Madonna’s surprise pre-release of six songs from her upcoming album Rebel Heart on Dec. 20 was a hard-fought victory: the result of two sleepless nights to combat the widespread leaks of more than a dozen unfinished demos just three days prior. And it almost didn’t happen.
“We didn’t know until Friday night [December 19], 11:30 [Eastern] and 8:30 [Pacific] that it would even work,” Guy Oseary, Madonna’s longtime manager, said in a phone interview on Dec. 23. “There was a chance that technically it was not possible because it was so last-minute. Normally it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but because iTunes was shutting down [for the holiday] we were told that it would either go live at 11:30 East Coast time or January 5. We didn’t know — she was saying her prayers, we were all just hoping.”
The result? Pre-orders for the March 10, 2015 album topped the iTunes charts in more than 36 countries, with three of the album’s six finished songs entering this week’s Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Lead single “Living For Love” was serviced to U.S. radio stations on Dec. 22 by Madonna’s label Interscope, with a bigger push coming in January. An official music video will be filmed next month as well, with a planned release for the “first week of February,” as Oseary revealed in a separate Twitter Q&A on Dec. 27.
Related
But Madonna & co. aren’t coming up for air just yet. Just hours after Oseary spoke with Billboard on Dec. 23, 14 more tracks from the Rebel Heart sessions leaked, including the alleged Lady Gaga diss track “Two Steps Behind Me” (which Oseary has already denied is about Gaga or “anyone in particular”).
Below is an excerpt of Billboard’s conversation with Oseary last Tuesday (Dec. 23), including a detailed account of how Madonna and her team sprang into action to respond to the leaks. “If people knew what had to happen from Wednesday to get it it up for Friday, it was a circus show.”
Click HERE for full article by Billboard
