Madonna Is Coming To Claim Her Crown

She is giving no sign to be stopping any time soon: Madonna, the queen of pop, is coming back to claim her throne.

Just a few days ago, the once material girl started the engines of her new era: a new album is on the way. After teasing new material for two weeks on her Instagram, the singer used her social networks to announce the name of her long-awaited 14th album: ‘Madame X’ it’s the name of her brand new project. The announcement was accompanied by a video made with her longtime collaborator Steven Klein. In the clip, she incarnates all the different and mysterious identities of her new character, trying on different and provocative outfits.

As she describes it, ‘Madame X’ is a ‘cha cha instructor, a professor, a head of state, a housekeeper, an equestrian, a prisoner, a student, a teacher, a nun, a cabaret singer, a saint, a prostitute’. How will this manifesto translate into her music? We may not know yet, but the wait will be over very, very soon, as the album is expected to be released on June 14.

Nevertheless, the first single of the record is already out: ‘Medellin’. The song, released earlier on April 17, features one of the strangest collaborations Madonna has ever pulled off. On the single cover, we can see the queen of pop suited in a wedding dress (maybe a throwback to her ‘Like A Virgin’ days), comfortably sitting by Maluma, the Colombian urban sensation who spices up the song, who rocks a sparkling red suit.

On this brand new track, Madonna brings back another longtime collaborator, this time for the production: Mirwais Ahmadzaï, whom she worked with on previous albums, such as ‘Music’ (2000), ‘American Life’ (2003) and ‘Confessions On a Dancefloor’ (2005). On ‘Medellin’, the chemistry between Madonna and Mirwais comes to life in the shape of dreamy and airy electronic beats, accompanied by tropical drums that make Maluma feel like he’s not far from home. The song comes together as a fun and sensual affair, with the pair exchanging lines full of innuendos, and Madonna whispering instructions right into the listener's ears. Here, the ‘cha cha’ instructor comes alive.

The music video of the lead single will be released pretty soon, on April 24 through MTV, on a globally-televised event called "MTV Presents Madonna Live & Exclusive: 'Medellín' Video World Premiere." Apparently, the queen of pop is looking forward to start this new era with a bang, as she will be joining British DJ Trevor Nelson in London to offer her takes on the inspiration and the ideas behind the birth of ‘Madame X’ and the ‘Medellin’ music video. Not only she will make an appearance, but Maluma will be joining the broadcast live from Miami, alongside fan gatherings hosted by the television network all around the globe, from cities such as New York City, Sao Paulo and Milan.

Will ‘Medellin’ be one of the songs chosen to be sung on Eurovision? We are not sure yet, nonetheless, two brand new songs are confirmed, and the highly expected performance it’s already making headlines. The event which will take place on Tel Aviv, Israel on May 2, almost a month before the release of the album, is surrounded by polemic. Big names such as Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, Vivienne Westwood and Mike Leigh, plus LGBTQ collectives are asking for the cancelation of the show due to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It’s impossible to say if Madonna, who doesn't know precisely for staying silent, will listen to those demands, or if she will use the stage to send a bigger message. We’ll have to wait and see what the queen is preparing for her performance.

Her the highly anticipated album, ‘Madame X’ it’s the first full length project the 60 years old singer will have released since her latest effort, ‘Rebel Heart’ dropped in 2015, more than 4 years ago. We had the chance to listen to some new material on her performance on the last year’s MET Gala, when she sang a new song called ‘Beautiful Game’, which apparently didn’t make the cut for this new album. On her previous effort, Madonna enlisted an A-Tier list of producers and collaborators, such as Diplo, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, SOPHIE and Avicii, crafting her longest tracklist to date, with 22 tracks on the deluxe version. This time around, we are getting a much more curated tracklist, with only 13 and 15 tracks for the standard and the deluxe version, respectively.

The tracklist contains several collaborations: not only we will be listening yet another song featuring Maluma, the Colombian superstar, but Madge enlisted also Anitta, the Brazilian sensation, Quavo and Swae Lee to enrich the ‘Madame X’ repertory. The credits of the album reveal some interesting collaborations: Mike Dean, one of the main producers of her previous effort, Rebel Heart, makes a comeback in this album. Mirwais also is featured in a handful of tracks.

We know very little details besides the names of the tracks. The song ‘Future’, the one featuring Quavo, is said to be heavily influenced by Jamaican dance-hall music, under Diplo’s production, who also makes a comeback. In her late interview with Vogue Italia, the artist explained how her new project is influenced by her experiences living in Portugal. According to her, the record was born in Lisbon: “I found my tribe there and a magical world of incredible musicians that reinforced my belief that music across the world is truly all connected and is the soul of the universe”, the singer says.

The album was recorded in a span of 18 months of hard work: New York, Los Angeles, London, and Lisbon were the cities where the queen of pop spent the last year and a half crafting and mastering her new material. Having visited so different places, the album features the songstress singing in her native English, in Spanish and Portuguese. As she announced, we are facing a collection of 15 tracks that celebrate Madonna’s career-long fascination with Latin music and cultures, as well as reaching to other global influences.

There’s still no news about a tour supporting this new album, but with Madonna, it’s only a matter of time until we get some news about her hitting the road. The material girl it’s known for pushing boundaries every time she gets on tour, and she shows always land on the top of the lists of the most profitable live spectacles. We can’t but expect that this time won’t be an exception.

Very fond of her social media, Madonna has documented the creative process behind the new record through her Instagram: fans have been teased since months before the announcement of the release date. Now, we are only a couple of months away from hearing the first full-length album from the queen of pop, a new chapter on the already legendary career of the bestselling female musician of all times. In a time where aging is heavily punished by the media, especially when you are a female, Madonna is sending a really clear message: as her previous the record stated, she was born with a rebel heart, and she has little to no intention to stop making music anytime soon.

Popnable /Popnable Media