Madonna covers Dutch focus magazine
Madonna covers Dutch Focus magazine.
The magazine includes a portfolio where 9 photographers show off their favourite work. The cover photo was taken by Dutch photographer Kees Tabak.
Order HERE
Thanks to: Marco!
Madonna Drank Lil Nas X’s Beer at Her Los Angeles Concert
When Lil Nas X met Madame X, they chewed the fat, drank some beer — the same bottle of beer — and an audience of millions got to watch on, thanks to the power of social media.
During her Los Angeles show earlier in the week, Madonna strolled over to the “Old Town Road” rapper, who appeared to be just another fan, and immediately made a beeline for his brew.
“That looks so thirst-quenching, may I have a sip,” she asked. When The Queen of Pop requests a hit of your beer, you give it up.
“If I drink this, I’ll be getting some of your backwash,” she asked again. Apparently so. “Kinda sharp, your backwash. Might cut my tongue,” she said, rather enthusastically.
It’s all good. No harm done. “I’m in the presence of a legend, I’m just happy to be here,” the rising star responded.
After breaking the ice with a cold one, the pair got chatting about Lil Nas X’s hometown, Atlanta (“I’ve been to Atlanta, Georgia like three billion times,” Madonna claimed), and does he, in fact, ride horses. “I’ll teach you how to ride, baby,” Madonna declared, as she led a round of “Old Town Road.”
The pop legend posted her getting-to-know-you exchange with Lil Nas X as her Madame X tour visited L.A.’s The Wiltern on Monday (Nov. 25).
More at Billboard
Love Profusion discography online – 24 different pressings
We wrap up our American Life discographies with the last single taken from the album: ‘Love Profusion’.
Love Profusion was also used in an Estee Lauder commercial and therefore free samples of the new perfume were given away with the CD singles. Madonna recorded a music video for the track inspired by the Estee Lauder commercial. Unfortunately Madonna has never performed the track live during any of her world tours, even though rumoured to have been part of the original Re-Invention tour setlist.
We have collected 24 pressings in the discography HERE
WELCOME TO THE WOOD – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM REVIEW
WELCOME TO THE WOOD – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM REVIEW
photo: Grant Kretchik
Pace University’s School of Performing Arts fall mainstage season kicked off on November 20th with a new Madonna-inspired adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Fourteen Madonna classics were woven through the original spoken text of Shakespeare. The show is a collaboration between the acting and dance program at Pace.
The production, “Welcome to the Wood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is directed by Grant Kretchik, the head of the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Acting Program at the Pace School of Performing Arts, and choreographed by Jess Hendricks, featuring Pace’s BFA’s Commercial Dance dancers. The creative team is comprised entirely of Pace University students, including set designer Brett Martinez, costume designer Arin Goldsmith, lighting designer Elijah Sullivan, sound designer Julia Riley, and props master Colleen O’Brien. The production is stage managed by student Lindsay Jones and company managed by student Emily Huber.
“It is as elegant as it is erotic, as sophisticated as it is sensual, and as timeless as it is tempting,” says director Kretchik.
photo: Grant Kretchik
I was invited to peek in during their final dress rehearsal on Tuesday night and was able to stay long enough to witness the first act. Scurrying down Spruce Street to the Schimmel Center of Pace University in downtown Manhattan, which houses the theatre in which the show is performed, I had no idea what to expect from this production. Before the show, campy elevator music style Madonna songs filled the auditorium and definitely set the tone for the self-aware delight, beauty, and bawdiness about to take place. It was actually quite endearing to see the younger college student crowd bopping and dancing to the songs. Being a huge Madonna fan, my feelings were obviously bias about the fantastic idea for the show, but that also would lean me to being a harsher critic than most. The show began with an elegant Shakespearian vibe with a slight juxtaposition of modern technology, almost easing you into the coming fanfare. Soon, classic Madonna songs from every era of her career were wonderfully and delightfully sewn into the fabric of the 400-year-old play as if they were meant to be all along. Even the floor design had similarities to the tiles in the background of promotional photos for her current “Madame X” Tour. The choreography was certainly fresh and frisky with occasional nods to some of Madonna’s wildest live performances and subtle references to some of her most iconic imagery. I’m actually not even sure some were intentional, but as a deeper kind of fan, I noticed them for sure.
And now we fast forward to Friday night when I got to see the full production in its entirety. I was surrounded by some of my favorite Madonna fan family members and we all got to experience it together. The second act is where the story really went into overdrive. Hearty jabs at the current administration in the White House were in full force as the ‘ass’ in which Titania falls in love with, thanks to a magic potion from the show’s protagonist Puck, resides in Nick Bottom wearing a bedazzled MAGA hat as a metaphor for Trump. It was a very risky addition to the show’s structure and nuance, that became fully realized in the epilogue as the play within the play features the actors portraying various characters in the current circus that is the White House. Melania’s infamous “I Don’t Really Care. Do You?” coat makes a guest appearance as well as Sarah Huckabee Sanders and more of the usual suspects. The four young lovers, entangled in a bizarre set of love triangles were cast triumphantly and their success in delivering their Shakespearean verse as well as embracing the music of Madonna was absolutely brilliant. The idea that most of the actors, who are college students currently, were most likely not even alive when the songs in the show were released not only shows their incredible acting abilities but also the true power, relatability and longevity of Ms. Ciccone’s catalog.
Being that the story is about female empowerment, various incarnations of forlorn love, hopeless romanticism, dramatic love triangles and more…Madonna’s penchant for the melancholy and the mighty power of the female makes her songs the joyously perfect accoutrements to this classic Shakespearean tale. Among the many musical highlights is a short version of “Frozen” where all the fairies hide under Helena’s skirt and as their limbs protrude and create tension from beneath the garment they add to the dramatic splendor of the songs musicality. It actually reminded me of similar choreography from “Justify My Love” from The Girlie Show back in 1993. Do you remember?
Obviously, “Express Yourself” finds it’s way into the early section of the show as well as “Open Your Heart”, “Like A Prayer”, “La Isla Bonita”, “Like A Virgin”,“Material Girl”, a very cleverly used “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Sorry”, “Justify My Love”, and a rousing finale featuring probably one of her penultimate classics “Vogue”. The choreography for the ballroom call to arms was so edgy and exciting, I could definitely have seen it on an actual Madonna tour. Campy and sensual nods to her game changing Marie Antoinette inspired MTV VMA performance were basically built into the theme of the show’s costumes.
It was a joyous marriage of Shakespeare and Ciccone that was so well conceived and executed, we hope to eventually see the production take wings and end up possibly on a Broadway or off-Broadway stage in the future. Throughout the show I also pondered what would be going through her mind if Madonna herself was in the audience and able to witness a true celebration of her biggest and most iconic messages and melodies. We will certainly be following up to see where this ambitious and stupendous production goes in the future.
Check out a mini interview with the director here: https://instinctmagazine.com/a-midsummer-nights-dream- reinvented-through-the-music- of-madonna/
Thank you to Chauncey Dandridge for the review
Thank you to Grant Kretchik for the opportunity and the images
More details on #MadameX VIP coffee table book!
THX Robert Patterson from Rebel Heartbreakers facebook group!
Review: Madonna’s Madame X Concert
Most of us know music legend, Madonna, is on her latest tour titled Madame X. She’s garnered headlines already because first off, this is Madonna – a sixty-one year old icon who is still actively performing, and well, she may have been late and a fan pushed a lawsuit against her tardiness. Who cares! It’s Madonna! Recently, I was one of the lucky people who were able to see her latest tour and I have so many thoughts I need to share with you.
I was first blue-balled by the Madame X tour. A great friend of mine dangled the idea of being a plus one the prior night, but a friend he had took him up on the offer. I was a little bummed, knowing the price of a Madonna ticket during the holidays wasn’t necessarily in budget. I would be blindsided when the same friend, who saw the show the night before, asked if I wanted to go – he was getting tickets – again. Obviously I couldn’t pass up the offer, especially if someone is wanting to see the show again; this had to be good. The two of us would head to The Wiltern, a swanky spot in Los Angeles’ Korea Town neighborhood.
Upon entering the establishment you are absolutely required to lock your phone in a secure, magnetic bag. Basically it’s like a pouch that has one of the retail stores detectors on it – and only an employee could release it for you. It’s legit unbreakable. It’s a little shocking at first. Our phones are not only probably our biggest addiction, but a comfort zone. Immediately you have to be a little insecure: I’m in my later 20s, so my phone is regularly superglued to my hand. #Triggered. After grabbing a cocktail and venturing to the restroom (which in my opinion had to of been better than a bathhouse in the ‘70s), it’s time to take your seats among the Madonna fans AKA your gay peers.
We were close to the stage. It’s not a grand ballroom or the Staples Center, it’s intimate. The people around us couldn’t be more friendly. Without the lifeline of our phones, it’s bizarre to remember what it’s like meeting strangers in person is like. The fun conversations with our neighborhoods didn’t last long, because shockingly, Madonna was on time! Time to start the show…
Right off the bat we are showcased a prologue of the show. Madonna tells us to basically let loose, we’re going to be uncomfortable, but at the end of the day this is art. It’s not a concert, but theater, artistry, and she’s making certain that we walk away with conversation rather than just “That was amazing!” and the like. This introduction is projected on a screen in front of the audience as “Madonna” types it out to us on a typewriter. With the punch of every letter, an African American performer is “shot” on stage – he moves with every hit of a bullet. Eventually, Madonna lights up the stage and performs her newest work but every so often treats us to an oldie that gets everyone up and dancing. It’s sensational, moving, and without question the best “concert” I’ve ever been too. Madonna takes you out of your world and introduces you into hers. It’s basically like a cult – and I was honored to drink the juice.
Madonna outperforms those who she has decades of age on. She does the splits not only on the stage, but upside down in the air while hanging from a harness. It’s insane – she was doing cirque de solei! A surprise was her children who performed along side her for a song, it was a tender moment if you knew what her children look like (my friend pointed them out to me). She speaks softly to the audience often. Seriously, I felt like we were having more of a chat with Madonna than watching her perform – and she did plenty of her songs, 80% new, 20% classics. The experience is magical and worth every penny. Her message is clear throughout: This is an inclusive, diverse environment. It’s Madonna’s world and she has invited us in. It’s magical and Madonna needs to be cherished at all costs.
However, there were a few scandalous moments during her performance. While the gunshots are a little alarming – seriously, there should perhaps be a warning before heading in (I didn’t see one) – she also protests against police brutality and is incredibly vocal against reigning President Donald Trump. I’m not a Trump supporter, but I’m also not a devote Liberal, so there were moments of intensity that pushed an agenda. But, this is Madonna and I knew what to expect and wasn’t going to be someone who’d walk out of the glorious performance I was watching. This is Madonna’s art and it’s a site to be seen by anyone. She’s truly the eighth World Wonder. You must see Madame X.
Shout out to the guy next to us who literally passed out and convulsed on the floor. I hope it was the magic of the performance that you fainted from and not a letter of the alphabet that is used as a party drug…
More at Instinct Magazine
Mom, Madonna & me: A personal essay (The Daily Californian)
he gunshots and fake blood splattering onto the motel bed made me flinch and look away from the stage toward my mother. She seemed unbothered, smiling and clapping her hands.
We were at my first Madonna concert. A mere 13-year-old, I had never seen anything like it before.
I had been expecting the 52-year-old singer to simply run through the hits my mom always turned up on the local oldies station. Instead, Madonna opened the concert by falling down from an elevated glass confession box she had shattered with a makeshift rifle. In a skintight black bodysuit, she began belting out a song off her new album that I had never even heard before.
Naturally, my life was changed.
The whole concert was a wonderfully weird, violent mess, and I loved every minute of it. By the end of it, Madonna had pretended to shoot and kill half of her backup dancers, stripped down to her lingerie and rolled around on a piano, whirled around a baton while dressed up as a cheerleader and transformed herself into a nun — all in the span of two hours. I was enthralled, yet also so confused.
This was my SoulCycle-loving, Lululemon-wearing, eye surgeon mother’s hero? The mother who constantly told me to cover up with a sweater before I left the house?
Like most people born in 1998, I’d thought of Madonna as a figure permanently stuck in the ‘80s, forever belting out “Like a Virgin” in an endless, outdated loop. The closer I began to look, however, the more I realized Madonna’s ubiquity, not just in the world but in my daily life.
Legend has it that I first appeared to the world as “Ray of Light” poured into the hospital room from my mother’s birthing CD. And while most kids grew up dancing along to the Wiggles, I jumped along to “Material Girl” and “Like a Prayer.” My bedtime reading was “The English Roses,” a children’s book written by, you guessed it, Madonna. I guess it was only a matter of time before I got on board.
Read full article at The Daily Californian
Madonna covers L’Officiel Italia magazine (November 28) Limited Edition
Madonna covers a limited edition of the Italian edition of L’Officiel magazine next week (November 28).
The Rebel Queen – Madonna by Donatella Versace.
Inside Kim and Kourtney Kardashian’s Sisters Night Out at Madonna Concert
Kim and Kourtney Kardashian had the time of their lives at Madonna‘s concert!
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians stars attended the music legend’s show at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Wednesday. According to a concertgoer, the sisters sat front row center for the over two-hour show that began close to 11 p.m. At one point during the concert, Madonna came off stage to sit and chat with Kim for the rest of the crowd to hear.
Madonna asked Kim if she was enjoying the show, with the reality star assuring the singer she was having the best time. “It’s so surreal,” Kim said into the mic. “I’m with my sister, Kourtney, and she used to play your records all the time when we were young.”
The “Like a Virgin” singer then told the mom of four she wanted to talk about motherhood. When she mentioned that three of her kids, Stelle, Estere and Mercy James, are all up late to be part of the show, she asked Kim if her kids stay up late. Kim said both she and the kids go to bed early, to which Madonna cried, “I don’t know how you wake up early and look so beautiful. I look like sh** in the morning. You must be drinking the right juice.” Kim exclaimed, “It’s eye masks.”
The concertgoer tells ET that Madonna then offered Kim some of her beer, but Kim told her she’s “not a big drinker.” Madonna replied, “Neither am I, but I’m so dehydrated. I’ll drink anything.” Before returning to the stage, the singer told Kim, “Well, I hope you’re having a great time. And if your sister misbehaves, I’m bringing her onstage with me.”
While no phones or cameras were allowed inside The Wiltern, Kourtney did post a video of herself entering the venue. She also posted an outfit pic.
Madonna is currently in the middle of her 10-date stay at The Wiltern on her Madame X Tour.
Full article at ETOnline
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Reinvented Through The Music Of Madonna
November 20, 2019 by Chauncey Dandridge
Pace University’s School of Performing Arts fall mainstage season will kick off on November 20 with a new Madonna-inspired adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Fourteen Madonna classics will be woven through the original spoken text of Shakespeare. The show is a collaboration between the acting and dance program at Pace.
The production, “Welcome to the Wood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is directed by Grant Kretchik, the head of the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Acting Program at the Pace School of Performing Arts, and choreographed by Jess Hendricks, featuring Pace’s BFA’s Commercial Dance dancers. The creative team is comprised entirely of Pace University students, including set designer Brett Martinez, costume designer Arin Goldsmith, lighting designer Elijah Sullivan, sound designer Julia Riley, and props master Colleen O’Brien. The production is stage managed by student Lindsay Jones and company managed by student Emily Huber. “It is as elegant as it is erotic, as sophisticated as it is sensual, and as timeless as it is tempting,” says director Kretchik.
I was invited to peek in during their final dress rehearsal on Tuesday night and was able to stay long enough to witness the first act. Scurrying down Spruce Street to the Schimmel Center of Pace University in downtown Manhattan, which houses the theatre in which the show is performed, I had no idea what to expect from this production. Before the show, campy elevator music style Madonna songs filled the auditorium and definitely set the tone for the self-aware delight, beauty, and bawdiness about to take place. It was actually quite endearing to see the younger college student crowd bopping and dancing to the songs. Being a huge Madonna fan, my feelings were obviously bias about the fantastic idea for the show, but that also would lean me to being a harsher critic than most. The show began with an elegant Shakespearian vibe with a slight juxtaposition of modern technology, almost easing you into the coming fanfare. Soon, classic Madonna songs from every era of her career were wonderfully and delightfully sewn into the fabric of the 400-year-old play as if they were meant to be all along. Even the floor design had similarities to the tiles in the background of promotional photos for her current “Madame X” Tour. The choreography was certainly fresh and frisky with occasional nods to some of Madonna’s wildest live performances and subtle references to some of her most iconic imagery. I’m actually not even sure some were intentional, but as a deeper kind of fan, I noticed them for sure.
Fan cracks and fishnet tights aplenty, the show transgresses quickly into a hedonistic night club scenario where the would-be lovers of the story going to be free from societal corsets and restraints. The classic character of Puck is reimagined as a saucy, vixen troublemaker. Her interaction with her troupe of heathens brought some Vegas-style “Showgirls” sophistication and sexuality. The costuming throughout the show was fantastic with built-in tearaways and clever, fetish inspired styling. We highly recommend you take the time to experience “Welcome to the Wood -A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
Before the show, I had just enough time to ask director Grant Kretchik a few questions about the show and the creative process in turning this Shakespeare classic into a modern day boundary-pushing experience featuring the music of the queen of button pushing: Madonna.
CHAUNCEY: What made you decide to use Madonna songs to reinvent the story of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”?
GRANT KRETCHIK: It started as imagining THE WOODS (where the lovers escape to find their love) as a night club as a sophisticated labyrinth and then I wondered what this underground night club would feel like. I immediately landed on Vogue but specifically inspired by the MTV Awards from 1990! So that was a fine enough feeling- but now what? ? What kind of music is in this club, what’s the energy, the tone? I thought well maybe Vogue opens or closes the show. Again, “now what?” So I started digging deeper, played with a few different songs from the ’80s and ’90s from other artists but of course, Madonna kept coming up and I landed on Open Your Heart- a light bulb went off! I was like, “this is what Helena is feeling” but it’s not exactly what’s in the story. I hit on a few more Madonna songs. Mind you I did not set out to create this adaptation it’s only where I landed. As I continued to listen I kept rediscovering the power of sexual femininity that Madonna awoke in the ’80s and throughout her career. Simultaneously, I became conscious of the times we are in now. It drove me back to the text. I started realizing things about the script that I didn’t like such as a duty to society, oppressed female voices. I mean, come on Hermia’s father is willing to offer her to death if she doesn’t marry the man he picked for her. Helena is running around offering to be Demetrius’ dog if he will love her- absolutely awful and pathetic. I went back to Open Your Heart and was like, “what if I put this song in as a way for Helena to stand up to him and realize the power she has as a woman and as a sexual being? I still only thought it might be atomospheric in someway. Not long after I hit on the part in the text that Hermia and Lysander exchange “love tokens” I always thought of this as referring to intimate exchanges between them and then the 3rd light bulb came. What if it’s not about intimacy but rather he brings her gifts to woo her, such as diamond rings and 18k gold- mind was blown, Material Girl and Express Yourself. This crystallized everything for me and it was also the first moment I thought of the play as an adaptation where the songs could be driven by the characters and particularly the female ones. Now I was in deep and it had to be Madonna so I thew myself into her catalog. That is when the next part made sense to me. The king and the queen in the court are oppressed in their own way, ya know, ‘heavy is the head that wears the crown’ kinda thing? Hippolyta and Theseus too have to secretly escape to the club, which by this time I was calling “THE WOOD” and in this club, they were able to be free and role play as Titania and Oberon. Titania would teach the young female lovers how to express themselves and embrace their power. Now I was realizing I might be on to something interesting or at least interesting to me. Rounding out the process was inserting additional songs that were character driven but also would set tone such as; When Titania falls in love with the ass she could be made to feel Like a Virgin when she’s under the spell; when Puck (who becomes the DJ in the club) has to reverse the spell on the loves they would need to justify their love before coming out of THE WOOD changed. It went on and on. I was in a Madonna K hole- not that I’ve ever done K. Suddenly in the span between January to April, I had “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as a Madonna dance party or so I hoped.
CHAUNCEY: How big of a Madonna fan are you?
GRANT: Oh this is not an easy answer. I love Madonna and always have but I never thought of myself as a “fan”. It’s deeper and at the same time simpler than that. In college, I took a course in anthropology and popular culture and the academic textbook had an entire chapter dedicated to Madonna. I always knew I loved the music- it was all around me growing up, she was controversial, sexy, could put out fun dance music. Now having worked on this I have become more aware of her as a storyteller in her lyrics. There are all these gems of thought provoking ideas that can go by as a blip because the music is so good. But it was in that class that I understood the influence this woman had on the world and on women as sexual creatures and a feminist- that was in 1999 and she has not stopped. I grew up with all women and it wasn’t easy for them- I had a new level of respect for Madonna. I am an admitted fan but with an artist who has the stamina and staying power like Madonna, that she is a part of the cultural narrative. It becomes a part of your story. When you grow up with artists you know them intimately because their music gets you through shit and it helps you to know yourself. Isn’t that what art can do, help you to know yourself? Madonna for me is my coming of age story. She’s been in all the moments of my life and I didn’t know it because she was in the background like a quiet and supportive friend.
I hope that my students from a newer generation are discovering her and her influence through this process. We are having a blast but I hope they are aware of how much Madonna and so many other female artists have moved the needle forward so they can express who they are today- and that story will continue to evolve but we must recognize and pay respect to those who came before.
The show runs Wednesday, November 20th through Sunday, November 24th with two matinees at The Schimmel Center of Pace University at 3 Spruce Street in lower Manhattan. For tickets please click here
More at Instinct Magazine
“I Rise” nominated for Best Remixed Recording at 62nd Grammy Awards
Best Remixed Recording:
“I Rise (Tracy Young’s Pride Intro Radio Remix)” — Tracy Young, remixer (Madonna)
“Mother’s Daughter (Wuki Remix)” — Wuki, remixer (Miley Cyrus)
“The One (High Contrast Remix)”– Lincoln Barrett, remixer (Jorja Smith)
“Swim (Ford. Remix)” — Luc Bradford, remixer (Mild Minds)
“Work It (Soulwax Remix)” — David Gerard C Dewaele & Stephen Antoine C Dewaele, remixers (Marie Davidson)
The 25 Most Underrated Albums Of The Decade
Madonna — Madame X
I get it: there’s just so much stuff out there. It’s impossible to keep track of all of the records that the critics are crying from the rafters about, let alone just getting down to the work of seeking out stuff that aligns with your own very niche taste. But still, there was no reason for us all to have ignored Madame X, the new record from Madonna. This is no late-career lip-service to a legacy; this is a new formulation of it, a bold restatement of purpose. We take Madge for granted sometimes, and that’s a problem.
More at Junkee.com
I’m Breathless yellow vinyl Barnes & Noble Exclusive pictures
Here are the first pictures of the actual I’m Breathless pressed on yellow vinyl available as a Barnes & Noble Exclusive.
New Madame X Tour merchandise online
New Madame X Tour merchandise in the official Madonna store! The I Rise Photo Tee and I Rise Photo Hoodie.
Order them HERE
Remixed & Revisited EP discography online – 16 different pressings
Next up in our discography is the remix EP ‘Remixed & Revisited’ released in November 2003 right in the middle of the American Life era. Remixed & Revisited included various remixes of several American Life tracks as well as the live performance of ‘Hollywood’ at the MTV Awards ceremony, ‘Into The Hollywood Groove’ and the previously unreleased ‘Your Honesty’.
Your Honesty was a demo track recorded at the time for the Bedtime Stories album but was never used. Madonna’s manager at the time (Caresse Henry) convinced Madonna to add the track to the EP as it was such a great tune.
For the discography we have collected 16 different pressings for you to view HERE
Enjoy