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The Live Event space provides an impressive palette with which to create audio/visual moments that transport the concert-goer to an alternate reality. Solid’s on-stage creative for Madonna’s Confessions Tour is a riveting example of just how that can work. The task at hand was to come up with a 4 1/2 minute animated excursion for the song “Like It or Not”.

The main theme of the song and corresponding creative is a journey through a living-vine garden of eden – a metaphor for the twists and turns of life and love. Our process from the start required a good amount of organization and rigid conceptual rules to give our artists a sound base from which to work from. We broke the song down into its various sections and tied the intensity of the growing vines to the lyrics being sung. We created diagrams and graphs that helped us plan out how the animation would unfold through its multiple chorus, bridge and verse’s. We went through several stages of design, exploring various treatments in terms of photo-realism, color and FX. Getting sign-off from a world renown performer can be a tricky process – Madonna definitely has strong opinions and a clear vision. Ultimately, she was interested in a realistic, minimalist aesthetic – one of several approaches we had sent along.

For the motion, the team used maya and x-frog to build a dynamically growing world. A variety of render passes were used to get the specific look we were going for. Key to our success was the use of a “thread” vine to make the seamless nature of the piece easy to manage. Basically, we started the animation with one vine and one camera, and told the story as well as we could with just that one element. Once that made sense, every additional element seemed to fit right in and give it that extra something.

Madonna’s show used several cutting edge display technologies for the stage. Central to this high-end install was an Element Labs, stealth LED screen – a curved element that creates a unique experience from all sides and has a layered sensibility, allowing viewers to see right through the darker parts of the image. To take advantage of that, we delivered 2 different layers – one for the foreground on the curved Stealth with more of the living, fast paced vine work and one to be used on a background LED screen as a supporting layer. The two layered screens create an intense sense of depth, bringing attendees even deeper into Madonna’s secret garden of eden.

SOLID

Welcome to the brand new version of our website! We (Kimberly, Hans, Onno & Eric) have worked extremely hard behind the scenes in getting this together on time. Everything that could be found on the old website has been transferred and transformed onto this new website, everything is brand new and all of the sections have been improved. To make sure the site was easy to access and easy to browse through, we wanted to make it a website that provides you with everything you need and want to know about Madonna. We also made the choice to focus on publishing everything in the English language as most of our visitors come from the US. We did keep our live reports in both English and Dutch though.

We are still working on it, so it still is not finished, it might be that you miss a section (will be put back asap) and are working on new sections as we speak. We literally have thousands of pages still waiting to be scanned for new additions to the website, so there is a lot more in store for you!

We hope you enjoy the brand new version of MadonnaUnderground, please take your time to browse through every single section and menu item.

Stay tuned for lots and lots more to come!!

With earnings of $125 million, pop singer Madonna is the highest-paid woman in music, easily surpassing Lady Gaga and country-pop singer Taylor Swift, Forbes said on Wednesday.

Her income for the 12-month period used by the magazine also made her the highest-earning celebrity overall, it said. Much of Madonna’s earnings from June 2012 to June 2013 were from her worldwide MDNA Tour, which pulled in $305 million.

But the 55-year-old singer, who jumped from ninth place in 2012, also made money with merchandising sales, her fragrance and from her Material Girl clothing line.

She is “music’s top earner of any genre or gender and the highest-paid celebrity of any stripe,” according to Forbes.

Lady Gaga, with $80 million, jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 this year, despite her Born This Way Ball tour being cut short due to an injury. Gaga, 27, released her album “ARTPOP” after the cut off date for Forbes’ annual earnings calculations.

Swift, 23, dropped from second place in 2012 to third this year. Her $55 million in earnings came from sales of her latest album “Red” as well as endorsement deals, records sales and touring. Forbes compiled the list after estimating pre-tax income based on record sales, concert tickets, touring information merchandise sales and interviews with concert promoters, lawyers and managers.

It also looked at data from the Pollstar trade magazine, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. Singer Beyonce, 32, came in fourth, not far behind with $53 million.

The R&B star, who rose two places from last year, was also on the road with her Mrs. Carter World Tour, and earned cash from her House of Dereon clothing line and endorsement deals. Jennifer Lopez, 44, rounded out the top five women with $45 million.

Although her earnings dropped after she left her spot as a judge on the TV singing competition show “American Idol,” she still earned plenty of money from her world tour and the Latin singing competition show “Q’Viva” for the Fox television network.

Country singer and 2005 “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood, 30, was a newcomer to the list at No. 9. Underwood, who played the lead role of Maria in a live version of “The Sound of Music” for television earlier this month, earned $31 million from her latest album “Blown Away” and touring.

The full list can be found at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/12/11/the-top-earning-women-in-music-2013/ (Editing by Philip Barbara)

DNA

Madonna is once again a single lady.

The 55-year-old pop star and her boyfriend Brahim Zaibat have broken up, a rep for the singer confirms to E! News. No word on why Madonna and the 25-year-old dancer went their separate ways, but some are speculating the couple ended their three-year relationship because of busy and conflicting schedules.

Zaibat, who worked as a backup dances during Madonna’s recent MDNA world tour, is currently competing on the French version of Dancing With the Stars.

Madonna and Zabat’s last big red carpet appearance together was at the Met Gala in NYC back in May. The former lovebirds walked the carpet together in coordinating punk-inspired outfits and posed for pics as a couple.

The duo was also spotted last week at an NYC Kabbalah center.

Before Zaibat, Madge dated model Jesus Luz. She also has daughter Lourdes with ex Carlos Leon, son Rocco with ex-hubby Guy Ritchie and adopted son and daughter, David and Mercy.

Meanwhile, Madonna recently visited Haiti with her ex-husband Sean Penn. Penn invited his ex to tour the nation with him as part of his J/P Haiti Relief Organization’s earthquake relief efforts.

Madonna’s posted tons of pics of her family trip to the Caribbean island. “The Prime Minister Of Haiti! Laurent Lamothe, A man with a vision and a big heart! @jphro #revolutionoflove,” she captioned one pic of her and Lamothe.

E Online

Madonna’s daughter Lourdes is peachy keen, jellybean!

The 17-year-old hit the stage over the weekend in her New York City high school’s production of “Grease.” She was a cast as Rizzo — a major role memorably played by Stockard Channing on the big screen in 1978. (Lourdes shared the part with another student during the multi-show run.)

The Material Girl’s eldest daughter “smoked cigarettes, chugged wine, and got boy crazy” as the most rebellious, sarcastic, and quotable member of the Pink Ladies in the LaGuardia High School show, reported the New York Daily News. She also showed off her dance moves, grooving to ’50s tunes in front of the ensemble cast, and singing voice, belting out solos including “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” and “There are Worse Things I Could Do.”
The brunette teen looked remarkably like her famous mother as she danced on stage in a black dress with polka dot detailing and red shoes.

Speaking of mom, Madonna was in the audience for Friday’s performance, bringing her three other children — Instagram lover Rocco, 13, David, 8, and Mercy, 8. During intermission, Madge, who brought Lourdes a bouquet of flowers, stepped outside the auditorium and was seen standing next to a wall playing with her phone. After the show, she left with the aspiring thespian, who still had on her stage makeup.

In the program, the teen, who goes by Lola, gave a shout out to her mother and father, personal trainer Carlos Leon, who also took in the show. Her bio said: “She would like to thank her parents for giving her guidance and love and supporting her passions wholeheartedly.”

This is Lourdes’s last year at the prestigious public school, which was made famous by the 1980 movie “Fame.” It was there that she met her boyfriend, “Homeland” alum Timothee Chalamet, though next year she’ll be shoving off to college.

Late last month, Madonna and Lourdes visited University of Michigan, the school the “Like a Virgin” singer briefly attended before moving to New York and hitting the big time. While on campus, they checked out the School of Music, Theater and Dance, making it quite obvious where Lourdes’s passions lie.

Well, as the song goes, there are worse things she could do …

Yahoo