Madonna gives a long interview to Billboard abour her brand new album Rebel Heart, and its lead single "Living For Love". She also talks about Diplo, Ghosttown, leaks, Alicia Keys and more... Excerpts :

 

Billboard: How are you doing?
Madonna: I’m good. I’m good, I haven’t slept in a week, but I’m good.

Billboard: I can only imagine the week that you’ve had so far.
Madonna: Yeah. It’s been a very intense couple of weeks.

Billboard: Are you OK right now? As OK as you can be considering what’s been happening?
Madonna: Yeah. I mean, you know, I’m not happy that unreleased demos are out there in the world for people to hear, listen, judge, etc. etc. Once that happened we went into overdrive. A) Trying to figure out where the leaks were coming from, and then B) Trying to combat that with putting out finished music that people could focus on versus demos that were never meant for anyone to hear. So, that led to no sleep.

Billboard: Did at any point you turn to someone and say “Bitch, I’m Madonna,” this shouldn’t be happening to me?
Madonna: No. I said, “Shit, this is the age that we’re living in.” It’s crazy. I mean, look at what’s going on with Sony Pictures. It’s just the age that we’re living in. It’s crazy times. The Internet is as constructive and helpful in bringing to people together as it is in doing dangerous things and hurting people. It’s a double-edged sword.

Billboard: Since you said that they were stolen, has it changed how you are operating your day-to-day business? Obviously, you’re trying to lock down more stuff, but I mean there’s only so much you can do, considering everything is so virtual. Has it changed your day-to-day business with recording the album and making music?
Madonna: Well, we don’t put things up on servers anymore. Everything we work on, if we work on computers, we’re not on WiFi, we’re not on the Internet, we don’t work in a way where anybody can access the information. Hard drives of music are hand-carried to people. We don’t leave music laying around. We have photo shoots or video shoots, and everyone has to leave their phone at the door. I mean, unfortunately, it sucks, but that’s the way it is. That’s how leaks happen.

[....]

Billboard: There has to be a silver lining somewhere. And, there you go. So let’s talk about the music. Did you think about releasing these six songs as an EP, and then doing another EP later? Or did you want to make sure that all of the songs stayed together as the full Rebel Heart album — as a piece of work?
Madonna: Originally I wanted to put everything out together. I have an overabundance of songs, and actually, the reason I wanted to call the record Rebel Heart was because I felt like it explored two very distinct sides of my personality. The rebellious, renegade side of me, and the romantic side of me. In my mind, it was almost like I wanted to do a two-record set. So you get this chunk of songs, and that chunk of songs. That was my original goal. But then all the demos leaked and I can’t really go down that road anymore, so I put out (the six songs) first and then, I think a few more songs are going to come out during the time of the Grammys. Then the rest of the album will just come out together (in March), and they’ll just get my rebellious and romantic side all mixed in together.

Billboard: You mention the Grammy Awards… I’m already picturing you on the Grammy Awards performing “Living For Love” with various guests…
Madonna: Mmmhmm.

Billboard: …I’m picturing how that would be wonderful performed on the Grammy Awards, perhaps.
Madonna: Yes, that would be wonderful. That’s possibly something that’s gonna happen. (Laughs.)

Billboard: Possibly?
Madonna: Yes. Possibly.

[...]

Billboard: I want to talk about the album’s first single, “Living For Love,” specifically. We had Diplo on the cover of Billboard a few months ago. He was saying that (the song) had 20 different incarnations. Was he exaggerating by saying 20, or is that true?
Madonna: Uhm… (long pause). Twenty might a little too high. But definitely more than 10. A lot of different versions. We knew we wanted to make a dance record. But you know, there’s so many different levels of dance music and even different categories of house music. So, it was really like, what’s the bass line gonna sound like? Is it gonna be really stripped down and sparse, or is it going to be loaded up? Is it gonna be Chicago house? Is it gonna be U.K. house? It’s like, all over the place. Is it gonna be a little bit of one vocal line? Is it gonna be a whole choir singing? So we were experimenting and trying out different things. They all sounded good, but at the end of the day, we wanted it to sound timeless, also. Not just something of the moment.

[...]

Billboard: I thought it Alicia Keys was singing on the song with you. But I was wrong, it’s not Alicia Keys.
Madonna: Oh no, Alicia Keys isn’t singing on it, she’s playing piano on it.

Billboard: Oh! Okay. Geez, good grief. It’s so hard to keep track.
Madonna: I know! (Laughs.) Alicia plays the piano, and then the female voice is Annie… there are versions of “Living For Love” that MNEK is singing on, and those will be coming out, but just not yet.

Billboard: It has that right balance of soul music meeting house music. It’s the right blend of the two, where you were able find the right balance, where it doesn’t sound jarring. It actually sounds like it’s meant to go together.
Madonna: It’s kind of like the old me and the new me all mixed in together.

[...]

Billboard: “Ghosttown.” It’s such a cool song. It’s so evocative. The lyrics are so beautiful. In my head, I’m picturing there’s a ghost town, it’s cold, there’s two souls, they’re the only people left. Was that a song that you wrote with Evan Bogart, Sean Douglas and Jason Evigan, or did it come to you already finished?…
Madonna: Nope.

Billboard: …How did that song come together?
Madonna: We all get into a room together. They start playing their chords and then we just start thinking about… When I write with people, we always try to come up with a theme. What do we want to write about? So this one is about the city after armageddon. The burnt out city, the crumbling buildings, the smoke that’s still lingering after the fire. You know what I mean? There’s only a few people left. How do we pick up the pieces and go on from here? Kind of dramatic. (Laughs.) But not entirely impossible at this stage of the game.

Billboard: Yeah, well, at the rate things are going, who knows?
Madonna: Exactly. One must be realistic and be prepared for anything.

Billboard: One must be realistic. Because you know in a few years, we could all just be in some burnt out ghost town together.
Madonna: Yes, exactly! And we’ll all be in our version of a “Ghosttown” or in a version of a “Ghosttown,” and at the end of the day, all we’re going to have left is each other. So that’s really what that song is about.

Billboard: You can see a music video already in your head.
Madonna: Yeah! For sure.

Billboard: It reminds me of when “Gang Bang” (on MDNA) came out. It was so cinematic…
Madonna: Visual.

[...]

Billboard: You’ve worked with a lot of people on this record. We’ve been following you on Instagram all year. A zillion people.
There’s been a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

Billboard: A lot of your albums tend to be (produced and written) with a core group of people. Was that hard when you have so many people to keep a through line?
Madonna: Yes. Very hard. Very, very, very, very hard. It’s extremely challenging for me working with a lot of young DJs who never can stay in one city for more than five days. So we never got to finish things. And so then I’d start things with one group of people, and then I’d start something with somebody else, and then they’d have to leave town and the other person would come back. It’s a chaotic way to work. You get a lot of ideas, but there’s a lot of confusion. It was challenging to keep cohesion with the sound and the direction of the record with people coming and going in a revolving door of creativity. So, I was just the person standing there with a clipboard on in the headlights, going “Ok!” (Laughs.) A little bit like a school teacher.

Billboard: Diplo is super involved with the album, obviously. Is he sort of quasi-executive producing it?
Madonna: No.

Billboard: Is he involved on more than just the three songs (released so far)?
Madonna: We did more than three songs. I wouldn’t say he was an executive producer, but he has a very strong voice in the record. We collaborated on a lot of music. You know, he heard other songs and gave his input on what he liked and what he didn’t like, but I wouldn’t call him an executive producer.

Billboard: Then I won’t!
Madonna: He’s a badass DJ who has great ideas.

Billboard: Are you actually done writing and recording the album?
Madonna: Uhm… I am done writing. I’m almost done recording. Almost done. Got just few more little tweaks to do. But first I had to get those six songs out.

She did it again!

Madonna est sans doute la seule artiste à pouvoir se vanter du plus grand nombre de records ! En 33 ans de carrière, elle a réussi à se débattre dans un monde matchiste, agiste, sexiste; et particulièrement mouvant ; une fois de plus, avec la sortie - partielle - de son nouvel album, Rebel Heart, Madonna prouve au monde entier qu'elle saura toujours braver les difficultés, affronter les changements et réussir avec le plus grand professionnalisme les mutations musicales. Avec Rebel Heart, Madonna signe là un 13e album résolument novateur, un peu expérimental sur les sonorités, dans lesquelles se cotoient des co-producteurs très variés, de Avicii à Diplo en passant par Pharell Williams et Kanye West.

Aussi, la Reine Incontestable de la Pop montre qu'elle ne se laisse pas abattre et qu'elle mène incroyablement bien le jeu : les leaks de ses démos la semaine passée ne l'ont pas abattu ; ils l'ont même montré et rendu plus forte. Sa réactivité, en sortant un tiers de son album de manière anticipé et le reste de l'opus en pré-commande sur iTunes, à prouvé qu'elle menait toujours la barque avec la même rigueur et la même énergie.

Mais surtout, les premiers chiffres parlent d'eux-mêmes, et démontrent à ceux qui en douteraient encore que la Queen, c'est bien elle ! Les premiers charts "morceaux" iTunes viennent de tomber. Jugez plutôt :

Ce qui devait arriver arriva. Le drame de ce mercredi 17 Décembre 2014, c'est cette fuite de la quasi-intégralité du futur album de Madonna, dont la sortie était préssentie pour Mars 2015. Parmi d'autres, "Messiah", "Illuminati" ou encore "Living For Love", des noms déjà connus des fans, ont été volé à Madonna, mis à disposition sur le web et partagé auw quatre coins de la planète.

Pour Madonna, c'est toute son oeuvre qui est ruinée, violée. Toute sa démarche, tout son plan marketing, toute sa promo, tout son calendrier qui est à revoir. De toute évidence, avec cette fuite de l'album sur le web (une première d'une telle ampleur ; les titres sont dans une qualité impeccable et dans leurs intégralités), Madonna et son staff n'ont d'autre choix que de tout revoir : avance la date de sortie, se dépecher de finaliser ce qui ne l'est pas encore (car la semaine dernière encore, la Reine de la Pop était toujours en studio pour finaliser quelques titres de l'opus).

Quelles pourraient être les conséquences, maintenant que le mal est fait et que les 2 dernières années de travail de Madonna sont ébranlées ?

La post-production quiasiment finie, Madonna n'a a priori d'autre choix maintenant que d'accélèrer le processus et précipiter quelque chose ; la sortie du premier "single" était pressentie pour la fin Janvier ; si elle veut reprendre la main sur la situation, elle devrait envisager une sortie sous 20 jours. La réalité aujourd'hu est que monde du web et industrie du disque sont totalement asynchrones. Les temps sont terriblement plus longs pour l'industrie du disque ; le manque de réactivité est flagrant. 20 jours pour rattraper le tir, cela paraît déjà bien trop long.

Une solution serait aussi pour Madonna d'organiser sur les plateformes de téléchargement légal la prévente de l'album, et de faire en sorte que celui-ci puisse sortir, d'abord et uniquement de façon digitale dans un premier temps, à la fin du mois de Janvier au plus tard.

Bien sûr, il semble incontournable pour elle de modifier la tracklist ; ajout de titres non leakés, dans le but de tout faire pour créer la surprise un minimum, proposer quelque chose de neuf, etc.

Dans tous les cas de figure, il faudra qu'un ou deux premiers extraits soient très vite envoyés aux radios qui, de toute façon, auront bientôt peu de verguogne à diffuser les leaks....

La situation est bien triste. Après plus de 15 mois de travail acharné sur cet opus, à travailler et retravailler les titres un à un avec des producteurs d'horizons différents, Madonna se retrouve volée et profondément attristée. Une tristesse qu'elle ne cache pas, en témoigne ses récents messages sur les réseaux sociaux, invitant ses fans à patienter, à ne pas écouter ni partager, à respecter son travail.

A l'approche de la fin de l'année 2014, téléchargez une compilation de 10 remixes 100% Music (8 remixes du titre "Music", + en bonus tracks un remix de "Paradise" et un de "What It Feels Like For A Girl"), sélectionnés parmi les meilleures réalisations fanmade ou pro. Jugez plutôt :

MUSIC
1. DAVE AUDE RADIO MIX
2. FEDDE LE GRAND REMIX
3. DJ FARREN REMIX
4. M50 REMIX
5. CHILLY HIFLY REMIX
6. PJANOO 2010  REWORKED MIX
7. 'Humpty' Vission Phunktron Dub
8. Dave Aude Rubber Dub

BONUS
Paradise (Not For Me)   (Dubtronic Easy Listening Remix)
What it Feels like for a Girl   (Dubtronic Keep Believin' Remix)

Pour le 9e anniversaire du site Madonnalex.com, lancé le 12 Decembre 2005,
tentez de gagner l'un des trois grands magazines dont Madonna a fait la couverture ces derniers mois et que les fans s'arrachent aujourd'hui : 

- 1er prix : V Magazine Summer 2014, photos by Steven Klein
- 2e prix : Uomo Vogue Mai-Jun 2014, photos by Tom Munro
- 3e prix :  Harper's Bazaar Sept. 2013, photos by Terry Richardson

Pour tentez de gagner l'un de ces magazines, répondez au plus vite aux 5 questions ci-dessous, relatives à l'année 2014 de Madonna. Envoyez vos réponses par e-mail à l'adresse madonnalex@hotmail.fr avant le 14/12/14 23h59 heure française, en n'oubliant pas de préciser vos nom, prénom, adresse, site web/page facebook/compte twitter et numéro de téléphone !

Les gagnants seront sélectionnés parmi les participants ayant l'ensemble des bonnes réponses.

Question 1 : Dans quelle ville Madonna a-t-elle inauguré un Hard Candy Fitness Club cette année ?
A : Moscou / B : Berlin / C : Toronto / D : New York

Question 2 : Quelle chanson Madonna a-t-elle interprêté sur scène cette année ?
A : Music & Like A Virgn / B : Don't Tell Me & True Blue / C : Girl Gone Wild & Everybody / D : Open Your Heart & Don't Tell Me

Question 3 : Avec qui Madonna a ou aurait-elle enregistré des titres en studio cette année ?
A : Pharrell Williams & Prince / B : Nicki Minaj & Daft Punk / C : Nicki Minak & Katy Perry / D : Pharrell Williams & Stromae

Question 4 : Pour quel organisme caritatif Madonna a-t-elle prononcé un discours en début d'année ?
A : Unicef / B : Amnesty International / C : Raising Malawi / D : Sidaction

Question 5 : Quel est l'un des hashtags que Madonna a le plus utilisé sur les réseaux sociaux cette année ?
A : #UnapologeticBitch / B : #RebelHealth / C : #LeaveBritneyAlone / D : #BitchPlease2015WillBeMyYear

 

Madonna sera la nouvelle égerie de Versace, pour sa collection Printemps/Ete 2015 !

Les photos de cette collection ont été réalisées - une fois de plus - par le duo Mert & Marcus. Un portofolio de 12 pages de ces photos devrait envahir les magazines de mode du monde entier dès le printemps (Vogue US, Vogue France, Vanity Fair US, Vanity Fair France......)