madonnapics

God Bless America — We came Thruuuuuu 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸! 💪💪🏻💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿 @VanJones68 #bidenharris2020 pic.twitter.com/kRGW1bfhPl

— Madonna (@Madonna) November 7, 2020

My Victory Dance............ I’m on 🔥🔥🔥.....🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙 #democracy #bidenharris2020 #burningupdemo pic.twitter.com/SgkVX5SmVM

— Madonna (@Madonna) November 8, 2020

It was in the winter of 1993 that David Fincher murdered Madonna. The crime scene: a music video for one of the latter’s greatest singles, “Bad Girl”, and what would be the last of the pair’s four collaborations. In its wake, Fincher would become one of cinema’s most revered directors, the prickly genius behind Se7en (1995), The Social Network (2010), Gone Girl (2014) and the forthcoming Mank. But it’s “Bad Girl” that remains Fincher’s most important venture. It is a short, stylish erotic thriller that begins and ends with Madonna’s lifeless corpse; a video that nods toward the filmmaker Fincher would become, and a final act of artistic symbiosis between two titans of pop culture.

Back in the Nineties, Fincher was coming to the end of a luminous eight years as a music video visionary. The likes of Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun” and George Michael’s supermodel-filled “Freedom ‘90” were gorgeous exercises in style and short-form storytelling. Little was more thrilling, though, than his work with Madonna - from the grandiose myth-making of “Vogue” and “Express Yourself” to the richly personal “Oh Father”. They both recognised the cinematic potential of the form, even if it came at a cost - all of their collaborations rank among the most expensive videos ever made.

That trilogy of music videos – which came before “Bad Girl” and were shot over the course of 10 months between 1989 and 1990 – would reflect a fruitful creative tussle between the pair. Despite Fincher’s relative lack of clout in the industry at the time, and especially compared to Madonna’s cultural ubiquity, they would approach their work as somewhat begrudging - and almost flirtatious - equals.

In interviews, Fincher recalled expressing mock outrage when Madonna asked him if he had heard of Metropolis, the landmark sci-fi film she wanted to replicate for “Express Yourself”. Madonna sneered at his idea to have her crawl across the floor, lick milk from a bowl, and then pour it over herself in the same video, assuming it might look like a student film. It turned out to be one of the video’s most memorable set pieces. The visual for “Oh Father”, meanwhile, a psychological wormhole into Madonna’s childhood and the emotional toll of her mother’s death, only came about at Fincher’s insistence. Madonna had been unsure it would even work as a single. Fincher, though, saw it as ripe for visual accompaniment, and captured her vulnerability like no other.

Since then, Fincher’s work with Madonna has been all over his filmmaking, their music video collaborations regularly gesturing towards the movies that would make him internationally famous. The gorgeously monochrome “Oh Father” lifts a number of visual cues from Citizen Kane, which serves as the backdrop for Mank, starring Gary Oldman as its screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz. Mank also plunges into the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age, much like the video for “Vogue”, while the industrial, dystopian cityscape of “Express Yourself” was recreated in Fincher’s feature debut Alien 3 (1992). But it is “Bad Girl”, full of the psychological depth, visual symbolism and pulpy thrills that would dominate much of Fincher’s filmography, that is his unheralded masterpiece.

“Bad Girl” was an unexpected final chapter in the Madonna/Fincher saga, occurring two years after they had apparently drifted apart. His hiring seemed to come about as a last resort, Madonna having already approached Tim Burton, Mark Romanek and photographer Ellen von Unwerth to direct. She envisioned something that teased the links betwen sex and death, inspired by Judith Rossner’s novel Looking for Mr Goodbar. Published in 1975, it is a provocative thriller about a schoolteacher drifting through New York bars sleeping with strange men and winding up murdered. While neither Madonna nor Fincher have ever spoken about the circumstances behind their final collaboration, or what had changed in their personal dynamic since 1991, it is presumed Fincher ran with the idea.

Like “Oh Father”, “Bad Girl” feels like a personal exorcism for Madonna, of a kind only Fincher seemed to be able to coax out of her. Speaking to the BBC in 1992, Madonna dismissed speculation that “Bad Girl” was about sex work, and instead about a woman embroiled in a toxic relationship. “She really cares for this person and she’s having a hard time saying goodbye,” she explained. “She’s unhappy with her situation and getting drunk, smoking too many cigarettes ... because she’s trying to distract herself from reality.”

To read the rest of the article visit: uk.style.yahoo.com/madonna-mank-why-david-fincher

Twenty years ago this month, Madonna released “Don’t Tell Me,” the second single from her triple-platinum, Grammy nominated “Music” album.

The song may be less remembered today than the title track from “Music,” but it arguably holds up even better, thanks not only to its minimalist production and forlorn lyrics, but also its fresh melding of country-and-folk with electronic music production (long before names such as Lil Nas X and Diplo won praise for doing the same in recent years). Co-writer and producer of the song, Mirwais Ahmadzai, has a few ideas as to why “Don’t Tell Me” still resonates with listeners, two decades on.

“I think ‘Don’t Tell Me’ has remained since that time as an iconic song for several reasons,” he says from France, where he is making music at home during the pandemic. “We can call this song the very first ‘Folktronica’ or ‘Cyberfolk’ song. I think Madonna and I invented this style. And the magnificent music video made by Jean Baptiste Mondino helped to crystallize the ‘Electronic Cowboy’ image, which was something totally new at the time,” he adds.

But the French producer thinks the main reason “Don’t Tell Me” has held up so well, is Madonna’s vocal delivery on the single.

“This song is one of the very rare singles Madonna performs with no effects on her vocals, and on this, everyone noticed it,” he says of the tune, which was recorded at London’s Sarm West Studio (minus the strings, which were done at AIR Studios).

The French producer confirms he borrowed heavily from the electronic music world for the drum programming on “Don’t Tell Me,” drawing inspiration from the UK’s jungle music scene, which was booming at the end of the last millennium.

“I loved the jungle programing vibe, this is why I incorporated it on ‘Don’t Tell Me.’ It sounded very ahead of the times with its rolls.”

As for the glitch-y start/stop guitar riff that anchors the song and repeats throughout, the hook comes from Ahmadzai not being able to play what he wanted. “I couldn’t play some parts that I had in mind, so I decided to ‘computerize’ the performance by creating this start/stop effects,” he says. (Ahmadzai recently released a new song, “2016 - My Generation” and premiered a short film collaboration at Amsterdam’s ADE conference last month).

Lyrically, Madonna got her inspiration for “Don’t Tell Me” via her sister Melanie’s husband, veteran singer-songwriter Joe Henry. Melanie sent Madonna Henry’s demo of a song called “Stop,” and she fell hard for the wistful, poetic lyrics.

“My [demo] version was written in about 20 minutes, and I did not revise it - I let it stand for the burst that it was,” says Henry. “I always hear its primary influence to be tango, [and] I was thinking about [Argentine composer] Astor Piazzolla, but Madonna heard its pop sensibility, and sculpted a chorus out of a passing stanza from my original take. That repetition gave it weight, and expanded it, sharpened a hook that I had barely gestured toward. That evidences her gift of taking something fairly obtuse, and translating into something memorable.”

Henry was wowed with Madonna’s take on his tune when he finally heard it, marveling at the juxtapositioning of his at-times dark lyrics (“Tell the bed not to lay/ Like the open mouth of a grave/ Not to stare up at me/ Like a calf down on its knees”) with heartfelt delivery grafted onto a sunny-sounding pop song.

“That verse is dark, but playfully so,” Henry says. “I was watching a lot of Luis Bunuel’s movies at the time, and relishing how darkly comic are many of the films from his so-called ‘Mexican period’ can be,” he adds. “I think as little as possible when i am initially writing [for a song].”

The song took its sweet time climbing the charts, finally peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March of 2001, some four months after its release as a single, and six after “Music” was released. Henry went onto release his version of the song (“Stop”) in 2001 on Mammoth Records, and it ended up being used in an episode of “The Sopranos.”

“I was most pleased to hear it appear within an episode of that seminal show,” he says of the sync.

Henry, who released his 15th solo album, “The Gospel According to Water,” last year, remembers the time “Don’t Tell Me” became a worldwide smash fondly, offering up a memory of Madonna playing the tune (which went top 5 in America) live in Southern California.

“Just after ‘Music’ was released, she invited Melanie and I down to see her concert in Anaheim,” he remembers. “It was very soon after 9-11, and I recall the air being very electrically charged, everyone in attendance hungry for a positive experience and for the kind of community that sharing music invariably invites. About midway through the performance, she dismissed the dancers and acrobats, the full band and backing singers, and came to the front of the stage with just her guitar player, Monte [Pittman]. They sat close together on stools and had only acoustic guitars and a beatbox, and I can recall how odd and wonderful it was that the intensely scripted evening stopped for a moment. She was off the grid of a very intricate production, and seemed to relish it. She let out a big breath, looked straight at me in the second row, and said, ‘This is for you’ - and then they launched into ‘Don’t Tell Me,’ and the whole room went up,” Henry recalls.

“I remember it as the most visceral and human moment of the whole show - and seemingly not just for me,” he concludes. “The entire audience seemed to understand that she had taken off the ‘Madonna’ mask - was less a persona and more a person. And at one point, she and Monte stopped playing and the entire arena of 20-some thousand people took over singing it. I don’t have to tell you that I am not the kind of artist that frequently experiences my songs being born aloft by the masses that way. It was incredibly affirming.”

From Variety

Black Widow Etiquette .........🕷🕷🕷Happy Halloween 🎃 #badwitch #badbitch pic.twitter.com/iGJA1kaKXn

— Madonna (@Madonna) November 1, 2020

It all began with a single image: a bikini-clad Madonna wrapped in an American flag.

"Truth is where you find it. Get up and vote," the artist broke it down "Vogue"-style as two dancers waved flags behind her. "Dr. King, Malcolm X, freedom of speech is as good as sex."

Then, she delivered her final tantalizing line: "And if you don't vote, you're going to get a spanking.''

And with that, Rock the Vote had released its first PSA.

If Madonna was hoping to elicit a reaction from the American people, she got her wish. The pop star set off a flurry of criticism, with the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization accusing her, according to The New York Times, of "desecration of the flag."

But, as the singer's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said at the time, ''That was certainly not Madonna's intention at all. My sense is that wrapping the American flag around her is not insulting. It is essential that people should vote. She's trying to get that message across in a humorous, dramatic way. But she's very serious about the issue.''

At first glance, it might seem like a bad idea to start a movement on such a sour note, but as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

But Rock the Vote was started by people who were already known for being controversial. In fact, Virgin Records co-founder Jeff Ayeroff and other music executives were initially responding to the Parent Music Resource Center's goal to have Parental Advisory labels placed on every album on the market that contained so-called explicit content, a desire that a select group of politicians were happy to fulfill.

What the PMRC and its supporters failed to foresee though, was that musicians have thousands of fans, many of voting age - and that those fans would be called upon to vote against the politicians in favor of censoring their music.

That's why Madonna and other artists who were named in the PMRC's "Filthy 15" - a list of songs the group called "objectionable" - were at the forefront of this movement.

To read the rest of the article visit: www.eonline.com

Love what you do and do what you love 💕 . pic.twitter.com/TXIBG5FVJs

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 27, 2020

Anyone can be touched by Magic.........🎩 #screenplay #diablo pic.twitter.com/W1xMpBH0ID

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 22, 2020

Mirwais Ahmadzaï is trying to sum up his frequent collaborator Madonna. “You know bullfighting?” he begins ominously. “It works because the bull is so powerful that you have to weaken it.” Right. “Look, I’m not comparing Madonna to a bull,” he quickly adds, “but she was so powerful at that time.”

The Parisian, who turns 60 on Friday, peppers our 90-minute phone call with similar flights of fancy, ponderously linking Brexit to Baudrillard and dropping situationist truth bombs. And he has witnessed that power up close. A cult musician in France since the late 70s, and cited as an influence by the likes of Air and Daft Punk, Ahmadzaï was plucked from the sidelines by Madonna in 1999. He helped coax out her most experimental era, bolting his brand of heavily filtered, minimalist electrofunk on to the superstar’s 11m-selling album Music. His sonic fingerprints were all over two singles that immediately slotted into the already heaving Madge canon: the delicious electro-bounce of the title track and thigh-slapping country curio Don’t Tell Me.

Three years later came the politically-minded American Life, a divisive flop, before Ahmadzaï seemed to disappear into the pop wilderness. However, the pair reunited for last year’s album Madame X. How did she coax him back?

“Very simple – she called me,” he says. “It was after Donald Trump’s election and there were so many celebrities who were saying, ‘I’m leaving America [if he wins]’ and none of them left except her,” he says, referring to Madonna’s relocation to Portugal. “That’s why I have to defend her. It’s cool to have the courage of your convictions.”

Perhaps Madonna recognised that in Ahmadzaï, too. Twenty years after the release of his breakthrough solo album, Production, he’s back with a new single, 2016 – My Generation, and a forthcoming album, The Retrofuture. A mainly instrumental track, all chunky synths and trademark acid bass, 2016 – My Generation comes with an eye-popping animated video from Oscar-winning director Ludovic Houplain that offers up a panoramic view of modern life, from porn addiction (one section features skyscraping ejaculating phalluses), to the rise of the far right.

To read the rest of the article visit: www.theguardian.com/music

Kylie Minogue has revealed the one thing that needs to happen for her to duet with Madonna.

A collaboration between the two pop queens is at the top of many pop fan’s wish list, and while Kylie is up for it, it all boils down to one important factor.

Speaking about the prospect of teaming up with Madge, Kylie told Metro: “I am as curious as the fans are. It would be amazing.

“The hard part is to get the right song and the right moment. Maybe any moment is the right moment… but the right song? One that’s in people’s imagination, mine included, because don’t forget I was a 14-year-old Madonna maniac. I was that kid.”

And if the duet with Madonna never comes off, there are other pop titans that Kylie would love to get in the studio with.

“Miley [Cyrus] is absolutely smashing it right now,” Kylie said. “I am such a big fan of Gaga. Her talent is phenomenal. She has done some cute things recently by urging people to vote in America. There are so many facets to her. The list would go on and on.”

Kylie is currently gearing up for the release of her fifteenth studio album, Disco, on 7 November.

From The Huffington Post UK

Intoxicate Your brain Oooh...... 🧠 #champagnerose pic.twitter.com/aPDHcvJQNv

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 18, 2020

My Name is Champagne Rose 🍾 🌷 pic.twitter.com/CgRez9Pduk

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 17, 2020

I can’t decide.............🎬 pic.twitter.com/r0ZdaG40Ii

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 14, 2020

Madonna is on Team Kamala!

The singer took to Instagram on Friday (Oct. 9) to voice her support for the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, sharing a compilation of clips from Wednesday's VP debate, in which Harris is seen calling out Vice President Mike Pence a number of times for interrupting her.

While critics though Harris' facial expressions were condescending, Madonna pointed out that if "Kamilla [sic] were a man no one would make comments about her facial expressions. Do people fixate on Trumps facial expressions?? That are hideous and rude every time he speaks. This is another example of Sexism and Racism in America."

Chance the Rapper, Hayley Williams & More React as Kamala Harris & Mike Pence Face Off in Vice Presidential Debate She also threw a jab at Pence, and the moment where a fly landed on his head mid-debate. "The Fly knew exactly where to go. It landed on s---," Madonna wrote. "There are signs everywhere. Woke people see them."

"Kamilla [sic] is an intelligent, compassionate, well spoken leader who stands for justice and equal rights for all people," she concluded. See her post here.

From Billboard.com

Kamala For President............If Kamala were a man no one would make comments about her facial expressions. Do people fixate on Trumps facial expressions?? That are hideous and rude every time he speaks. This is another example of Sexism and Racism in... https://t.co/Co37pFgfPo pic.twitter.com/b5xawJz8Xw

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 9, 2020

The stars didn’t quite align for David Guetta and Madonna. The music producer has revealed the Queen of Pop nixed an album collaboration after she discovered what his star sign was.

In a new interview, Guetta revealed Madonna left him during a lunch meeting about the album after she discovered he was a Scorpio.

Guetta caught Madonna’s attention when he remixed her song 'Revolver' in 2009, which she loved so much that she “[suggested] that I produced her next album” Guetta recounted to YouTubers McFly and Carlito.

He continued: “I arrive for lunch. We talk about everything, the music, what she wants to do with the album. Super nice. It's just her and me. Very relaxed, very cool. We have lunch."

Although Guetta was convinced things were going “very good” and that it was likely they’d work together on an album, astrology put a pin in their plans.

He said: “She asks me for my astrological sign. I answer her, 'Scorpio'. Suddenly, she makes a face and she says to me, 'I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to work together. It was a pleasure to know you. Goodbye.’”

Madonna was born on August 16, making her a Leo.

Although things didn’t work out with Madonna, Guetta has gone on to work with other performers including Sia, Kid Cudi, Justin Bieber and more - alongside releasing his own music.

From Evening Standard

Dont Just Stand There, Lets Get To It............,...VOTE! 🇺🇸❌🇺🇸❌🇺🇸 #vote pic.twitter.com/y1YGBkdIED

— Madonna (@Madonna) October 4, 2020