Madonna, alongside Beyoncé as one of the world’s most notorious one-named women, is set to release her new album, Madame X, on June 14, 2019. Until then, Madonna is dropping a trail of breadcrumbs for her fans leading up to the album’s release. This particularly delicious trail was begun with postings on social media teasing the concept of her new album, which she has positioned as a sequel to her 2015 album Rebel Heart. One of the heartier crumbs dropped to fans over this medium was a post shared on November 19, 2019, of Madonna’s six-year-old daughter, Estere, playing with a keyboard and singing into a microphone during one of the album’s recording sessions. For those paying attention, this stunt is eerily familiar to that orchestrated by Beyoncé. On April 17, 2019, the release of Beyoncé’s Homecoming: A Live Album featured an additional version of the track, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sung by her seven-year-old daughter Blue Ivy during rehearsals for the 2018 Coachella performance that comprises the majority of the album.
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“Medellin”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8PtBzdiZ3g
The next and even more delectable crumb left by Madonna was the dropping of the single “Medellin” from Madame X on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Madonna has left fans’ mouths to water as they patiently (or not so patiently) await the next and even richer crumb in the trail of her own making–the premiere of the “Medellin” music video set to air during an MTV special entitled “MTV Presents Madonna Live & Exclusive: ‘Medellin’ Video World Premiere” at 4 P.M. ET/1 P.M. PT on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Coming off of the simultaneous release of Beyoncé’s Homecoming documentary and Homecoming: A Live Album, it’s no wonder that Madonna has chosen to tease out the full release of Madame X by setting a TV special as the first platform on which the single “Medellin” can be viewed. Beyond following the trend made popular by Beyoncé, live music video releases allow fans to tune into artists’ work in perhaps more intentional and collective ways in a world of increasing fragmentation and neoliberal individualism.
Lisbon, Portugal
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Influenced by the last few years that Madonna has spent in Lisbon, Portugal, the album is a compilation of 15 new songs that champion Madonna’s love for Latin music and culture that have influenced the majority of her career as a musician. When listening to the album, fans will hear Madonna singing not only in English but also in Portuguese and Spanish as a tribute to the album’s birthplace in Lisbon, Portugal. Madonna says of the relationship between Madame X and 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 album was recorded over the course of 18 months and spanned the geography of Portugal, London, New York, and Los Angeles.
Madame X Tracklist
Pre-Order!
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More details about Madame X (and potentially more videos!) are expected to drop during the oncoming weeks with the album set to hit Target on its release date of June 14, 2019, in its deluxe form with two additional tracks! A standard version of the album will also be available, as well as a plethora of special bundles that pair Madame X with limited merchandise. Special vinyl and cassette versions of the album are available for pre-order now!
Collaborators on the album include Maluma who is part of the single, “Medellin,” as well as Migos’s Quavo who lends his voice to a Jamaican dancehall-inspired song called “Future,” co-produced Rebel Heart‘s Diplo. Others collaborators feature Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee, Brazilian singer Anitta, and Mirwais who contributed to the song, “Dark Ballet.”