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Madonna news - Oct. 2005
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Record stores opening at midnight to sell Confessions
29 October 2005Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands are set to be the first countries where the new Madonna album will available on the record store shelves.
In Italy the Messaggerie Musicali megastores in Rome and Milan will remain open during the night between Thursday. November 10 and Friday, November 11 and will start selling Confessions On A Dance Floor at midnight GMT at the special price of 16.90 euro.
The stores will also have a special dee-jay set starting at 10 pm on Thursday night to entertain fans waiting to buy their copies of the new Madonna release with selections from her entire career.
Madonna's 51th Billboard entry
Source: Billboard - 29 October 2005Madonna made her Billboard Hot 100 debut 22 years and one week ago with Holiday. This week, she scores her 51st chart entry as Hung Up (Maverick) makes a lofty entrance at No. 20. It's the seventh Madonna song to debut in the top 20, and the first since Ray of Light beamed onto the list at No. 5 the week of July 11, 1998.
Madonna's highest-raking debuts to date are:
Ray of Light, debuted at No. 5 (1998)
You'll See, No. 8 (1995)
Frozen, No. 8 (1998)
Erotica, No. 13 (1992)
Rescue Me, No. 15 (1991)
Don't Cry for Me Argentina, No. 17 (1997)
Hung Up, No. 20 (2005)
Hung Up is the fifth single to debut in the top 20 in 2005. The top five debuts of the year are:
"Inside Your Heaven," Carrie Underwood (No. 1)
"Inside Your Heaven," Bo Bice (No. 2)
"Speed of Sound," Coldplay (No. 8)
"American Baby," Dave Matthews Band (No. 19)
Hung Up, Madonna (No. 20)
Hung Up is already Madonna's highest-charting single since Die Another Day peaked at No. 8 the week of Nov. 9, 2002. Of Madonna's 51 chart entries, 42 have placed in the top 20. If Hung Up continues its journey up the Hot 100, it could become the 36th Madonna song to land in the top 10.
Hung Up brings two familiar names back to the Hot 100 after an absence of 20 years and four months. Since Hung Up is based on ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson are included in the songwriting credits.
This marks their first appearance on the Hot 100 since 1985, when Murray Head went to No. 3 with Björn and Benny's "One Night in Bangkok" (written with Tim Rice), from the musical "Chess."
As songwriters, Ulvaeus and Andersson have a chart span that is now extended to 31 years and five months, dating back to the June 1, 1974, debut of ABBA's "Waterloo" on the Hot 100.
It's been a good week for the two male members of ABBA. On Oct. 22, "Waterloo" was named the favorite Eurovision Song Contest winner of all time by viewers of a European TV special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the competition.
~ Hung Up has also risen to #10 on the Hot Dance / Club Play chart.
Madonna at a crossroads
Source: USA Today - 29 October 2005In person, the most durable and deconstructed pop icon of the past two decades is a wee slip of a thing. The face that launched a thousand trends is delicately featured, the yoga-toned frame so slight that you wonder how Madonna could have emerged intact after tumbling off a horse in August, on her 47th birthday.
The singer did break four ribs, her clavicle and bones in a hand and shoulder as a result of that accident, which took place at the estate she shares with her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, and two children, 9-year-old Lourdes and 5-year-old Rocco, in the English countryside. But nine weeks later, Madonna is cast-free.
"I feel good," she says, perching daintily on a sofa. "But then I try to exercise or do something, and I realize that my bones aren't completely together yet."
The woman who coined the term "blond ambition" is not, however, going to let a few aches and pains interfere with her work. Madonna is in town to promote Confessions On A Dance Floor, her first album since 2003's American Life, which arrives Nov. 15.
The first single, Hung Up— a thumping, shimmering confection that samples the ABBA hit Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)— was introduced last week on MTV's Total Request Live and will be featured on crossover episodes of CBS' CSI: Miami (Nov. 7) and CSI: NY (Nov. 9).
MTV also premiered Madonna's new documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, last Friday. The film, which will re-air on the VH1 and Logo Networks, follows the star on and offstage during her 2004 Re-Invention Tour, juggling concert performances with footage of Madonna clowning around with her dancers and crewmates, and with Ritchie and the kids. There are more serious moments as well, with Madonna reflecting on how her life and views have evolved.
"It's like me keeping a journal, but it's visual," says Madonna, whose recent projects have included a fifth children's book, Lotsa de Casha, and a kiddie clothing line inspired by the "very opinionated" Lourdes. "But I never intended (Secret) to come out at the same time as my record. It took me twice as long to edit as I had expected."
Accentuating the personal Secret does share with Confessions an unabashedly personal tone. Madonna has described the latter as an unapologetic dance album "about having a good time straight through and non-stop." Dig beneath the buoyant beats and neo-disco arrangements, though, and you'll find wistful undercurrents in both the music and lyrics.
"That's why I called it Confessions On A Dance Floor," Madonna explains. "Most people equate dance music with being fluffy and superficial; it's just about having fun. That's fine, but I can't write 12 songs about nothing. My feelings or point of view inevitably sneaks in."
Like 1998's Ray Of Light, the first album Madonna released after becoming a mother, Confessions juggles state-of-the-art production — Madonna co-wrote and produced the songs with Stuart Price, musical director for her past two tours, with additional help from American Life producer Mirwais Ahmadzai (also Madonna's collaborator on 2000's Music) and others — with age-old spiritual questions, albeit filtered through a modern star's perspective. "Should I carry on? Will it matter when I'm gone?" she asks on the introspective How High.
"I'm constantly trying to figure out what my place in the world is," she says. "That search was obviously instigated by the birth of my daughter. In my film, I talk about how I woke up one day and thought, 'my God, I'm about to have a baby; how am I going to teach my child what the meaning of life is when I don't know myself?' If she asks why she's here and who is God or why are people suffering, I want to have answers. And I want to ask those questions, too."
One song, the Middle Eastern-flavored Isaac, has already generated controversy in the print press and online. "Jewish mystics to Madonna: Lay off our sage!," screamed one headline, a reference to certain Israelis' outrage over the singer's supposed decision to allude to that movement's founder, 16th-century mystic Isaac Luria.
But Madonna claims Isaac was actually named after Yitzhak Sinwani, a Yemeni singer who appears on the track. "The album isn't even out, so how could Jewish scholars in Israel know what my song is about? I don't know enough about Isaac Luria to write a song, though I've learned a bit in my studies.
"But I've never heard that it's blasphemous for anyone to mention the names of catalysts. That's just a religious organization claiming ownership of something. 'This is our information; you're not Jewish and you can't know about it,' or, 'You're female and you can't know about it.' That's religious thinking ."
Religion vs. spirituality
Madonna, whose Catholic upbringing also continues to inform her work, is keen to distinguish such thinking from the kind of reflection that drew her to the Kaballah. "I like to draw a line between religion and spirituality. For me, the idea of God, or the idea of spirit, has nothing to do with religion. Religion is about separating people, and I don't think that was ever the Creator's intention. That's just people's need to belong to a group and feel good about themselves.
"Just about every war that's ever been started has been started in the name of God. It's, 'I belong to this group; my group's better than your group, so if you're not in this group, we're going to kill you.' For me, religious thinking is synonymous with tribalism. You're not thinking for yourself; you're doing things because that's what somebody else did, or it's how your family taught you to behave and think."
With her own family, Madonna says, she encourages a more inclusive approach to spiritual education. "Because I study Kaballah, my children are exposed to it. We go to a Torah reading every Saturday morning. And my daughter goes to spirituality-for-kids classes. But it's non-denominational; there are kids who are Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists, whatever."
Lourdes and Rocco also seem to have absorbed their mother's love of dance, though with very different results. Madonna's daughter has been taking ballet lessons since she was 4. "I didn't start till I was 12, which in the world of ballet is late, and I moved from ballet into modern and jazz. (Lourdes) has more of a ballerina's body, with these beautiful ballerina's feet.
"No lessons for my son, though. His style is sort of street. If I ask him to dance for me, he never will, but if there's music on in the playroom, he'll dance by himself. I have to sneak up on him. He loves R&B and hip-hop, and he dances that way. It's very funny. I don't know where he got it from — I mean, he goes to the Lycee (Francais School) in London. But I think things like dancing, and what you're drawn to musically, are instinctual."
During the school year, Madonna, her children and Ritchie are based in London. "We go to the country house on weekends, or in the summer," she says. "I'm a city girl. If I hadn't married Guy, I'm sure I wouldn't have grown to appreciate the beauty of the countryside.
There's an idyllic peacefulness there you couldn't find anywhere else. Now I can tolerate being in the city because I have a place to escape to, where I can leave the door open and my children can run outside. It's the one place I can feel like everybody else."
Well, almost like everybody else. Of reports that she doesn't allow Lourdes and Rocco to watch TV, Madonna first says, "I was raised without television. They watch films, and my daughter always has her nose in a book. I don't get the sense that they feel deprived. I don't know why that's shocking."
But Madonna also admits she is concerned about the impact too much contemporary pop culture could have on her offspring in particular. "TV is horrifying," she says. "Everything is so celebrity-obsessed, and I'm a celebrity. Why confuse my children with that?"
As things stand, of course, Madonna's kids "get photographed everywhere they go. There are so many more paparazzi now. Because of the Internet, there are all these new agencies. It's created a whole new line of work for people, where you've got to follow people to the end of the earth and climb fences."
Survival tactics
Such comments may seem ironic coming from someone whose rise and continuing fame have been credited at least in part to masterful marketing, and who is widely considered the first superstar made by, of and for the video age. And Madonna doesn't want to bite the hand that has fed her.
"As you go on making records, everyone keeps predicting your demise," she says. "It almost seems like they want you to fail. You have to find a way to be creative and have the freedom to do what you want to do, while also being aware of what the market demands and what people like. It's a fine line to walk, and there's a lot of competition."
Certainly, Madonna's imitators and inheritors are legion, from teen upstarts to Britney Spears to 36-year-old Gwen Stefani, whose solo album featured virtual homages to her obvious idol. "She ripped me off, so we mutually agreed that I could rip her off," Madonna quips of Stefani. "We work with a lot of the same people. She married a Brit, she's got blond hair and she likes fashion. But I don't mind. I think she's very sweet and really talented."
Besides, Madonna still has a few role models of her own. She continues to feel a strong connection to the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. "Her work was very confessional, and told you a lot about what was going on in her life.
But you never knew exactly what was true and what was false and what she was overdramatizing. She was creating a myth about herself. But she used it as an educational tool for herself and, I think, for other people.
"That's how I think of my work. I do self-portraits. People put me into all different categories: I'm a material girl, a sex goddess, a mother, spiritual. But I love contradiction. There's always a mystery, always a whole other life going on."
COADF gets Belgian premiere!
Source: Press release, thx to Hans - 27 October 2005
On thursday November 10th at midnight, 13 stores of the Belgian multimediagiant eXtraZone will open their doors to sell Confessions On A Dance Floor, the new album of Madonna, as the first worldwide!
Every client receives an exclusive (nowhere else available) 70x100 cm Madonna poster for free. Nowhere in the world, classic music stores nor through the Internet, will the album be available at that time yet.
Journalist of The Sun Veronica Newton, who previewed the album, describes Confessions On A Dance Floor as a fantastic dance record. Quote: " Anyone who thought Madonna might have abdicated as the Queen of Pop can kneel at her throne once more."
Madonna herself says "I want people to jump up from their seats and have the time of their life" and she's absolutely right, according to Newton. The album, on which the songs are all glued together as one mix, sounds like you're getting a private Ministry Of Sound DJ-session in your living room.
The eXtraZone stores that will open from 0.00 till 1.00 AM (CET) are those of Oostende, Roeselare, Gent, Brussel Centrum Wolvengracht, Lier, Turnhout, Mol, Bergen, Charleroi, Namur Saint-Jacques, Liège Longdoz, Sint-Truiden and Sint-Niklaas Station.
~ That same night there will also be an official release party in club Le Cabaret in Brussels.
Hung Up enters Hot 100 at #20 !
27 October 2005Hung Up is doing great in the charts! Today it was announced that the single debuted in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart at no less than #20, based on digital downloads and airplay!
This makes it the Hot Shot Debut of the week. Meanwhile it debuts at #33 at the Hot 100 Airplay chart and at #6 in the Hot Digital Songs chart.
Hung Up video premiere
27 October 2005The video for Hung Up has premiered on several music channels. It first shows Madonna in a gym room, where she puts on Hung Up (the album version) to which she starts working out. Meanwhile, you see young people everywhere playing the song on their boomboxes and then getting into the groove.
You'll recognize Cloud and other Re-Invention Tour dancers in several dancing scenes. In the streets, in a diner, in the subway, everywhere they compete for the best dance moves. Madonna then walks down the dark alley in her black leather jacket, shaking her sexy ass and glancing at the men passing by.
As the music fades and only a thumping beat is heard, you see slow motions of the dancers and Madonna getting close to one of the guys. As the beats come back, there's a the full-on dance scene on the DDR machine in the arcade. You can download it at Madonna Lighthousenews.
Fastest rising single in Canada
Source: Press release Warner Canada - 27 October 2005Madonna reaches #1 in Canada in just two weeks - Hung Up is the fastest rising single in BDS history.
The fans have clamoured for it and radio stations across Canada have delivered it. According to Nielsen - Broadcast Data Systems, Hung Up, the first single from Madonna's forthcoming album Confessions On A Dance Floor, has reached #1 on Canada's Contemporary Hit Radio Chart in only its second week on the air, making it the fastest rising single since BDS began monitoring Canadian radio airplay in 1995.
The track is also Top 5 Hot AC and Top 5 Overall at radio.
"What makes this even more impressive is that this achievement has happened after just 10 1/2 days of airplay. No other song has even come close to this in the last 10 years," said Paul Tuch, Nielsen Entertainment - BDS.
Anticipation for the new Madonna album is building to a feverish pitch and airplay is exploding all around the world. The single has already reached #2 on the European airplay charts as well as #8 in Japan and #8 in Germany.
Hung Up also dominated the digital world this week debuting at #1 on Canada's Digital Download chart which monitors legal downloads of music.
Album back cover
27 October 2005Amazon has revealed the back cover of the album Confessions On A Dance Floor, which features a close-up of Madonna's leg from the same photo shoot as the front cover.
Madonna promises an Aussie visit
Source: Herald Sun - 27 October 2005Madonna has promised Australia will be part of her next world tour. Madonna's last two tours bypassed Australia. Her last visit was 12 years ago on the Girlie tour in 1993.
"I had a really great time last time I was in Australia, but I know it was a long time ago," Madonna, 47, said yesterday. "It's just Australia is so far away and the last two tours I had to cram everything into my children's summer vacations. "But I really don't want to pass Australia by next time."
Madonna, who has sold four million records in Australia and 200 million worldwide, is planning a world tour for 2006, once again around schooling for daughter Lourdes, 9, and son Rocco, 4.
The tour will be "about discotheques and disco balls," she said, and comes after her return to dance albums with Confessions On A Dance Floor, recorded without gaps between tracks to simulate a DJ set.
The album will be released on November 14.
Tour dates are reportedly already locked in for Japan. "If I go to Japan I'll go to Australia, I promise!" Madonna said.
Confessions On A Dance Floor follows 2003's American Life, the lowest-selling album of her 23-year career. The record caused controversy at the time for its anti-Bush stance -- Madonna even pulled the anti-war American Life video. "It's all about timing," she said. "My timing was a bit off but I stand by the message."
Confessions' first single, Hung Up, samples Abba's 1979 disco anthem Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight). "I love Abba," Madonna said.
Spoiler on EMA performance *rumour*
27 October 2005According to fansite MadonnaTribe, "The Queen of Pop is going to open the MTV European Awards held in Lisbon on November 3rd inside a HUGE disco-mirror-ball. Two dancers are going to be inside the disco ball with her, while the whole number has been choreographed by Jamie King."
They also claim that Madonna will be performing at the Grammy Awards in February 2006, though this hasn't officially been confirmed yet.
Canadian official release party
27 October 2005Madonnafan David Figueiredo informs us about the official warner canada record release party, which is co-organised by himself. The release party will take place on Wednesday November 16th at 5ive Nightclub in Toronto. Thx David!
Madonna: 'I hope I'm still a gay icon'
Source: Gay.com UK - 27 October 2005Madonna has admitted she still hopes she's a gay icon, saying she and her gay fans are "mutually inspired" by one another.
The superstar, who releases her new single Hung Up next month, said she has always worked to fully represent her gay fans, after forming some of her closet friendships with gay men in the 1980s.
"I like to think we've been mutually inspired by one another," she told Attitude magazine.
"Maybe it's because the first person that ever believed in me was gay. My ballet teacher. He was the first person that made me feel like I was special and, I dunno, I think that was the beginning of some kind of unconscious connection."
When asked about her gay icon status, she admitted she "hopes" she is still the biggest gay icon of all time.
However, she also reveals that she agrees with Kylie Minogue's summary of the Australian superstar being the princess, and Madonna the queen.
"That's very good," she says. "We like it that way."
She also told the magazine that the impact of AIDS on her close circle of friends "freaked me out".
"It was in the early days when it was all, like mysterious. It seemed, for a while there, I kept saying to my friends 'It's getting all the beautiful ones, all the beautiful ones are going'."
"It was horrible - we just didn't know what was going on."
The former Material Girl also hit back at criticisms from Boy George that her Kabbalah religion is homophobic.
"He's just got a bee in his bonnet," she says.
"I don't know why he said that. It's not true. I would say that at least 50% of the men who come to the Kabbalah centre are gay, at all the centres I go to. Nobody ever talks about who they sleep with."
The interview, which was conducted by playwright and Attitude deputy editor Matthew Todd, is the first time in years the star has spoken to the gay press.
It launches one of the biggest promotional pushes for a new album the singer has helmed. Confessions On A Dance Floor is released on the 14th November.
COADF available as continuous mix or divided in tracks
27 October 2005iTunes announces two different versions of the album: "We're offering two pre-order versions of the new Madonna album Confessions On A Dance Floor: a single-track continuous dance mix, and a traditional album divided into twelve tracks.
And, for the first time on iTunes, you'll instantly get the radio edit of the single Hung Up when you pre-order either one. You'll also receive the music video for Hung Up and a digital booklet when the albums are released November 15th."
Hung Up (radio edit) is listed at no. 7 in their Top 10 Tracks.
Liz Smith on Roxy visit
Source: NY Post; Madonna.com - 27 October 2005'Gee, it's nice to get out of the house!" That's what Madonna, wife and mother of two kids, said around 3:30 a.m. Saturday night at the Roxy.
A COLUMN'S-eye view of a pop icon's last dance! To say that Madonna is working hard to make her coming Confessions On A Dance Floor CD a hit, would be putting it mildly. She has done everything asked of her by Warner Records, and even more - she has cantered down the streets of the city on a horse with David Letterman (her first equine experience since that terrible fall in England [as pictured Friday on Page Six] ).
And Saturday night, she put in a surprise appearance at the Roxy [as pictured yesterday in The Post], the famous downtown disco where it began for M more than 20 years ago. The Roxy will close next year.
The star materialized in front of several thousand screaming weekend partyers. Wearing a blue dress that looked transparent under the strong lights, she carried a 12-inch vinyl record of Confessions to hand to the DJ. "I can't believe I'm back here after all this time, with 12 inches" she said, deadpan. And then she danced and danced and danced. She pulled stunned and thrilled boys up from the floor and writhed like a teenager herself.
(When her new songs Sorry and Hung Up blasted out, the place went crazy!) She lingered for hours after, chatting informally with everybody who approached. The star left at 4 a.m. looking fresh - looking in fact like the night was only beginning.
Everybody, including Madonna herself, said it was just like the good old days. For a few hours it was.
~ The second picture on the right shows Madonna that same night, but in the other club she visited: MisShapes. Picture courtesy of Fashion Wire Daily.
Sharleen: 'Madonna's still hungry!'
Source: MTV - 27 October 2005Sharleen Spiteri says that her mate Madonna is still hungry. But it's not food that Madge is still hungry for; it's music!
Speaking as guest on today's TRL, the Texas leading lady explained that both Madonna - a close friend of hers - and herself are still full of musical desire, despite the fact that between them they've been making records for roughly 200 years.
"I know Madonna, she's a lovely lady. She's someone that I really respect," said Sharleen. "She's astounding. It's very hard to be a woman in the music industry and to keep it going for that length of time and to still be making good music - which is what she's doing, it's amazing.
"I think she's still really hungry for it."
Madonna always questioned religion
Source: Irish Examiner - 27 October 2005Pop queen Madonna has no time for religious doctrines which discourage people from questioning their beliefs, because she has always sought her own unique path through life.
The Like A Virgin singer, who is now a devout follower of Jewish mystic writings the Kabbalah, was raised in a Catholic household.
But Madonna refused to adhere to her home's Christian values because she could see no meaning behind the strict religious rules.
The 47-year-old singer says: "The rules didn't make sense. The rules didn't give any answers, so I was being rebellious for no particular reason.
"I reject the attitude of any religious organisation that does not encourage you to ask questions and do your own exploration."
Madonna amazed by Father's Moore friendship
Source: ContactMusic - 27 October 2005Pop superstar Madonna is amazed her father has struck up a friendship with Michael Moore, because he is a firm supporter of US President George W Bush.
Republican Tony Ciccone, who lives near Moore's Michigan home, first befriended the Fahrenheit 9/11 documentary-maker when Madonna asked him to deliver a case of his wine to mark staunch Democrat Moore's birthday.
The 47-year-old singer says, "Here's the irony of all ironies: he's now really good friends with Michael Moore.
"They live near each other in northern Michigan, where my father has his vineyards, and several things happened.
"It was Michael's birthday, and I wanted to send him a gift. I said, 'Dad, would you drive over a case of your wine? Can you do that for me?'
"He put a whole basket together with pasta and a sausage, and he and my stepmother went bearing gifts."
And Madonna was astonished to receive a phone call from her father expressing his admiration for Moore: "He called me later and casually said, 'Oh yeah, we stayed and had a cup of tea.
"'He's so nice, we really liked him.' I'm like, 'You are kidding me Dad!'"
Madonna's sexuality hurt people
Source: ContactMusic - 27 October 2005Pop queen Madonna regrets the strong sexuality she displayed early on in her career, because it hurt lots of people, including herself.
The Music star now realises the carnal side to her public persona contradicted the ideas she was trying to get across to her audience, and she wishes she had been more focused on her empowering message.
She says, "One minute I was saying, 'Believe in yourself,' and the next I was saying, 'Be sexually provocative for the sake of being sexually provocative.' Now that's confusing.
"Ultimately, none of us wants to be judged or approved of or loved just because of the way we look or how sexy we are. We want people to appreciate us for who we are on the inside.
"So I didn't exactly help people by being an exhibitionist.
"I think I hurt myself too, because I ended up devaluing my original message, that anybody could do anything - it's about what's on the inside. Then I was glorifying the outside."
Madonna's kids avoid her music
Source: ContactMusic - 27 October 2005Madonna is never treated like a superstar by her children, because they're fed up with having to listen to her music all the time.
The Material Girl has two children, Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, five, both of whom would rather spend their free time doing anything but listen to their mother's albums.
Madonna says, "(Lourdes) knows I'm a singer. She's seen me onstage performing. She knows I make videos for MTV, but she doesn't watch it, so she doesn't ask any questions.
"My kids have my records and play them once in a while, but they're sick of my music. They come to my shows all the time - who wants to hear my music in the house? I don't want to hear it."
Liz hits back at Bon Jovi
Source: NY Daily News - 25 October 2005Madonna may have embraced the mystical teachings of the kaballa, but she can do without parenting advice from Jon Bon Jovi.
"Madonna takes [her] kids, [Rocco and Lourdes,] out to every premiere she ever goes to," scolds the New Jersey rocker.
"These kids have done nothing, and yet we all know what they look like."
Talking to the London Daily Mail, the rocker says, "I've been in this industry for 22 years and no one has any idea what my four kids look like. … My kids don't have security guards outside their school because no one knows what they look like."
Madonna's rep, Liz Rosenberg, argues: "Madonna has never brought her children to a movie premiere.
"I'm delighted to hear what an authority Mr. Bon Jovi is on Madonna's talents as a mother," she tells us.
"He can rest assured [Madonna's] kids are, cherished, adored, well fed, respected and are extremely loved and well protected by their parents."
Some facts about I'm Going To Tell You A Secret
24 October 2005
Some things you'll see: auditions, rehearsals (including I'm So Stupid!), hotel rooms, prayers before the show, Guy & Madonna teasing, Lola & Rocco playing, party, Ciccone vineyard, a drunk Madonna in the pub, Madonna taking her dancers to a piano concert, opening and closing night, jokes, poems, fun, emotions,...
Some people you'll see: the dancers, the band, Guy Ritchie, Lola, Rocco, Madonna's dad, Michael Moore, Gwyneth Palthrow, Iggy Pop
Talks about: spirituality, politics, Kabbalah, childhood, marriage,...
Performances from the tour: Vogue, American Life, Mother And Father, Nobody Knows Me, Music, Hollywood, Lament, Like A Prayer, Holiday.
Tour stops in: LA, NYC, Las Vegas, London, Dublin, Paris, Lisbon
Songs in the background: Paradise, Frozen, Your Honesty, Material Girl, Mer Girl, I Want You, Hanky Panky, X-Static Process, I Love New York, Beautiful Stranger, Rain, Amazing, Die Another Day, Something To Remember, Words, I'll Remember, Vogue, Nobody Knows Me
Madonna may be 'Sorry' for borrowing lines
Source: Boston Herald - 24 October 2005Michael Jackson's debt prayers may have been answered, and by none other than the Kabbalah Crier formerly known as Madonna! The 47-year-old Queen of Pop sampled bass lines from a Jackson-penned song on her latest album, Confessions On A Dance Floor, according to FOX News.
Her song, Sorry has a segment from Jacko and brother Jackie's 1981 song, 'Can You Feel It?' The song is published by Jackson's company, MiJac Co., and although his share of MiJac is only about $70 million, he'll still collect royalties. He had better cross his fingers her tune turns into a money-making single!
Madonna pokes fun at husband's ju-jitsu
Source: ContactMusic - 24 October 2005Madonna giggles every time she thinks of husband Guy Ritchie's love of martial arts - because she's convinced it's little more than heterosexual men making love.
The pop superstar accuses the British movie-maker of "usurping" her security guards and turning them into his "ju-jitsu partners" - and she find it hilarious.
She says, "I think men can't resist the invitation to fight one another and they get into their shorts and they lay down on the floor and they just hug each other for two hours.
"They sweat and they hug and they grunt and they sit on each other's faces.
"My husband's more into it with the people he does ju-jitsu with than he is with me - like, sometimes I walk in and I'm like, 'We haven't done that position!'"
~ This article is based on Madonna's documentary.
Madonna traumatised by wet Irish show
Source: ContactMusic - 24 October 2005Madonna's 2004 concert at Ireland's Slane Castle was her most traumatising and exhilarating live show because she had to perform in a torrential downpour.
The pop superstar took her Re-Invention Tour to Ireland at the end of last summer (AUG 04) and spent the show worrying that she'd slip and fall or one of her dancers would be electrocuted.
But, with everyone getting through the show unscathed, Madonna recalls it being a magical night - even though she can't remember a thing about what happened after she came off stage.
She remembers, "80,000 people, big castle in the background, a full moon that everyone says sailed over the stage as soon as I arrived.
"I felt so much love and joy and I couldn't believe that the people in the audience just stood there for six hours in the rain and didn't move.
"But, on the other hand, it was freezing cold, it was raining off and on through the whole show. When I was singing NOTHING FAILS I was outside of the coverage of my stage and the rain was just pelting me.
"It was so difficult to do my show; it felt like I was in a war zone and I had to keep looking out for things, like slipping off of railings and sliding on the floor and jumping in the puddles and I was constantly worried for the dancers, so I was kind of traumatised through the whole show. "And then when the show ended I don't remember what happened."
~ This article is based on Madonna's documentary, where they report on the Slane Castle gig.
Madonna's £ 6500 eyes
Source: Daily Record - 24 October 2005Madonna sparkled as she batted her £6500 diamond-encrusted, real mink false eyelashes at clubbers. The star left onlookers at a New York nightspot open-mouthed when she played tracks from her new album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Her luxury lashes were designed by make-up artist Gina Brooke, who added the jewels to Madonna's upper eyelids after commissioning 30 pairs of £565-a-set mink lashes for Madge's tour.
Madonna nearly walked out on Guy Ritchie
Source: Digital Spy - 24 October 2005Madonna nearly walked out on Guy Ritchie in the early days of their marriage.
The star has admitted that she rushed into making a commitment and couldn't stop rowing with her new husband.
"I got married for all the wrong reasons," she explained in MTV documentary I'm Going to Tell You A Secret. "My husband did not turn out to be everything I had imagined him to be. I just wanted to end everything."
It was only later that the Queen of Pop realised that her expectations of marriage were wrong and that Ritchie was the perfect man for her.
"There's no such thing as the perfect soulmate," she added. "Your soul-mate is the person that pushes all your buttons - p****s you off on a regular basis. It's not easy having a good marriage but I don't want easy. I thank God every day that I married a man who made me think. That's my definition of true love."
Madonna DJs at New York club
Source: NME - 24 October 2005The star makes a shock appearance behind the decks.
Madonna has made a surprise guest DJ appearance at a New York club to debut songs from her new album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
The star appeared at MisShapes party at the club Luke And Leroy in the West Village on Saturday (October 22).
Madonna did a 30-minute DJ set with her Producer/Remixer Stuart Price, aka Jacques Lu Cont. She was also accompanied by Maverick Records chairman Guy Oseary, her publicist Liz Rosenberg and close pal Lenny Kravitz.
Madonna told the packed crowd via microphone, "You all have to relax and have fun and we're going to play you some really good songs!" which was followed by the small audience's thunderous applause.
Also with Madonna was one of her remixers, DJ Junior Sanchez, who said, "Madonna DJing MisShapes was inevitable, with such a refreshing, young, cutting edge new album, she had to expose it to the most refreshing young night in New York."
As Madonna and Price played records and danced in the DJ booth, Sanchez went on to say, "Getting her to connect with today's and tomorrow's nightlife is where she needs to be because that is where she has always been."
The MisShapes, Geordon Nicol, Leigh Lezark and Greg.k, are as well known for their weekly event and as a DJ team as they are for the myriad of celebrity guests that have chosen to DJ the party.
Those who have spun discs there include Kelly Osbourne, Brandon Flowers of The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and Dior Homme designer Heidi Slimane.
Confessions... is out on November 14.
Request Hung Up!
23 October 2005Mad-Eyes has received a few mails from worried US fans, who complain that Hung Up isn't played a lot on their radio stations, fearing the radio DJs might still boycott Madonna like they did with the singles from the American Life album.
But it's up to the fans to make this a hit! Make sure you get your voice heard, as Madonna taught us! Keep calling and mailing your local radio station to request Hung Up.
If you can't get through to your local station, you can also contact ClearChannel, who owns many US radio stations. Let them know you like the song and that you want to hear your favorite songs on your radio!
Madonna at Roxy!
23 October 2005Rumours had been circulating already when a flyer for Peter rauhofer at the New York club The Roxy mentioned "special guest" and the typical disco ball that also appears on the album cover. And yes indeed, around 2am last night, Madonna appeared at the club, where she danced to her songs Hung Up, I Love New York and Sorry.
She interacted a lot with the crowd, even pulling some people up to the stage to dance with her. Check DrownedMadonna and Madonna.nu for some great pictures of Madonna, dancing in her gorgeous electric blue outfit!
True confessions of a 'spiritual' Madonna
Source: CTV - 22 October 2005She's been a movie queen, a dominatrix, a dance floor diva and a political activist but Madonna's latest reinvention may catch some of her more hard core fans off guard.
The Material Girl may be enjoying domestic bliss as a wife and mother, but with a new album and documentary soon to be released she's ready to tear up the dance floor.
Her highly anticipated Confessions On A Dance Floor once again proves that just when you thought she was in danger of slipping out of 'vogue' Madonna reinvents herself and in the process rejuvenates an entire genre.
This time she's turned dance music on its ear, producing what the pop diva describes as a much more personal recording with deeper lyrics. Optimistically hoping fans will think while they dance.
"Generally people don't make dance music that makes you think, but I wanted to do that, to reinvent the whole genre of dance music," she told eTALKDAILY's Ben Mulroney in New York.
Take the album for what it is, she added.
"You can dance or you can psychoanalyze me. It doesn't irritate me when people do that at all."
Confessions is already meeting with positive reviews even before its Nov. 14 release. A newspaper in England called it "an hour of pure electronic dance/pop heaven, with no weak track, and should be hailed as a masterpiece."
The album follows a classic dance club format, segueing from song to song.
Along with the first single, Hung Up, Confessions includes a sample of Abba's classic "Gimme Gimme," as well as dance-themed cuts Get Together, Sorry, Future Lovers and Isaac.
The last track has some Kabbalist rabbis up in arms alleging the song is about a 16th century mystic Yitzhak Luria, whose name they say should not be used for profit.
Madonna's more 'spiritual' self is also seen in her new documentary which premiered in New York this week and will debut on MTV in America.
I'm Going To Tell You A Secret chronicles her 2004 Re-Invention Tour and is a far cry from the blatant sexuality and self-involved diva Madonna paraded to the world 12 years ago in 1993's Truth or Dare.
Secret shows Madonna sharing screen time with her musical director, dancers and choreographer, as well as other members of the crew. It also shows rare scenes with her children who travelled with her on tour.
"To me confession means revealing something about yourself, telling the truth, being courageous," she told eTALK.
"I think the nature of the documentary is to go behind the scenes. You have to be willing to tell the truth. If I'm going to make a documentary of life on the road I have to include my family, so I couldn't just leave them out."
In one part, a man tells Madonna, "I don't really believe in God."
"That really hurts me to hear that," Madonna responds.
At the screening in New York Madonna admitted to being nervous. She was worried her film might bore her fans and hoped people would appreciate the changes she's been through.
"It would be kind of tragic and pathetic if I was still the same person," she told ABC News after the film. "I think that while I had some redeeming traits and qualities when I made Truth or Dare , … there's a lot about me that I think is kind of selfish and kind of juvenile, and I'm happy to know that I've evolved and moved on."
As a multi-media artist who has conquered pretty much everything as a singer, writer and producer, Madonna's next move could lead her to the stage. She told eTALK that her next project might be musical theatre.
"I did write about 20 songs over the last couple of years for a musical, for which I never ended up doing," Madonna told Ben. "I love the idea of writing a musical."
But when asked if we might one day see her name on the marquee, Madonna said she had a different casting choice in mind.
"Maybe I'll just wait a couple of years and my daughter can do it," she said with a smile.
And if one day Madonna pens a new musical you can bet it will debut on a Toronto stage.
Fifteen years after her notorious 1990 run-in with Toronto police who threatened to shut down her Blond Ambition concert, Madonna has a new attitude about the city.
"I'm not just saying this to flatter you, but I have to say that one of my favourite shows was Toronto," she said about 2004's Re-Invention Tour concert in the city.
"I thought the crowd was amazing. I remember leaving Toronto going: 'Ya this is why I do what I do'."
Asked by Ben what she'd most like to be remembered for, she said with a laugh, "It ain't over yet."
"I think firstly to be able to have a successful career that spans two decades is a blessing, so I'm grateful for that. I'll be remembered for tenacity, I guess."
Hung Up is Donna's 'smaakmaker'
21 October 2005Belgian Radio Donna has already been playing Hung Up a lot over the past few days and it doesn't come as a surprise (but exciting nonetheless) that they've chosen the single to be next weeks "smaakmaker" (taste of the week), which means it'll be played once during each prgram for an entire week.
Chart expectations for Hung Up
Source: Billboard - 21 October 2005Fred,
I'm just wondering what's going on with the new Madonna single, Hung Up. Have the dance clubs, downloaders and radio already "hung up" on this project?
I haven't seen the song on any Billboard chart, not even the Dance Club Playlist, where she usually vaults straight to No. 1. It hasn't appeared on the Hot Ringtones chart despite a massive television promotion.
We all know that radio no longer welcomes her thanks to the cold shoulder given to Hollywood and Love Profusion (two excellent songs from her last project), so it's unlikely to see Hot 100 action either.
If this song doesn't even chart, what do you think the prospects are for what I thought was a much-anticipated dance-oriented album saleswise? I was hoping for a Mariah Carey type of comeback but I'm perplexed by the silence regarding this song. I can't even find it myself to download!
Thanks,
George Kitchens III
Dear George,
As you probably know by now, you were expecting results too early. Your e-mail was sent on Oct. 17. That was the day Madonna's Hung Up was originally scheduled to be world premiered. That means it wouldn't have received any airplay prior to this date, wouldn't have been available for downloading prior to this date and wouldn't have been eligible to chart yet.
I say "originally scheduled" because despite deep security, the song leaked to radio on Thursday, Oct. 13. As a result, Madonna's label released the track to radio on Friday, Oct. 14, to level the playing field. Hung Up did debut on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart at No. 25 and the Hot Dance Radio Airplay tally at No. 10.
On the latter chart, Hung Up is tied with Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl" for the second highest debut in this chart's short history. Since the Dance Radio Airplay chart was introduced the week of Aug. 16, 2003, the highest debut was the No. 5 bow of Ciara's "1, 2 Step" the week of Jan. 29.
With Hung Up turning up in iTunes' top 10 almost immediately, and with airplay factored on, I would expect a high debut on next week's Hot 100. I think that bodes well for the album on The Billboard 200.
Single review: Achieved the seemingly impossible yet again
Source: Billboard Magazine - 21 October 2005Producer(s): Madonna, Stuart Price
Writer(s): Madonna, S. Price, B. Andersson, B. Ulvaeus
Publisher(s): various
Genre: POP
Label/Catalog Number: Warner Bros. (digital download)
Originally Reviewed: October 29, 2005
The queen of reinvention has achieved the seemingly impossible yet again. In the footsteps of her least successful album ever, 2003's preachy, melody-breaching American Life, Madonna returns with a song that will restore faith among her minions, fans of pop music and radio programmers.
Hung Up is pure distraction: frothy and nonsensical and joyous. With an extravagant sample of ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," the song delivers instant familarity, but Stuart Price and Madonna add a chug-along groove and singalong call to arms that build Hung Up into its own worthy creation.
Yes, Madonna, we still believe in the beat.
- Chuck Taylor
No gig at Camden Palace
Source: Hampstead & Highgate Express - 21 October 2005Rumours of a return to Camden Palace by the Queen of Pop have been quashed by the club's new owners.
Madonna made her first live UK performance at the legendary venue in Camden High Street in 1983 and was this week said to be planning a repeat performance.
But a spokeswoman for the club, which has been relaunched as Koko, said: "There is nothing confirmed from this end so don't believe it until there is."
The rumours started on a fan website.
Madonna signs CSI deal
Source: ContactMusic - 21 October 2005Pop superstar Madonna signed up to debut one of her new tracks on the hit CSI TV franchise.
The producers of CSI: Miami and CSI: NY have paid the Music singer to preview her new dance song Hung Up on two special crossover episodes, which will air in the US next month (NOV05).
The track, from Madonna's upcoming album, Confessions On A Dance Floor, will play at a pivotal moment on CSI: Miami on 7 November (05), and in a follow-on CSI: NY episode two days later.
Madonna thanks Moore for documentary help
Source: ContactMusic - 21 October 2005Pop superstar Madonna has thanked controversial film-maker Michael Moore for aiding the creative process of her new tour documentary I'm Going To Tell You A Secret.
The Like A Prayer singer initially wanted Academy Award winner Moore to direct the movie about her 2004 Re-Invention Tour, and although their schedules didn't overlap Moore still offered his services.
She says, "Michael Moore was very instrumental in helping me, even before I began filming.
"He actually offered to direct it, but he was editing Fahrenheit 9/11. He said, 'Can't you delay your tour and do it later?', and I said no.
"He said, 'I'll be there for you if you want to show me stuff, or want me to help out. But just remember one thing: you write the script in the editing room. Just shoot as much as you can'.
"And we did. We had 350 hours. The hardest thing is to edit."
Jonas Akerlund ended up directing I'm Going To Tell You A Secret.
Madonna forces Ritchie to confront snoring
Source: ContactMusic - 21 October 2005Madonna has forced husband Guy Ritchie to undergo treatment for his snoring, so she can sleep ahead of her forthcoming World Tour.
The director recently revealed he is often forced to sleep apart from the pop superstar because of his noisy affliction.
But Madonna has forced Ritchie to confront his problem, so she can build up strength for the gruelling tour, to support her new album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
She says, "I have actually been sleeping with him lately. That's because he's been wearing tape on his nose.
"They've got all these remedies for snoring nowadays - they've got drops, they've got tape. He's a very loud snorer. It's the worst."
Madonna frets about 'boring her fans' at film premiere
Source: ABC7 Chicago - 21 October 2005The usually unflappable Madonna had a minor meltdown when she premiered her new documentary in New York, worrying her fans might find it "boring."
"I was sitting there in the theater at the back, showing it to people for the first time. I mean, it was like a puddle of sweat around my feet," Madonna told ABC News Radio's Andrea Dresdale in an exclusive interview.
"It was like, 'Oh my God, oh my God, I hope I did the right thing. Oh, that scene is too long. Oh, that's too short. Are they going to get this part? Are they going to like this? Oh, they're going to think it's boring!' Just worrying the whole way, biting my fingernails off."
The documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, premieres on MTV this Friday and follows the pop icon's Re-Invention Tour, from dancer auditions to rehearsals and opening night all the way through the final show and her visit to Israel last fall.
Madonna says she's clearly not the same person who she was when she made her provocative 1993 documentary Truth or Dare - and she hopes fans will appreciate the change.
"It would be kind of tragic and pathetic if I was still the same person," she says. "I think that while I had some redeeming traits and qualities when I made 'Truth or Dare,' & there's a lot about me that I think is kind of selfish and kind of juvenile, and I'm happy to know that I've evolved and moved on."
After working on the new film for a year, Madonna screened the movie for fans and contest winners in New York City, but it has not been shown publicly. But the singer says it reflects her current values.
"When I got to the end of it [the screening] & I could feel that people enjoyed it. That was a huge relief for me," she says.
"I want everyone to really feel a sense of responsibility for the world around them, but more importantly, I want them to feel inspired and to really feel like they can make a difference. That's really my intention in making the film."
Madonna misled by material world
Source: ContactMusic - 21 October 2005Madonna admits she got it all wrong when she preached about being a Material Girl.
The pop superstar is now a follower of mystical Jewish teachings the Kabbalah, which rejects the pursuit of material possessions - but she insists its not fair to accuse her of confusing fans with mixed messages, because she was confused as well.
She says, "Life is a paradox. To tell people that the material world isn't important is upsetting because we've all bought into this idea, and it seems like I'm criticising people.
"AIl I'm saying is that it took me a very long time to grow up and realise how myopic my world was, and I'm just sharing my story."
Madonna gets back on the horse
Source: AP - 21 October 2005Madonna got back up on the horse again - with an assist from David Letterman. The talk show host and Madonna rode two horses along 53rd Street in Manhattan on the "Late Show," the singer's first ride since being thrown from a horse in England this summer.
The battered superstar suffered three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a broken hand in the August accident.
Letterman, a novice rider himself, traded stories about tumbles. Madonna explained that she hadn't been back on a horse since her fall "because my record company is not very keen on the idea of me injuring myself."
"I have a bit of excitement tainted with fear," she said before climbing on.
~ Check CBS for a short videoclip of Madonna and Dave riding their horses.
No docu broadcast for Europe
20 October 2005Mad-Eyes contacted MTV Netherlands [which also broadcasts in Belgium] about the premiere of I'm Going To Tell You A Secret on friday the 21st.
Unfortunately they replied that this special hasn't been cleared for Europe, so they don't have the rights to broadcast it. Seems Warner didn't think about the fans outside the US... again.
Hung Up debutes at #51 in Canadian airplay chart
20 October 2005Canadian Mad-Eyes reader Peter Ash shares with us: "Hung Up debuted at #51 on the Official Canadian Airplay chart.
What's amazing is that the chart is for the Oct 10-17 period, and with Hung Up being released to radio only on the 17th, that position was obtained with only the one day of airplay!"
Madonna joins Morgan Freeman as Honorary Co-Chair of PUNA
20 October 2005Academy Award winner, Morgan Freeman, Honorary Chair, for the Pasadena-Foothills Chapter of the United Nations Association (PUNA) announced today that popular singer and music artist, Madonna will join him as Honorary Co-chair for PUNA's October 22, fundraiser to celebrate the 60 years of the United Nations (UN).
Comedian and alumni Saturday Night Live cast member, Nora Dunn, will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies. This year's event brings the UN's goals for Human Rights back into focus, as the organization highlights the United Nation's 8 Millennium Development Goals to create a better world.
Read rest of press release at PRweb.
Madonna upset her kids with Live8 performance
Source: ContactMusic - 20 October 2005Madonna considered snubbing Sir Bob Geldof's offer to perform at the London leg of Live 8, because she was unrehearsed and had promised her kids a trip to the countryside.
The Material Girl agreed to the July (05) charity gig when newspapers began confirming her attendance before she'd agreed to perform.
But, despite her initial reservations, Madonna is pleased to have taken part.
She tells British magazine Attitude, "I promised my children I'd go to the countryside. They'd just finished school and they were really mad at me.
"Bob was like, 'Africa's more important than your children!' He's really pushy, that guy. I said, 'OK, let me think about it,' and the next thing I read in the newspaper that I was doing it and I hadn't even answered him yet.
"I don't regret that I did it - it turned out to be an amazing thing. It's just I don't like to do half-a*sed shows, and I didn't have any time to rehearse.
"Everybody else in the show was on tour already, and they had their bands and were just stopping in to do a song. I had to think, 'What am going to do?'
"But it turned out good."
Bon Jovi hits out at Madonna
Source: Irish Examiner - 20 October 2005Rocker Jon Bon Jovi has expressed distaste for celebrities who expose their children to the world's press, and he's singled out Madonna as an example of what not to do.
The Livin' On A Prayer star is proud he keeps his kids out the media eye.
He says: "She can say what she likes but Madonna takes those kids out to every premiere she ever goes to. These kids have done nothing and yet we all know what they look like. It's crazy, man, but each to their own.
"I've been in this industry for 22 years and no one has any idea what my four kids look like. I keep my private life private and I always have.
"My kids don't have security guards outside their school because no one knows what they look like. And that's the way I'm going to keep it."
Album review: New album is Madge-ic
Source: The Sun - 20 October 2005Anyone who thought Madonna might have abdicated as the Queen of Pop can kneel at her throne once more. I'm the first journo IN THE WORLD to have heard her new album - and it is an absolute belter.
Confessions On A Dance Floor wipes the, er, floor with her critically acclaimed CDs such as Ray Of Light. It is an hour of pure electronic dance/pop heaven.
Madonna says: "I want people to jump out of their seats. It's about having a good time straight through and non-stop."
And she's absolutely right about that. There are no gaps between tracks so listening feels like you are having a private DJ session at the Ministry Of Sound.
I can't find a weak track, and I'm confident the album will be hailed a masterpiece on its November 14 release.
Below is my track-by-track guide, with ratings out of ten.HUNG UP: Featuring a sample from Abba's Gimme Gimme Gimme this is a massive floor filler and a clear No1 single. While there's no way on earth a straight bloke could be seen dead dancing to this camp tune it will go down a storm when she performs it at London's G.A.Y. nightclub next month. 9
GET TOGETHER: Upbeat track which borrows the bass line from the Stardust dance classic Music Sounds Better With You. She sings, "Do you believe we can change the future?" 8
SORRY: One of the best tracks on the album and likely to be the second single. You'll recognise the infectious bass line on the chorus as it's a sample from The Jacksons' 1981 hit Can You Feel It. The opening features Madonna saying "sorry" in lots of different languages. 10
FUTURE LOVERS: Madonna wrote this with Mirwais Ahmadzai, who produced her No1 album, Music. It's heavy on synths and you can spot a sample from the Donna Summer/Moroder club anthem I Feel Love. 9
I LOVE NEW YORK: Banging dance tune with lyrics featuring a pop at George Bush and his home state. She sings: "If you don't like my attitude then you can just f off. Just go to Texas, that's where they play golf." The chorus is: "Los Angeles is for those who sleep, Paris and London baby you can keep, No other city will make me dance like New York" 10
LET IT WILL BE: Oddly titled track uses the string opening from Papa Don't Preachplayed on a synth. The track is reminiscent of Ray Of Light. An Eighties-sounding string of chords takes the track into the following number. 10
FORBIDDEN LOVE: This is Kraftwerk inspired and features computer generated, vocoder style vocals. It sounds very Eighties and is slightly slower than the rest of the album (there are no ballads at all on the CD). 8
JUMP: Features classic Madonna vocals and is reminiscent of Into The Groove. She sings: "The only thing you can depend on is your family." 9
HOW HIGH: All about Madonna analysing and evaluating her fame and success. She sings: "It's funny I spent my whole life wanting to be talked about, Was it all worth it? I guess I deserve it, How high are the stakes?" 10
ISAAC: By far my favourite track - a stunning combination of wild rhythms, a hypnotic jewish chant and loads of strings and guitars. The ending is borrowed from Die Another Day. I defy anyone to not be blown away by this track. 11
PUSH: A love song for Madonna's husband Guy. It's got a funky La Isla Bonita vibe about it and is ear-marked as a possible single. She sings about Guy: "I owe it all to you, It's because you push me, Keep on pushing like nobody." 10
LIKE IT OR NOT: A bit like her hit Fever, this song is once again Madonna analysing herself and saying, take me as I am. She sings: "You can call me a sinner or a saint, This is who I am, You can like it or not, You can love me or leave me, But I'm never going to stop."This track completes the album beautifully with a classical guitar ending. Quite clever to put out a wholly electronic album - and close it with an acoustic guitar. 10
Madonna denies blasphemy charges, explains origin of 'Isaac'
Source: MTV Asia - 20 October 2005No matter what Madonna does, she courts controversy - and her latest album and documentary are no different.
Confessions On A Dance Floor made news last week when Israeli Kabbalist rabbis declared one of the album's songs to be a "great sin," while the tour documentary I'm Going To Tell You a Secret has just started making headlines for some of the religious commentary in it.
"What are you going to do?" Madonna asked in exasperation at the movie's premiere Tuesday night in Manhattan.
The song that has religious leaders up in arms is called Isaac, which the rabbis said was about the 16th century Jewish mystic Yitzhak Luria, whose name, according to Jewish law, is not to be used for profit. Rabbis Rafael Cohen and Israel Deri told the Israeli newspaper Maariv that Madonna singing a song about Luria was "unacceptable" and that they're asking that she be thrown out of the Kabbalah community.
"The absurd thing is that it's not what they think it is," Madonna said. "It's not a song about Isaac Luria. I don't know anything about Isaac Luria, so I couldn't write a song about him. The song is called Isaac because the man who is singing on it is named Isaac. I think one person saw that name and decided that they were going to go out and say I was doing something blasphemous, and it's just not true."
It is true, though, that religious ideas play a large part in the documentary - they're just not addressed in a shocking way, as the headlines would have you believe.
Yes, she read from the book of Revelations, and yes, her dancers dressed in religious garb and marched down a runway during American Life - but that's old news to anyone who saw her Re-Invention Tour. Madonna's glib commentary about priests and nuns shouldn't shock anyone who's seen her videos, but all the attention on those brief moments undermines the larger themes she tried to get across - bridging religions, bringing people together, hoping for peace.
Perhaps her message was most clearly expressed through her cover of John Lennon's Imagine, which she played each night on the tour. "I think John Lennon was a prophet in so many ways," Madonna said. "It could have been written 100 years ago or 100 years from now, the words still mean the same."
The song doesn't present a message particular to her Kabbalist leanings, she emphasized. "I would make a distinction between spirituality and religion," she said. "To a large degree, religion does separate people, you know: 'This is my group; if you're not in this group, I'm better than you.' And there's a lot of discrimination in the world because of that. I'm a big fan of being spiritual. I'm not a big fan of being religious in that sort of elitist way."
Madonna said spirituality is even more powerful than politics when it comes to changing the world for the better. "Historically, you get rid of one despot, another pops in his place," she said. "You have to get involved in the community around you, and there's a way you can use politics to make a change, but I don't think it's going to change everything."
That's why she went to Israel, she said - an experience that caps the end of the documentary. She was originally supposed to perform there, but the shows were canceled for security reasons. While she was there, she gave a fundraising speech in Tel Aviv for Spirituality for Kids, a group whose goals include bringing Israeli and Palestinian kids together.
"They bring kids in from abused homes and they bring them in with their parents and teach them how to relate to one another and to relate to each other with human dignity," she explained. "My daughter, who attends classes, is learning about her ego and how she can control it. Who would have thought you could learn that when you were a child?
"I think it was important to show that aspect, and put my money where my mouth is," she added. "Because all during the show, all during the film, I'm saying we have to take responsibility not just for ourselves but the world around us. I talk the talk, do I walk the walk?"
Madonna lectures NYC college film students
Source: AP - 19 October 2005The hulking security guards standing at the side of a Hunter College lecture hall was a big hint that their usual professor might be taking the afternoon off. When the lights came up and Madonna walked in, that confirmed it.
The former Material Girl surprised students at a film course who had just seen an advance screening of her tour documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret.
Her appearance was filmed for the mtvU network series "Stand In," where celebrities such as Marilyn Manson, Bill Gates, Shimon Peres, Melissa Etheridge and Kanye West have appeared as guest lecturers at colleges.
Many of the students were about the age Madonna was when she moved from Michigan to New York, determined to make it first as a dancer, then as a singer.
"I wanted to be different," she said Tuesday. "I wanted to be somebody."
Asked by a student what drove her to succeed, the 47-year-old pop star said, "It's one of those things you can't really answer. You're either hungry and determined to make it, or you're not. I know a lot of people who, when they got rejected, they accepted what people said about them. I never did that."
Madonna, who was raised a Roman Catholic, said she was led toward Jewish mysticism following a spiritual quest that began when she had children.
"Being a celebrity, you can get very caught up and seduced into believing and thinking that what you do is the most important thing in the world and get very attached to material things," she said. "I'm guilty of that and I'm still guilty of that, but hopefully I'm becoming less attached."
When she studied Kabbalah, it was the first time she felt encouraged to ask questions.
"Kabbalah may not be the best thing for everybody," she said. "It has worked for me."
The wife of filmmaker Guy Ritchie offered a piece of personal advice: "The best thing to do is find one person in your life and try to love them unconditionally. If you've accomplished that, you've accomplished a lot."
Madonna: Back on the job
Source: CBS - 19 October 2005Madonna hasn't let motherhood or a recent horseback riding accident slow her down.
In fact, observes The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith, you could argue that she's busier than ever.
"The Material Girl" gave Smith an exclusive interview as Madonna visited MTV's "TRL," whose audience gave her a wild welcome.
It's been two decades since Madonna first appeared on MTV but, says Smith, even to fans who weren't born then, Madonna is as big as it gets.
She was appearing on TRL to promote her new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor, which Madonna told Smith is an "all-dance record. I decided I wanted to make a record that made people happy, that lifted people up, that gave people hope. And I wanted to make a record where you could put it on and, for a whole hour, you could dance nonstop and not have to skip past anything, skip past slow songs, or go to another record."
But, Smith points out, Madonna's life is about more than music these days.
She's a children's book author with two kids of her own, and she's determined to raise them right.
"The number one rule," Madonna says, "is to be grateful and say, 'Please' and 'Thank you.' Yeah. That's the number one rule. … Cleaning your room, that's another one. Brushing your teeth."
And if they don't do those things? "Oh, I just scream and nag at them, like most parents."
Looking at her, Smith remarks, you'd never know that, on her 47th birthday in August, she broke several bones falling off a horse.
"I had to do nothing for a month, which was excruciatingly painful for me, to just sit still and let my bones heal," Madonna recalls, describing it as, "the hardest thing I've ever done. And after that, starting to do rehab religiously, and taking lots of supplements. And I had to stop drinking coffee and, uh, nightmare. Nightmare."
Is she shaken?
"No. I'm OK. I'm OK. I'm not completely 100 percent yet, but I'm getting there."
Madonna even took time to give Smith a quick dancing lesson, involving arm rolls.
She has a documentary coming out called, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret.
It's premiering Tuesday night in New York. Smith will be there, and have a sneak peek Wednesday, along with a red carpet report.
Later in the week, the documentary will be on three MTV network channels: MTV, VH1 and Logo, all of which are owned by Viacom, as is CBSNews.com.
Fan reports from docu screening
19 October 2005Madonna introduced it with Jonas Akerlund, she then sat in the back of the theater with the Bergs.It opens with The Beast Within video from the tour, the bass was THUMPIN'.I Love New York is featured near the beginning, it's a rocky cool song, she disses LA saying it's a good city for 'sleepin'!!! I like I Love New York MUCH MORE than Hung Up, it's more my style of music. It's rocky and cool.The performances are OUT OF THIS WORLD, however they are very chopped up and edited. Lament is MINDBLOWING.
Her kids are so adorable.It shows a side of Madonna you've never seen, it's touching and very real. The scenes with her father are beautiful.There's a major section on Kabbalah at the very end, but it's done in good way.She uses a LOT of her music in it.
Guy is funny, there's a funny scene where Madonna is drunk in the pub, Guy is singing songs and eventually Madonna lays down and falls asleep, or pretends to.It's a damn shame that it's not having a theatrical run, it totally deserves it, it's engrossing, entertaining, funny. It's better than most of the other shit out there.She has the shits right before going on stage in NYC, she's like "i keep shitting". They try to film her peeing but she's like 'get out'. It's very funny.
Most of the performance I think were from Paris... with the exception of a little bit of slane and a little bit of Lisbon.Performances included: Vogue, NKM, American Life, Like A Prayer, Mother & Father, Imagine, Lament, ITG, Music, Holiday (not in that exact order)
Details on COADF limited edition
19 October 2005The limited edition of Confessions On A Dance Floor, to be released on December 13th, seems to be one of the best limited editions fans have ever seen. According to Amazon, it won't just contain a bonus track [Fighting Spirit] but also a picture book, a journal book, slip case and free fan club membership!
"I want people to jump out of their seats." -Madonna On Confessions On A Dance Floor, Madonna, the most popular and significant female artist in pop music, returns unapologetically to her roots. A stunning blend of musical styles with one foot in early disco (à la Giorgio Moroder) and the other pointed toward the future, Confessions On A Dance Floor "is all about having a good time straight through and non-stop," says the Material Mom, who co-wrote and co-produced every track.
For Madonna and music fans everywhere, the all-dance, noballad Confessions On A Dance Floor is a welcome guilty pleasure. Special Edition includes, 40 Page Picture Book, 80 Page Blank 'Journal' Book (includes some diary entries from Madonna), 1 Bonus Track, Fan Club Membership. Slip Case. (thx to Glenn turner from MIR)
Highlights from Seacrest interview
19 October 2005Here's a resume of the radio interview by Kiss FM's Ryan Seacrest, that was broadcast together with the Hung Up premiere on monday:
Madonna was introduced as "mother, author, actress, model, dancer, leader, pop star, legend, executive, musician, activist, trend setter, song writer... Madonna"They played Hung Up, then her message of the Confess hotline, then MusicWhy making dance music? "Cause i love to dance. For me the idea of music and dance coming together is the ultimate expression of joy"Wanting to ask about her accident, Ryan Seacrest asks if M can dance and she goes like "What?!"
M said that she recovered mostly and that the accident won't affect her tourAbout the tour: "Lots of disco balls. But I haven't really planned it yet." / "I've got my eyes out for dancers" / "I'll have a lot of costume changes"About the docu: "It's me 12 years later [after Truth Or Dare]. I didn't want to call it Truth or Dare part II, so it's a rip-off of the title. I'm going to tell you a secret; dare to tell the truth. You'll see a lot of behind the scenes, the making of the tour, me cry a lot, you see me be me."What would she say if she called her own Confess line: "I don't think i can say that in front of all these men looking at me."
About the Abba sample: "We had to beg. We had to write a letter and my manager Angela had to fly there with the letter and wear a very fedging outfit and have a long manipulative discussion with them. And then they had to think about it, and they had to hear the song, and they had to think about it. They didn't give up easily. And then they did and asked a lot of money."If an artist wants to use a Madonna sample: "I generally want to hear the music. It's usually based on whether i like the artist and the song."
The effect of motherhood: "I have less free time, but I feel more connected to people, more compassionate. I'm sure that helps me songwriting.The stuff about strict motherhood that we've heard before.More on the album: "I wanted to make an album that you could put on at a party and just dance for an hour straight."
'No More Evian Bottles!'
Source: MTV - 19 October 2005Madonna hasn't let her kids see her classic, controversial 1991 documentary Truth or Dare, which profiled her Blond Ambition Tour. Perhaps she'll let them see her forthcoming I'm Going To Tell You A Secret- which premieres Friday at 10 p.m. on MTV - and not just because they're in it. For her latest re-invention, Madonna's all grown up now.
"It's a different me," she said. "I have a husband, I have a family, my whole life has changed. It would be pretty strange if I was behaving the same way I did 12 years ago - that would be a little freaky. No more Evian bottles!"
Besides ditching the erotic simulations, Madonna's documentary I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, which chronicles her 2004 Re-Invention Tour, also abandons a lot of the self-involvement that made Truth or Dare so candid. This time, she's happy to share screen time with her troupe of dancers, her musical director, her choreographer and others.
She's constantly pushing them to think more, to be more, do more - asking them if they believe in God, if they're registered to vote. She gives one crew member a guitar, so that he'll write more songs. And during one tour stop, she takes her dancers to see a classical pianist play, so that they'll be exposed to passion in another art form.
Still, she tells them just before their last show, crying, that she regrets not having spent more time with them. That's because this time, to contradict Warren Beatty's famous criticism in Truth or Dare, she is living off-camera.
"I think one of the big differences was that I didn't have a family during 'Truth or Dare,' " she said, "so I spent more time with the dancers, doing goofy, crazy, mischievous things with them. This film, it's a juggling act. I do less stuff with the dancers, but I cry, because I love them, and it's very hard to let go of them."
That connection starts right at the beginning, with an audition process where she pointedly looks for dancers not to blend in, but to stand out. She wants them to have "something special" - so they can do solos and not just be in the background.
"I don't think of them as dancers," she explained. "I think of them as actors, as performance artists." She picks one for his skill at tap-dancing, another for breakdancing - and asks them if they smoke marijuana. Not because she's morally opposed, but because she says it'll slow them down in the end.
Because she identifies with them - having worked as a dancer herself - she hates cutting them from the auditions, and seems to be as gleeful when they are when she gets to tell them they've made the cut. "I know what it's like to dance your heart out and have them go, 'Thanks, you can leave now,' " Madonna said. "It's terrible."
It's also terrible, she says, to try to leave her family behind, so she tries to take them on the road with her at times, although her husband seems to prefer hanging out at pubs to seeing every show. Her two kids, meanwhile, have definitely learned a few lessons from mom - including how to steal a scene. Lourdes, 9, sounds impressive when she instructs 4-year-old Rocco to look at "the big picture." Rocco laughs uproariously.
Madonna says she was reluctant at first to include them - she didn't want to exploit them, but if she didn't show that side of her life, the documentary "would be a lie." "It's a fine line to walk," Madonna said. So she ended up taping the segments with her kids with a friend of the family. "Everyone was very comfortable," she said. "Honestly, they didn't even know [the cameraman] was there. They just sort of behaved as they normally do."
Even though Lourdes is a natural, Madonna jokes that she doesn't want her daughter following in her footsteps. "She's going to be a nun!" Madonna declared. But seriously, little Lola is already displaying a talent for ballet, and will be dancing in "The Nutcracker" in London this year.
Perhaps after that, Mom will reconsider letting her daughter see at least this documentary, to see what life as a dancer on the road is really like.
I'm Going To Tell You A Secret premieres on Friday, October 21, at 10 p.m. on MTV. That same day, you can catch this in-depth interview in its entirety when "MTV News RAW: Madonna" premieres exclusively on MTV Overdrive.
Liz Smith defends Mamadonna
Source: Liz Smith from New York Post - 18 October 2005Madonna is in the city, promoting the November release of her CD, Confessions On A Dance Floor and her documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret (I have heard - and even danced to - Confessions, and it is so much fun!)
A few vintage (as in culled from an old interview) Madonna remarks about disciplining her children have recently resurfaced. Some people are aghast - no TV, picking up your clothes, no exposure to relentless media.
Yet M's two kids, Lourdes and Rocco, impress those who meet them as not only well-behaved, but unusually on the ball, sensitive and imaginative. Mrs. Ritchie insists they read. Literacy Partners might consider Madonna as a guest reader some year. She knows the joy and power that comes from losing yourself in a good book.
But Madonna is like any other mom in some ways. Just the other day she and Lourdes dropped in at the dessert emporium Serendipity 3.
M had an egg-white, herb omelet with tomatoes. Lourdes enjoyed the Pasta Angelical, sans prosciutto. Then mother and daughter indulged in Serendipity's famous Frozen Hot Chocolate. Those within earshot commented that 9-year-old Lourdes conducts herself like a "young lady."
It's official: October is Madonna Month
Source: Boston Herald - 18 October 2005The M in MTV is going to stand for Madonna this month.
Yesterday the cable network announced plans to help promote Her Madgesty's upcoming album Confessions On A Dance Floor, due Nov. 15, with a blitz of programming across its affiliated networks.
The Madonna-thon began yesterday when the Material Mom premiered her new single Hung Up on Total Request Live. The infectious number, which debuted locally on Kiss-108's Matty in the Morning Show, samples ABBA's synthtastic "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" and is a full-blown return to disco mode.
The song features a wriggly, Giorgio Moroder-style groove and Madonna berating a lover for giving her the brush-off with lyrics that echo her 1989 Prince duet Love Song.
On Friday, MTV will debut a new Madonna documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, which chronicles the 47-year-old mom's doings both on and offstage during her 2004 Re-Invention Tour.
Later in the month, the Hung Up video will premiere on VH1, MTV's TRL, the gay-targeted network LOGO, MTV Hits and VH1 Classic. Additionally, MTV News and VH1 News will be the first outlets to conduct indepth interviews with Madonna around the album's release.
A 10-minute sneak peek of "Secret" is available on-demand on Vspot, VH1's broadband entertainment service at vspot.vh1.com
~ Meanwhile, Madonna had a party at the Roxy the past weekend, where her friends could listen to the album. She was photographed in New York City in a fabulous Dolce & Gabbana outfit.
Madonna judges TV dance-off
Source: ContactMusic - 18 October 2005Madonna fans got the chance to impress the Material Girl on MTV's Total Request Live yesterday (17 OCT 05) by dancing for the chance to attend a private screening of new documentary I'm Going To Tell You A Secret with the pop superstar.
The Like A Prayer singer brought Times Square, New York to a near standstill when she took over TRL - to judge a dance contest.
She chose a sexy street dancer called St Ise over classically trained Jojo in the final.
Madonna's documentary premieres on MTV on Friday (21 OCT 05).
Single review: She hasn't hung up her dance shoes
Source: GMTV - 18 October 2005Madonna shows she's still the queen of the disco with latest record.
Whilst Madonna has been making the headlines for her rural family life with film director Guy Richie and children Lourdes and Rocco, she's had her hot new album and latest incarnation as dancefloor diva on the backburner.
Madonna Louise Ciccone has been one of the major movers in the music industry for over 20 years with her ability to shake up pop music by working with the hottest producers, writers, stylists and image makers to produce her unique sound and look.
Her latest stirring is no exception and shows that the queen of pop has by no means hung up her dance shoes and is no doubt set to be a huge success.
Described as the ultimate disco record, Madonna says she wants people to jump out of their seats saying: "My record is about having a good time straight through and non stop." She then describes the 12 delicious tunes on her album of pure 'unapologetic' dance music.
"She has a dance halo over her head" says Madonna's co-producer and partner in crime, Grammy-award winner Stuart Price. "It's in her blood. The music came straight from the gut - no preconceived notions - unencumbered - not over edited - just very spontaneous. We sat in my little studio at home and the songs just flowed very quickly," concluded Price.
With one foot in the early roots of her career as a "dance artist" and the other foot planted firmly into the sound of "future disco", Madonna returns to the clubs with a vengeance Confessions On A Dance Floor is scheduled to be released on Warner Bros. Records, November 15th, 2005.
The album's first single Hung Up is scheduled to be released on November 7th.
Single review: It camps up the campest track
Source: Alexis Petridis from The Guardian - 18 October 2005A worldwide radio premiere yesterday heralded the arrival of Madonna's new single, Hung Up - the first stage in a rumoured £5m campaign to promote her forthcoming album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Her last album, 2003's American Life, was the worst-selling of the 48-year-old singer's career. Hung Up certainly represents a departure from its ungainly blend of solipsistic lyrics and bungled efforts to court controversy: a video for the title track was withdrawn because its anti-war imagery was "inappropriate" in light of the US invasion of Iraq.
A brash, superbly constructed pop track, it eschews lyrics about the perils of materialism and aims squarely at the dancefloor and radio. Based on a sample from Abba's 1979 hit Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), it manages to further camp up one of the campest tracks recorded.
Employing her musical director, Stuart Price, as producer seems to be a masterstroke. Madonna has always been most potent when translating cutting-edge club music into mass-market pop - her early hits were based on the electro-funk of mid-80s New York clubs, Vogue on house music and Ray Of Light on trance techno. Price is at the cutting-edge of club music and as been responsible for a series of superb remixes for the Killers, Gwen Stefani and New Order.
Her recent years have been far from vintage ones: American Life's lacklustre sales, the failure of her cinematic collaboration with husband Guy Ritchie, and bad publicity surrounding her involvement with Kaballah. These three elements suggest a career on the wane. But between 1992 and 1994 she brought out the excruciating erotic thriller Body of Evidence and the patchy Erotica. She shook off that period with the hugely successful Ray Of Light album. Hung Up suggests Madonna is about to pull off the same trick again.
Single review: Gimmick, gimmick, gimmick
Source: Gavin Martin from The Mirror - 18 October 2005Madonna, the Queen of Pop, may be back, but the first shot in her campaign to re-establish her recording career is underwhelming.
Hung Up is a return to Madge's disco roots - but it relies on Abba's 1979 smash hit Gimme, Gimme, Gimme to make its puny mark.
Hung Up is catchy and commercial enough but it's a minor work in Madonna's gallery of pop excellence. It reinforces the impression that the 47-year-old mother of two is increasingly stuck in the past.
Abba's abiding popularity should insure the song a healthy pop billing. But in a sign of desperation, she's signed an undisclosed portion of the royalties over to the originals.
Hung Up is merely the first stage in the £5million campaign to launch her forthcoming Confessions On A Dance Floor album. The campaign will include mobile phone deals and cinema ads to put her everywhere.
Madonna's record company boss predicts this will be the one to establish her as a pop titan.
But that Madonna now feels the need to compete with Rachel Stevens and Dannii Minogue is a sign of how far she's fallen.
The truly original Madonna single - Justify My Love, Like A Prayer - has long gone. These days the former leader follows.
Madonna: I begged to use Abba song
Source: Scotsman - 18 October 2005Madonna has told how she wrote a grovelling letter to Abba asking if she could use their music on her new single.
The pop superstar wanted to sample Gimme Gimme Gimme for her latest record, Hung Up.
The Swedish band's songwriters, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, rarely let other artists use their tracks.
Madonna told gay magazine Attitude: "I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music, telling them it was an homage to them, which is all true. And they had to think about it, Benny and Bjorn. They didn't say yes straight away. They never let anyone sample their music. They could have said no. Thank God they didn't."
Andersson said recently: "We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say no. This is only the second time we have given permission. We said yes this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going. If it wasn't any good we wouldn't have said yes. It is a wonderful track, 100% solid pop music."
The Fugees are the only other act granted the honour - they used a sample from Abba's The Name Of The Game on their 1996 track Rumble In The Jungle.
Hung Up features on Madonna's new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor.
"I'm not in the mood for a ballad. I can't be bothered," she said. "I wanna dance!"
Madonna chose to give her first interview promoting the album to Attitude.
Editor Adam Mattera said: "Madonna is without doubt the biggest gay icon of all time and this album is set to be the biggest of her career. We are thrilled she has chosen to speak to Attitude. She opens her heart like never before and had a real laugh with us. Her fans will be back-flipping through Soho when they read it."
Madonna on TRL
17 October 2005Check fansite Madonna LightHouseNews for videoclips and screengrabs of Madonna's appearance on tonight's TRL. She picked a winner from a group of dancers, who will be invited to go tomorrow's documentary screening in New York.
TRL also showed a sneak peek at the Hung Up video, which has a verrrrrry foxy Madonna, walking down an alley, wagging her sexy ass, as well as some great dance routines while standing on a 'dance dance revolution' dancing arcademachine!
New design for Madonna.com
17 October 2005To celebrate Madonna's new single and upcoming album, Madonna.com has been updated with a brand new design. Unfortunately, the content is rather limited and the navigation not really user-friendly, but have a look anyway. Here's what you can find:
News: latest headlinesPush: ring tones, fan club, confess (phone no.), and Madonna tagging (an original way to build a large photo gallerySpin: the discography which for now only contains some basic info on the new album, such as the tracklist and the Hung Up lyrics.Tour: tour dates of her past tours
It also allows you to listen to Hung Up and some other Madonna tracks.
Album review: excitement, energy and innovation
Source: TeenMusic - 17 October 2005On her highly anticipated new Warner Bros. Records release, Confessions On A Dance Floor, Madonna brilliantly re-invents dance music for our time. A stunning creative leap into the dazzling dimension of 'future disco,' these dozen new originals simultaneously capture the spontaneous thrill of the iconic superstar's early hits.
Set to arrive in stores November 15th, and featuring the debut single Hung Up, scheduled for release October 17th, Confessions On A Dance Floor once again establishes Madonna's preeminent place on the international club scene. It's a mesmerizing sound that evokes and embellishes all the excitement, energy and innovation that first set her apart as a dance music pioneer over two decades ago.
While Madonna's recent music has explored her thoughts and feelings on everything from spirituality to politics, Confessions On A Dance Floor is, in the artist's own words, "about having a good time straight through and non-stop. I want people to jump out of their seats."
A genuine global superstar, packing stadiums worldwide with her astonishing stage spectacles, Madonna, a multi-Grammy winner, has made music history with international sales of over 200 million albums. Her enormous influence has spanned 33 number one dance hits; five chart topping albums and 46 Top 40 singles and 20 MTV Video Music Awards.
Recorded earlier this year in London, Confessions On A Dance Floor was primarily co-produced and co-written by Madonna and Stuart Price. Also known as Les Rythmes Digitales and Jaques Le Cont, Price is one of the UK's most electrifying young DJs and remix wizards, who initially forged a creative partnership with Madonna as her Musical Director on both the 2001 Drowned World and 2003's Re-Invention tours.
"This is music that just comes naturally to her," explains Price, whose home studio served as the setting for the freewheeling writing and recording sessions. "The songs flowed very quickly. Madonna was interested in capturing the moment because, when all is said and done, it's that instinctive joy of rhythm and movement that comes across best on the dance floor."
Also collaborating on Madonna's first new release in over two years is Mirwais Ahmadzai and the Grammy-winning duo of Bloodshy and Avant, as well as Anders Bagge and Peer Astrom of the Murlyn Music Collective and Joe Henry, whose previous Madonna credits include Don't Tell Me.
Confessions On A Dance Floor selections include the above-mentioned Hung Up, which includes a sample of Abba's classic "Gimme Gimme," as well as dance-themed cuts Get Together, Sorry, Future Lovers, I Love New York, Let It Will Be, Forbidden Love, Jump, How High, Isaac, Push and Like It Or Not. The entire CD is seamlessly segued in a classic dance club format.
Madonna's first scheduled TV appearance will be on October 17th when she will pay a visit to MTV's TRL studio, where she will introduce her new single for the first time.
MTV, as part of a multi-faceted agreement with the artist, is also scheduled to air Madonna's new documentary I'm Going To Tell You A Secret on October 21st with subsequent airings on the VH-1 and Logo Networks. "Secret" tells the story of the artist's journey on and offstage during her recent Re-Invention Tour and shows an artist at the peek of her creative powers while she balances the joys of work, family, friends and her spiritual journey.
A cultural innovator of astonishing diversity and enduring appeal, Madonna has defined our era with her sound, style and vision that has inspired countless artists and fans around the globe. In the process she has pioneered a new model of creative empowerment, overseeing a multi-faceted career that encompasses virtually every aspect of contemporary culture.
Single review: Back to the top of the Hot 100
Source: Robert Ballantyne from Popjournalism - 17 October 2005Madonna is back on the comeback trail. After the critical and commercial disappointment of 2003's American Life – her lowest-selling record to date – Madonna is wisely heading back to the dance floor. Hung Up is the first single from her upcoming album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Lyrically, Hung Up is a generic I-will-survive break up song, but fortunately has a killer chorus: "Every little thing that you say or do/ I'm hung up/ I'm hung up on you." Madonna's latest producer du jour, Stuart Price (a.k.a. remixer Jacques Lu Cont) does a nice job of adding French-electro sophistication to the 4/4 beat proceedings.
Add those elements up with a clever sample of Abba's "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" and you've got yourself a sizeable pop hit. While Hung Up doesn't rank as one of the best Madonna singles, it should more than do the trick in bringing her back near the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
Single review: A return to Madonna's fabulousness
Source: Stephen M. Deusner from Pitchfork Media - 17 October 2005Any song that samples the throbbing beat and Ren Fest keyboards of ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)" at least has a solid foundation; no surprise, that sample is the best and biggest part of the track.
Hung Up is another non-song like Music, where the structure is loose enough to emphasize the music and the lyrics are general enough to pertain to either religion or cute boys. Still, there's enough of a rewrite here to justify the love: that big two-part chorus, those pop melodies that ride ABBA's groove, even the way the time-keeps-ticking theme acknowledges that the inspiration for the song (and the sample) is decades old.
Kylie, Gwen, and so many others have shaken ass on this particular dancefloor before, but Hung Up still sounds like a strong return to Madonna's former fabulousness.
Hung Up on radio before official premiere
17 October 2005As reported this morning, Radio Donna announced the Hung Up premiere for 6.15 pm. However, the DJ heard about the leak on the Internet and decided to play the track now already (11.30 am).
Reports are coming in about Hung Up premiering on several other radio stations around the world. Seems every one is just too excited to wait any longer! Donna reported that the 'official' premiere at 6pm will include live comment by Madonna herself, beamed directly to all radio stations.
Hung Up goes to radio today
Source: Yahoo! - 17 October 2005The first official play of Madonna's new single Hung Up will take place this Monday on BBC Radio One, as the pop superstar prepares to unveil her new album.
The pop superstar is gearing-up for the release and promotional campaign for the single - artwork pictured - and accompanying album, Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Not only will the track, which samples Abba's "Gimme Gimme", get its first play on Monday, but Madonna will also perform the song on MTV that night on "TRL".
MTV will also broadcast a documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret on Monday, focusing on her career and last year's Re-Invention tour.
It has also been claimed that Confessions On A Dance Floor, which is produced by Stuart Price, from Les Rhythms Digitales, will be mixed into one seamless whole, to emphasise the club environment Madonna is targeting.
"I want people to jump out of their seats", she recently said about the album, which is due out on November 15.
~ The premiere is expected today at 5pm GMT (6pm CET). Belgian radio Donna will be playing several Madonna hits all day before premiering Hung Up at 6.15 pm CET. Pretty much every major radio station should be playing it around that time. Tick tick tock, count down to 6 o'clock!
Meanwhile the song has already been played on some US radio stations and in several clubs. First reactions from both fans and "non-fans" are raving!
Rolling Stone preview
16 October 2005Music magazine Rolling Stone compiled a list of upcoming albums and they of course included Madonna's upcoming album in november:
After 2003's underwhelming disc of electronic folk, American Life, the Material Girl returns to the dance floor with Confessions On A Dance Floor. The disco-friendly vibe is announced by the first single, Hung Up, which samples the opening keyboards from Abba's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"
Madonna recruited Stuart Price -- a London DJ and the keyboardist on her Re-Invention tour -- to produce the disc, but don't think she didn't express herself during the recording process. "People always think that it's just some guy behind her coming up with all the ideas," says Price. "She's very underrated as a producer."
Thank you for the music!
Source: Telegraph - 16 October 2005In 1979, while she was a struggling singer who had to pose naked to make ends meet, they were the world's biggest band. Now Madonna is set to give Abba what is likely to be the biggest-selling record of their career.
The single is expected to top the charts around the world
At 5pm GMT tomorrow, the American singer's new single, Hung Up, which heavily samples Abba's 1979 hit Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, will premiere simultaneously on national radio stations around the world.
The broadcast is part of a multi-million pound marketing strategy designed to re-establish Madonna as the Queen of Pop. But the sales of the single, which is expected to top the charts around the world, could also generate millions of pounds for Abba's songwriters, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
The pair agreed to let Madonna use their most famous disco hit after striking a lucrative copyright agreement that observers say will give them a significant share of royalties from airplay.
"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is the essence of the new song and we have agreed to split the copyright with Madonna and her co-writer," Andersson said. He declined to go into details and insisted that financial concerns were not the primary motive for the decision to give Madonna permission to use the track.
"We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say 'no'. This is only the second time we have given permission.
"We said 'yes' this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going."
Andersson said he thought the new single was "wonderful" and joked it was his favourite Madonna song to date. "Hung Up is really good. If it wasn't any good we would not have said 'yes'. It is a wonderful track: 100 per cent solid pop music."
Madonna, who has enjoyed 54 British top 10 hits including 10 number ones, has sold more singles in this country than Abba.
Hung Up is regarded as one of the most commercial songs of her career and will easily outsell the 1979 original which reached Number Three in the British charts but was not given an American release.
The worldwide broadcast of the single is part of an ambitious strategy designed to re-establish the 47-year-old mother-of-two as the most successful act in the world. Madonna is to spend an unprecedented £5 million buying up television, billboard and cinema slots for her new album Confessions On A Dance Floor, which will be released on November 14.
The publicity drive also involves ground-breaking deals with firms such as Orange, MTV, Virgin, Vodaphone and Apple.
The companies have become virtual partners in the album's release in exchange for the rights to provide audio and visual downloads of the singer's new material and her huge back catalogue of hits.
John Reid, the head of marketing at Warner Music, said: "Madonna has nailed it with this record and we are rolling it out very big indeed."
Madonna's last album, American Life, which was released in 2003, sold four million copies and was the lowest selling release of her career.
Hung Up's radio debut will mark the first time the record has been heard in its entirety, but it will, in fact, be just the latest stage in a sophisticated campaign. The song has been available as a telephone ringtone since September 19 - the first time a star of Madonna's stature has released material as a ringtone before an actual record.
Madonna's recent riding accident would appear not to have reduced the number of her planned public appearances.
She has declared herself fit and well to perform Hung Up at the MTV Music Awards in Lisbon on November 3, and she is believed to be planning performances in Britain, America, Japan, Holland and Germany.
First chart appearances of Hung Up
Source: Mediabase - 15 October 2005Madonna's new single Hung Up is already played on some American radios and clubs. On next week's Billboard chart, the song will debut on the Hot Dance / Club Play chart at #25.
Moreover, Hung Up had 178 spins on radio this week already so it debutes at #90 on the CHR/Pop radio Mediabase chart.
Worldwide Hung Up premiere with Ryan Seacrest
Source: Premiere Radio Networks - 15 October 2005A worldwide live radio special with Ryan Seacrest and Madonna is scheduled to take place on Monday, October 17 at noon ET / 5 pm GMT, it was announced today.
The 10-minute, commercial-free radio special will be presented by Ryan Seacrest Productions in association with Premiere Radio Networks and will be made available to all radio stations worldwide including Japan, Canada, and Australia, as well as Z100-FM/New York, WKTU-FM/New York, KIIS-FM/Los Angeles, KRBE-FM/Houston, and Y100-FM/Miami.
"Madonna's fans have anxiously awaited the release of this album. I am excited to bring her closer to radio audiences around the world live!", Ryan Seacrest said about this special event.
"Ryan's consistent ability to connect with the biggest names in entertainment and turn those moments into great radio never ceases to amaze me," said Kraig T. Kitchin, president of Premiere Radio Networks.
No Madonna iPod after all?
Source: E Online - 14 October 2005Madonna may not have gotten her own iPod, but she is getting her MTV.
There had been intense speculation that the Material Girl would debut a signature special-edition pink music player at an Apple press conference Wednesday. Instead, the company, which previously announced that Madonna's entire music and video catalog would exclusively be available on the iTunes Music Store, unveiled its video iPod.
But Madonna did have something up her sleeve, after all. She announced via press release that she had struck a landmark deal with MTV Networks to promote her upcoming album, Confessions On A Dance Floor, due Nov. 15.
Continue reading the article at E Online (which reprises most of yesterday's press release)
Madonna reveals 'good cop, bad cop' regime
Source: Irish Examiner - 14 October 2005Madonna has revealed how strict she is with her children.
The pop superstar is so tough with daughter Lourdes, nine, and son Rocco, four, that they are banned from watching TV, she told Harpers & Queen magazine.
If Lourdes leaves her clothes on the floor, they end up in a bin bag.
When the little girl throws a tantrum over what to wear, she is made to dress in the same outfit every day until she has learned her lesson.
Madonna, 46, said she operated a "good cop, bad cop' system with husband Guy Ritchie.
"I'm the disciplinarian, Guy's the spoiler,' she said. "When Daddy gets home, they're going to get chocolate.
"I'm more practical. I worry about their teeth, and make sure they're taking care of themselves and getting schoolwork done. That's not my husband's area of expertise. He's the fun guy.'
The woman who has cavorted on our screens in sexy videos and shocked TV viewers in 2003 by kissing Britney Spears during the MTV Video Awards said: "My kids don't watch TV. We have televisions but they're not hooked up to anything but movies.
"TV is trash. I was raised without it. I didn't miss anything. TV is poison. No-one even talks about it around here. We don't have magazines or newspapers in the house either.'
Talking about the punishments she has imposed in the family's London home, Madonna said: "I just take things away.
"I take privileges away. The kids get to watch movies every Sunday, so if they're naughty they get their movie taken away. They have to be particularly naughty for that one. If they're just a little naughty, then no stories before bed.'
When Lourdes fails to pick up her clothes from the bedroom floor "we take all of her clothes and put them in a bin bag, and they get stuck somewhere, and she has to earn all of her clothes back by being tidy, picking things up in her room, making her bed in the morning, hanging up her clothes, stuff like that", the singer said.
Her clothes also get taken away if she has tantrums over which outfit to wear: "We have got down to one outfit. She wears the same outfit every day to school until she learns her lesson."
The whole family follow a strict diet based around whole grains, fish and vegetables. "We're a TV and dairy-free house," she said.
Madonna revealed her new ambition is to write a children's TV series for young girls, a companion to her children's books, which are based on Kabbalah.
"My ultimate goal is to have a TV series, and each episode would be about girls finding themselves in challenging situations," she explained.
The full interview appears in the November issue of Harpers & Queen.
~ Thx to Madonnalicious for the scan of the cover
Promo tour schedule and setlist *rumour*
13 October 2005DrownedMadonna has posted following details on Madonna's European promotional tour. Madonna will be joined on stage by her whole band (as happened at LIVE8). Lisa and Donna are in talks to be the background singers.
03/11/2005 - EMAs 2005 in Lisbon - Portugal
05/11/2005 - Wetten, Dass? - Germany
08/11/2005 - Parkinson Tv show - UK
10/11/2005 - Live webcast show in Paris - France
14/11/2005 - KoKo Nighclub, former Camden Palace - London, UK
16/11/2005 - Radio or Tv show in Italy
18/11/2005 - Children in need Tv show on BBC - London, UK
19/11/2005 - Gig at G-A-Y club - London
Keep in mind this is not definitive but the actual schedule as for now.
Rumour has it that Madonna is rehearsing the following songs for her promo tour:
- Hung Up
- Everybody
- I Love New York
- Let It Will Be
- Get Together
Meanwhile, Madonnalicious reports that the Roxy in New York City denied earlier rumours of a Madonna performance at their club.
VH1 gives 'Secret' preview
13 October 2005
Check the VH1 website now for an exclusive 10 minute preview of Madonna's tour documentary 'I'm Going to Tell You A Secret'. You can see parts of the creative process of the Re-Invention Tour, with Madonna and Stuart Price working on The Beast Within while talking about God.
There's also a large part showing the auditions of the dancers and the tour rehearsals. Madonna can be seen rehearsing a rock version of I'm So Stupid, a song that she later cut from the tour setlist (unfortunately, coz it sounds great!).
'I'm Going to Tell You A Secret' will premiere next week on the MTV networks.
~ Check Madonnalicious and DrownedMadonna for screen grabs of the preview.
Hung Up radio debut
Source: Madonnalicious - 13 October 2005Madonna's new single will premiere on radio next Monday 17 October at 5:00pm (UK time), worldwide. Radio One will take up the honours for the UK airing. A day later it will be available for download on iTunes. This is a unique event with the track being aired simultaneously worldwide.
~ Meanwhile, the radio edit of Hung Up has been leaked online and can be found for download on several Madonna forums.
Call to confess
13 October 2005
The WBR website is advertising a new phone number in the US, which promotes the new album. Call 1-888-2-CONFESS to confess your sins to Madonna.
Warner press release
Source: MarketWire - 13 October 2005On her highly anticipated new Warner Bros. Records release, Confessions On A Dance Floor, Madonna brilliantly re-invents dance music for our time. A stunning creative leap into the dazzling dimension of 'future disco,' these dozen new originals simultaneously capture the spontaneous thrill of the iconic superstar's early hits.
Set to arrive in stores November 15th, and featuring the debut single Hung Up, scheduled for release October 17th, Confessions On A Dance Floor once again establishes Madonna's preeminent place on the international club scene. It's a mesmerizing sound that evokes and embellishes all the excitement, energy and innovation that first set her apart as a dance music pioneer over two decades ago.
While Madonna's recent music has explored her thoughts and feelings on everything from spirituality to politics, Confessions On A Dance Floor is, in the artist's own words, "about having a good time straight through and non-stop. I want people to jump out of their seats."
A genuine global superstar, packing stadiums worldwide with her astonishing stage spectacles, Madonna, a multi-Grammy winner, has made music history with international sales of over 200 million albums. Her enormous influence has spanned 33 number one dance hits; five chart topping albums and 46 Top 40 singles and 20 MTV Video Music Awards.
Recorded earlier this year in London, Confessions On A Dance Floor was primarily co-produced and co-written by Madonna and Stuart Price. Also known as Les Rythmes Digitales and Jaques Le Cont, Price is one of the UK's most electrifying young DJs and remix wizards, who initially forged a creative partnership with Madonna as her Musical Director on both the 2001 Drowned World and 2003's Re-Invention tours.
"This is music that just comes naturally to her," explains Price, whose home studio served as the setting for the freewheeling writing and recording sessions. "The songs flowed very quickly. Madonna was interested in capturing the moment because, when all is said and done, it's that instinctive joy of rhythm and movement that comes across best on the dance floor."
Also collaborating on Madonna's first new release in over two years is Mirwais Ahmadzai and the Grammy-winning duo of Bloodshy and Avant, as well as Anders Bagge and Peer Astrom of the Murlyn Music Collective and Joe Henry, whose previous Madonna credits include Don't Tell Me.
Confessions On A Dance Floor selections include the above-mentioned Hung Up, which includes a sample of Abba's classic "Gimme Gimme," as well as dance-themed cuts Get Together, Sorry, Future Lovers, I Love New York, Let It Will Be, Forbidden Love, Jump, How High, Isaac, Push and Like It Or Not. The entire CD is seamlessly segued in a classic dance club format.
Madonna's first scheduled TV appearance will be on October 17th when she will pay a visit to MTV's TRL studio, where she will introduce her new single for the first time.
MTV, as part of a multi-faceted agreement with the artist, is also scheduled to air Madonna's new documentary "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" on October 21st with subsequent airings on the VH-1 and Logo Networks. "Secret" tells the story of the artist's journey on and offstage during her recent Re-Invention Tour and shows an artist at the peek of her creative powers while she balances the joys of work, family, friends and her spiritual journey.
A cultural innovator of astonishing diversity and enduring appeal, Madonna has defined our era with her sound, style and vision that has inspired countless artists and fans around the globe. In the process she has pioneered a new model of creative empowerment, overseeing a multi-faceted career that encompasses virtually every aspect of contemporary culture.
MTV press release
Source: Yahoo! Biz - 13 October 2005MTV Networks Music/Logo Group's television, online, broadband and wireless platforms will be the exclusive outlets to preview all things Madonna celebrating her eagerly awaited new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Madonna's very first appearance in support of the new album is scheduled on MTV's "Total Request Live" Monday, October 17th, offering fans a first-listen to the hotly anticipated single Hung Up simultaneous to the single's release at radio.
MTV Networks' program offerings surrounding Warner Bros. Records November 15th release of Confessions On A Dance Floor mark a multiplatform milestone for the company. MTV, VH1, Logo, MTV Overdrive (overdrive.mtv.com), VH1 Vspot (vpot.vh1.com), LOGOonline.com, MTV.com, VH1.com, *MTV on Virgin Mobile, MTV Hits, VH1 Classic, VH1 Mobile and other content-driven platforms will each offer fans the ability to celebrate the music from one of the world's biggest artists via multiple mediums.
Today's announcement further solidifies an unprecedented relationship between MTV Networks and Madonna that has spanned over two decades, and included groundbreaking music videos, legendary interviews, historic performances and 20 Video Music Awards wins over the years, including the coveted Video Vanguard Award recognizing her entire catalog of music videos.
"We've pulled out all the stops for Madonna's new release, offering fans exclusive content on handsets, the internet, on broadband as well as multiple TV shows. There is simply no better artist to break new multiplatform ground than the always provocative Madonna," said Van Toffler, President, MTV Networks Music/Logo Group. "We're honored that she chose MTV, VH1 and Logo as the exclusive outlets for her movie, 'I'm Going To Tell You a Secret,' which reveals how she, as a person, and her music have evolved since Truth or Dare."
The video for Madonna's new single Hung Up, directed by Johan Renck, will World Premiere in late October on VH1 with airings the same day on MTV's TRL, Logo, MTV Hits and VH1 Classic. Additionally, MTV News and VH1 News will be the first outlets to conduct in-depth interviews with the Material Girl around the album's release.
"I'm Going to Tell You A Secret," Madonna's new documentary film, covering her journey on and off stage during her Re-Invention Tour will debut on MTV Friday, October 21 and air on VH1 and Logo the next week. A ten-minute sneak peek of the new documentary will be available on-demand on Vspot, VH1's broadband entertainment service, beginning today, Wednesday, October 12th.
"With so many highlights of my career having taken place on MTV and VH1 and then with the addition of their new Logo network, it just made perfect sense to air it for my fans on those outlets," Madonna remarked. "It's not merely that they provide platforms for reaching the widest possible audience, it's also about sharing a vision. MTV and I have grown up together. We understand and respect each other. Their fans are my fans and vice versa. Simply put: they get it."
The video's premiere and presentation of her documentary film complement an extensive multiplatform celebration of Madonna's new studio album, which also includes exclusive on-line content, audio streams, on-demand broadband access and the first master ring tone off her upcoming release. The exclusive programming content is expansive and caters to the unique demographics serviced by each of the MTV Networks brands.
* WIRELESS -- Madonna fans have had first opportunity to purchase the exclusive ring tone for Hung Up a full month prior to the singles release. The master tone is available via *MTV on Virgin Mobile, MTV.com or at the VH1 Mobile store on VH1.com. In addition to the ring tone, exclusive and original wireless content will include music videos, interviews and behind-the-scenes clips from Madonna's appearances on MTV and VH1.
* BROADBAND -- Twenty-four hours after the October premiere of Hung Up, the video will be available to fans on-demand for an exclusive 48-hour window on broadband video networks MTV Overdrive and VH1's Vspot. Both Overdrive and Vspot will create original content and programming celebrating the release including on-demand interviews, music videos and a Sneak Peek of "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" beginning October 17.
* ONLINE -- Madonna fans can exclusively preview her anticipated new CD when MTV.com's 'The Leak,' VH1.com's 'Hear Music First' and LOGOonline.com's 'Out First' stream all twelve tracks from Confessions On A Dance Floor in their entirety beginning November 8, one full week prior to the album's November 15 release. LOGOonline.com's "Out First," the newest addition to MTV Networks multiplatform outlets, offers the GLBT audience a unique and distinct online space to celebrate music and artists.
Full details and airdates of the original programming around the release of Confessions On A Dance Floor will be announced shortly.
MTV to premiere Madonna videos, film
Source: AP - 13 October 2005There will be a Madonna-thon of sorts on MTV's networks over the next few weeks. The pop queen, who is due to release a new album next month, will appear on MTV's "Total Request Live" on Monday to play her single Hung Up.
Then, on Oct. 21, the network will premiere her new documentary, "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret," which chronicles her exploits during last year's The Re-Invention Tour. The film will air the following week on VH1 and Logo, the new network geared toward gays and lesbians.
VH1 will have the world premiere of her Hung Up video later this month. MTV's various networks also will air the video, along with interviews with the 47-year-old singer.
"With so many highlights of my career having taken place on MTV and VH1 and then with the addition of their new Logo network, it just made perfect sense to air it for my fans on those outlets," Madonna said in a statement Wednesday.
Confessions On A Dance Floor, her new album, is set for release Nov. 15.
Madonna in the iPink with iPod
Source: Fox News - 13 October 2005Get into the groove — the newest addition to the iPod family is expected to be a pink nano loaded with all of Madonna's hits.
Apple plans to unveil the new vanity version of its razor-thin music player today in San Jose, Calif., according to industry insiders.
The pink music player would be the first artist-backed iPod since U2 lent its name and music to a jet-black special edition last year.
Rumors about the Material Pod have been circulating on the Internet faster than the latest iTune. Gadget-watcher Jonathan Dusing even snatched up the Web address madonnaipod.com in hopes of cashing in on the craze.
"They don't have any colored iPods anymore," said Dusing, an Arizona computer technician. "I think the pink ones would do pretty well."
The new iPod is being unveiled a month after the company introduced the iPod nano along with the ROKR iTunes cellphone from Motorola.
Madonna delivers dance music for a new generation
Source: FMQB - 13 October 2005Madonna re-invents dance music for this day and age with her newest album Confessions On A Dance Floor. The entire CD is segued together nonstop in the classic dance club format, and is her first release in over two years.
The singer describes her newest album as "about having a good time straight through and non-stop. I want people to jump out of their seats."
Madonna's latest album was recorded earlier this year in London and primarily co-produced and co-written by Madonna and Stuart Price. Price is known for his DJ and remix skills in the U.K., and served as her Musical Director on her Drowned World and Re-Invention tours.
"This is music that just comes naturally to her," said Price. "The songs flowed very quickly.
Madonna was interested in capturing the moment because, when all is said and done, it's that instinctive joy of rhythm and movement that comes across best on the dance floor."
Also collaborating on the CD is Mirwais Ahmadzai and Grammy-winning duo of Bloodshy and Avant, as well as Anders Bagge and Peer Astrom of the Murlyn Music Collective and Joe Henry, who contributed to Don't Tell Me.
Madonna will make a series of TV appearances in support of Confessions On A Dance Floor. Her first scheduled TV appearance is on October 17 on MTV's Total Request Live where the singer will introduce her new single, Hung Up, to the public for the first time. MTV will also air her new documentary, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, on October 21. The documentary will tell the story of her journey on and offstage during her Re-Invention Tour.
Confessions On A Dance Floor is set to be released on November 15.
Madonna says sorry to Kabbalah followers
Source: Tonight - 13 October 2005Madonna is to make a public apology to London Kabbalah followers after she "sinned" against the mystic Jewish faith on her forthcoming album.
The star, who will reportedly face "punishment from the heavens" for dedicating new song 'Isaac' to a Kabbalist scholar.
Rabbi Rafael Cohen - head of an Israeli seminary named after 16th century rabbi and scholar Yitzhak Luria - says to profit from his name is strictly forbidden.
He told Israel's Maariv newspaper: "Jewish law forbids the use of the name of the holy rabbi for profit. Her act is just simply unacceptable and I can only sympathize for her because of the punishment she is going to receive from the heavens."
Rabbi Israel Deri is demanding Madonna - who converted to Kabbalah after being raised a Catholic - be expelled from the faith for desecrating the late scholar's name.
He said: "Such a woman brings great sin on Kabbalah.
"I hope that we will have the strength to prevent her from bringing sin upon the holiness of the rabbi Luria."
London gig to promote album? *rumour*
12 October 2005Fansite DrownedMadonna hints that Madonna will be doing a special gig in London on November 14th for the launch of the album.
No details are available yet but it should be something very special. Fans will be excited to hear that this may not be the only show she is doing in London.
Motorola splash page
12 October 2005Madonna.com has a new splash page, promoting the Motorola ROKR mobile phone and the Hung Up ring tone. There are also links to iTunes and to the ICON contest for the MTV preview of 'I'm Going To Tell You A Secret', which unfortunately leaves fans outside the US in the cold...
Hung Up single cover
10 October 2005Warner Music Germany has posted the cover artwork for Hung Up.
The single has the following tracklist:
1. Hung Up (Radio Edit)
2. Hung Up (Tracy Young's Get Up And Dance Groove Edit)
3. Hung Up (SDP Extended Vocal)
And according to MadonnaTribe, the maxi single contains following remixes:
1. Hung Up - Album Version
2. Hung Up - Radio Version
3. Hung Up - Tracy Young Get Up and Dance Groove Mix
4. Hung Up - Tracy Young Get Up and Dance Groove Mix Edit
5. Hung Up - SDP Extended Vocal Mix
6. Hung Up - SDP Vocal Mix Edit
Madonna is Master @ work on StuBru
10 October 2005In anticipation of her upcoming new album Confessions On A Dance Floor, Madonna will be 'Master @ Work' at Belgian radio station Studio Brussel.
This means you can hear lotsa Madonna songs this week, with extra information and commentary on her career. You can also listen online at their website (click on "luister live").
Album info sheet
9 October 2005Here's the official album info sheet, which seems to answer the confirm that the title is Confessions On A Dance Floor, so dance floor in two words.
It also mentions the promotion details, and it confirms the additional track Fighting Spirit on the limited edition (released december 13th).
Apple to introduce Madonna iPod
Source: Groovevolt - 9 October 2005Apple will introduce a Madonna-branded iPod nano Thursday (October 12) when the company makes several major product announcements. The company, which entered into a similar agreement with U2 last year, is expected to introduce the pink-colored version of the nano…
Song 'Isaac' already stirs controversy
Source: Reuters - 9 October 2005Word that Madonna's upcoming album includes a paean to a 16th-century Jewish mystic has prompted the rabbis who guard his legacy to accuse the pop idol of sacrilege and hint at divine punishment.
The Confessions On A Dance Floor collection includes a song titled Isaac -- in reference, entertainment media say, to Rabbi Isaac Luria, founder of the Kabbalah school of mysticism which counts Madonna, 47, as one of its devotees.
The custodians of Luria's tomb and seminary in the northern Israeli town of Safed accused her of breaking a taboo.
"There is a prohibition in Jewish law against using the holy name of our master, the Sage Isaac, for profit," the seminary's director, Rabbi Rafael Cohen, told the Israeli newspaper Maariv on Sunday.
"This is an inappropriate act, and one can feel only pity at the punishment that she (Madonna) will receive from Heaven. The Sage Isaac is holy and pure, and immodest people cannot sing about him," he said.
Catholic-born Madonna, famed for her racy lyrics and on-stage antics, has drawn frequent censure from ultra-Orthodox Jews who say her embrace of Kabbalah debases their religion.
Deemed especially provocative was Madonna's music video for Die Another Day, in which she wove phylacteries around her arm, a custom usually reserved for Jewish men, before escaping from an electric chair on which Hebrew letters spelling out one of the 72 names of God appeared.
"This kind of woman wreaks an enormous sin upon the Kabbalah," said Rabbi Yisrael Deri, caretaker of Luria's tomb.
Madonna back in the saddle
Source: Sunday Mirror - 9 October 2005You can't keep a good woman down for long... especially Madonna.
The Queen of Pop broke her ribs, shoulder blade and little finger out riding on her 47th birthday in August.
But just two months later she is back in the saddle with the help of Olympic horseman William Fox-Pitt, 36, and was yesterday also fit enough to do a pilates class. My spy tells me: "Madonna is taking it one step at a time following her accident. But she has always been very ambitious when she has her heart set on something. Following her accident, she's decided to get some extra help from William Fox-Pitt as he's one of the best riders and trainers in the country.
"She's passionate about riding and knows that he is the man who can help her master the craft." Husband Guy Ritchie, 37, was said to be "mortified" after her accident - the horse she fell from was a birthday present from him.
But just days later, Madonna insisted: "As soon as the doctors give me the OK, I expect to be right back on a horse and ride again. I'm grateful and overwhelmed by everyone's good wishes."
Last year Fox-Pitt and the Great Britain team won a silver medal at the Olympics in Athens. He was also crowned champion at Badminton. She couldn't be in better hands...
'Sorry' and 'Hung Up' reviews
8 October 2005Madonnafan John Marrs had the priviledge to heard the full versions of Sorry and Hung Up and has shared his experience with fansite DrownedMadonna:
"Before I go into detail there's a couple of things you need to bear in mind....
1. I only heard Hung Up twice and Sorry once.
2. I couldn't take notes at the time, so everything is based on memory and some notes I made on the tube on the way back to the office and hour and a half later.
3. Sorry has been confirmed as almost definitely the second single. No news on release dates.
Hung Up
It's a belter. Classic Madonna at her best. But we know that already. The version I heard was the album version. It starts off with a ticking clock and Madonna singing 'Time goes by so slowly' over and over again.
Behind her is the quiet muffled instrumental with a subtle drum beat, and gradually it becomes clearer and louder and it's the Gimme Gimme Gimme flute loop.
After 45 seconds the whole instrumental kicks in full force and thumps along. After about a minute, the vocal kicks in with the chorus 'Every little thing that you say or do…'
After about 3 and a half minutes, it goes into the instrumental break - kind of like the original of Gimme Gimme Gimme but without the orchestration.
The it goes muffled again and almost fades out completely, before the clock ticking starts again and the vocals kick in and then the music continues.
It fades out after about 5 mins 30 seconds, but the clock ticking continues and alarm goes off and leads you into the next track.
It's a tad slower than the internet download I heard of the song, but only a tiny bit.
She sticks very much to the original Gimme Gimme Gimme tune, its very faithful, but without sounding like a cover. 'Inspired by' I think would be the correct phrase.
The only time it deviates from the Gimme Gimme Gimme template is with the line 'I can't keep on waiting for you/ I know that you're still hesitating…" etc.
There's a hint of Gwen Stefani's What You Waiting For, but listen to the whole thing as it's soon clear it's just a hint, not a rip off.
Possible the most infectious song I've heard from Madonna since Ray Of Light, it really doesn't disappoint. I image in the edited single version to work really well and give it a faster feel than the album version, but this version doesn't drag on or anything.
Sorry
Ok, this is a less detailed review. This is the second song I heard, before Hung Up was played again and my memory is crap so sorry for the lack of details.
It has a very Euro style dance-beat to it, the main verses seems to use a piano keyboard throughout, mainly the deeper notes (I dunno what the technical term is, sorry!) which add to the bass.
It starts with orchestration, a bit like Paradise. Other reports are correct, she's saying something in a variety of languages and that's how the song kicks off, not sure if it's I'm Sorry or something else. There's a vocoder used on these vocals, sounding more like something from Daft Punk than from Nobody's Perfect. Only the bits in foreign languages are vocodered - the rest of the vocals are all sung normally.
They lyrics are kind of sad, and although the tune is very dance orientated, it's not a happy Kylie style upbeat tune.
The song ends once again with her saying I'm sorry in different languages and the vocals gradually slow down and get a little deeper. It's about 4mins 40 seconds long.
It's a great choice for a single, it's doesn't for me have the 'wow' factor like Hung Up, but it's a very strong dance track and very very commercial.
It then goes into the next song, which I believe is Future Lovers. I only heard 12 seconds of this and it sounded very much like Donna Summer's I Feel Love, which I think has already been reported."
Madonna hosting exclusive MTV preview of documentary
Source: MTV - 8 October 2005Madonna's got a new tour documentary coming out, and she's given MTV a special fans-only screening that you can't pass up. Get a sneak peak of Madonna's new behind-the-scenes and on-stage film "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 18th. Even better, Madonna herself will host the screening!
Just enter MTV's "Tell Me A Secret" Contest and you could be one of the lucky fans to see Madonna's new tour documentary before anyone else! These tickets are not for sale (and travel to New York is not included). There are only a limited amount of tickets to win, so act now...and of course, you can bring a guest!
Do you want to know Madonna's secret? Enter now to find out! You must be at least 18 and a legal resident of the United States to enter.
"I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" will premiere on MTV on Friday, October 21 at 10 pm.
Two days before, on October 19, MTV's Overdrive will air an exclusive 10 minute preview of Madonna's tour documentary.
Meanwhile, MTV2 will air Madonna's first live performance ever of her new single Hung Up live from Lisbon on Thursday, November 3, and the full Confessions On A Dance Floor album will debut on The Leak on MTV.com starting Monday, November 7 as part of MTV's Spankin' New Music Week a week before it hits the stores.
Here's a recap of Madonna on MTV on October and November 2005:
October 18: "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" - Special screening in NYC.
October 19: "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" - Ten minute preview on MTV's Overdrive.
October 21: "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret" - World Premiere on MTV at 10 pm.
November 3: Hung Up - Live at the EMAs in Lisbon on MTV2 at 3 pm.
November 7: Confessions On A Dance Floor - World Premiere on The Leak on MTV.com.
Madonna.com & ICON get a design make-over
Source: Madonna.com - 7 October 2005The album Confessions On A Dance Floor is not the only new Madonna creation this fall, Madonna.com & ICON are getting a complete new design make over. That's right! All new content and special features will be available starting October 17, 2005!
To make the launch of the new site and fan club even more special, ICON has teamed up with Motorola to bring ICON members an exciting new contest! Can't give you anymore details right now, but stay tuned because Madonna.com & Motorola have a "secret" to share ...
Liz compares COAD to LAP & ROL albums
Source: NY Daily News, Rush&Molloy's column - 7 October 2005Was it the ventriloquists? Madonna has said no to an offer to perform for Queen Elizabeth at her Royal Variety Show next month. "Too old-fashioned," she sniffed.
But she will perform her upcoming single on the MTV Awards in Europe, says her spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg, who adds, "People who have heard [Confessions On A Dance Floor] put it on the level of her Like a Prayer and Ray of Light albums."
Madonna rejects audience with the Queen
Source: ContactMusic - 7 October 2005Pop superstar Madonna has turned down the chance to perform for British monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
The British-based singer was invited to sing at this year's (05) Royal Variety Performance - an annual charity show featuring host of big UK stars that has been put on, in the presence of the reigning monarch since 1912.
But Madonna isn't interested in the show, which will take place in Cardiff, Wales, next month (NOV 05), because it's "too old fashioned".
Madonna sends Ashton and Demi his 'n' hers apology gift
Source: Tonight - 7 October 2005Madonna has sent newlyweds Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher his 'n' hers bracelets as a wedding gift.
The pop queen sent the matching jewellery, worth £5,000 each, to her fellow Kabbalah followers to apologise for missing their recent nuptials.
Madonna was invited to the couple's Kabbalah-themed wedding, but couldn't go because she was still in pain from her recent horse-riding accident.
Demi and Ashton wed last month in a "last-minute" ceremony a private Beverly Hills home.
The ceremony was blessed by Kabbalah rabbi Eitan Yardeni and Ashton cried when the couple exchanged vows they had written themselves.
Demi's ex-husband Bruce Willis was among the 100 guests, which also included her 'Charlie's Angels' co-star Lucy Liu and Ashton's 'That 70s Show' co-star Wilmer Valderrama.
Bruce and Demi's three daughters, Rumer, 17, Scout, 14, and Tallulah, 11, were also in attendance.
This is the third time Demi has walked down the aisle - as well as being married to Bruce, who she split from in 1998, the stunning actress previously wed singer Freddie Moore.
Ritchie - not a Madonna fan
Source: ContactMusic - 7 October 2005Madonna and Guy Ritchie regularly row over music, because he's not a fan of her songs.
Ritchie always offers his advice to his superstar spouse, but admits he doesn't always say what the Material Girl wants to hear.
The director says, "I'm not your typical Madonna fan. Do I listen to the wife's music? Do I have a choice?
"I like to think she values my opinion - although I'm not sure she does."
Madge on Oprah
Source: NY Daily News - 6 October 2005Will Oprah join the kabbala cabal?
Madonna has been talking up the mystical form of Judaism to the already-spiritual talk-show queen for two years, in hopes that her fellow icon could help bring the Artist Occasionally Known as Esther's belief system to mainstream America, according to our source.
The U.K.-based pop star has sent Oprah books and E-mails about kabbala, a spy tells us, but Angela De Paul in Oprah's office told us she wasn't aware that her boss had received any of the red-string propaganda.
In a country where conservative Christians have shown their might in recent years, an endorsement of kabbala by Winfrey, who has 9 million loyal viewers, would have a powerful effect. Her seal of approval has boosted everything from book sales to her own upcoming Broadway musical, "The Color Purple."
Madonna knows that, and that's why she's chosen Oprah's show for her first interview since she took a tumble off a horse, our source says.
Her Madgesty's reportedly going to let Oprah bring cameras into her British country manor to see how the other 0.000001% lives, and she'll also perform two numbers from her upcoming CD, Confessions On A Dance Floor.
For those who crave more, the diva's designing her own iPod, loaded with every recording she's ever made, and - call out the New York faithful - she's planning a concert here for MTV, sources tell us.
Confessions limited edition to contain bonus track? *rumour*
5 October 2005According to fansite MadonnaTribe the Limited Edition for Madonna's new album Confessions On A Dance Floor is set to contain a Bonus Track not included in the regular album release.
According to the current listings of Warner Music Group, the bonus track will be called "Fighting Spirit".
Details about the Limited Edition have not been announced yet, but it is understood that it will contain a one-month introductory membership to Madonna's fan club.
Warner has also changed the release date for the album's Limited Edition, that is now set for December 13 2005.
Confessions will be released as CD, LP, Limited Edition CD and Digital Music Download.
The album will receive a massive TV and print advertising campaign, and street, online and club marketing will be extensive.
MTV on Madonna's EMA performance
Source: MTV Asia - 5 October 2005Madonna has been confirmed to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2005 on November 3rd in Lisbon, it was announced today. She will be debuting the first worldwide live TV performance of her upcoming single Hung Up.
The legendary icon will join a stellar lineup of previously announced talent including Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Robbie Williams and The Black Eyed Peas. The show will be hosted by Sacha Baron Cohen's character "Borat", live from the Atlantic Pavilion in Lisbon, Portugal.
Madonna, whose unprecedented career spans over two decades, has virtually defined the video medium. She has garnered more than 55 top 10 hits (in the UK), 15 multi-platinum platinum albums and has won 4 MTV Europe Music Awards.
In the US, Madonna has received a staggering 20 MTV Music Video Awards including the prestigious "Video Vanguard" award.
The Material Girl's new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor, the most highly anticipated album of 2005, will be released on November 14th, 11 days after her MTV Europe Music Awards performance.
"Madonna is the world's most celebrated artist and we are delighted that she will be joining us in Lisbon. Her performance of Hung Up will deliver one of the most memorable moments of this year's MTV Europe Music Awards," commented Harriett Brand, SVP, Music, MTV Networks International.
No stranger to the MTV Europe Music Awards, Madonna dazzled audiences at the Awards in Milan in 1998 with a stunning rendition of Power Of Goodbye, where she also won awards for Best Female and Best Album for Ray Of Light. Two years later, at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2000 in Stockholm, Madonna performed Music and won awards for Best Dance and Best Female.
Sponsored by LG Mobile and Replay Blue Jeans, the MTV Europe Music Awards will air to a potential worldwide audience of more than 1 billion people.
MTV Europe Music Awards 2005 leading nominees include Coldplay and Gorillaz with 5 nominations, Gwen Stefani with 4 nominations and 50 Cent, Green Day, James Blunt, Snoop Dogg and U2 with 3 nominations apiece.
Madonna's favourite tipple revealed
Source: Yahoo! - 5 October 2005Madonna's secret tonic for getting over her recent injuries has been revealed.
The singer is reportedly having barrels of her favourite real ale delivered to her home.
While most are happy popping down to the pub, the Material Girl has 72-pint barrels of Timothy Taylor's Landlord bitter delivered to her Wiltshire home from the brewery in West Yorkshire, according to the Sun newspaper.
A brewery spokesman wouldn't reveal how many barrels she gets through, but said: "It's a jolly good beer and a lot of girls like it."
Madonna broke several bones in a horseriding accident in August, but has vowed to get back in the saddle as soon as her injuries heal.
"As soon as doctors give me the okay, I expect to be right back on a horse and riding again," the 47-year-old singer told The Sun newspaper.
Fans at the recent film premiere of husband Guy Ritchie's new film, Revolver, turned on the star when the couple walked past the 2,000 crowd waiting to see their hero.
The film has been universally panned by critics.
ICON's Johann on new album
Source: DrownedMadonna, MIR - 4 October 2005Johann, the man behind Icon magazine and the Official Madonna Fanclub, has spoken for the first time about Madonna's new album.
In the forum on the official fanclub website he said the following:
"Ok, so I'm gonna give you just a few clues because I want you to discover the whole thing on your own, which is so much better when it comes to a new album, right? It is Upbeat, Energetic. It's all about dance because let's face it, she is the one who taught us how to express ourselves!! What I can say is that it will get your adrenaline going from the very first notes. And last, but not least, once you'll have heard the songs, they won't get out of your head for days. It's pure Madonna through and through. It will make you wanna dance instantly, that's for sure!!!"
EMA performance officially announced! *official*
Source: Madonna.com - 4 October 2005The world will be watching on November 3rd, 2005 when Madonna performs the first single off of her new album for the first time in front of an audience! Madonna.com is announcing that Madonna will be onstage in Lisbon singing Hung Up at the 2005 Europe Music Awards.
Further promotional events are being scheduled for the week of November 7 in Europe. Stay tuned to Madonna.com for more information on the upcoming events!
Hung Up clip on Madonna.com splash page
3 October 2005Madonna.com is updated with a new disco ball splash page which plays the chorus of Madonna's upcoming single Hung Up with the lyrics displayed in karaoke style.
Another preview party spoiler
3 October 2005Mark G reports in the latest MIR: "I was able to attend a private listening party for COADF earlier this week. Here are some info tidbits for you."
[...]
- The VP of Warner Music International arrived by plane around 10am - and by 12.30 was playing the copy protected cd to us! They actually had trouble getting it to play on their amazing sound system due to all the copy protection. If a copy of the cd leaks - they can track what person had that copy of the cd! So it seems to me that the cd getting leaked too early is kinda impossible - but if it does - someone is either getting sued or fired.
- Sometime between Nov. and Dec. 2005 Madonna intends to do some promo appearances - could possibly be a club gig in various cities!
- When the single is aired on Oct 17th it will come right after an interview that she will most likely do with Ryan Seacrest to be played with the single premiere on radio.
- The photo that we heard about earlier this month on SG with Madonna posing with a chair is among possible liner note graphics. There were about 8 photos in that set with her in a white dress and posing with the chair. I was shown a portfolio of about 30 images
- 4 themes/costumes of images taken by Steven Meisel for album promo. 2 images will be used for cardboard standees - Madonna standing in pose - wearing a red dress - very Liza Minelli looking dress from the 70's. Other outfits were a bright orange disco pantsuit thing with her posing in front of a wall of mirrors - this set of images included the only 'yoga pose' with her lying on her back - legs bent over to her head and holding a disco ball in her hands and feet. Another outfit was light blue short pants and top
- crawling on a floor like the one in Saturday Night Fever - all squares and lit up with white lights from below. Surprisingly, she was blonde in all - the red hair seems to be just for cd cover.
- The NEXT single is Sorry - the 3rd track. In this song she says I'm Sorry in multiple languages.
- They had no details to share re: promotions other than a possible 1-800-CONFESS number - it's currently working in the USA apparently. Confession Boxes of some kind also mentioned as possible promo idea.
- In the 4th track, Future Lovers, she does a lot of talking as opposed to outright singing. Like a Bedtime Stories kinda feel to it.
- In the 5th track I Love New York there's some lyrics along the lines of "I Love New York, In other places , I feel like a dork"
- At the end of the Hung Up single there is an alarm clock that goes off - a ringing clanging sound - that mixes into the next song. The CD is one continuous non-stop mix. I thought it worked well - kept the energy going.
- The best I can describe the whole cd is to compare it to Ray Of Light - but no ballads - all club thumping orchestral techno/disco upbeat dance music.
- They mentioned that Madonna said she was in a lot better mind set during the making of this cd as oposed to the American Life cd. This led to COADF to really reflect her positive energy.
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