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As her alter-ego Madame X, the pop star dons looks by Paloma Spain, Erdem, Miu Miu, Amata and more.

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

“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.”

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