Erotica-esque spoken-word section.
LOOKING FOR MERCY: My second favourite moment on the album, this is Madonna at her most vulnerable as she appears to open up about her personal life in more detail, singing, “I’m looking for love”.
Key lyric: “Somebody teach me to love, somebody help me to rise above.”
I RISE: The perfect sunset to a very vibrant album. Powerful, haunting and lyrically one of the most consistently strong on Madame X.
After spending the album telling everyone not to criticise her, or tell her what to do, it’s smart to end the record by saying: “I rise up above it all.” So whatever you say has little consequence anyway.
Madonna will still continue to be Madonna.
And judging by Madame X . . . thank God for that.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 7th June 2019, 10:37 PM
So Dans favourite from the album is the Mirrors second least favourite and his second favourite was also among the low points of the album according to the Mirror.
A lot of the reviews are but contradictory like one reviewers highlight is another’s low point and vice versa.
I feel this is gonna be an album where everyone’s thoughts / personal feelings are different.
I kinda think that there might not be a big fan favourite either and everyone’s favourites will be different.
I think the albums gonna be very diverse sounding (not like a Erotica / ROL / Confessions) where you can instantly tell what era it’s from.
So far this album reminds me way more of Music than it does American Life.
I’m really intrigued to hear God Control, Batuka and Killers Who Are Partying.
Posted by: Medellíam 7th June 2019, 10:43 PM
"...including the famous clicks from Vogue and an Erotica-esque spoken-word section"
I'm dying to hear 'I Don't Search I Find'!! I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 10th June 2019, 12:00 AM
A Twitter accounts been leaking parts of the album.
Like 30 seconds roughly of some of the tracks.
Batuka and Bitch I’m Loca we’re some of the ones on there.
Posted by: Common Sense 10th June 2019, 07:54 AM
QUOTE(pippa @ May 30 2019, 03:37 PM)
From what i have heard from the album to date i don't think it will be an album i will be purchasing. The material so far doesn't have the Madonna feel to it. Is anyone else feeling the same?
Yes, doubt I'll buy it. The first one I haven't bought.
Posted by: SKOB 10th June 2019, 09:23 AM
What IS "Madonna feel" then? All her albums have been very different to each other since the 80s
Posted by: Jordan Lee 11th June 2019, 11:59 AM
The whole things out there
Judging by twitter God Control is THAT song it’s getting the best reviews.
I’m refraining from listening but if anyone does hear the ‘leak’ I’d be interested in thoughts.
Posted by: Medellíam 12th June 2019, 11:36 PM
Really like this review from https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review-madonna-madame-x-is-a-fearless-eccentric-musical-memoir/:
QUOTE
Review: Madonna’s Madame X Is a Fearless, Eccentric Musical Memoir The album is the work of an artist reawakened, and one who’s got something to say.
Madonna’s 2005 EDM opus Confessions on a Dance Floor is considered by many to be the 21st-century standard for both every new album the singer releases and contemporary dance-pop at large. Though glorious in its own right, it seemed, at the time, like the work of an artist in damage control. The damage was 2003’s American Life, a personal, politically strident, and humorless album that became Madonna’s first commercial failure in 20 years. It also happens to mark the last time the queen of pop appeared to make music purely on her own terms, without any consideration of the charts or what the public expected of her—a novel idea for an artist in the business of making, well, popular music.
Of course, Madonna has never been your average pop star. Though her music has deep roots in R&B and disco, she is, at heart, a rock auteur, with all of the inclinations toward upending the status quo and expressing a singular vision that designation implies. Her last album, 2015’s Rebel Heart, was designed by committee, while its predecessor, MDNA, was recorded during a period when she seemed more interested in directing movies and extending her brand than making music. So it makes sense that when she decided to forgo songwriting camps and aspirations of a late-career radio hit for her 14th album, Madame X, Madonna turned to French producer Mirwais, her primary collaborator on American Life.
In other words, Madame X sounds like the work of an artist reawakened, and one who’s got something to say. It’s a development reportedly inspired by her time in Lisbon, where she was surrounded by musicians and art in a way she hadn’t been since her pre-fame days in the East Village. The influence of Lisbon’s multicultural history can be heard on tracks like the fado-meets-Motown “Crazy”—co-produced by Mike Dean, the album’s other principal knob-twirler—and the polyrhythmic “Batuka,” featuring Afro-Portuguese group Orquestra de Batukadeiras.
Madame X plays like a musical memoir, sometimes literally: “I came from the Midwest/Then I went to the Far East/I tried to discover my own identity,” Madonna sings on the Eastern-inflected “Extreme Occident,” referencing her rise to fame and spiritual awakening, famously documented on her 1998 album Ray of Light. A multi-part suite that shifts abruptly from electro-pop dirge to classical ballet and back again, “Dark Ballet” is a Kafkaesque treatise on faith and her lifelong crusade against the patriarchal forces of religion, gender, and celebrity—an existential battle echoed in the Jean-Paul Sartre-quoting closing track “I Rise.”
The album’s autobiography is also conveyed sonically: It’s a thrill to hear Madonna singing over a ‘90s house beat on the smoldering “I Don’t Search I Find.” But despite its ballroom strings, finger-snaps, and throaty spoken-word bridge, comparing it to “Vogue” or “Erotica” would be too easy. This isn’t a song so much as a mood. It’s downstairs music, the distant bassline rumbling beneath your feet as you slip into a bathroom stall for a quick bump or f***.
Madonna has a reputation for being a trendsetter, but her true talent lies in bending those trends to her will, twisting them around until they’re barely recognizable, and creating something entirely new. The album’s pièce de résistance, at least in that regard, is the six-minute “God Control,” which begins with Madonna conjuring the spirit and disaffected monotone of Kurt Cobain—“I think I understand why people get a gun/I think I understand why we all give up,” she sings through clenched teeth—before the whole thing implodes into a euphoric, densely layered samba-disco-gospel mash-up. Throughout the song, Madonna’s vocals alternate between Auto-Tuned belting, urgent whispers, and Tom Tom Club-style rapping as she takes on the gaslight industrial complex and so-called political reformers. On paper, it might sound like the ingredients for a musical Hindenburg, but—somewhere around the midpoint, when she declares, “It’s a con, it’s a hustle, it’s a weird kind of energy!”—it all coheres into the most exhilaratingly batshit thing she’s done in years.
If, metaphorically, Madame X represents Madonna’s rediscovery of her voice as an artist, then it also highlights the literal loss of it. Over the years, the soft edges of her voice have grown sharper, and the album’s pervasive vocal effects—most gratuitous on the electro-ragga “Future” and, to a lesser degree, the haunting “Looking for Mercy”—have a distancing effect. The heavy Auto-Tune on Music and American Life was deployed in service of larger conceptual themes like imperfection (“Nobody’s Perfect”) and anonymity (“Nobody Knows Me”), contrasted by the bare performances of more confessional songs like “Easy Ride.” Here, filters are indiscriminately thrown on nearly every song, which only serves to obscure Madonna’s humanity. On “Medéllin,” for example, her admission that “For once, I didn’t have to hide myself” is pointlessly cloaked in Auto-Tune, keeping us at a remove.
When Madonna isn’t singing with what sounds like a mouthful of gumballs on “Crave,” the rawness of her voice amplifies the nakedness of her lyrics: “Ran so far to try to find the thing I lacked/And there it was inside of me.” Likewise, you can hear the grit and grief in her voice when, on “Crazy,” she sings, “I bent my knees for you like a prayer/My God, look at me now.” The track “Killers Who Are Partying” has been flagged by some critics for its lyrics—ostensibly inspired by scripture, the post-World War II poem “First they came…,” or maybe both—but the naïveté of Madonna’s words would be more cringe-inducing if her delivery wasn’t quite so bewitching. Mirwais’s arrangement, too, casts a spell: Old world meets new world as mournful fado guitar and accordion swirl beneath the track’s stuttering beats and warped synths.
Madame X is fearless, the sound of an artist unapologetically indulging all of her whims and quirks. The garish favela funk of “Faz Gostoso” and the playful reggaeton of “Bitch I’m Loca”—featuring Anitta and Maluma, respectively—feel out of place amid the album’s otherwise refined sonic palette. But even when Madonna falters, at least you know you’re getting the real deal and not some version of a pop icon cooked up in a songwriting lab.
Posted by: Medellíam 12th June 2019, 11:41 PM
QUOTE(Jordan Lee @ Jun 11 2019, 12:59 PM)
The whole things out there
Judging by twitter God Control is THAT song it’s getting the best reviews.
I’m refraining from listening but if anyone does hear the ‘leak’ I’d be interested in thoughts.
I think one of the vinyl were released early and people have recorded the album playing from that, so it's really low quality. At least we're only a day away from release so this leak is probably more likely to work in the album's favour rather than damage it like when Rebel Heart leaked months in advance.
Yeah, 'God Control', as well as 'I Don't Search, I Find', are the highlights according to critics. Very much looking forward to hearing them.
I think I read on Popjustice that the disco loop that was uploaded to SoundCloud is from 'God Control':
Song credits for the 'super deluxe' songs:
Funana – Written by Madonna Ciccone and Mirwais Ahmadzai; Produced by Madonna Ciccone and Mirwais Ahmadzai. Back That Up To The Beat – Written by Madonna Ciccone, Brittany Talia Hazzard and Pharrell Williams; Produced by Madonna, Jeff Bhasker, Mike Dean and Pharrell Williams. Ciao Bella – Written by Madonna Ciccone and Mirwais Ahmadzai; Produced by Madonna Ciccone and Mirwais Ahmadzai.
So that confirms 'Back That Up to the Beat' is the Rebel Heart demo.
Posted by: aeroco 13th June 2019, 08:04 AM
As a big Madonna fan I’ve hardly listened to the latest tracks...her spell on me was damaged by HC, recovered partly with MDNA, and broken by Rebel Heart.
However I’ll buy Madame X at some point...hopefully it’s an artistic step back to her 1998-2005 period.
Posted by: Monzo 13th June 2019, 04:44 PM
QUOTE(aeroco @ Jun 13 2019, 10:04 AM)
As a big Madonna fan I’ve hardly listened to the latest tracks... However I’ll buy Madame X at some point...
That's exactly how I feel. The album will be on my wish list for birthday and christmas, I really don't have the need to hold a copy of it in my hands right now.
Posted by: GLOBALFUNQ 👣 13th June 2019, 09:16 PM
Purchased the deluxe box set tonight. This while I'm not a Madonna fan (not a hater either!) and didn't enjoy the (single) releases so far plus her ESC performance was weak imo... Why I ended up buying the deluxe box set of this release?
-I went with a friend to the release party for fun. Turned out I really enjoyed what I heard! Much more experimental and not trying to be perfect. To sum it up in a few words..I actually like that this release has some GOOD moments and some bad. -GOD CONTROL and the african vibes in some songs. -The cassette and vinyl in the box -The discount, goodie bag and poster. Sucker for those things.
4/5 (5/5 is possible in the future)
Curious to read what you guys will think of this release!
Posted by: Medellíam 13th June 2019, 11:04 PM
Finally out in the UK! Listening now!
Smashing it on iTunes:
iTunes (22x #1): #1 Australia #1 Bulgaria #1 Egypt #1 Estonia #1 Finland #1 Greece #1 Indonesia #1 Israel #1 Kazakhstan #1 Lithuania #1 Malaysia #1 Netherlands #1 Philippines #1 Qatar #1 Russia #1 Singapore #1 Spain #1 Taiwan #1 Thailand #1 Turkey #1 Ukraine #1 Uzbekistan #2 Bulgaria #2 Estonia #2 Greece #2 India #2 New Zealand #2 Philippines #2 South Africa #2 Ukraine #3 Italy #3 Japan #3 Kazakhstan #3 Singapore #3 Spain #3 United Arab Emirates #4 France #4 India #4 Papua New Guinea #5 Turkey #5 Vietnam #6 Australia #6 New Zealand #6 South Africa #6 Taiwan #6 Vietnam #9 Azerbaijan #10 Russia #13 Cambodia #17 Indonesia #23 Netherlands #24 Brunei Darussalam #26 Belgium #31 Japan #31 Thailand #35 Lebanon #72 Latvia #74 Saudi Arabia #163 Saudi Arabia #178 Romania
Posted by: Medellíam 13th June 2019, 11:11 PM
When the disco kicks in on 'God Control! *.*
The bit where she sings "everybody knows the damn truth" over that frantic disco sound reminds me "I don't want nobody else..." in 'Impressive Instant'.
Posted by: slowdown73 13th June 2019, 11:15 PM
I wasn’t impressed with any of the singles. I’ve heard the album now and overall it’s very underwhelming. Her voice is so processed. The songs sound like they could be sang by anyone and I don’t feel they represent Madonna at all. I didn’t like MDNA, Rebel Heart was mixed and this is just not great. Best tracks are looking for mercy, extreme occident and I don’t search.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 13th June 2019, 11:21 PM
Holy F*CK!!!
GOD CONTROL has blew me away!!!
I’ve had to re listen to it.
Regardless of the rest of the album that’s her best song period since Confessions era for me.
Listening to rest of the album now if I can stop listening to that song :lol
I’ll post a review at some point in the evening of my thoughts as a whole.
Posted by: Medellíam 14th June 2019, 12:01 AM
Now #1 in 32 countries, including the UK!
'I Don't Search, I Find' is fab too. Serve me those Confessions vocals! *.*
Posted by: SKOB 14th June 2019, 05:35 AM
This album is so gorgeous, words can't describe! Amazing to the max!!!!! Shaking and crying!
Posted by: .MIKE. 14th June 2019, 05:40 AM
‘God Control’ is pretty sensational really.. best thing she’s done in years
Posted by: HausofTove 14th June 2019, 06:43 AM
Listening!
Posted by: blacksquare 14th June 2019, 06:51 AM
God Control is the most impressed I have been with her in over a decade. When the choir hit and then led into the disco section. Shook. The rap. Adore.
Now to listen to the rest...
Posted by: HausofTove 14th June 2019, 06:56 AM
God Control omg
WIG FLEW
Posted by: HausofTove 14th June 2019, 07:05 AM
Killers Who Are Partying is one of her most emotionally charged statements to date! Very, stop you in your tracks, powerful.
Posted by: SKOB 14th June 2019, 08:19 AM
QUOTE(HausofTove @ Jun 14 2019, 07:56 AM)
God Control omg
WIG FLEW
Totally
Posted by: blacksquare 14th June 2019, 08:26 AM
'I Don't Search I Find'
What kind of Erotica/Confessions heaven is this?!
Posted by: blacksquare 14th June 2019, 08:28 AM
I truly can't believe post-MDNA Madonna made a song like God Control
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 14th June 2019, 11:52 AM
Oh WOW. 'God Control'.
Posted by: Medellíam 14th June 2019, 12:00 PM
I really can't get enough of 'God Control'! 'Crazy', 'Come Alive' and 'Looking for Mercy' are shining through as big highlights too.
Australian interview:
Interview with The Guardian, where she talks about the album, #MeToo and her infamous "to rule the world" comment: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/14/madonna-i-wanted-to-be-somebody-because-i-felt-like-a-nobody
Interview with Jo Wiley on BBC Radio 2: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005v84#play
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 14th June 2019, 12:24 PM
'God Control' would have been so perfect for the Eurovision performance. Why didn't they do that?
They really did leave the best, most exciting and interesting stuff tucked away on this album. I wish they'd have been a bit more brave/bold with the choice of tracks they chose to showcase this album beforehand.
Posted by: Medellíam 14th June 2019, 12:30 PM
QUOTE(Tawdry Hepburn @ Jun 14 2019, 01:24 PM)
'God Control' would have been so perfect for the Eurovision performance. Why didn't they do that?
They really did leave the best, most exciting and interesting stuff tucked away on this album. I wish they'd have been a bit more brave/bold with the choice of tracks they chose to showcase this album beforehand.
Yes! 'God Control' would have been perfect - brilliantly bizarre and disco suits Eurovision to a tee and it's got the political edge that Madonna wanted to push.
I get the need to push the more radio/commercially-friendly songs as they'll have boosted her streaming better (it might not be great by other artists' standards but it is for Madonna and, after streaming cost her a #1 album in the US last time, I can see why they'd want to address this).
Posted by: Jordan Lee 14th June 2019, 12:59 PM
I think this is her best album since Confessions I really do
Going off what’s new to me and not mentioning singles.
God Control I instantly loved. And I agree that should’ve been the Eurovision performance
Batuka is lovely I love the street feel to it and feel it’s quite lion king esque.
Killers Who Are Partying is genius but so opposite to what I imagined. I quite like that the title isn’t actually in the song but I was expecting it to be a big in your face anthem it’s much more stripped back but I think that works in its favour. Just going off song titles I thought God Control was going to be the sombre laid back track and Killers the disco rap like one but they’re the other way around.
Come Alive I love as well I’d say Come Alive and Crazy are the most radio like tracks.
Extreme Occident was another highlight. And Looking For Mercy is a great ballad.
The only meh part of the album for me was the second Maluma collab and the Anita track they’re what stuck with me the least.
Another small point I’d say is that Medellin opening the album feels strange I think it would’ve been better placed in the later half of the album like maybe after Bitch I’m Loca? I dunno like Tracks 2-6 flow so well together and almost sort of tell a story I think Dark Ballet would’ve been a better opening track as I think that’s more telling the story of the album but aside from that it’s a great album.
Posted by: Medellíam 14th June 2019, 01:21 PM
QUOTE(Jordan Lee @ Jun 14 2019, 01:59 PM)
Another small point I’d say is that Medellin opening the album feels strange I think it would’ve been better placed in the later half of the album like maybe after Bitch I’m Loca? I dunno like Tracks 2-6 flow so well together and almost sort of tell a story I think Dark Ballet would’ve been a better opening track as I think that’s more telling the story of the album but aside from that it’s a great album.
I know what you mean. I don't mind it so much because I see 'Medellin' as an introduction to Madonna's new lifestyle; the first verse in particular, it just feels like the birth of the album, so it seems right that it starts the album. The "I took a pill and had a dream" lyrics makes me think that we too are been transported to a new world and we go on the journey with her.
'Killers Who Are Partying' wasn't what I was expecting either but I too really like it. It seems to be under fire due to its lyrics but they don't really bother me; she's essentially saying she stands with those who are oppressed or under attack or judged.
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 02:14 PM
Oh how I wish the robotic nutcracker section of Dark Ballet didn’t exist :/
Posted by: vibe 14th June 2019, 02:17 PM
With all the amazing tracks why future at Eurovision?
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 02:19 PM
God Control!!! *.*
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 02:26 PM
Oooooooo I’m liking Batuka also!
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 03:11 PM
Just finished... going to wait a few more listens before posting full thoughts but I’m pleasantly surprised that I actually want to listen a couple more times so soon!
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 04:46 PM
I am totally here for Ciao Bella! Definitely should have made the standard album.
I quite like Funana too
Posted by: blacksquare 14th June 2019, 05:05 PM
I know I have said this already but God Control is so incredible. I can’t believe she did it. What a Eurovision performance that could have been.
Still need to gather my thoughts on the entire record but I’m mostly impressed — even Future sounds better in the context of the album.
Posted by: HausofTove 14th June 2019, 05:22 PM
The production on I Don't Search I Find
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 05:32 PM
I'm tempted to say that this is her best album for quite some time but I don't know if I'm just over stanning at this point. I'm particularly impressed by Medellín, God Control, Batuka, Crave, Come Alive, Extreme Occident, Faz Gostoso, I Don't Search I Find, Looking For Mercy and Ciao Bella. There's nothing without any merit at all though, Future and I Rise are both better as part of the album and I think even the nutcracker bit in Dark Ballet may grow on me over time too, I totally agree with Jordan Lee above though that it would have made a great statement as an opening track. Funana is kinda lovely in the way it name checks some great deceased icons too. That just leaves Killers Who Are Partying and Crazy... the former is musically sound but I do find the lyrics too cringe and clumsy, there are definitely better ways of expressing the general sentiment - I do enjoy it when it gets going though so it's not skippable. Crazy is just too safe within the context of this album but it's not bad as such.
I'd like to have seen her finally properly release Queen on this album too, I think it would have fitted really well and would have made a better closing track than I Rise.
Posted by: HausofTove 14th June 2019, 05:34 PM
Full thoughts to come in time, but on first full listen it's a hectic, manic, deranged, crazed listen... and I am SO here for the ride!
It also beggers further belief on how on earth Future was chosen as a pre-album track to be released It's easily the weakest on the album and one of the worst songs she's put her name to imo :')
Posted by: Jade 14th June 2019, 05:36 PM
Gave a listen to a few of the songs that you guys were listing as highlights and the production on 'I Don't Search I Find' really is marvellous, very reminiscent of her work with William Orbit 'God Control' is also a standout! Didn't care at all for the other songs I'd heard from this era until today but my opinion of it may be swayed now ~
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 05:38 PM
Total loon mode here but I'm currently feeling really quite proud of her for doing this. It's like nothing else she's attempted before (maybe parts of American Life are the closest I guess?) and it totally works as a collection for me. There aren't many acts who could release something this different so far into their careers and I totally love that she hasn't played it safe at all.
Posted by: HausofTove 14th June 2019, 05:40 PM
QUOTE(dandy* @ Jun 14 2019, 06:38 PM)
Total loon mode here but I'm currently feeling really quite proud of her for doing this. It's like nothing else she's attempted before (maybe parts of American Life I guess?) and it totally works as a collection for me. There aren't many acts who could release something this different so far into their careers and I totally love that she hasn't played it safe at all.
Totally! In full agreement.
I'd say it's a blend of Music (musically) and American Life (lyrically/subject matter).
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 05:58 PM
The choir in Come Alive!!!
Posted by: SKOB 14th June 2019, 06:34 PM
God Control is SOMETHING ELSE
It's the best song in YEARS
"It’s a weird kind of energy, a bizarre thing that happens to be An abnormal fraternity, and I feel more than sympathy"
Posted by: Atonement 14th June 2019, 07:18 PM
I didn't enjoy this at all. Not a single song I would put on replay.
Posted by: Qween 14th June 2019, 07:25 PM
God Control >>> life
Posted by: Qween 14th June 2019, 07:27 PM
I’m enthused and excited and proud and giddy and amazed and so much more and it feels amazing. I haven’t felt this way about her in years, even the songs I don’t like are interesting, exciting not unmitigated turds like the last few albums. Some of the vocal processing makes her sound like a newly sentient AI, it doesn’t always work, but overall, despite being very disparate when listening individually it sounds like a body of work for the time since 2005.
Posted by: Voodoo 14th June 2019, 07:32 PM
QUOTE(Atonement @ Jun 14 2019, 10:18 PM)
I didn't enjoy this at all. Not a single song I would put on replay.
Same here. None of the new tracks managed to grab my attention. She sounds robotic, lifeless & uninspired more than ever.
My favorite track remains I Rise.
Posted by: dandy* 14th June 2019, 08:17 PM
QUOTE(Qween @ Jun 14 2019, 08:27 PM)
I’m enthused and excited and proud and giddy and amazed and so much more and it feels amazing. I haven’t felt this way about her in years, even the songs I don’t like are interesting, exciting not unmitigated turds like the last few albums. Some of the vocal processing makes her sound like a newly sentient AI, it doesn’t always work, but overall, despite being very disparate when listening individually it sounds like a body of work for the time since 2005.
YES QWEEN! *.*
It just all feels like she actually gave a shit this time around and I am full of admiration for this album.
QUOTE(Atonement @ Jun 14 2019, 08:18 PM)
I didn't enjoy this at all. Not a single song I would put on replay.
QUOTE(Voodoo @ Jun 14 2019, 08:32 PM)
Same here. None of the new tracks managed to grab my attention. She sounds robotic, lifeless & uninspired more than ever.
My favorite track remains I Rise.
Oh no!
Not even Come Alive or Faz Gostoso?
I'm not familiar with your tastes Voodoo so wouldn't know what to expect - but Atonement I'd have sort of expected you to like it I think based upon some of your other musical preferences so I'm kinda surprised!
Posted by: Qween 14th June 2019, 08:40 PM
We’ve need to wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up *.*.*.*
Posted by: Jordan Lee 15th June 2019, 12:38 AM
Opinions on the three super deluxe.
Funana would’ve fitted perfectly on here! It would’ve been a perfect track after Come Alive in my opinion. It’s better than some of the tracks on the Standard and Regular versions for me. Perfectly fits the vein of the album and would’ve slotted in beautifully. Unlikely it’ll be used on the tour or ever be performed live but I’m a fan.
Back That Up To The Beat is also pretty good. But I can see why it wasn’t on the main versions of the album. It’s nice enough but I wouldn’t rush back especially just to listen to that.
Ciao Bella - Another lush like moment. Tranquil like and I instantly liked this.
Funana and Ciao Bella should’ve replaced Extreme Occident and Bitch I’m Loca. Sonically they’d fit perfectly in that segment of the album.
This album is so strong though. It’s like a more Latin infused Music album. I don’t hear much American Life in sound but lyrically some tracks esp Killers would’ve fitted into that album with a very different production.
This feels like Madonna again. Since Confessions its like she hasn’t been leading if that makes sense and a lot of her collaborations felt more for chart success than it did her being fans of those artists but in this album they actually work. I’m trying to get so many of my friends to give this a chance and not just refuse to listen because it’s Madonna. Regardless of chart position / sales I’m so happy she’s created another strong album.
It’s leagues ahead of her last three albums in my personal opinion. It feels much more connected to her and there’s songs on this album what I could only imagine Madonna singing it’s like she’s leading again in a way. No other female would be daring enough to release this.
150-400k on Spotify globally for album tracks. Pretty ok!
Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2019, 02:30 PM
God Control better be the highest album track!
Posted by: SKOB 15th June 2019, 02:32 PM
It is actually
Medellin was probably the most streamed though
Posted by: Medellíam 15th June 2019, 02:35 PM
God Control is highest of the new tracks? That's fab! I know it's the first new track but it's 6 minutes long and a couple of other tracks had more advantage, whether they be a collab or have Spotify playlist exposure (Crazy).
Posted by: Wall 15th June 2019, 02:36 PM
The Anitta song is with 888 followed by Crazy.
Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2019, 02:37 PM
!
I Don't Search I Find to smash as well please..
Posted by: SKOB 15th June 2019, 02:42 PM
Oh missed Faz Gostoso, that's amazing number!!! (It's 898k btw but anyway)
#161 globally! Huge success for her!
Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2019, 02:43 PM
Anitta stans out in force!
Posted by: slowdown73 15th June 2019, 03:55 PM
Are there any album midweeks yet? Interested to see how this performs.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 15th June 2019, 05:02 PM
I’ve not seen any yet.
I know Mondays usually when we do get them but I was also looking across twitter and other sites with there being a few releases yesterday.
I’m part of a group on Facebook what’s like a fan site to Madonna and there’s so many people who’ve bought multiple versions and a fair few of those were from the UK.
Streaming wise I think she’ll easily beat Bruce but sales wise he may have the advantage. I haven’t seen much promo for him the way I have Madonna though.
I accepted it wasn’t going to go to #1 but I hope it’s #2.
I’m thinking it’ll go
1. Bruce 2. Madonna 3/4 Lewis
But Lewis may well overtake them all next week.
Posted by: JosephAvery 15th June 2019, 06:08 PM
Definitely her best and most consistent effort since Confessions. It felt like what a Madonna album in 2019 SHOULD be. It was engaging, surprising and while not perfect, it actually felt sincere. Plenty of tracks to take from it - God Control, Dark Ballet, Killers Who Are Partying and my personal favourite Faz Gostoso, plus the closing trio!!
Posted by: vibe 15th June 2019, 06:19 PM
Bruce has overtaken on iTunes
Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2019, 06:34 PM
And I oop!
Posted by: SKOB 15th June 2019, 07:10 PM
What a queen!
Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2019, 07:27 PM
That would be amazing! Fingers crossed...
Posted by: vibe 15th June 2019, 07:58 PM
Rebel heart did 121,000
Fingers x
Posted by: Jαsє 15th June 2019, 09:27 PM
Madame X on iTunes -
83. Medellín 223. God Control 298. Future 317. I Don't Search I Find 464. Dark Ballet 472. Bitch I'm Loca (feat. Maluma) 636. Crave 645. Faz Gostoso (feat. Anitta) 705. I Rise 715. Looking for Mercy 718. Come Alive 1132. Killers Who Are Partying 1319. Crazy
Posted by: Medellíam 15th June 2019, 09:53 PM
Oh good that she's heading for #1 in the US since its unlikely she will here in the UK.
Posted by: HausofTove 16th June 2019, 12:55 PM
Can't stop playing the album.
Posted by: HausofTove 16th June 2019, 01:01 PM
Forbes
Madonna is in the spotlight again with her 14th album Madame X, released today. In a climatic build, this best-selling female artist pre-released five songs, one per week, giving listeners a taste of her global collection. In Madame X, Madonna offers a blueprint for multigenerational, multicultural artistry that keeps her music and visual expression fresh and relevant.
Reviews of Madame X include bizarre, daring, political, bold. While some critics praise her album as the 2019 version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," another suggests it sounds like an aimless documentary. Still, even the naysayers agree that Madame X could become Madonna’s best selling album yet. German reporter Michale Pilz writes in Welt that not only is Madame X undoubtedly the most bizarre representation of her life’s work; it also may become her greatest.
Since the release of Madonna's her first self-titled album in 1983, there is no argument that she has shaped pop music of today with her push-the-envelope edginess both lyrically and visually. With 12 number one and 38 top ten hits, Madonna is also the highest-grossing female concert tour artist earning $408 million for her Sweet & Sticky tour that began in August 2008 to promote her eleventh studio album, Hard Candy. Years of experience in the industry, combined with the endless cultivation of her passion for music and dance, gives Madonna iconic status and collaborative authority that few other musicians have earned.
Madonna’s proactive collaboration with artists and producers from around the world, including young, fresh talent, gives Madame X significant relevance. It represents a multicultural, multigenerational strategy reaching across genre and audiences to stimulate global appeal. Pilz captured it best with, “Her one-world music of reggae, samba, hip-hop, fado, classical, Eurodance, Latin and Afropop sounds like her newly adopted rainbow family.”
Madame X is, at its core, a model strategy for diversity and inclusion with Madonna the executive sponsor driving it to fruition. Four of the five pre-released songs were collaborations with younger artists. "Medellín" features Columbian Maluma, recently crowned most-followed Latin male artist on social media thanks, in part, to Madonna showcasing his sensuality in her early release and their "Medellín" performance at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.
I’m really enjoying the album . It’s quite intense to listen too from beginning to end.
Faz gostoso and I don’t search are my early faves.
Looking for mercy and extreme occident growing on me quickly .
Bitch I’m loca got flack in reviews but I love it .
Posted by: vibe 16th June 2019, 08:00 PM
What are we thinking of extreme occident? It’s creeping up to be one of my faves .
Medellin has been creeping up the lower ends of top 100 on iTunes . Maybe because of the advert.
Posted by: HausofTove 16th June 2019, 08:02 PM
Extreme Occident hasn't hit me yet - i'll give it more time but at the moment it ranks fairly low for me
Posted by: GLOBALFUNQ 👣 16th June 2019, 08:13 PM
I really, really like the album because I still discover new things and I love the diversity/layers on it. EC is fab and got better the more I played it (like some other tracks)!
Never thought I would enjoy MX as I do (already) now
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 01:54 AM
Fascinating interview here! They are so at ease with each other which makes it such an endearing watch.
Posted by: dandy* 17th June 2019, 08:21 AM
My copy was delivered on Friday and left with a neighbour who I’ve never actually seen. I’ve been round about 10 times over the weekend and no answer - so annoying!!!
Posted by: vibe 17th June 2019, 10:52 AM
Not long until the midweeks
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 17th June 2019, 11:14 AM
'Looking For Mercy' is pretty gorgeous. She's again left an excellent ballad on the Deluxe edition!
Posted by: dandy* 17th June 2019, 11:17 AM
I’m listening to that right now, I think it’s lovely and definitely should be on the standard album
Posted by: vibe 17th June 2019, 02:40 PM
Gods control
I really wish the ‘its a weird kind of energy’ was repeated . That part is orgasmic .
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 04:33 PM
#2 in the UK update, 16k behind Bruce. Bastille are #3, Lewis is #4 and Joy Divison are #5.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 17th June 2019, 04:36 PM
Really high sales for Bruce there.
16,000! It’ll probably be around 20K ahead by end of the week then.
Hoping she keeps #2.
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 04:42 PM
The wording of the OCC article seems to be causing a bit of confusion:
Bruce's Western Stars - his 19th studio album - currently leads the way over Madonna's 14th collection Madame X by just shy of 16,000 combined sales on the latest Official Chart Update.
Is that 16k lead or he's leading the way on 16k? I assumed 16k lead because of how well Bruce was doing on pre-orders + Father's Day but maybe not? We'll see when Music Week updates at 6pm.
Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2019, 04:44 PM
How far ahead of Bastille? Hmm..
Posted by: slowdown73 17th June 2019, 05:00 PM
I think Madge might up end at no3 by end of the week. Be interesting to see what it’s sold though.
Posted by: vibe 17th June 2019, 05:04 PM
I can’t believe it’s already 16000 behind !!!
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 05:12 PM
No update from Music Week yet.
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 05:22 PM
Music Week:
QUOTE
Bruce Springsteen’s new LP Western Stars leads the albums race with 36,511 units sold. Madonna’s Madame X (20,621 sales) and Bastille’s Doom Days (11,743 sales) begin the week in second and third respectively. Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (10,480 sales) is at No.4 while Joy Division’s reissued Unknown Pleasures rounds out the Top 5 with 6,773 sales.
Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2019, 05:30 PM
Wait, over 20k already!!! That's amazing, right?
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 05:35 PM
Really pleased with those sales! Hopefully it can hit 30k.
For comparison, Rebel Heart was on 27,479 after 3 days of sales.
Posted by: ChristopherP 17th June 2019, 05:47 PM
QUOTE(Medellíam @ Jun 17 2019, 07:35 PM)
Really pleased with those sales! Hopefully it can hit 30k.
I thnk it'll be around 27k by the end of the week.
Kylie was at 33,7k at this stage this year and ended the whole week with just over 48k, meaning that Fri-Sun sales represent roughly 70% of the total sales and Mon-Thu accounting for the remaining 30%. The spread should be similar in Madonna's case or perhaps slightly more front-loaded.
Posted by: vibe 17th June 2019, 05:52 PM
She will be extremely front loaded .
Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2019, 05:56 PM
I'm happy with those sales. And I assume #2 is pretty much confirmed?
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 06:01 PM
QUOTE(HausofTove @ Jun 17 2019, 06:56 PM)
I'm happy with those sales. And I assume #2 is pretty much confirmed?
I hope so but she's not quite got it on lock - Lewis is only down 300 copies down week-on-week and he sold 27,590 last week. Depends on how well Madonna's sales hold up this week.
Posted by: SKOB 17th June 2019, 06:03 PM
I think #3... But ahead of Bastille who are coming from two #1's it's very decent!
Posted by: slowdown73 17th June 2019, 06:05 PM
I think she’ll stay no2 as sold nearly double Bastille.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 17th June 2019, 06:40 PM
She's done really well, I think! I was expecting about 23-24k for the first week in total and she's almost achieved that already. Should be safe for a #2 debut as well.
Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2019, 06:41 PM
Yeah I predicted below 25k!
Posted by: SKOB 17th June 2019, 06:45 PM
Surprised by how well Bruce is doing as he's doing almost the same in the UK than in the US! UK really loves him.
Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2019, 06:55 PM
Could Father's Day have helped a fair bit this past weekend? Not downplaying his success but a possible reason for extra sales!
Posted by: Medellíam 17th June 2019, 11:00 PM
Slay!
Posted by: HausofTove 18th June 2019, 06:47 AM
^ all good things I presume?
Posted by: Medellíam 18th June 2019, 06:56 AM
It has a 9.2 score out of 1082 user reviews! It's in fact the #1 most discussed album with Ariana second - you can see the full list here:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-madame-x/ Spoiler: They're not a fan. Some excerpts:
QUOTE
Madonna and company have produced the shit out of virtually every notion here.
On “God Control,” Madonna’s mumble-rap intro begets a creepy children’s chorus, which begets ersatz disco whose strings are in perpetual flights of fancy, which begets Madonna affecting a cheesy I’m Breathless-era accent to rap about not smoking dope using the meter of De La Soul’s “Me, Myself & I.” Oh, and the song’s theme is roughly: “something…something…gun control.” This is supposed to be fun, but it’s exhausting. It is horrendous.
Many of Madame X’s songs trip all over themselves to change course and offer something new every few seconds for the attention-span deficient. Consequently, they often fall flat as an adolescent’s self-conscious contrivances of weirdness.
“I will be poor, if the poor are humiliated,” she sings. But no, she won’t. The poor are humiliated, and she will be wealthy for the rest of her life. The only functional implication here is to remind us of Madonna’s benevolence.
Madonna’s always gonna Madonna. She’s always going to put her twist on culture to which she has no legitimate claim.
Sharks bite, Madonna appropriates. Her pop exists to exploit and sand off edges, packaging esotericism for the masses. It’s just that on Madame X, she is not merely dining out on other cultures; she’s whipping around drive-thrus.
“Crave,” a mid-tempo trap ballad with Swae Lee that sounds like a naked attempt to score Madonna her own “We Belong Together.” The singing is flat as a denial, and the lyrics are all tell, no show: “My cravings get dangerous,” Madonna warns without even the smallest sense of danger in the vicinity besides falling asleep at the wheel. What is she even talking about?
But as her career stretches on and she finds herself in the position of niche artist, her large-scale projects have the one-way intimacy of a rich friend who drags you with her to a boutique and makes you watch her try on clothes that will sit in the back of her closet for the few months before they’re donated. Life is short; aren’t we all getting a little too old for this?
I'm not usually someone to criticise the opinion of a critic — music is subjective and I am under no illusion that Madame X is a perfect album. However, the reviewer has written numerous amounts of critical Madonna articles for years now... He was even banned from Popjustice and some Madonna forums. Strange.
He has been on my radar ever since he criticised Björk for not considering her ex-husband's point of view of their marriage on Vulnicura.
Posted by: SKOB 18th June 2019, 11:50 AM
All tracks have 400k+ listens on Spotify after 4 days! That's pretty good for album tracks! Of course Faz Gostoso and Medellín have collected the best amount of plays.
Posted by: Medellíam 18th June 2019, 02:20 PM
QUOTE
It is horrendous.
But enough about the review.
Posted by: Medellíam 18th June 2019, 02:23 PM
Just listened to the Jo Whiley interview. Madonna talks quite deeply about discovering the music and culture of Portugal, particularly how 'Batuka' came about.
Also I can't believe that Madonna dances with her children to 'I'm a Gummy Bear'!
Posted by: HausofTove 18th June 2019, 07:30 PM
No update for today?
Posted by: Anth 18th June 2019, 07:32 PM
this really is a great album, really outdone herself again 👍
Posted by: blacksquare 19th June 2019, 08:13 AM
QUOTE(blacksquare @ Jun 18 2019, 08:51 AM)
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-madame-x/ Spoiler: They're not a fan. I'm not usually someone to criticise the opinion of a critic — music is subjective and I am under no illusion that Madame X is a perfect album. However, the reviewer has written numerous amounts of critical Madonna articles for years now... He was even banned from Popjustice and some Madonna forums. Strange.
He has been on my radar ever since he criticised Björk for not considering her ex-husband's point of view of their marriage on Vulnicura.
Here is his https://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2005/11/the_queen_is_hy.html for Confessions, if anyone is in the mood for a giggle:
QUOTE
I like dick, but I don't like Madonna and that makes me feel sovery very very very very very very very alone.
FOD might as well be changed to FOM for all the gay love Madonna receives for just showing up (which is all she does on the beyond-dull Confessions on a Dance Floor, a record so wooden it might as well contain the confessions of a dance floor, but more on that in a sec). What bothers me is not the acceptance, but the seeming blindness of many of the above-linked reviews and reports that comes with the acceptance: they lavish praise without bothering to explain why (the worst culprit is the yeah-yeah-yeah-whatever-of-course-of-course 'tude of the Queerty link -- so much for "useful information" and not feeding into stereotypes). To a large chunk of mostly white, mostly well-off, mostly youngish, mostly tech-savvy gay men, Madonna is great, duh, except for when she's absolutely unbearable (and many a homo still will defend American Life, a record so confused and ultimately stupid that it couldn't even manage to be lucidly hypocritical). The gay default musical taste is Madonna. She is the fail-safe choice, the aural equivalent of shopping at the Gap.
While there, keep in mind that on Wednesdays, we wear pink.
As someone who loves pop music, I can't exclude myself from those who have appreciated Madonna's output. Before 1996's Evita, in fact, I was a huge fan, but then, I was also a teenager. What eventually repelled me was her noxious mixture of triteness and arrogance, two things I wasn't equipped to take issue with or even be aware of at such a young age. When both came to a point most clearly ("I wanted to put a face on it," she said of Ray of Light's take on electronic music, as though people like Donna Summer, Bernard Sumner and Björk never existed or made videos or were somewhat iconic themselves), I'd had enough. What was liking her worth, anyway? She can't really sing (though it's reasonable that you could like her voice the way you like your culinarily untrained mother's cooking). She can't write. She's savvy and sometimes quick-witted, but rarely does she exhibit the kind of intellect she'd love for us to believe that she possesses. I don't care about dancing or mysticism or flashes of contrived modesty. Yes, she supports the gay community, and has forever, but must that come with the cost of punishment through having to endure babble? Despite her practical reservation on at least one rung of the gay gene's helix, Madonna has very little to offer me (in fact, her music that I still enjoy -- mostly that of her debut album, before she created her know-it-all/know-nothing persona -- I enjoy despiteher).
The feminist in me applauds Madonna and recognizes her boldness as a pioneer in the mainstream discourse of women's sexuality; the fag in me turns up my nose at the bait she's dangling in front of me (oooh, dance music!). Not that the package is so attractive, anyway -- Confessions on a Dance Floor thumps and thumps but fails to blow the roof off this sucker with its maudlin, clanking and mushy production and default mode of tunelessness (Stuart Price, whose participation had me interested in this album in the first place, bows under the weight of Madonna's whip, no doubt). The notion that Madonna should do anything but turn out mindless dance music is absurd -- I mean, really, these are her confessions? In her lyrics, my friend Sal Cinquemani hears "cliches [turned]into pop slogans," but what I hear is someone who has virtually nothing to say, whose dry, somnambulist delivery (once the charisma-filled redemption to her technical shortcomings) bespeaks motions that are just being gone through because it's been two and a half years and it's time to make a new record. I hear a supposedly intelligent woman who, without a trace of irony, will pepper her lyrics with: "Love at first sight"; "You're not half the man you think you are"; "Save you words because you've gone too far"; "At the point of no return"; "Hearts that intertwine"; "I'm going down my own road"; "The only thing you can depend on is your family." I hear someone butchering the English language just so we can hear her voice.
That isn't generosity, you know.
His Hard Candy review is equally silly — which trashes everything she has made since Bedtime Stories (as well as stating only her debut is worth one's salt). Again, music and reviewing music is completely subjective but when someone has had a clear agenda against an artist for over a decade? It's terrible music journalism.
Posted by: vibe 19th June 2019, 12:52 PM
Who even reads pitchfork? never heard of that trash.
Posted by: Medellíam 19th June 2019, 02:50 PM
Wednesday Update: Top 5 Albums 1 Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars (44,139) * 2 Madonna - Madame X (24,038) * 3 Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish (16,734) 4 Bastille - Doom Days (13,782) * 5 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (7,383) *
Taken from UKMIX (who got it from Madonna Tribe).
Madonna's sales breakdown:
Physical: 18,640 Download: 4,196 Streaming: 1,202
If everything sells at the same rate, this Friday should see Bruce on 51.8k, Madonna on 27.5k and Lewis on 23k.
Posted by: Medellíam 19th June 2019, 03:02 PM
QUOTE(blacksquare @ Jun 19 2019, 09:13 AM)
Here is his https://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2005/11/the_queen_is_hy.html for Confessions, if anyone is in the mood for a giggle: His Hard Candy review is equally silly — which trashes everything she has made since Bedtime Stories (as well as stating only her debut is worth one's salt). Again, music and reviewing music is completely subjective but when someone has had a clear agenda against an artist for over a decade? It's terrible music journalism.
God that was a chore to get to the end. The irony of him complaining about fans praising her work without explaining why. There's clearly some sort of agenda but I just don't understand the point. How can one's life be so empty and dull? A bit of a disgrace that Pitchfork can claim to be "the most trusted voice in music" and allow reviews like that.
Posted by: vibe 19th June 2019, 04:00 PM
She will hang on to number 2 . Where will she be week 2 ?
Posted by: slowdown73 19th June 2019, 06:05 PM
I expect a big drop next week. Will be surprised if the album sells much more than 60k in total.
Posted by: Medellíam 19th June 2019, 06:10 PM
Madame X will be Radio 2's Album of the Week as of this Saturday (22nd), meaning songs from the album will be played throughout the week.
Posted by: SKOB 19th June 2019, 06:18 PM
YEESSSS!
If it sells 27k, the normal 80% drops takes it to 5.5k in week 2 so that's somewhere around #10 I think.
Posted by: Medellíam 19th June 2019, 06:23 PM
QUOTE(SKOB @ Jun 19 2019, 07:18 PM)
YEESSSS!
If it sells 27k, the normal 80% drops takes it to 5.5k in week 2 so that's somewhere around #10 I think.
MDNA and Rebel Heart dropped 69% and 67% respectively in their second weeks, although I wouldn't be surprised if Madame X dropped as much as 80% either. I hope it can manage another week in the Top 10 at least, but there's a few new albums that could do well next week.
Posted by: pippa 19th June 2019, 07:03 PM
From the previous update:
Bruce Springsteen has sold 7,728 Madonna 3,417 Lewis Capaldi 6,254
With sales of 7,304 now between Madonna and Lewis Capaldi i am starting to think Madonna will hold her Number 2 position but, with a close race
Posted by: HausofTove 19th June 2019, 07:08 PM
It will be close! I wonder if she can scrape 30k sales
Posted by: Medellíam 19th June 2019, 07:10 PM
I'm not holding out on it passing 30k, although I have heard that some fans haven't yet received their copies of the album (bought from her site, I believe) so maybe there's sales to be added before the week ends?
Posted by: dandy* 20th June 2019, 09:54 AM
QUOTE(Medellíam @ Jun 19 2019, 08:10 PM)
I'm not holding out on it passing 30k, although I have heard that some fans haven't yet received their copies of the album (bought from her site, I believe) so maybe there's sales to be added before the week ends?
Mine only arrived yesterday after all - I'd expect it to have been counted from the off though.
Posted by: vibe 20th June 2019, 04:21 PM
I have just received my deluxe cd so now have the 3 bonus tracks . However I didn’t expect them to be on the cd I thought they were on the hmv exclusive!!
Anyways happy days !!
Can someone post what features on the following ?
Standard Deluxe Super deluxe
Also what three tracks are on the hmv exclusive ?
Posted by: Monzo 20th June 2019, 05:35 PM
It looks like in Germany Madonna is going top 5, but only her debut album peaked lower.
Posted by: Medellíam 20th June 2019, 05:48 PM
Terrible UK sales yesterday, only 800 copies sold. She ain't gonna be #2.
Posted by: blacksquare 20th June 2019, 06:01 PM
I’m glad she’s even managed to sell over 20k with an album like this in 2019.
Posted by: HausofTove 20th June 2019, 06:05 PM
Oh gosh at the sales yesterday! We looking for a #3 debut then or is top 2 still manageable?
Posted by: Medellíam 20th June 2019, 06:12 PM
1 Bruce Springsteen 45977 (+1838) 2 Madonna 24873 (+835) 3 Lewis Capaldi 18984 (+2250)
Looking at the other sales actually, it seems like a lot of data was missing, so maybe I over-judged the situation. Hopefully #2 is still on lock.
Posted by: vibe 20th June 2019, 06:32 PM
I purchased from google play about an hour ago for my mum on her phone ? Will that count this week or next week?
Will also add the booklet for the super deluxe is stunning .
Posted by: Medellíam 20th June 2019, 08:38 PM
If they sell at the same rate, Madonna should be on 25.7k and Lewis should be on 21.2k. I still feel like missing streaming data being added could see Lewis overtake and only by a small margin too which would be incredibly annoying. I know that the sales are pretty decent since most people thought it would be closer to 20k than 30k and that it's clear Madonna will have the second best selling album of the week (I'm also aware that I should be happy we received such a high quality album, which I am) but the chart geek on me wants her to hold that #2 position!
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 04:28 AM
Posted by: SKOB 21st June 2019, 06:21 AM
"The more marriages I have the shorter my veil gets" LMAO
She's really been in a good mood lately.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 21st June 2019, 09:42 AM
I bought my copy late on Thursday to help out!
*fingers crossed*
Posted by: Voodoo 21st June 2019, 12:26 PM
Golden sold twice as much as Madame X on its first week on sale, and that was only a year ago. For some reason, I used to think Madge was more popular than her.
Posted by: vibe 21st June 2019, 12:40 PM
Madge is more popular , Kylie promoted that sexy butt of hers off We dont want this comparison here
Posted by: vibe 21st June 2019, 12:40 PM
Just purchased the super deluxe for myself on cd !
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 02:40 PM
Madonna Tribe have leaked the UK Top 5 with sales:
1 WESTERN STARS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 52290 2 MADAME X MADONNA 27227 3 DIVINELY UNINSPIRED TO A HELLISH EXTENT LEWIS CAPALDI 24055 4 DOOM DAYS BASTILLE 16185 5 UNKNOWN PLEASURES JOY DIVISION 8531
Posted by: HausofTove 21st June 2019, 02:45 PM
Really happy with those sales numbers!
Posted by: ChristopherP 21st June 2019, 02:46 PM
QUOTE(Voodoo @ Jun 21 2019, 02:26 PM)
Golden sold twice as much as Madame X on its first week on sale, and that was only a year ago. For some reason, I used to think Madge was more popular than her.
I think Madonna has really lost the interest of the general public over the last 10 years or so with three majorly disappointing albums in a row.
Madame X is still not perfect but a vast improvement on the last three. However, all the songs released prior to the album do everything possible to hide that and if anyone was on the fence then they surely got discouraged from checking out the album after the Eurovision performance. And it's not even about the vocals but about how exruciaitingly boring it was. It's amazing how she blew such an amazing promo opportunity.
Posted by: pippa 21st June 2019, 03:18 PM
I am one of the people who was initially on the fence regarding buying the album when i first heard of her comeback. As i have mentioned in previous posts the material is not for me as i haven't enjoyed anything i have heard. The Eurovision performance i agree was boring which further alienated me purchasing the album. Kylie and Madonna are similar, as fans of both generally prefer their big pop numbers. Kylie managed a good return to form with Golden, Kiss Me Once however was a big disappointment. Kylie managed to reconnect with more people during the Golden era and i think Madonna. if she listens to her fans could so the same with her next release. This is not a Kylie versus Madonna post as both are simply legends with amazing careers.
Posted by: blacksquare 21st June 2019, 03:21 PM
QUOTE(Voodoo @ Jun 21 2019, 01:26 PM)
Golden sold twice as much as Madame X on its first week on sale, and that was only a year ago. For some reason, I used to think Madge was more popular than her.
These posts are so tiresome. Why the comparison?
It's not a surprise that Kylie sold well — she's a UK darling who heavily promoted a radio-friendly album that connected with people. She's still popular and people still root for her. Madonna hasn't exactly been consistent this past decade and she just released one of her most experimental albums at 60 years-old. 20k+ in 2019 is a good result.
They are both successes. We should be celebrating them for continuing to make the music they want this far into their careers, rather than comparing them or trying to tear them down.
Posted by: blacksquare 21st June 2019, 03:49 PM
QUOTE(pippa @ Jun 21 2019, 04:18 PM)
Kylie and Madonna are similar, as fans of both generally prefer their big pop numbers. Kylie managed to reconnect with more people during the Golden era and i think Madonna. if she listens to her fans could so the same with her next release.
The thing is, after all these years — neither her, nor Kylie, owe anyone anything. They're free to do whatever they want. They've succeeded. They've proven themselves.
As a fan, I am happy that Madonna decided to stop chasing hits and make something for herself. I like the experimental and unexpected Madonna that has pushed boundaries her entire career. It hasn't always worked, but I applaud her for not playing it safe.
I think people are foolish if they think Madonna will ever have a big successful album again. She could do everything right and still be a massive joke to a lot of people who don't want to see a 60+ popstar. She's in fairly uncharted territory right now — neither the public nor the media will be willing to applaud her for paving the way for younger women in the industry until she's gone.
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 04:05 PM
I've typed out and deleted a couple of responses but I just couldn't put it better myself.
So happy and proud to be both a big Madonna and Kylie fan. Three/four decades on, they're still killing it.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 21st June 2019, 04:21 PM
Debuts at #2 in the UK.
I’m happy with that. At least she kept her top 2 record going with 13 consecutive studio albums now.
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 04:42 PM
It's a lot easier to accept Madonna losing out to Bruce than it was her losing out at the last minute to Sam Smith due to his Mother's Day boost.
Posted by: SKOB 21st June 2019, 04:43 PM
Keeping the streaming monster Lewis Capaldi and Bastille (2 number albums under their belt) behind is great achievement!!
Posted by: HausofTove 21st June 2019, 04:45 PM
QUOTE(Medellíam @ Jun 21 2019, 05:42 PM)
It's a lot easier to accept Madonna losing out to Bruce than it was her losing out at the last minute to Sam Smith due to his Mother's Day boost.
Still not over this!
Posted by: HausofTove 21st June 2019, 04:47 PM
Now for a good US debut too!
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 04:54 PM
QUOTE(HausofTove @ Jun 21 2019, 05:47 PM)
Now for a good US debut too!
The midweeks there suggest she'd have double the sales of Bruce! I think her projected sales actually increased from about 90k to closer to 100k during the week. Fingers crossed it can hit 100k!
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 05:12 PM
Music Week:
QUOTE
Her 14th studio album and 27th Top 75 entry, Madame X aspired to be Madonna’s 13th No.1 but ends up being her sixth No.2, matching the debut/peak of her last studio album, Rebel Heart. Runner-up to Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour, Rebel Heart had first week sales of 37,245 copies: Madame X makes a 26.90% slower start, with consumption of 27,227 units, the highest for a No.2 album thus far in 2019.
Very stingy on the sales info this week - I was at least hoping for an updated Rebel Heart total. Maybe we'll get something from their online magazine on Monday.
Oh and some vinyl and cassette sales info:
QUOTE
Vinyl had its second biggest week of the year, and cassettes their fourth biggest, with new availability in the former format largely responsible for Top 75 returns of Greatest Hits by Queen (160-31, 3,102 total consumption, 2,155 vinyl) and In Time: The Best Of 1988-2003 (No.58, 1,783 total consumption, 1,421 on vinyl). It was also boosted by Springsteen’s Western Stars (6,053 sales), Madonna’s Madame X (4,628 sales) and Bastille’s Doom Days (2,107 sales). Madame X also sold 1,993 on cassette, grabbing a 72.47% share of sales in that format. Vinyl sales growth has slowed, with a to-date tally of 1,900,549 being up just 1.47% year-on-year, while cassettes have registered more spectacular growth of 79.34%, although selling only 31,043 units thus far in 2019.
Posted by: SKOB 21st June 2019, 05:29 PM
Madame X would've reached top ten on vinyl and cassettes alone
Posted by: dandy* 21st June 2019, 08:38 PM
That’s a good result to be honest. She’ll struggle to reach 100K but that’s expected and I’m still more than happy with the material
Posted by: HausofTove 21st June 2019, 09:12 PM
Highest #2 sales of the year! All in all a good result.
Posted by: Medellíam 21st June 2019, 09:37 PM
#1 in the US with 96,702! Way ahead of Bruce who sold 62,980. For comparison, Rebel Heart sold 121k.
In the UK:
Madame X was #2 on downloads, physicals and pure sales; #3 on vinyl. It was #33 on streaming (Bruce was actually ahead of her at #23).
Madonna: Studio Album First Week Sales (1994+): 42,041 Bedtime Stories 138,500 Ray of Light (+229.4%) 151,891 Music (+9.7%) 65,013 American Life (-57.2%) 217,610 Confessions on a Dancefloor (+234.7%) 94,655 Hard Candy (-56.5%) 56,335 MDNA (-40.5%) 37,245 Rebel Heart (-33.9%) 27,227 Madame X (-26.9%)
Sales increases/decreases in brackets.
Posted by: HausofTove 21st June 2019, 11:13 PM
Great for the US! So pleased
Posted by: Nick Jonas 22nd June 2019, 06:00 AM
COAD was a real highlight in her career IMO.
Posted by: vibe 22nd June 2019, 08:26 AM
There’s a lot of love for Funana and Ciao Bella online ? We’re these the right tracks not to have on the main album ? Funana would have received a lot of positive press I think .
Posted by: Medellíam 22nd June 2019, 01:02 PM
iHeartRadio ICONS interview:
7 hours?! Is it looped?
Posted by: slowdown73 22nd June 2019, 08:14 PM
Well I ended up buying the album after hearing the songs on streaming. The singles are some of the weakest tracks on the album. God control, I don’t search, come alive and extreme occident are strong tracks.
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 23rd June 2019, 07:52 AM
The album really is a lot more interesting and exciting than the tracks released suggest.
Posted by: vibe 23rd June 2019, 11:42 AM
The biographer did state in her review that the best is yet to come . She was right !!
Posted by: thtr85 23rd June 2019, 12:18 PM
Faz Gostoso (feat. Anitta) is such a great track, best from the album, Madonna & Anita make this track awesome. I do hope that it will be a single and a kick ass video be created. Currently it’s the most played song from the album in Spotify already +4 millions streams, someone needs to get hold of this and do the promo. The album is much more interesting than the singles + promo tracks prior to release.
Posted by: vibe 23rd June 2019, 12:58 PM
Anitta is joining Madonna I think for her pride performance next week. Maybe a video will be shot at the same time?
I Rise and God Control to be released this week again in time for pride , oh and the remixes .
Posted by: thtr85 23rd June 2019, 07:33 PM
I hope so if it’s streaming well, why not try and push promo for the track. I think they’d be missing a trick not releasing a video for it and releasing it as a single.
Posted by: HausofTove 23rd June 2019, 08:39 PM
We're #1 in the US!!!!
Posted by: HausofTove 23rd June 2019, 08:40 PM
QUOTE
X marks the No. 1 spot.
Madonna lands her ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as Madame X enters atop the tally. The set, released via Interscope Records on June 14, launches with 95,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending June 20, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 90,000 were in album sales.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new June 29-dated chart, where Madame X bows at No. 1, will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on June 25.
Overall, Madame X’s debut sum of 95,000 equivalent album units is comprised of 90,000 in album sales, 1,000 in TEA units and 4,000 in SEA units.
Madame X grants Madonna her ninth leader on the Billboard 200. She last led the list in 2012, with MDNA. Here’s a look at all of Madonna’s No. 1 albums: Madame X, MDNA, Hard Candy (2008), Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), American Life (2003), Music (2000), Like a Prayer (1989), True Blue (1986) and Like a Virgin (1985).
Madonna continues to have the second-most No. 1 albums among female artists, trailing only Barbra Streisand, who has 11. Among all acts, The Beatles have the most No. 1s, with 19. They are followed by Jay-Z (14), Streisand and Bruce Springsteen (both with 11), Elvis Presley (10), Eminem, Garth Brooks, Madonna and The Rolling Stones (all with nine).
Madonna is a frequent visitor to the top 10 of the Billboard 200, having notched at least four top 10 albums in each of the last four decades (‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and ‘10s). Madame X marks her 22nd top 10, and fourth of the ‘10s. Earlier in the decade, she reached the region with her last studio effort, Rebel Heart (No. 2 in 2015), MDNA (No. 1, 2012) and the live album Sticky & Sweet Tour (No. 10, 2010).
Madonna’s first top 10 came nearly 35 years ago, when her self-titled debut album climbed 12-10 on the Oct. 6, 1984-dated chart. It eventually peaked at No. 8 two weeks later (Oct. 20). The diva would place five top 10s in the ‘80s, seven in the ‘90s, six in the ‘00s and now four in the ‘10s.
The Rolling Stones have the most top 10s in the history of the Billboard 200, with 37. They are followed by Streisand (34), The Beatles (32), Frank Sinatra (32), Presley (27), Bob Dylan (22), Madonna (22), George Strait (21), Elton John (20), Paul McCartney/Wings (20) and Springsteen (20).
Madame X’s debut week was comprised of 90,000 in album sales, which is the fourth-largest sales week for an album in 2019 by a woman. The album’s sales were bolstered by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with the Queen of Pop’s upcoming theater tour (starting on Sept. 12 in New York at Brooklyn's Howard Gilman Opera House), as well as an array of merchandise/album bundles sold via her official website.
Madame X was led by the track “Medellín,” with Maluma, which climbs 2-1 on the Dance Club Songs chart dated June 29, marking Madonna’s 47th leader on the tally. (The chart, like the Billboard 200, will refresh on Billboard’s website on Tuesday, June 25.) “Medellín” also reached the top 20 on the Hot Latin Songs chart.
Before Madame X dropped, four more preview cuts were issued: “I Rise,” “Future,” with Quavo, “Crave,” with Swae Lee, and “Dark Ballet.” “Crave” recently debuted on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart, and holds at No. 15 on the most recently published list (dated June 22).
Fun fact for chart watchers: With Madonna and Springsteen at Nos. 1 and 2 on the new Billboard 200, it’s the first time the Queen of Pop and The Boss have been in the top two together since 1985. The last time they were buddies in the top two (and the only time before this week) was for four weeks in January and February that year. On the charts dated Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 1985, Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. and Madonna’s Like a Virgin were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Then, the titles flipped ranks on Feb. 9 and Feb. 16. (Born spent a total of seven weeks at No. 1 and Virgin ruled for three weeks.)
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 23rd June 2019, 10:23 PM
Nice to see it confirmed she got that US #1!
Posted by: Jordan Lee 24th June 2019, 10:19 AM
That’s great to see her get a #1 there 😃
Posted by: Medellíam 24th June 2019, 04:47 PM
Down to #12 in the UK midweeks. 6 new entries ahead of her - I feel like a couple could fall behind her but just as easily a couple of albums could overtake her.
Posted by: HausofTove 24th June 2019, 04:57 PM
To be expected. I'm just glad we had a good first week!
Posted by: vibe 24th June 2019, 05:41 PM
Lots of new releases this week . Hopefully the videos released this week will spark further interest .
Posted by: pippa 24th June 2019, 07:17 PM
#12, i expected the album top be positioned around here and think it will stay here for the week.
Posted by: HausofTove 24th June 2019, 07:22 PM
I'm thinking it will drop to low teens or even further..
Posted by: Medellíam 25th June 2019, 03:50 PM
#15 in the UK update today, nearly 2.7k sold so far. Think it could end the week on ~5k.
Posted by: vibe 25th June 2019, 04:56 PM
The albums chart has some life in it for a change the last few weeks !!
Posted by: thtr85 25th June 2019, 05:00 PM
Faz Gostoso has nearly 5 million streams on Spotify in just over a week, slightly higher is Crave 5.3m after a few weeks, top is Medellin with 25.8m since mid April.
Posted by: vibe 25th June 2019, 07:24 PM
I believe her and Anitta are meeting this week !! Video and performance hopefully .
Posted by: Medellíam 26th June 2019, 04:22 PM
#14 in the UK update - up a place from yesterday.
Only sold just over 200 copies yesterday but nothing outside of the Top 10 sold over 300 copies yesterday (guessing lots of data is missing).
Posted by: No Sleeep 26th June 2019, 07:40 PM
QUOTE(Medellíam @ Jun 26 2019, 05:22 PM)
#14 in the UK update - up a place from yesterday.
Only sold just over 200 copies yesterday but nothing outside of the Top 10 sold over 300 copies yesterday (guessing lots of data is missing).
So Silver is out of the question
Posted by: Medellíam 26th June 2019, 11:44 PM
QUOTE(No Sleeep @ Jun 26 2019, 08:40 PM)
So Silver is out of the question
At this point I'd say so. They need to get another single on the Radio 2 playlist.
Worldwide sales for the past week are in: Madame X sold 216k in its first week, not far behind Bruce who was on 228k. That's really good I'd say, considering Bruce was ahead of her in most markets.
Rebel Heart sold 315k in its first week, MDNA sold 740k and Hard Candy sold 758k in its first full week (44k sales from its first chart week).
Rebel Heart sold 875k by the end of 2015, so 36% of those sales same from its first week. If Madame X did the same, it would finish the year on 600k.
Posted by: vibe 27th June 2019, 09:41 AM
The album has had a small climb on UK iTunes .
Currently number #30 , when I checked yesterday it was #40
Posted by: Jordan Lee 27th June 2019, 11:14 AM
I think a silver certification UK wise might be possible.
It’ll take some time but we’ll be getting videos from other tracks plus promo when the tour comes.
Is the audience with Madonna show to be screened on TV as well?
Plus streams as small as they are might just push it over the barrier.
Posted by: SKOB 27th June 2019, 12:16 PM
God Control might keep the album on charts for few weeks. She's getting a lot of positive coverage around it.
Posted by: vibe 27th June 2019, 12:38 PM
I imagine she would like to have videos for Faz Gostoso and I Dont Search , however she has been commenting that she needs funding for the videos to happen.
I dont search has to be the next radio single .
I imagine that it wont take long for the standard edition to be reduced physically which will push sales a little.
Posted by: vibe 27th June 2019, 01:01 PM
website for correct madame x lyrics?
Posted by: Medellíam 27th June 2019, 01:11 PM
'God Control' seems to be giving the album a bit of a boost but I definitely think Radio 2 airplay will be the biggest help. That's what kept Rebel Heart afloat. Perhaps they can get a proper radio edit sorted for 'God Control' and give it a push to capitalise on the publicity it's getting.
Apparently there's one more video to come that's already been recorded (rumoured to be for 'Batuka'). Hopefully one for 'Faz Gostoso' can materialise.
QUOTE(vibe @ Jun 27 2019, 02:01 PM)
website for correct madame x lyrics?
I find Genius always reliable: https://genius.com/albums/Madonna/Madame-x
Posted by: vibe 27th June 2019, 07:16 PM
Batuka !! I have not heard those rumours !! Please no !!!
Thanks for the lyric address .
Posted by: vibe 27th June 2019, 07:42 PM
Album has had another slight increase number #26 on iTunes .
Posted by: Medellíam 27th June 2019, 09:07 PM
QUOTE(vibe @ Jun 27 2019, 08:16 PM)
Batuka !! I have not heard those rumours !! Please no !!!
Thanks for the lyric address .
'Batuka' isn't one of my favourites but I can see why she's done a video for it given the context of the song is essentially the birth of the record.
Madonna has just said my name and I don’t know what to do.
It’s a Friday afternoon in New York City, the week before Pride, and I’m on the phone with the Queen of Pop. Her hit single “Medellín” has just gone number one, making it her 47th single to hit that position on the US dance charts. In a few days, Billboard will announce that her fourteenth studio album, Madame X, is her ninth album to reach number one on their 200 chart. A week later, she’ll headline New York City Pride.
Yesterday, I was asked to send her a photo. How do you pick a selfie to send to Madonna?
I start our conversation by congratulating her on the success of her new album, an experimental collection of overtly political pop songs (“God Control,” “I Rise”), slow burning dance tracks (“I Don’t Search I Find”), and stripped back bangers (“Extreme Occident”) that sounds like the spiritual successor of Ray of Light and American Life — if Confessions on a Dance Floor was the godmother. “Madame X is an evolution of everything I’ve done as an artist," she acknowledges. The icon is extremely demure about the acclaim, saying that even 14 albums in, it’s an honor to have her music appreciated. “It’s still exciting to have an album be so well received.”
With this year’s Pride festivities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, there was really no choice but Madonna for the closing performance at Pride Island. The landmark anniversary has the Material Girl reflecting on the history of the movement and speculating on its future. “It means everything to me to be at World Pride,” she says. “I’m proud of having been even a small part of fighting for LGBTQ+ equality.” But she acknowledges that “even though we have a lot to celebrate, we still have work to do.”
Madonna has been doing that work since the early days of her fame — she famously included information about AIDS in the packaging of her 1989 album Like a Prayer and was vocal in interviews about her support for queer people at a time when that alliance could have derailed her career. That purity of purpose is still evident today on Madame X, which grapples with issues like gun control and political apathy, the latter being something Madonna is clearly not familiar with. In the music video for Madame X track “Dark Ballet,” the artist cast queer rapper Mykki Blanco as Joan of Arc, and the video ends with a message from Blanco: “I have walked this earth, Black, Queer and HIV positive, but no transgression against me has been as powerful as the hope I hold within.”
The Wednesday before her Pride performance, Madonna released the music video for “God Control,” an eight-minute technicolor daydream that slips quickly into nightmare with senseless acts of gun violence happening at a nightclub, a clear homage to the massacre at Pulse in 2016 that claimed 49 lives, most of them queer people of color. “Wake up,” Madonna chants over and over, imploring viewers to demand gun control now — the video even includes a shot of queer activist group Gays Against Guns marching at Pride. “God Control” came complete with a trigger warning about the disturbing content, but advised that these horrors are “happening everyday” and must be stopped. “This is your wake up call,” she sings over the track’s disco beat.
Pop music, Madonna tells me, is the perfect vehicle for activism “because it’s popular. Because people are listening, you’re able to get messages across you might not be able to otherwise.” She does confess that she wishes more contemporary pop artists would use their platforms to incite change. “I have always been an agent of change.” Earlier this year, M (as her team constantly refers to her, something I’m all too happy to pick up — we’re friends now!) rang in the New Year at the Stonewall Inn, compelling revelers to “never forget the Stonewall riots and those who bravely stood up and said ‘enough.’” She accepted GLAAD’s Advocate for Change Award and delivered a powerful speech about her decades of queer activism. “Why have I always fought for change?” she asked at the time. “It’s a hard question to answer. It’s like trying to explain the importance of breathing or the need to love.”
Hours after I speak with Madonna, Ty Sunderland’s monthly pop dance party Heaven on Earth sets sail for a special nautical edition honoring Madonna, a theme Sunderland decided on before he learned the Queen would be performing at Pride. Every time Sunderland dropped a Madonna track, an instant change swept over the crowd. “She has this power that, regardless of your age, you know the song and you love the song,” he recalls. “She’s one of the ultimate connections for multiple generations of gay people, there’s something unifying about her. I can be playing ‘Like a Prayer’ for a bunch of 20 year-olds or a bunch of 50 year-olds, and everyone is going to be screaming the lyrics.”
Drag Race winner Aquaria was the party’s guest DJ — she showed up in a full Madame X look, which she calls “secret agent prostitute” — and was struck by the enduring power of Madonna’s legacy. “She’s this example of bravery and strength,” Aquaria says. “She never backed down, she was always fighting for something. She’s a woman with extremely strong opinions and, with queer people being a marginalized group, we gravitate towards people who take a stance and want to do good in the world.”
That fight is what’s inspired Madonna to keep creating music, to keep fighting for change. Her greatest triumph, she reveals, is motherhood. “My children are the most important thing in my life,” she insists. And perhaps that’s part of why queer people love Madonna so intensely and enduringly. Throughout her career, she’s been pop’s most striking maternal figure — after all, she's named after her own mother and one of the most famous mothers in history.
But this is one mother who won’t disapprove of your Pride revelry. Before we hang up, I ask Madonna the burning question on everyone's minds: Is Madame X a top or a bottom?
“She’s both,” she laughs. “I don’t like choosing sides.”
Posted by: HausofTove 28th June 2019, 08:12 PM
In the album chart this week:
14 Madonna 4,642
Posted by: Jordan Lee 28th June 2019, 09:30 PM
As much as I wanted to see it spend another week in the top 10 I’m OK with that drop.
It didn’t fall that much from midweeks either (or at all did it).
Posted by: Jordan Lee 28th June 2019, 09:41 PM
On sales it was #9.
Posted by: Medellíam 28th June 2019, 10:30 PM
I'm happy it managed to hold onto its update position. I thought that may have suggested it held up okay on streaming, but it appears not as the album is out of the Top 100 album streaming chart (Bruce, for comparison, is #60).
The album experienced at 83% drop, pretty steep compared to Rebel Heart's 66.7% and MDNA's 68.8%. Will probably be low Top 40 next week.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 28th June 2019, 11:58 PM
I think Rebel Heart had a Jonathon Ross special which helped its second week on sale out here in the UK.
I’m hoping this manages at least the same amount of weeks top 100 even if it’s weeks in the top 40 are less.
I hope we get that special Graham Norton which was filmed. If it was to be aired on TV that could really help.
Posted by: Medellíam 29th June 2019, 03:01 AM
You're right, the Jonathan Ross special would have given a boost for the second week.
I can honestly see Madame X dropping like a stone unless they get another song on the Radio 2 playlist. There seems to be a big lack of performances this era, especially compared to Rebel Heart. There's been no UK performances and there's only been two notable performances elsewhere: one was totally annihilated and the other seemed to go largely unnoticed. I hope the Eurovision backlash hasn't put Madonna off performing her music outside of tours because the material on this album deserves to be recognised and receive powerful, exciting performances.
Posted by: ilovepollo 29th June 2019, 09:01 AM
If you want to watch some videos of unboxing different releases
Posted by: Medellíam 30th June 2019, 03:13 PM
World of Madame X mini documentary has been released. From MadonnaTribe:
QUOTE
Madonna has released a 23-minute documentary filmed in Lisbon and describing the World Of Madame X, and the inspiration behind her new album. In the documentary, which is a sort of longer version of the first album teasers Madonna shared on the social media last month, she is joined by some of the collaborators that were part of or inspired Madame X.
The documentary is directed by Nuno Xico and produced by Stephen Holtzhauser, Bob Semanovich and Sara Zambreno for Eagle Rock Entertainment/Interscope.
It’s available for online streaming on Prime Video with English audio and optional English subtitles.
Posted by: Medellíam 1st July 2019, 05:08 PM
#18 in the midweeks! I'm shocked, I expected it to be out of the Top 30!
Posted by: HausofTove 1st July 2019, 05:11 PM
Omg slay! A hiT x
Posted by: vibe 1st July 2019, 08:04 PM
It will prob drop quite a bit all the Glastonbury artists will creep up .
Will be great if it doesn’t tho.
Where is it in the states ?
Posted by: Jordan Lee 1st July 2019, 10:43 PM
QUOTE(Medellíam @ Jul 1 2019, 06:08 PM)
#18 in the midweeks! I'm shocked, I expected it to be out of the Top 30!
Me too! I always look at the midweeks in reverse order as I’m weird and as I went from 100 to like 30 I was thinking OMG she’s actually fell from 14 to like 140 but then I seen it at 18 and was thinking phew!!
That’s pretty good considering there’s a glasto effect for albums above her plus new entries as well.
I’m hoping this album gets three weeks top 20 to make up for just the one week top ten.
Rebel Heart got two weeks top 10 before dropping out the top 20.
Posted by: Medellíam 1st July 2019, 11:13 PM
I think it's unlikely to stay Top 20 as I think we'll see a greater Glastonbury effect in Tuesday's update (people who went to Glasto returning and purchasing/streaming music they heard there) but it's definitely showing signs of holding up better than I had anticipated.
Drops 1-77 in the US.
Posted by: Jordan Lee 1st July 2019, 11:24 PM
Wow!!!
#77 is that a record?
Edit: Just seen it’s not. There’s three albums what have dropped more.
The entire top ten list of BB200 drops are fairly recent tbh. Is it a tour bundles effect and streaming.
Posted by: Medellíam 2nd July 2019, 12:03 AM
Yeah, a lot of album first week sales are inflated by tour bundles and streaming is much more dominant in the US than it is here, which explains why acts like Madonna suffer such huge falls.
Posted by: Medellíam 2nd July 2019, 03:34 AM
Amazon have released Madonna's album documentary World of Madame X to their UK and US services. You can watch on this YouTube upload below:
The 22 minutes documentary is set in Lisbon, Portugal, where Madonna describes the World of Madame X, breaking down the album production, the inspiration behind the music and how Lisbon has influenced her life so far. She is also joined by collaborators that were part of or inspired Madame X, as well as sneak peaks of album photoshoot behind the scenes and music videos making of’s. The mini movie is directed by Nuno Xico.
Such an interesting watch and beautifully put together. Madonna's really put her all into this album; you can tell that she's learnt so much and teaches back to us in return. It's fascinating listening to her discuss the album's birth and journey, showing her appreciation for the music she's discovered and talk passionately about why she still does what she does.
I'm still getting so much from this album and I'm excited to see it solidify its position among my favourite Madonna albums, which I'm sure it will.
Posted by: vibe 2nd July 2019, 07:29 AM
I enjoyed the doc.
Posted by: HausofTove 2nd July 2019, 07:40 AM
Big drop in the US
Will try and watch the doc this eve!
Posted by: dandy* 2nd July 2019, 09:03 AM
Wow 1 to 77!
I knew it wouldn’t stay top 5 or anything but I wasn’t expecting that type of drop.
Posted by: vibe 2nd July 2019, 10:07 AM
Will pride increase sales this week?
We need an Ellen appearance with her performing.
Also where are the remixes for I Rise ?
Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 2nd July 2019, 10:08 AM
Do we know for certain if she included it as part of a tour bundle?
Posted by: vibe 2nd July 2019, 04:33 PM
Yes she did in the USA
But she is playing tiny theatres it’s not like she is playing arenas or stadiums.
Posted by: Medellíam 3rd July 2019, 12:01 PM
Still #18 on the Wednesday UK update! Nearly 2.5k sold so far.
Posted by: HausofTove 3rd July 2019, 12:06 PM
Great result this week if this continues!
Posted by: vibe 3rd July 2019, 06:10 PM
She can’t be that far away from the top 10 Album sales are so close !
Posted by: Medellíam 5th July 2019, 11:51 AM
OCC reveal Madame X is the 23rd best selling vinyl album of 2019 so far:
But she is playing tiny theatres it’s not like she is playing arenas or stadiums.
But she is playing multiple nights in each theater, i.e. a residency. If it hadn't been for the tour bundle, she wouldn't have debuted @ #1 in the USA.
Her popularity is waning. She has become a legacy act that only the fans care about.
will never, ever forget it lmao. This one will be DRAMA FREE I PROMISE x
I think there is a movie she's directed that goes by the title of Loved that's due at some point although I've heard very few details about it. I loved W/E so wouldn't mind another film directed by her, but of course music is what I most want from Madonna so I'm glad the film project doesn't seem to be preventing her from creating music too.
Gimme dat American Life vibes!!
That's probably taken way out of context and she's probably just enjoying time with the family and wants to be with them to celebrate a landmark birthday, but maybe this will mean a new era will be on hold until later in the year?
Listening now!
