all about Madonna

A Belgian songwriter is taking pop megastar Madonna to court claiming she plagiarized a tune he wrote with her worldwide 1998 hit “Frozen”.
Salvatore Acquaviva says that several bars of the song are lifted directly from a tune he wrote five years earlier called “Ma Vie Fout L’camp” / (”My Life’s Getting Nowhere”).
“I was in the bath. I was listening to the radio, and thought that’s strange, I know that melody. I said it’s not possible,” he told the RTL television station.
On Wednesday he had his day in court in the southern Belgian town of Mons, where his lawyers argued that Madonna may have heard his song because she met his producer in the late 1970s.
The US diva’s lawyers rejected the claim, alleging Acquaviva was just trying to make a quick buck.
“Just because there are similarities between two songs it doesn’t mean it has been plagiarized,” said attorney Fabienne Brison.
“There are certain artists who hear songs on the radio, see that they are very successful and say to themselves, ‘why shouldn’t I try it on?’” she told the station.
The judge delayed hearings on the case until next month, after some of the lawyers were late arriving in court. In the meanwhile royalties for the Madonna song in Belgium have been frozen, RTL said.
source : yahoo

I was saddened to learn about Kylie Minogue’s breast cancer diagnosis. I’m so grateful that they found it early. (Yet another reminder for all women to have annual mammograms.) Aside from being tremendously talented, Kylie’s a fighter and I know this is a battle she will win. Let’s all pray for her speedy recovery and send all of our best wishes her way. With love and light to you Kylie…Madonna
source : madonna.com

The Book of British Hit Singles and albums is published on May 20. Madonna remains in fifth place in the list, from the Book of British Hit Singles and Albums, with 1,653 weeks in the chart.
The top 10/total weeks on the UK singles and album charts :
1. Elvis Presley 2,463
2. Cliff Richard 1,972
3. The Beatles 1,749
4. Queen 1,725
5. Madonna 1,653
6. Elton John 1,615
7. The Shadows 1,578
8. Michael Jackson 1,477
9. David Bowie 1,459
10. U2 1,402
source : examiner.ie

Hark, the Madonna publicity juggernaut approaches!
Her Madgesty has the second week in June booked end to end to hype her new children’s book, “Lotsa De Casha.” On June 7, she’ll be doing an in-store appearance at the Time Warner Center Borders – where 200 lottery-chosen fans will get a signed copy. (Don’t even try pulling out a camera: The most photographed woman in the world wants no pictures. Or touching, it’s said.)
That evening, she’ll stop by a kabbala-themed UNICEF fund-raiser at Bergdorf’s. The hosts are “Today” anchor Matt Lauer and his wife, Annette (assuming there’s no truth to those marital breakup reports).
The next day, Barbara Walters will finally get a crack at her on “The View.” Though Madonna has resisted a hanky-twisting interview with Walters for 20 years, a source says, she feels that all of the moms who watch the show are the perfect audience for the book.
She’ll also appear on the cover of, yes, Ladies’ Home Journal. The former Material Girl, who turns 47 in August, “doesn’t have any prejudice against that demographic,” says her rep. “She’s also going to be on the cover of Teen People.”
source : nydailynews

Government infighting has dropped to a whole new low.
The Israeli ambassador in Washington accused Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his wife of trying to get his assistant fired. Why? Because Judy Shalom Nir Mozes was upset that she didn’t meet Madonna when the pop star-turned-kaballah fan visited Israel. However, sources close to Shalom say that the timing of the complaint is meant to draw fire from the negative publicity Ambassador Danny Ayalon’s wife received in April in the weekend section of Yedioth Ahranoth. Whatever the case, the complaint against Shalom and his wife has made its way to the offices of Attorney-General Manny Mazuz.
source : ynetnews.com

from madonnatribe : MadonnaTribe has been informed that Callaway and Unicef are organizing a “Lotsa de Casha” release party in New York on 7th of June. The Party is going to be hosted by Matt Lauer from the Today show with his wife Annette.
Madonna will attend with her family and over 700 selected celebrities and industry people have been invited with their kids, some of the guests are : Julia Roberts, Celine Dion, Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin Bruce Willis, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Kate Hudson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Brooke Shields, Kelly Ripa, Rosie O’Donnell, Missy Elliott, Sting, Steven Meisel, Steven Klein, Rosie O’Donnell and last but definately not least Bill Gates. All proceeds from the evening are for the benifit of UNICEF.

Madonna was offered a spot on the prestigious Cannes Film Festival jury, but turned it down because she would have missed two Kabbalah meetings back in London.
Her religious obligations represented a no-Cannes-do scenario for festival officials; they would have meant the singer making two trips from the South of France back to London during the festival panel’s busiest periods.
Madonna has turned down other social engagements in the past because of conflict with her commitment to Kabbalah.
“We talked about her being on the jury, but her religion meant this could not happen. It is a regret because she has valuable knowledge,” festival chief Thierry Fremaux told me.
“She would have to return to London every Saturday, or maybe it was every Friday, so for two days during our festival she would not be here and that could not work.
“The jury has much to see and much to discuss,” Mr Fremaux added, during a conversation with me at a dinner to launch the 58th festival.
Initial discussions with the Material Girl (as this column was the first to reveal to you a month ago) centred on her taking a documentary film based on her last tour to Cannes, but it was not finished in time.
“We had many talks,” Mr Fremaux said. “Madonna takes the cinema world seriously, she doesn’t treat it in a superficial way. I saw three hours of film from the documentary in the form of rushes and some completed footage, but it wasn’t ready,” he explained.
Not only would Madonna’s obvious glamour have been most welcome but, as Mr Fremaux remarked, “to have her on the jury would have been fascinating. She has so many thoughts on her mind.”
Madonna has been a Kabbalist for nearly eight years and attends weekly meetings at the Kabbalah Centre in London.
There are just 14 or so such places scattered around the world, and none in Cannes or the surrounding region.
# Liza Minnelli and Sharon Stone will be co-hosting the annual fund-raising glam-fest that is AmfAR’s Cinema Against Aids gala in the hills above Cannes in Mougins on Thursday.
Ms Stone knows how to shimmy her way around the room to entice people into donating hard cash to the Aids research charity and Ms Minnelli will surely sing.
Elton John (fresh from his Billy Elliot success) and David Furnish are hoping to attend the event, which always gets a mighty benevolent push from movie czar Harvey Weinstein.
source : dailymail

“Madonna was great to work with because — I never really understood her mystique although I always liked her music. We met in New York, had dinner to discuss the album. And there was something so intoxicating about her. We were just the two of us at dinner and I was looking at her going, ‘Wow, she totally sucks you into her world. It’s like there’s nobody else in the restaurant.’ She had a great work ethic. A lot of artists, they want to be co producers just because they can. She wanted to be a co producer, but she earned it. She really knows her way around a studio. She works hard.”
source : ctv.ca

Check out The Official Marcin Dolecki Site for his new Madonna video montage.