With her upcoming album, Madonna is set to ushered in a new golden age of the Queen of Pop.
Madonna is back to reclaim her pop queen crown with her eagerly awaited new album, Confessions II – and if the signs so far are anything to go by, we’re about to witness the mother of all comebacks.
The album, which is billed as a follow-up to her 2005 disco-infused smash, Confessions On A Dance Floor, is already getting both long-time fans and hard-to-please critics giddy with excitement. And after a few fallow years which saw her last album, 2019’s divisive Madame X, fail to thrill (or bring in the sales of previous releases), it seems the 67-year-old music legend is determined to come back all guns blazing.
“It looks like we’ve just entered the new golden age of the Queen of Pop,” says music critic Mark Beaumont. “The songs aired publicly so far suggest a Madonna joyously returning to her roots.
“The Vogue-like first single, I Feel So Free, is a shameless house anthem that reconnects her to her origins on the New York club scene and declares the dance floor both her safe room and happy place.”
In recent years, there’s no denying Madge’s career has suffered some major bumps in the road. As well as the disappointing sales of her 14th studio album Madame X – it sold half as many copies as its predecessor, 2015’s Rebel Heart – there was her lukewarm Eurovision guest spot in 2019, which triggered a tidal wave of online criticism, with some viewers claiming she was singing out of tune.
A much-mooted biopic was shelved in 2023, then unshelved, but now appears to have been put on ice once again. So despite her iconic legacy, Madonna, who has six children – Lourdes, 29, Rocco, 26, David, 20, Mercy, 20, and 13-year-old twins Stella and Estere – hasn’t had it easy, and few could deny that she’s now in dire need of a hit record.
And that hit seems very much guaranteed with Confessions II, which is released on 3 July and steered by Stuart Price, the producer behind its predecessor, already generating the kind of feverish anticipation she hasn’t witnessed in nearly two decades.
In recent weeks, several high-profile PR masterstrokes have helped to ensure the star is hitting all the right notes – and fanbases – as she gears up for her big return. First up was her storming Coachella appearance in April alongside pop princess of the moment, Sabrina Carpenter, which Mark described as “a pan-generational pop power play that elevated both acts, and perfectly evoked the era-spanning attitude of Madonna’s latest phase”.
There were echoes of her iconic 2003 VMAs performance alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera as she duetted with the Espresso singer on new song Bring Your Love, proving she can more than hold her own alongside an artist nearly four decades her junior.
The star, who also dusted off classics Vogue and Like A Prayer, told the enraptured audience it was “a thrill” to be back at the festival dressed in the very same outfit she wore when she played Coachella exactly 20 years earlier. “So it’s like a full circle moment, you know?” she said. “Very meaningful.”
Then came her surprise Times Square pop-up gig to celebrate the start of Pride Month – and also, of course, to plug Confessions II. The impromptu 15-minute performance saw the superstar take to the stage in the centre of New York City wearing a pink corset, blue bra and some silver knee-high boots.
Subtle it wasn’t – but it gave her legions of loyal LGBTQ+ fans exactly what they wanted, with a set list that included classic tracks Hung Up, Get Together and I Love New York, as well as I Feel So Free, Bring Your Love and Love Sensation from her new album.
And it doesn’t stop there, as this week, TV royalty and Madonna superfan Graham Norton hosts a one-off BBC TV special, Madonna & Graham, in which he chats with the star and discusses her incredible life and career. The chat was recorded at the legendary Koko in Camden, London – the same venue that hosted Madonna’s first-ever UK show way back in 1983.
Speaking of his delight at interviewing his idol in such a poignant setting, Graham said, “As a lifelong fan it is always a thrill to interview Madonna, but to meet her on the dance floor where she first performed in London over 30 years ago felt incredibly special.
“She remains a legendary pop icon who is still doing what she does best – getting people up to dance.”
Since releasing her debut single, Everybody, in 1982, Madonna has racked up 13 UK No1 singles and 12 UK chart-topping albums, making her one of the best-selling artists in history.
Over the years, she has also won seven Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
But her path to stardom has rarely been smooth. In the early days of her career, she was slated for being overtly sexual, with Catholic organisations in Italy claiming that her performances were “overflowing with vulgarity and blasphemy”. In 1990, Pope John Paul II described her Blond Ambition tour – in which she simulated a sex act during Like A Virgin – as “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity”.
In more recent years, Madonna has faced a different, perhaps more toxic form of criticism: being reviled and mocked for her changing appearance as she ages. In 2016, accepting Billboard’s Woman Of The Year Award, she delivered an incendiary speech in which she said: “I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around.”
On the backlash she has faced over her alleged cosmetic surgery, she has said that the criticisms are an example of the “ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in”, while in 2023 she spoke of being “degraded” publicly since the beginning of her career.
But Madonna has never let opinion hamper her creativity and she remains unapologetic, seeing it as her duty to push boundaries. Hitting back at comments about her appearance, she said, “I am happy to do the trailblazing, so that all the women behind me can have an easier time in the years to come.”
Now though, it’s time for fans – and maybe even some former foes – to embrace the renaissance of the pop idol as she prepares to unleash her new album, which she describes as a “love letter to dance music and to all the spaces and communities that create it or enjoy it”. See you on the dance floor!
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