MADONNA! INTERVIEW! 2026! This is Madonna’s eleventh time on the cover of this magazine—more than any other star.
HERSTORY! We shot these images late at night on the outskirts of London. Madonna named her shoot’s character Dee Dee, a fun, hard-living broad who drank prosecco, did her hair big, and blasted the Stones ’til we got kicked out. There were moments that night when I felt star power on a level I had never experienced before, if that is possible… The next afternoon, I went to M’s home for round two: a 90-minute gab sesh after hearing the upcoming album, Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II. As a Frida Kahlo portrait glared protectively at me over Madonna’s shoulder, we talked past, present, future, prayer, dicks, nutritional yeast, and more…
THURSDAY 7 PM APRIL 9, 2026 LONDON
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MEL OTTENBERG: You look fantastic.
MADONNA: I’m not Dee Dee anymore. I miss her already. She was a good-time girl.
OTTENBERG: She was so good. And we’re going to talk about her, but first I want to ask what your perfume is because it smells so—
MADONNA: Fruity?
OTTENBERG: Yeah, it smells pretty and delicious. What is it?
MADONNA: It’s a combination of Portrait of a Lady and Radical Rose. I like to move around. My main is Portrait of a Lady, and then I add different things, depending on my mood. I like the name Portrait of a Lady, too. Because she is, sometimes.
OTTENBERG: She is. Okay, so we just listened to the album. You’d already played four songs for me when we first met.
MADONNA: Well, now it’s finished.
OTTENBERG: Let’s start at the beginning. Why this album now?
MADONNA: I was supposed to make a movie about my life. I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting. We had a falling out, me and Universal, regarding budget because I needed—I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget. You know what I mean? It’s not going be a—
Full interview available at Interviewmagazine.com
