Here is another live report of the MTV Medellin video premiere event in London written by Dave, to read it please click HERE
To read more about Madame X (and live reports) click HERE
Despite Universal France telling us that the special rainbow vinyl edition of Madame X has been cancelled, Amazon Germany is still offering a pre-order.
You can try and pre-order through THIS link
Whether the cancellation has been cancelled? We cannot confirm, hope to know more soon.
It’s 2019, and a strong case could be made that Madonna has released the most compelling music video of any major American pure pop artist so far this year. On one hand, that shouldn’t be too controversial a statement. Madonna is a master of the form (indeed, she probably wouldn’t have become a global superstar without her compelling visuals). Her reflexes are still sharp, and the tricks of the trade she employs still bear fruit. In short, she very much knows what she’s doing.
On the other hand, her “Medellín” video, featuring Colombian star Maluma, isn’t going to be mistaken by anyone for her career best. Nor is it likely you could point to any objective measure as proof of its superiority. The project certainly isn’t going to be the most viewed music video of the week, and while the song is already at no. 1 on Billboard‘s Latin Digital Song Sales chart, it may not reach her past heights. Madonna’s fan are certainly extremely loyal (her tour ticket sales are still notoriously strong, and we likely won’t see her camp out in Vegas for some time), but they aren’t the type to put a YouTube video on repeat for hours at a time to inflate views, nor try to get people to download the song on Twitter with fake Starbucks promotions. They’re mostly adults. They have jobs. That’s how they afford those concert tickets.
Still, Madonna knows how to procure a fresh and unique visual. Spanish multimedia artists Diana Kunst & Mau Morgo directed the video, and their only previous exploits in the medium are two videos for Rosalia and one for A$AP Rocky and FKA Twigs. There’s also the fact that she knows what to do when a camera is on her. Go back through her video filmography and you’ll notice most of her videos include at least one set up where Madonna is secluded, usually just up against a random wall or background, and left to improvise through dance and general vamping (indeed, that’s the entire strategy behind at least a few of her more cheaply produced videos). Here, the vamping takes place with Maluma on a bed. She ends up licking his toes in a moment that didn’t seem preplanned. It’s weird, but it’s also classic Madonna. Even with all the stylistic flares, Madonna can still one up any other aspect of the video just by being herself.
Compare that to this week’s other major pop music video, Taylor Swift’s Brendon Urie-assisted comeback “Me!”
The 29-year-old’s candy-colored video looks like it takes place inside whatever goes on inside children’s entertainer Jojo Siwa’s ponytailed head. It’s been compared to an already warmed-over Instagram aesthetic, and perhaps the nicest way to describe the video is that it’s the product of someone who heard La La Land was loosely inspired by the French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and then decided Jacques Demy’s classic should be rebooted as a Disney Chanel Original Movie. It probably leaves anyone who has ever filed a tax return feeling limp. Some have even theorized that Swift is intentionally targeting YouTube’s powerful toddler demographic with the video. Hey, those video views for “Baby Shark” are no joke.
Whatever the case, in just four minutes and eight seconds, the video manages to obscure any sense of authenticity, growing sophistication, or personal complications Swift had accrued. It’s not a reinvention. It’s a retreat.
Swift’s fellow millennial pop icons haven’t done much better in 2019. Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” and “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” were serviceable to her arguably superior songs, but certainly weren’t aesthetically classic. Former Fifth Harmony girls Normani and Lauren Jauregui show promise, but aren’t fully formed as solo artists just yet. Same for Ava Max. One wishes Ciara, ever a slept-on talent, got more money for her “Greatest Love” video.
If Lady Gaga, Rihanna, or Beyoncé had dropped music videos this year, perhaps we wouldn’t be having this conversation. To be sure, there’s still lots of artists working outside of the mainstream concept of pop super stardom who have made great visuals this year (Solange’s PhotoBooth-shot “Binz” video is transfixing in its confidence and intimacy). And there’s also a whole of 2019 left.
Still, if Madonna invented the career framework for the modern pop star, she serves as useful ruler to compare others. It just doesn’t bode well for our general cultural evolution that she’s still the one leading the pack.
The legendary singer is back with new album Madame X after a five-year hiatus and has teamed up with Colombian singer Maluma for song Medellin.
She is back after a five-year hiatus but Madonna is sexier than ever…at 60.
The pop star flew into the UK to debut her music video for new song Medellin, on Thursday night
In it, the singer is seen getting up close and personal with Colombian singer Maluma – who at 25 – is 35 years her junior.
The video sees Madge writhing and gyrating with him on a bed – before seductively licking his toes.
Maluma has told how Madonna urged him to sex up proceedings.
He said: “She wanted me to perform in the sexiest way possible. I initially wanted to rap more aggressively, but she said, ‘No. That’s not who you are. You are sensuality.
“Try to do it as if you had the woman of your dreams in front of you.’ She was all about bringing out that romanticism.”
And he said of their first meeting: “It was a beautiful moment: I gave her a huge kiss, I took her hand, I thanked her for having made music history, I looked into her eyes and told her I was charmed to meet her.
“She has a very special look in her eyes.”
Full article HERE
How did you two meet?
I went to MTV’s Video Music Awards to sing “Felices los 4” [in 2018]. Madonna’s manager is friends with Walter [Kolm, Maluma’s manager], and they had arranged for us to meet. We went to her dressing room and Lenny Kravitz was there too, but truth is I’d gone there to meet her. We spoke for a couple of minutes. It was a beautiful moment: I gave her a huge kiss, I took her hand, I thanked her for having made music history, I looked into her eyes and told her I was charmed to meet her. She has a very special look in her eyes. And then I ran out to perform. Afterward, her management team called Walter and told him she wanted to do a song with me.
Medellín is your hometown. Is that the reason for the song’s title?
When we started to talk, she said, “I have a song for you called ‘Medellín,’ ” and I almost had a heart attack. Maybe when she wrote it she had me in mind — I don’t know. I had the opportunity to write one of the main choruses and all my verses.
What’s it like to be in the studio with Madonna?
She wanted me to perform in the sexiest way possible. I initially wanted to rap more aggressively, but she said, “No. That’s not who you are. You are sensuality. Try to do it as if you had the woman of your dreams in front of you.” She was all about bringing out that romanticism.
How’s her Spanish?
I taught her how to pronounce some words — I was trying to help her with the accent. She sings the chorus in Spanish with me.
Were you always a Madonna fan?
All my life. She isn’t just an artist; she’s a movement. The truth is I always dreamt of collaborating with her. I think this is something big for our [Latin] industry. I want the whole world to feel pride at this step I’m taking — not just as an artist, but culturally.
Full article HERE
Read my full report on attending the MTV Live & Exclusive Medelling World Premiere event in London. Written both in English and Dutch I take you on a journey throughout the entire day:
It’s no surprise that style icon Madonna puts on a veritable fashion show in her new music video for “Medellin,” the first track (featuring Colombian singer Maluma) from her 14th studio album, Madame X, that dropped during a much-anticipated world premiere in London hosted by MTV and live-streamed on Youtube on Wednesday.
The video showcases a lineup of jaw-dropping fashion moments, created by a team led by stylist and i-D fashion editor Ib Kamara with styling consultant Eyob Yohannes and stylist Miguel Cervera, while Maluma‘s personal stylist Julian Rios created the Latin singer’s looks.
In a video clip teaser on her Instagram page, the 60-year-old pop star says that it was none other than Martha Graham of the famed contemporary dance school in New York that Madonna attended, who bestowed the moniker “Madame X” on her 19-year-old student in the late 1970s. “In walked Martha Graham with her long, black gloves and her incredibly beautiful, intimidating face. She said, ‘We have rules and we have regulations.’…She said, ‘I’m going to give you a new name, Madame X. Every day you come to school and I don’t recognize you. Every day you change your identity and you’re a mystery to me.’ And I said, ‘Good, thank you.'”
Long elbow-length leather gloves made in Italy by New York-based designer Carolina Amato’s accessory house Amato are worn by Madonna throughout the video as a tribute to Graham and this telling moment that inspired the new album name and Madonna’s constant chameleon-like fashion metamorphosis.
During a pre-drop interview, Madonna wore a statement-making custom leather eye patch by Gregory Kara decorated with a red “X” made of Swarovski crystals that appears in other iterations in the video, while a branded version is sold with her tour merchandise (a savvy marketing tactic).
Speaking in the interview about the creative inspiration behind the video, Madonna credits its artsy aesthetic to Barcelona-based director Diana Kunst, with whom she worked on the project. “She’s also very influenced by a lot of the same painters and filmmakers that I am, like the Surrealist painters Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington,” said Madonna. “I felt like all her videos were very painterly. And I loved her color palette. I wanted this video to look like a painting — hopefully it does!”
The video opens with a dimly-lit shot of a veiled Madame X kneeling in prayer in front of a stained-glass window that cuts to a simple black-and-white scene of her running in a satin robe dress with long va-va-voom feather trim on the sleeves and hem. Then it clips back to the praying scene and out again to a stark black-and-white landscape, where Madonna stands in a dramatic floor-sweeping tan wrap dress with red-tipped kimono-sleeves by fashion brand Polomo Spain. Maluma (unrecognizable with his face covered) sits atop a white horse and wears an all-black ensemble by Spanish designer Ana Locking, including a jacket with a long pleated train and ruffled edge that drapes elegantly behind him.
Next, there is a quick glimpse of Madame X galloping away wearing black-and-white cowboy boots and a stunning white bridal gown that flows out behind her before the camera zeroes in on a sequence of her leading a cha-cha class. Here, Madonna dons a skinny black satin tie and crisp white button-front shirt cinched with a red harness, paired with a sharp pencil skirt that has a high side-slit for ease of movement.
Accessorized with a riding crop, the commanding look is finished off with black fishnet stockings, a red eye patch, elbow-length black leather Amata gloves (her ode to Graham) and strappy patent booties with spectator-like detailing and red heels by Miu Miu — with red lipstick to match. Maluma coordinates in a simple white button-down and black trousers with black suspenders and red tasseled armbands.
And then the lovers show up in bed, sipping Champagne and smoking. As Maluma lounges in an understated black snap-front shirt and satiny gray pajama pants, Madonna stuns in a dreamy sky-blue Erdem off-the-shoulder dress scattered with beaded black flowers (as seen on the spring-summer 2019 runway), also wearing a black eye patch, a wide sequined black choker with fringe trim, and strappy black sandals.
Cut to a lavish wedding spread, and the rest is pure fantasy. Calling to mind how Madonna caused a western style frenzy by wearing haute cowgirl looks by Dolce & Gabbana for the album artwork for her eighth LP, Music, released in 2000, she appears here as a haute western bride (by way of Lisbon, Portugal where she has owned a home since 2017).
A newly platinum-haired Madame X stomps down the middle of the guest table in a floaty strapless white corseted wedding gown and short black-and-white cowboy boots. Hard continues to meet soft on a white cowboy hat embellished with the requisite gold “X” and trimmed with a multi-colored hat band and an attached veil with paillettes that glimmer as they catch the light. Tough accents include a blood-red version of the elbow-length leather gloves by Amata and a custom white leather eyepatch by Kara embellished with custom safety pins from Gareth Wrighton. The finishing touch is a pretty bold gold floral necklace decked out with multi-colored jewels.
As the peacocking groom, Maluma dons oversized aviator sunglasses and an over-the-top blood-red brocade suit heavily embellished with shimmery gold embroidery, jewels and colored tassels at the collars and pockets. He notably wears a small gold cross earring (a Madonna signature) throughout the video.
Watching “Medellin” multiple times is a must (heavy on the pause) to take in all the other fantastical costumes, masks, hairdos, head gear and makeup on the guests, who resemble a cast of characters lifted from one of Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s fashion shows.
Madame X is slated for a June 14 release. Madonna and Maluma will perform “Medellin” live for the first time at the Billboard Music Awards on May 1.
More at The Hollywood Reporter
After Madonna premiered her new video on Wednesday, hosted by MTV and screened live on YouTube, her style was in the spotlight and she even did a stealth merch promo to celebrate her single with Colombian singer Maluma.
For the screening of the “Medellin” music video, the 60-year-old pop star wore a lace bodysuit, a pleated mini skirt and fishnet stockings with a sharply tailored navy pinstriped jacket customized with all-over punk-inspired chain charms, patches and even an armband that referenced the pop star’s “Madame X” alter-ego. She also notably donned a black eye patch with a glittery red Swarovski crystal “X,” a round white ring decorated with a red “X” and gobs of layered necklaces.
Merchandise inspired by the “Medellin” video and upcoming album Madame X is already available at shop.madonna.com, with items including a $15 eye patch, T-shirts (including a sold-out, limited-edition long-sleeved $30 design and a short-sleeved tee with art from the new video “available for one week only”), sweatshirts, scarves, a tote, a gold Madame X logo necklace, a limited-edition hand-numbered lithograph and an array of digital music, as well as special bundled sets.
The sold-out lithograph (a limited run of 500 and part of a $95 set) reads: “Madame X is a secret agent, traveling around the world, changing identities, fighting for freedom, bringing light to dark places. She is a cha-cha instructor, a professor, a head of state, a housekeeper, an equestrian, a prisoner, a student, a mother, a teacher, a nun, a cabaret singer, a saint, a prostitute.”
The pricing all seems like a steal, following on the heels of rapper-fashion designer Kanye West’s Coachella-branded merch, peddled in a white tent that read “church clothes” with starting prices of $50 for a set of socks that read “Jesus” and “Walks” or “Church” and “Socks” on each foot. There were also $70 short-sleeved “Trust God” T-shirts, $165 sweatpants and $225 “Holy Spirit” sweatshirts that instantly sold out.
More high-fashion iterations of the eye patch also repeat (in white leather embellished with clusters of safety pins) in the “Medellin” music video, pushing it as an unexpectedly covetable accessory. While the site only offers a logo “Madame X” eye patch in black or red, maybe new variations will show up in the next drop.
Providing a lesson in marketing, Madame X is adept at always making her fans want more.
More at The Hollywood Reporter
Some clippings in today’s UK press have been added to our Madame X page (press tab) and some used signs from last night’s MTV event (memorabilia tab). Check it all out HERE
Madonna’s new album, Madame X, marks a return to her roots as a “naïve” teenager in New York who gave “zero you-know-whats” about what people thought of her, the singer said during an exclusive onstage interview at MTV’s London offices.
Appearing in front of an invited audience of around 150 fans and media on Wednesday evening (April 24), the 60-year-old pop star was in a characteristically playful, flirty and combative mood as she took part in a 30-minute globally televised MTV special that culminated in the world premiere of her video for “Medellín,” featuring Columbian singer Maluma.
Hosting the event was British DJ Trevor Nelson, while Madonna — drinking pink champagne, holding a riding crop and dressed as what can only be described as a dominatrix pirate in high heels, fishnet tights, leather skirt, punk-style black blazer, eye-popping bodice and bejeweled eye patch — also took a number of pre-approved questions from the floor and fans at simultaneous MTV listening events in Milan, New York City and São Paulo via satellite.
“This is a weird conversation,” said the singer after one of many painful, eventually comic silences caused by a five-second satellite delay that, at times, felt far longer. When Nelson subsequently complimented her on the “incredible” beginning of her career, Madonna exclaimed, “What about now?” and pretended to whip him.
A few minutes later, during an ad break, the now-Portugal-based singer made Nelson read out a press release biography of her Madame X alter ego as she stood behind him trying to put him off. It was just one of several surreal moments in an entertaining, slightly odd and over-far-too-quickly interview that provided some revealing insight into her new album.
Below, rewatch the conversation and see some of the most interesting things Madonna had to say.
How Madonna’s adopted home of Lisbon influenced the record.
“I didn’t go to Lisbon to make a record. That was the last thing on my mind. It was because my son wants to be a professional soccer player and he was never going to have the highest level of training in America. So I spun the globe, did a lot of research and found the top five academies for boys to train. Lisbon ended up being my favorite city of the [five] options. … So I went to Lisbon to be a soccer mom, which is a crazy story, I know. That’s the last thing you would expect from [puts on a posh accent] a controversial gal like myself.
“I went there and I thought it was going to be super fun and adventurous, but then I found myself just going to school and picking up kids and going to soccer matches, and really being netty-no-mates. I got a little bit depressed and thought, ‘I’ve got to make friends and I got to meet people.’ So I started to meet people and go out a bit – I’m not like a goer-outer per se — and most of the people I met were artists – either painters or musicians. I started getting invited to people’s homes and they have things called living room sessions. So everyone would congregate. People would bring wine, they would bring food, sit around the table. And then suddenly musicians would get up and start playing instruments and singing fado music and samba music. I was like, ‘Wait. What’s going on here? Like artists just get up and perform and you don’t get paid and they’re just doing it for fun and love and passion?’
Why she believes music is “the soul of the universe.”
“No matter where we are. Where we travel. No matter who we’re with or what language we speak, when we hear music, even if we don’t understand the words, we can still connect to the vibe, to the soul, to the feeling, the emotion that the artist put into that music. You can still relate to it. It doesn’t matter what language people are singing in, or the beat or genre. We will always, in a primal way, be connected through music. I feel that my record, because Lisbon is a melting pot of culture, from Angola to Spain to Brazil to France — I had the pleasure and honor to meet musicians from all these places and be inspired by their music and let it influence me. And that’s how all these songs came to be. … We were connected before Instagram, people.”
On reuniting with French producer Mirwais, whom she previously worked with on 2000’s Music, 2003’s American Life and 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor.
“I hadn’t worked with him in probably about 10 years and so I wasn’t sure whether he was going to like the direction I wanted to go in, and I sent him some music — some Portuguese guitar that I had assembled from the living room sessions. I said, ‘What do you think you can do with this?’ And he wrote me back a couple of days later and he [had] already added an 808 to it, gave it a beat, cut it up and turned it into something amazing. … He’s a very intelligent guy. Very philosophical. Very educated. Very cultured and very political. So inevitably all of my work will end up becoming those things.”
How she came to choose the directors for the “Medellin” video.
“I worked with two directors from Barcelona: Diana Kunst and Mao Morco. It was really Diana’s work that I had seen first. She is also very influenced by a lot of the same painters and filmmakers that I am interested in. Surrealist painters like Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington. I felt that all of her videos are very painterly and I loved her color palette. I wanted this video to look like a painting. Hopefully it does. I just vibed with what she was interested in culturally.”
Why Madame X marks a return to her roots and the meaning of the “Medellin” lyric: “I took a pill to be naive, to be someone I’ve never been.”
“What I mean by that line is naïve in terms of not caring what people think. I feel like when I started my career as an artist, I was naïve. The good thing about being naïve is that you don’t think about judgment. You don’t think about what people are going to say or think about what you’re doing. You are free and pure in your expression. I wanted to be able to go back to that time in my life when I was just starting out in New York and I didn’t care what people thought, and my music really came without listening to all the noise and recommendations or suggestions, or whatever. That is also the time in my life, when I was 19, when I was given the name Madame X. So the whole story has come full-circle…. Madame X is back to her roots. She doesn’t care zero you-know-whats.”
More at Billboard
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Just a week after upending all our expectations for her 14th studio album Madame X with mesmerising comeback single ‘Medellín’, Madonna has released the track’s official video – and it’s one of her most exciting in years.
The captivating new visual, which was premiered during an MTV Q&A with Madonna live from London on Wednesday night (24 April), sees the Queen of Pop reinvent herself once again: this time as a shapeshifting alter-ego known only as ‘Madame X’.
In a dramatic voiceover, Madonna/Madame X declares: “I will never be what society expects me to be. I have seen too much. I cannot turn back.
“I’ve been kidnapped, tortured, humiliated and abused. And yet I still have hope, I still believe in the goodness of humans.
“Thank God for nature, for the angels that surround me. For the spirit of my my mother, who has always protected me.
“From now on, I am Madame X, and Madame X loves to dance – because you can’t hit a moving target.”
What follows is six and a half minutes of sultry salsa-ing, a wedding party, some light dressage, and even Maluma getting his toes licked courtesy of the Queen herself – because what it a Madonna video if not a vehicle to push the prudes’ buttons.
Madonna is set to perform ‘Medellín’ with Maluma live the 2019 Billboard Music Awards on May 1, while the reggaeton-infused track is expected to be one of the two the 60-year-old superstar performs during the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv later that month.
(@www.attitude.co.uk)
The Madonna renaissance is in full swing. Today the pop icon released her first music video in four years: the visual for “Medellín,” the lead single from her upcoming album Madame X. As you can expect, it is wild. In the clip, Madonna does everything from sucking her own toes to getting married to Colombian reggaeton singer Maluma, who guests on the track. All the while, Madonna shows off an impressive array of eye patches — no explanation necessary.
Full Article HERE
Courtesy of MTV
Madonna’s new album, Madame X, marks a return to her roots as a “naïve” teenager in New York who gave “zero you-know-whats” about what people thought of her, the singer said during an exclusive onstage interview at MTV’s London offices.
Appearing in front of an invited audience of around 150 fans and media on Wednesday evening (April 24), the 60-year-old pop star was in a characteristically playful, flirty and combative mood as she took part in a 30-minute globally televised MTV special that culminated in the world premiere of her video for “Medellín,” featuring Columbian singer Maluma.
Hosting the event was British DJ Trevor Nelson, while Madonna — drinking pink champagne, holding a whip and dressed as what can only be described as a dominatrix pirate in high heels, fishnet tights, leather skirt, punk-style black blazer, eye-popping bodice and bejeweled eye patch — also took a number of pre-approved questions from the floor and fans at simultaneous MTV listening events in Milan, New York City and São Paulo via satellite.
“This is a weird conversation,” said the singer after one of many painful, eventually comic silences caused by a five-second satellite delay that, at times, felt far longer. When Nelson subsequently complimented her on the “incredible” beginning of her career, Madonna exclaimed, “What about now?” and pretended to whip him.
A few minutes later, during an ad break, the now-Portugal-based singer made Nelson read out a press release biography of her Madame X alter ego as she stood behind him trying to put him off. It was just one of several surreal moments in an entertaining, slightly odd and over-far-too-quickly interview that provided some revealing insight into her new album.
Rewatch the conversation and see some of the most interesting things Madonna had to say HERE.
Madonna unveiled the wild video for her new Maluma-assisted single “Medellín” on Wednesday (April 24) in a live international event hosted by MTV.
The cinematic clip opens with Madonna-as-Madame X kneeling before an altar, gently lit by a gold-and-blue stained glass window. “Dear God, how could I trust anyone after years of disappointment and betrayal?” she whispers in urgent prayer. “How could I not want to run away again and again? Escape. I will never be what society expects me to be.”
As the track kicks in with its beat of “1-2-cha-cha-cha,” Madonna’s multi-faceted alter ego assumes the identity of a cha-cha instructor, leading a class of dancers before singling out Maluma for some sultry one-on-one instruction.
Full article HERE
(Pictures from EBay / Information confirmed by Universal France)
