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Madonna news - Dec. 2016
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Madonna praised by James Corden, Jessica Chastain, JoJo & more for Billboard Women In Music speech
Source: Billboard - 15 Dec. 2016Following Madonna's moving Woman of the Year acceptance speech at Billboard's Women in Music event, which premiered Monday on Lifetime, celebrities applauded the Queen of Pop's honesty in talking about feminism, bullying and more.
Following Lady Gaga's lead, stars from across the entertainment world took to Twitter to say how proud they were of Madonna for proving to be the brave and strong woman she's been for decades.
Check out tweets from Late Late Show host James Corden, Academy Award-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, singer JoJo and more below.
Watch Labrinth cover Frozen and Like A Prayer
Source: Billboard - 15 Dec. 2016At the Billboard Women In Music event, Labrinth paid homage to the Woman of the Year by covering Frozen and Like A Prayer, as Madonna listened from the audience.
Watch Madonna's full speech at Billboard Women In Music
Source: Billboard - 15 Dec. 2016Madonna gave a heartrending, emotional speech at Billboard Women in Music 2016 that touched on feminism, sexism and much more.
"I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer," she said.
"Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism and misogyny and constant bullying and relentless abuse."
She remarked that male artists had more freedom than females. "'Wait a minute, isn't Prince running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick with his butt hanging out?' Yes, he was. But he was a man.”
Madonna also remembered being criticized for setting feminism back. "So I thought, 'oh, if you're a feminist, you don't have sexuality, you deny it.' So I said 'f--k it. I'm a different kind of feminist. I'm a bad feminist.'"
"I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around," she explained. "Michael is gone. Tupac is gone. Prince is gone. Whitney is gone. Amy Winehouse is gone. David Bowie is gone. But I'm still standing. I'm one of the lucky ones and every day I count my blessings."
Madonna delivers her blunt truth during fiery, teary Billboard Women In Music speech
Source: Billboard - 9 Dec. 2016Madonna -- a global icon who extended her record as the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time in 2016 -- was honored as Woman of the Year at Billboard's Women In Music 2016 event on Friday (Dec. 9). And during her acceptance speech, she was fully ferocious, funny and brutally honest -- in other words, she was the Madonna we've known and adored since she debuted more than 30 years ago.
Anderson Cooper introduced Madonna with a heartfelt tribute to her ongoing influence. "Madonna is Billboard's Woman of the Year, but as far as I'm concerned in terms of music and impact and culture, she's been the Woman of the Year every year since she released her first single 'Everybody' in 1982."
Hailing her as not only "relevant but revolutionary" up to present day, Cooper noted the importance of Madonna to him "as a gay teenager growing up… Her music and outspokenness showed me as a teenager a way forward. Through her music, she told me and millions of teenagers -- gay and straight -- that we are not alone. We are connected to each other."
Following Cooper's personal tribute, rising British singer-songwriter Labrinth took the stage for a stirring medley of Madonna's Ray of Light ballad "Frozen" and her immortal "Like A Prayer." Naturally, a choir was brought onstage to recreate the church-meets-pop anthem ecstasy of "Like a Prayer."
But Madonna, unsurprisingly, stole the show the moment she took the stage. Her weapon? Something you can't contain, fake, reproduce or put a price on: Blunt, personal truth.
After opening with a joke -- "I always feel better with something hard between my legs" Madonna said, straddling the microphone stand -- she got candid very quickly.
"I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer," Madonna said. "Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism and misogyny and constant abuse."
Madonna's sprawling, revealing speech took us back to her life as a teenager when she first moved to New York.
"People were dying of AIDS everywhere. It wasn't safe to be gay, it wasn't cool to be associated with the gay community," Madonna recalled. "It was 1979 and New York was a very scary place. In my first year I was robbed at gunpoint, raped on a rooftop with a knife digging into my throat and had my apartment robbed so many times I stopped locking the door. In the years that followed, I lost nearly every friend I had to AIDS or drugs or gunshots."
From that, Madonna told the Women In Music crowd she learned a vital lesson: "In life there is no real safety except for self-belief."
Madonna also talked about a lesson she thought she learned from David Bowie... only that lesson, it turned out, didn't quite apply to her. "I was of course inspired by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and Aretha Franklin, but my real muse was David Bowie. He embodied male and female and that suited me just fine. He made me think there are no rules.... But that was wrong. There are no rules if you're a boy. There are rules if you're a girl," Madonna said.
Among those rules: "Don't be too smart. Don't have an opinion that's out of line with the status quo…You are allowed to dress like a slut, but don't own your sluttiness… Be what men want you to be and be what women feel comfortable with you being around their men. And do not, repeat do not, age. Because to age is a sin. You will be criticized and vilified and definitely not played on the radio."
Madonna also opened up about the time in her life when she felt "like the most hated person on the planet," with her eyes tearing up and her nose running a bit.
"Eventually I was left alone because I married Sean Penn and he would bust a cap in your ass. For a while I was not considered a threat. But years later, divorced and single -- sorry Sean -- I made my Erotica album and my Sex book was released. I remember being the headline of every newspaper. Everything I read about myself was damning. I was called a whore and a witch. One headline compared me to Satan. I thought, 'Wait a minute, isn't Prince running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick with his butt hanging out?' Yes, he was.
"This was when I understood women do not have the same freedom as men," she said.
Madonna also recalled that at one point in her life, during all the public vitriol, "I remember wishing I had a female hero I could look to for support. Camille Paglia, the famous feminist writer, said I set women back by objectifying women. So I thought, 'oh, if you're a feminist, you don't have sexuality?' So I said 'fuck it. I'm a different kind of feminist. I'm a bad feminist.'"
Closing out her speech, Madonna offered thanks to her haters and advice to other women in music.
"I'm not here so much because I care about awards," Madonna said. "I'm here because I want to say thank you. To all the doubters and naysayers and everyone who gave me hell and said I could not or would not or must not, your resistance made me stronger, made me push harder, made me the fighter that I am. It made me the woman that I am today. So thank you.
"What I would like to say to all women here today is this: Women have been oppressed for so long they believe what men have to say about them. They believe they have to back a man to get the job done…. As women, we have to start appreciating our own and each other's worth. Seek out strong women to befriend to align yourself with and to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by and enlightened by. True solidarity amongst women is a power on its own."
Prior to Madonna, Shania Twain was honored as this year's "Icon" at the 2016 Women In Music event. Also honored this year are Halsey ("Rising Star"), Andra Day ("Powerhouse"), Meghan Trainor ("Chart Topper"), Maren Morris ("Breakthrough Star"), Kesha ("Trailblazer") and Alessia Cara ("Rule Breaker"). Billboard's Women In Music airs Dec. 12 on Lifetime.
Madonna sings the hits, fights her 'rebellious' reputation on 'Carpool Karaoke'
Source: Billboard - 8 Dec. 2016The Late Late Show has booked another music icon.
Madonna joined host James Corden on Wednesday night for a "Carpool Karaoke" segment, which saw the duo face tough New York drivers, "vogue" a bit and addressed one of Corden's favorite topics: musical theater.
When a bus cuts them off in traffic, Madonna tries to convince Corden to "drive up next to bus, I want to give him what's what." When he refuses, she chides him for "letting people get away with bad behavior."
She also argued against her "rebellious" reputation. "I'm quite square," she told Corden. "My work is rebellious but my lifestyle is not rebellious."
On her love life, Corden asked what she was looking for in a man, assuming she doesn't "have a type." "I think the best thing in the world is to be married to someone funny," she said, but she told Corden he could step it up in the fashion department, calling his shirt "very Seattle 1990s." Madonna also shocked Corden when she admitted to "full French kissing" Michael Jackson.
During the drive, they sang Madonna's hits including "Vogue," "Bitch I'm Madonna" (featuring the star twerking in the seat), "Papa Don't Preach," "Express Yourself" and "Ray of Light." They even sang a bit of Madonna's song from Evita, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina."
Madonna, whose concert special Madonna: Rebel Heart debuts Friday on Showtime, joins a growing list of famous singers in the "Carpool Karaoke" passenger seat, including Adele, Justin Bieber, Sia, One Direction, Jennifer Lopez and Michelle Obama.
Full trailer for Rebel Heart Tour
8 Dec. 2016Madonna's stylist Arianne Phillips opens up about working with the icon for nearly 20 years
Source: Billboard - 8 Dec. 2016Arianne Phillips is the Academy Award-nominated costume designer behind Walk the Line and A Single Man. Yet it is the nearly 20 years she has spent working as a stylist to Madonna, spanning countless TV and red carpet appearances and six tours, including the 2016 Rebel Heart Tour, for which the 53-year-old is best known. Phillips, who cites the 1998 "Frozen" video, the 2000 "Don't Tell Me" video and the 1998 VH1 Fashion Awards as three of her favorite style moments, says that working with Madonna is both rewarding and challenging: "She's an artist who's seen by the world."
Walk us through the process of putting together Madonna's tour wardrobe.
Madonna and I usually start talking four to five months before a tour. I work with a big crew -- just the prep side alone can reach 25 people -- because it's not just Madonna. There are also 20 dancers, two backup singers, a band and often she has specialty performers.
How much creative control does Madonna exert?
She has been at the top of her game for more than 30 years; she has a very strong point of view. Madonna also is a collaborator. She's always the hardest-working person on every set. Her work ethic is unparalleled. She really expects her collaborators to bring something to the plate.
How do you collaborate with fashion designers, like Gucci's Alessandro Michele, who worked on the Rebel Heart Tour looks?
It can be challenging because the looks have to sustain the brutalities of dancing and sweating and moving every night, along with quick changes. Ninety percent of the time the costumes are not show-worthy, so what we do is rebuild them from the inside out, so they have the integrity and the look designers are trying to achieve.
Each look on Rebel Heart exudes power, as many of her looks have through the decades. Is "power" something you both consistently try to express?
Mostly what Madonna ends up wearing is an evolution of what is relevant at the time. I would say Madonna is a strong female artist who is attracted to just those things. The visuals reflect the music in a kind of seamless marriage of her point of view.
Madonna has been the target of some criticism about dressing appropriately for her age. Have you adjusted your approach to dressing her in her 50s?
It's sexist and ridiculous, and has no bearing for me. Madonna has an incredible amount of integrity as an artist. She doesn't invest in what people think of her, and that is the most liberating thing.
Carpool Karaoke to premiere on Wednesday
5 Dec. 2016The Carpool Karaoke with Madonna will premiere this Wednesday, December 7th at The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS.
Check out the teaser, which reveals that Vogue and Bitch I'm Madonna will be among the songs covered in the carpool karaoke.
Billboard 'Woman of the Year' Madonna gives provocative interview on everything from 2016 election to ageism
Source: Billboard - 5 Dec. 2016In the early days of September 2001, I was driving down Santa Monica Boulevard on my way to a call-back for Guy Ritchie's adaptation of Swept Away, starring his then-wife Madonna, when it dawned on me: Instead of turning left toward the office buildings, I would be veering into the residential area. I was going to Madonna's house. Her music had been the soundtrack to my preteen angst, and she was my idol as a feminist and as an artist. Naturally, I pulled the car over, called my sister and had a mini-freak-out.
When Madonna walked into Guy's home office that day, her little son, Rocco, was perched on her hip. She told me that my audition was funny and that I'd be good in the movie, and I just tried to keep breathing. I assume it was in that moment that Guy concluded I'd be the perfect, nubile idiot to cast in Swept Away. I won the part. The next few weeks were surreal for all of us. I had seen Madonna in concert as a teenager and had splurged on tickets for her Staples Center show scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001. Needless to say, that concert was postponed as the world came undone. But a couple of weeks after we met, I watched Madonna finish her Drowned World Tour. Before the music began that night, she started with a prayer for peace: "If you want to change the world, change yourself," she told the crowd. Through tears, I sang along for the entire show.
Anyone who has ever had the opportunity to work alongside her -- as I did in Malta during those next couple of months -- understands why Madonna is Madonna. She works harder than anyone I've ever met; she exists in this world by her own rules; she has remained in control of her own voice, paving the way for the Taylor Swifts and Adeles of the world to do their thing in the process. During the course of her more than three-decades-long career, all of those instincts have helped her land the most top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and hold the record for the most No. 1s by any act on a single Billboard list (46 No. 1s on Dance Club Songs). With more than $1.3 billion earned from her groundbreaking concert tours through the years, as reported to Billboard Boxscore, she now reigns, at age 58, as the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time. Her most recent trek, the Rebel Heart Tour, grossed $170 million during the course of 82 performances, concluding in March 2016. (A concert film chronicling the tour, Madonna: Rebel Heart Tour, premieres Dec. 9 on Showtime.)
On a recent Monday afternoon in between parent/teacher conferences for my kids and meetings for Pitch Perfect 3 -- a film that focuses on young women finding harmony through music -- Madonna and I reconnected over the phone. Since there is no shortage of Madonna books, articles, blog posts and career analyses, I just wanted a snapshot of Madonna right now, in this moment, because she is a woman who lives in the present and never looks back.
Where are you today?
I'm in New York, trying to get my Raising Malawi art auction together for Art Basel in Miami. Just dealing with artists and temperamental people.
How many artists will you feature?
It will probably be 12 amazing works of art. I wanted to keep it to artists that I collect myself or I'm friends with or art from my own collection. Originally it was just going to be art, but now it's also experiences, so I'm trying to make them as interesting as possible. For instance, one is a trip with me to Malawi, where my son and daughter [David Banda and Mercy James] are adopted from. Another is playing poker with Jonah Hill and Ed Norton, and another is staying at Leonardo DiCaprio's house in Palm Springs for a week. I didn't think it was going to be as complicated as it is, but, oh well, that's life. It's complicated because I'm involved with everything: the lighting, the curtains, the flowers, the decor, the food. I've tasted too many bad bottles of wine. This auction is an extension of me, so I want everything to be beautiful, tasteful and well-appointed. It becomes exhausting because I need to be involved in every aspect of it: the people who are speaking, the clothes people are wearing, the music on the playlist.
Will there ever be a time that you let go of that control, or is this like, "I have to?"
I have to.
Where does that come from?
Obviously, you could say it has to do with my childhood, if you're going to psychoanalyze me: My mother dying and me not being told, and a sense of loss and betrayal and surprise. Then feeling out of control for the majority of my childhood, and becoming an artist and saying that I will control everything. No one will speak for me, no one will make decisions for me. You could say I'm a super control freak. That's what everybody likes to say. I don't want to have an event that I'm not proud of. It's like everything that I do. My shows, my films, my house, the way I raise my children. I take great offense when details are overlooked.
I want to ask you about ageism in the music world. In Hollywood, as you know, it's rare for women to find great roles as they get older. I imagine it's even tougher to be a woman of a certain age in pop music. When you go into the studio or mount a tour like Rebel Heart, are you concerned about staying relevant?
I don't care. It's the rest of society that cares. I don't ever think about my age until someone says something about it. I feel that I have wisdom, experience, knowledge and a point of view that is important. Can a teenager relate to that? Probably not. But that's OK. I understand that. "Relevance" is a catchphrase that people throw out because we live in a world full of discrimination. Age is only brought up with regard to women. It's connected to sexism, chauvinism and misogyny. When Leonardo is 60 years old, no one is going to talk about his relevance. Am I relevant as a female in this society that hates women? Well, to people who are educated and are not chauvinists or misogynists, yes.
Speaking of: How did you feel about the outcome of the election?
It felt like someone died. It felt like a combination of the heartbreak and betrayal you feel when someone you love more than anything leaves you, and also a death. I feel that way every morning; I wake up and say, "Oh, wait, Donald Trump is still the president," and it wasn't a bad dream that I had. It feels like women betrayed us. The percentage of women who voted for Trump was insanely high.
Why do you think that is?
Women hate women. That's what I think it is. Women's nature is not to support other women. It's really sad. Men protect each other, and women protect their men and children. Women turn inward and men are more external. A lot of it has do with jealousy and some sort of tribal inability to accept that one of their kind could lead a nation. Other people just didn't bother to vote because they didn't like either candidate, or they didn't think Trump had a chance in the world. They took their hands off the wheel and then the car crashed.
Were you surprised?
Of course. I was devastated, surprised, in shock. I haven't really had a good night's sleep since he has been elected. We're f—ed.
Do you know anyone who voted for Trump?
Yeah, and I've gotten into major arguments.
What did they say?
That they would rather have a successful businessman running the country than a woman who lies. Just absurd. But people don't have faith in government as we know it. We live in a country that's run by bankers. In a way, it makes sense that Donald Trump is the president. Because money rules. Not intelligence, not experience, not a moral compass, not the ability to make wise decisions, not the ability to think of the future of the human race.
What do you think artists' responses will be?
I've witnessed many protests in Manhattan, but in the end the protests have to equal something. Something has to manifest.
Do you think you can be an agent for change?
Well, of course you know the answer to that. I'm trying to figure out my response to Trump. I like the idea that women are marching on Washington, D.C., the day after the inauguration. I want to rain on his parade. I was put on this earth to fight for the underdog and fight against discrimination.
As a fellow New Yorker, have you ever met the president-elect?
I wouldn't call him a friend or anything, but I've certainly met him. I did a photo shoot years ago at [Trump's] Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach [Fla.] for a Versace campaign. He's a very friendly guy, charismatic in that boastful, macho, alpha-male way. I found his political incorrectness amusing. Of course, I didn't know he was going to be running for president 20 years later. People like that exist in the world, I'm OK with it. They just can't be heads of state. I just can't put him and Barack Obama in the same sentence, same room, same job description.
When you go to Malawi, or travel the world, you must clearly get a sense of how our president affects the globe.
We're the laughing stock of the universe right now. We can no longer criticize other governments, other leaders. I'm hanging my head in shame.
What have you learned through your work in Malawi?
It really opened my eyes to what's going on in the rest of the world. It has connected me to organizations and NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] in other countries in Africa. It got me involved with the importance of secondary school for girls because girls are not encouraged to be educated in Africa. I've been working in Malawi for over a decade. I have a huge commitment and love for the country and I will never desert them. I adopted my two children that I'm so lucky to have living in my house right now. Since then I've been working tirelessly trying to make Malawi a more self-sufficient country. I've been building orphan-care centers, funding clinics and schools, and the list goes on. I've also been supporting this pediatric surgeon, Eric Borgstein. He's an angel in human form who has given his life to looking after children. He's tireless and fearless and performs multiple surgeries a day in the most dire conditions. I couldn't take it anymore, so I built a hospital. I've been subsidizing education of other surgeons to work by his side so he doesn't do everything on his own. That's really what this Art Basel fundraiser is about: creating an endowment for the hospital with art. Art is how I express myself, and art is how I can change the world.
When I visit your social media accounts, you're either posting about Malawi or about your family.
My family is everything. I will go to war for them. Whatever I'm fighting for, it's for my daughters and my sons. I want them to have a good future. I've created an unconventional family and we have discussions at the dinner table about all sorts of things. My 11-year-old son can speak eloquently about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and James Baldwin. My daughter Mercy plays the piano and can talk to you about Nina Simone. I'm really proud of that.
How do you decide when to include your children in your social media posts?
When I post their things, they give me permission. A lot of times they'll send me pictures and say, "Please don't post this," and I won't. They have private accounts, and I respect that. I also consider my children part of my work and the work that we do together.
What is going on with you as a filmmaker?
I want to make more films, and I'm going to make more films. I've written screenplays and I'm hoping to make them next, but who knows. Making films is very complicated. There are a lot of people involved. When I go on tour I just go, "OK, I'm going on tour." But with films, I don't have that kind of control. It's much more frustrating for me.
Besides Trump, what does Madonna worry about? Do you even worry about anything?
What? I worry about absolutely everything. I worry about my kids all day long. I worry about my health. I worry about whether I'm going to get things done in time. I worry about every project I'm working on. I worry about whether I'll get to sleep at night. I worry about the state of the world. There isn't anything I don't worry about.
Artists Weigh In on Madonna's Inspirational Role in Their Lives
"When I think of greatness and what a legend is, I always think of Madonna. She has always been true to herself as an artist. She does things her way no matter what, and that always inspires me. Because she never backs down from her beliefs and takes risks, she has made history. Working with her was one of the proudest moments of my career. She's the ultimate boss."
-- Nicki Minaj
"Madonna paved the way for girls in pop to express themselves sexually, without apologizing. I really admire what she has created!"
-- Tove Lo
"Madonna has always been an inspiration to me. She's a strong woman who knows what she wants and doesn't compromise her vision. And she's not afraid to reinvent herself -- with every album she experiments more and pushes the envelope. That takes a lot of courage, which motivates us all."
-- Britney Spears
"Madonna is such a singular artist. She created the modern pop star and has pushed boundaries for music for 30 years. She's legendary, and yet she still brings this incredible young energy."
-- Diplo
Arianne Phillips shares program and more
3 Dec. 2016Madonna raises $7.5M for Malawi, slams Trump in Miami show
Source: ABC News / AP - 3 Dec. 2016Madonna kissed Ariana Grande, repeatedly criticized President elect Donald Trump and said she was ashamed to be an American in a magnetic performance in Miami on Friday night where she raised more than $7.5 million for the African nation of Malawi.
The Material Girl dug deep into her personal treasures, auctioning off pieces from her own art collection, a costume from her tour modeled by Grande and black and white photos from her 1985 wedding to ex-husband Sean Penn shot by the late photographer Herb Ritts. The trio of wedding photos sold for $230,000.
Penn, who attended the fundraiser and bid on several pricey items when the auction stalled, handcuffed Madonna and crawled through her legs at one point as the two tried to coerce the audience to bid higher.
"For once, he's not the one being arrested," she joked.
The party lasted until early Saturday morning when Madonna took the stage for an hour-long performance before a star studded crowd that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, James Corden, ex-boyfriend A-Rod and Courtney Love. The fundraiser was just one of the many parties during Art Basel Miami Beach, a contemporary art fair.
Madonna, who performed in a pink sequined clown top and fishnet stockings, seemed to hold nothing back, especially her opinions on the election, joking with the audience that she had promised to perform sexual favors for those who voted for Hillary.
She coyly said she'd been in Donald Trump's bed, but later revealed it was for a magazine photo shoot and that Trump wasn't even there — and she criticized his cheap sheets.
"They won't be Egyptian cotton because we all know how he feels about Muslims don't we," she said as some audience members gasped.
She gyrated to a slowed-down version of Britney Spears' "Toxic" and seductively sang, "You know that you're toxic," as images of Trump appeared on a large screen behind her.
At one point, she walked into the audience, climbing on tables and giving one man a lap dance. She abruptly stood up at another point, grabbed the chair on which she had performed and said she also wanted to auction it, noting $600 could send a girl in Malawi to secondary school and $2,000 would cover her university expenses. The chair sold for $10,000.
Other notable items included a Damien Hirst painting, a private performance by magician David Blaine, who was also at the event, and a weeklong stay at DiCaprio's home in Palm Springs, which fetched $140,000. A print by artist Tracey Emin from Madonna's personal art collection, sold for $550,000.
Madonna adopted her 11-year-old son David from an orphanage in Malawi more than a decade ago. At the time, she said, "I didn't know where Malawi was" on the map. David had pneumonia and malaria. His mother died in childbirth and his siblings were also dead.
He was on hand to introduce his mother, telling audience members who paid at least $5,000 per plate, "I realize I'm one of the lucky ones."
The pop star showed videos of Malawi, asking for help to build a pediatric surgery and intensive care unit at a hospital there. Fifty percent of the population there is under the age of 15, according to her foundation Raising Malawi.
The night was punctuated by her sardonic humor, corny clown jokes, controversial political statements and heartfelt moments about how much the hospital project means to her. She divulged a few personal details, lamenting that she was very single and hadn't had sex in a long time and saying she'd always had a fascination with clowns which she said are "profoundly misunderstood."
She spoke passionately about the plight of Native Americans and asked why their land was being destroyed.
"It just really makes me feel ashamed, ashamed to be an American, ashamed to be a human being really," she said before launching into "American Life."
Madonna livestreams Tears of a Clown
3 Dec. 2016Tears of a Clown, Madonna's charity concert at Art Basel in Miami was live streamed on Facebook. Compared to the version we heard in Melbourne, Madonna was now better prepared. She changed up the setlist, joked a bit less, auctioned a chair for charity and briefly discussed Trump's election. Surprise of the evening was her cover of Britney's Toxic, with imagery of Trump in the background.
Setlist:
Send in the Clowns
Like It Or Not
Toxic
I'm So Stupid
Beautiful Stranger
Easy Ride
American Life
Don't Tell Me
Express Yourself
Holiday
Madonna rehearses American Life for Art Basel show
2 Dec. 2016Madonna has posted a rehearsal clip of her show at Art Basel tonight in Miami. One of the songs she'll perform will be American Life. While the single from 2003 took a stand against the war in Iraq, M is now using it to discuss the situation at Standing Rock.
Madonna refuses to comp celebs at her Friday night party
Source: NY Daily News - 2 Dec. 2016Madonna is asking partygoers in Miami to open their hearts and their wallets — and she doesn't care who you know.
Madge's Friday night party benefitting Raising Malawi is the talk of the Art Basel and Art Miami festivities this week, but it's going to be anything but a who's who of professional mooches.
"She said she wants no freeloaders — everyone has to pay," says an insider to the big bash, where standing room tickets start at $5,000 and VIP tables cost $150,000.
Madonna founded the Raising Malawi organization in 2006 to support the 1 million orphans who live in that southeast African country. She's expected to perform at the Friday night fund-raiser, which organizers expect to raise between $3 to 5 million.
"These ‘Real Housewives' or models who want to go for free are trying to negotiate ticket prices and organizers aren't having it," we're told.
Once Madonna wraps up this event, we're told that she's going to focus on bringing her four kids together for a holiday vacation. That might require a Christmas miracle, considering that her relationship with her 16-year-old son Rocco, who lives with his father in London, appears to be rocky at the moment.
"She's desperate to reunite her family in Gstaad (Switzerland) for the holidays," we're told. "Last year was the first year they missed."
In September, Madonna and her ex-husband Guy Ritchie resolved a contentious custody battle over Rocco that resulted in the boy getting to stay in London with his father, who divorced the Manhattan-based pop star in 2008.
When Madonna posted a social media video of her eating Thanksgiving dinner in New York last week, Rocco reportedly wrote "So glad I don't live there anymore" on Instagram, then removed that post.s
We're told that Madonna has been mumbling that Rocco might not have been arrested for marijuana possession over the fall if he'd been living with her. Our insider does not expect Rocco to attend his mom's Friday night fund-raiser.
"You can bet your $150,000 ticket he won't be there," according to our source.
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