all about Madonna

Madonna is working with ABBA legends Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyngstad on tracks for her new album. Abba fan Madge is deep in discussions with the pair about recording together on her follow-up to No1 album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
And even though Agnetha has lived like a virtual recluse and Frida hung up her high-heeled platform shoes years ago they have agreed to go into the studio.
This will be a truly massive collaboration of the music monarchy The Queen Of Pop and the original Dancing Queens joining forces.
It should be a sure-fire hit if Madge, seen going to the movies in London’s Mayfair, chooses to release their joint studio efforts as a single. A source said: “Madonna has been in contact with Agnetha and Frida for a few months.
“Madonna was the driving force behind the idea because she was so happy with her sample of Gimme Gimme Gimme on Hung Up.
“Agnetha and Frida loved it, they really warmed to Madonna for rejuvenating one of their most famous tracks.”?
My source revealed they will write and record together as soon as Madge, her producing partner Staurt Price and the ex Abba girls are all free.
Abba fellas Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson will not be involved but are believed to have given the plans the thumbs up.
Madonna made music history while writing Confessions together with Price, becoming the first artist ever to get permission to remix and sample an Abba track.
At the time she said: “I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music, telling them it was a homage to them, which is all true.
“They could have said no. Thank God they didn’t.”?
Earlier this week I revealed Madonna provided a message on the sleevenotes for the Swedish supergroup’s Greatest Hits, which hit the shops on Monday.
She wrote: “Abba’s timeless music continues to inspire me. It’s joyous. Standing still when you hear Abba is impossible.
“When I started recording my Confessions On A Dance Floor album, Stuart Price and I played their music constantly. Hung Up is my homage to their contribution to music.”?
Madge is also working on fresh material with her ex Lenny Kravitz.
Price, Kravitz, Abba and Madge?
source : thesun

Madonna is turning her hand to directing – following in her husband’s footsteps.
The Evita star’s efforts in front of the camera have been panned by critics in the past.
But the singer, 48, said husband Guy Ritchie fully supported her plans to direct.
She told Kirsty Wark in a BBC interview: “From my perspective, you can say very little from a political point of view as an actress.
“The visionary in a film is the filmmaker so if I want to make an impact with a film, then I should direct one, not act in one.”
Asked whether she was going to direct, the Queen of Pop replied: “I’d like to, yeah.”
She added that she had a specific idea in mind but would not reveal details because “I don’t wanna jinx myself”.
Madonna said of her husband, who shot to fame at the helm of the gangster film Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels: “We’ve had discussions about it and he’s encouraged me to direct.”
In the interview, to be screened on BBC4 on Sunday, the star denied that her marriage is in trouble, saying: “Well, I think every married couple is rowing.
“People have been speculating about my marriage since my marriage began and …. I’m not gonna lie and say that we don’t fight but I think that’s how it goes.”
source : yahoo

Madonna won the top boxscore award for her $22 million, eight-sellout stand at London’s Wembley Arena on her Confessions tour, while Madonna’s team of Guy Oseary and Angela Becker won the top manager award.
source : billboard

Leading digital studio, STEELE, completed work on a colossal show open music video for the Madonna Confessions Tour that recently swept the globe. The eight-plus minute video extravaganza features the singer performing on stage, accented by seven giant screens placed throughout the arena, and introduces the audience to Madonna’s new song, Future Lovers. NBC will air the concert, titled ‘Live to Tell’, later this month.

As the arena lights dim to open the concert, an eerie underscore kicks up, and the video screens flicker to life. On screen, Madonna stoically strolls through a dimly lit horse stable before turning to the camera with the spoken-word opening of her hit song. “I’m gonna tell you about love,” she proclaims, “Let’s forget your life.Come with me,” she whispers.

“Aside from the artistic demands for such a creative project, the logistical issues of the show’s innovative video interaction made for a complex post process,” said Jerry Steele, co-founder and supervising visual effects artist, STEELE. “There are multiple streams of video that play back at once on the giant screens, some of which physically move to form a single picture at a precise moment. You literally can’t be off by one pixel or frame.”

One of the most striking visual effects sequences involves a pair of scenes in which horses rise from the earth at the beginning of the video and descend into the ground at the conclusion. Monique Eissing was STEELE’s lead visual effects artist on the job. “One horse was filmed in multiple plates, each with very specific framing requirements,” explained Eissing. “I created and composited new, single pieces of land and sky so I could line up the horses as desired while not repeating the patterns of each plate. And, because there was dust blowing in the air, a desired design element, the challenge was to comp in new dust and create seamless connecting points among the plates so that it all looks like one shot.”

Even before Madonna’s live introduction, the opening video takes center stage, as she interacts with horses on screen and performs a hypnotic dance in the stable. While the audience is busy watching the screens, a giant disco ball descends to the end of a catwalk that extends deep into the arena seats. The disco ball opens like a flower, and out steps the ultimate ringmaster, Madonna, riding crop in hand, singing in front of the beautiful images on the screens.

“I feel very privileged to have worked on this project,” added Eissing. “It was one of the most original and challenging jobs I’ve ever been involved with.”

Acclaimed fashion photographer/director Steven Klein directed the Future Lovers video (via DNA), which was the offspring of his exclusive photo shoot for W magazine, coinciding with the release of Madonna’s new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor.

The offline was handled by Clark Eddy using Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3 provided color grading for the video.

Brian Adler, STEELE’s executive producer / creative director, commented on the collaboration involved in the massive undertaking. “Future Lovers was a true group effort among some of the most creative people in the world: Jamie King’s show design, Jean Paul Gaultier’s costumes, Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography, Steven Klein’s amazing photographic eye, Clark Eddy’s visually complex cutting, and of course, Madonna as the inspiration to everyone. We’re honored to work among such world-class company. Creating the visual effects and putting together all the pieces was an incredible experience, and seeing it come to life in front of a live audience was a huge thrill for all of us at STEELE.”

STEELE conformed more than 50 percent of the program in Final Cut Pro while completing the rest of the conform and effects shots on the Quantel eQ and Henry.

The Confessions Tour kicked off on May 31 in Los Angeles.

Credits:
Confessions Tour Director: Jamie King
DP: Janusz Kaminski
Costumes: Jean Paul Gaultier and Arianne Phillips

“Future Lovers”
Director: Steven Klein
Producer: Hagai Shaham
Production Co: DNA
Editor: Clark Eddy
Offline Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors

Post Prod: STEELE
Editing/Effects: Monique Eissing
Executive Producer/Creative Director: Brian Adler
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld, Company 3

source : musicvideoswire

6 Pictures – Madonna going to / leaving the gym (November 09 2006) – are added to the gallery.
*Update* 19 more pictures added.

Two senior Malawian officials have praised Madonna for adopting a child from their country – and rebuked those who have criticized the pop star.
Madonna’s efforts to adopt a motherless 13-month-old boy, David Banda, from the African country have set off a media storm. The 48-year-old singer and her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, who have a home in London, were granted an interim adoption order by Malawi’s High Court last month.
Some critics have said it would have been better for the child if Madonna had helped his impoverished father, Yohane Banda, to care for him in Malawi. Madonna has said Banda refused her offer of financial assistance to help him keep his son.
“What Madonna has done is great,” said Education Minister Anna Kachikho during a visit Thursday to a school in the Scottish capital.
“Here is Madonna who has picked a son from a Malawian father who has lost a wife and nobody takes care of, and she says, ‘I would like to educate and bring home that child.’
“I’m against whatever people are saying against Madonna, if there is credit to give we should credit Madonna because she is saving the life of this young David. Why condemn Madonna? … We should thank Madonna,” she said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Joyce Banda – no relation to the boy – said Madonna’s charity, Raising Malawi, had helped several thousand children in the southeast African nation.
“On top of all that she has opened up her home to this one child. So it’s not just about David, it’s about her reaching out to Africa, to a country called Malawi, to empower 4,000 children which not many people have done,” Banda said. “So the Malawi government is grateful.”
The ministers were attending the launch of two Scottish-led training programs aimed at helping teachers from Malawi.
source : ap

Top Electronic Albums :
07 (07) Madonna – Confessions On A Dance Floor

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
03 (–) Madonna – Jump (NEW)
25 (30) Madonna – Get Together
43 (44) Madonna – Sorry
46 (–) Madonna – Hung Up (Re-entry)

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
27 (27) Madonna – Jump

Hot Dance Music/Club Play
01 (02) Madonna – Jump

Dance Radio Airplay :
01 (01) Madonna – Jump

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
08 (08) Madonna – Get Together
12 (14) Madonna – Hung Up
14 (12) Madonna – Sorry

22 Pictures – Madonna going to / leaving the gym (November 07 2006) – are added to the gallery.

Madonna is sporting a bruise on her cheek after getting jostled by the paparazzi at Heathrow airport over the weekend – while she was holding her adoptive son, David, a source close to the singer tells People.
“She had the baby in her arms when it happened,” says the source. “When she landed in London, there was a lot of pushing and shoving. She was jostled around. She got hit in the paparazzi’s commotion.”
David, the 1-year-old she is in the process of adopting from Malawi, was not hurt in the scuffle. “Thank God the baby is OK,” says the source.
Over the weekend Madonna returned to London from New York, where she’d spent the week promoting her newest children’s book, Too Good to Be True, and her upcoming NBC TV special Madonna: The Confessions Tour Live from London, as well making several media appearances to respond the controversy surrounding David’s adoption.
source : people

Alicia Keys has voiced her support for Madonna’s attempt to adopt Malawian David Banda – and believes celebrities have a important part to play in the fight against poverty. The ‘Fallin” star, who hosts her annual Black Ball charity gig in New York on Thursday, was disappointed by the backlash Madonna received following her decision to adopt the 13-month-old last month. She says, “I think (it’s) horrible, and I think (it) really degrades and tries to discourage people who do have a voice, who do have power, who do have money, who do have the ability to reach out to people and get involved in situations. “I do think that it has become more on people’s radars, whereas before it kind of came across as, ‘Oh, it’s so far away.’ It’s really positive to know that it is a global community. “That’s why when I speak and I use my voice, I like to emphasize the way that everyday people like you and me can really be a huge hero.” The Black Ball, which raises money for HIV and AIDS sufferers, will feature performances by Keys, David Bowie and Damian Marley.
source : contactmusic