all about Madonna

American pop star Madonna will play a concert on the Jaz beach near Budva, Montenegro, on September 25, it has been confirmed.

The show will be a stop on her "Sticky and Sweet" American and European tour.

The organizers of the concert announced at a press conference in Hotel Splendid in Bečići that the concert will be her sole performance in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and that there will be no concerts in Belgrade or Zagreb because her tour schedule is completely booked.

"The concert will be organized just like in other European cities, it is expected to last two hours and the opening group will be singer Robin and some DJs," spokesman Aleksandar Radios said.

He added that 65,000 tickets will go on sale on July 11. Prices will be EUR 35, 70, and 200 for VIP seats.

Austrian Entertainment representative Richard Hoerman said that there will be 19 trucks of equipment and that the stage will be 100 meters long and 10 meters high.

"We will begin putting the stage together on September 5 and the equipment will arrive six days before the concert," he said.

Budva Tourism Organization Director Jelena Rađenović said that the list of Madonna's demands is not final, and that it will be known in about a month, adding that the concert will cost close to the same amount as last year's Rolling Stones show.

source : b92

Albums :
20 (24) Madonna - Hard Candy (Warner Bros)

Singles :
14 (13) Madonna Ft Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes (Warner Bros)
25 (25) Madonna - Give It 2 Me (Warner Bros)

Amid feverish speculation that Madonna is seeking to divorce her husband Guy Ritchie, I can reveal that behind the scenes a more romantic scenario has been unfolding between the couple.

For in between putting the finishing touches to his latest gangster movie, RocknRolla, to be released in September, Ritchie, 39, has quietly been arranging a lavish party to celebrate Madge's 50th birthday in two months' time.

The film director is planning to invite 200 friends to their country home in Wiltshire in early August.

'This is hardly the action of a man about to be divorced by his wife,' says one close chum.

'I don't think you organise a 50th birthday party for your wife while at the same time consulting lawyers to end your marriage.'

Guy's plans, I am told, are well advanced, although invitations have not yet gone out.

'It will be quite spectacular,' says the friend.

'He's going to push the boat out. He's given it a lot of thought.'

One person who won't be getting an invitation, however, is Sir Elton John.

'Madonna still hasn't forgiven him after he accused her of miming on tour last year,' adds the friend.

At the weekend, Ritchie flew to New York to see his wife, taking their son, Rocco, seven, Lourdes, 11, by her former personal trainer Carlos Leon, and adopted son, David, two.

'Guy is looking after all the children in London while Madonna is on tour in America,' I am told.

'All marriages go through ups and downs and it's not easy being married to someone like Madonna,' adds the friend.

'Whoever she married was going to be overshadowed by her. She is very forceful but, equally, Guy has been determined to exert his own personality and obviously that can lead to clashes from time to time.'

One area of tension has been Ritchie's circle of friends.

'To be honest, Madonna doesn't like them very much,' I am told.

However, Madonna, who has been spending time in the U.S as the couple are reportedly leading increasingly separate lives, was spotted out and about in New York without her wedding ring on.

The singer was looking tired and drained as she is reportedly planning a move to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Ritchie appeared just as emotional in London as he turned to friend Trudie Styler for support.

Sting's wife, who introduced the couple at her home in 1998, provided a shoulder to cry on as she and Ritchie drove to the countryside over the weekend.

Yesterday, Ritchie's mother, Amber, Lady Leighton, poured cold water on rumours that Madonna had consulted Sir Paul McCartney's divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton and that Guy had had talks with the law firm Forsters.

'Absolute rubbish,' she declared.

source : daily mail

Guy Ritchie's mother last night dismissed speculation that Madonna wants to divorce her son as 'total tosh'.

Lady Amber Leighton said there was 'no conversation about divorce because there is no divorce' and described allegations that couple had spoken to lawyers as 'works of fiction'.

She added: 'It is absolute rubbish, worse than that. Guy will be furious at me talking to you but I feel I can't just let these reports go unanswered as they make me so angry and they are hurtful intrusions into their private lives.

'They are no different to most other couples and we all know that being together can be hard sometimes and marriages are not always a bed of roses.

'But like other couples they work at keeping their relationship happy and fresh and they are a close and loving couple who have a family to bring up.'

Mr Ritchie, 39, flew to New York on Friday night to see Madonna and their children after a week of reports that she had asked him for a divorce.

The couple are said to be leading separate lives and it has been stated that a formal announcement of a split has been planned for the end of November after Madonna finishes her world tour.

But at her home near Somerton, Somerset, on Friday, Lady Leighton, 62, said: 'I spoke to Guy this morning, not about divorce but about a new feature film project he has got under way.

'There's no conversation about divorce because there is no divorce.

'Madonna is in New York at the moment finishing off a tour and he will join her there after the weekend.

'That is not a couple splitting up. I'll say it one more time, they are not getting divorced; the speculation is TT - that's total tosh.'

source : daily mail

Madonna going to / leaving the Kabbalah Centre in New York (June 28 2008)

Madonna leaving her apartment / going to Kabbalah Centre in New York (June 27 2008)

The London attorneys alleged to be representing Madonna's director husband Guy Ritchie in their rumoured divorce have denied having any involvement in the case.
The superstar couple has been plagued by rumours of a split for months, and reports heated up when it was claimed the pair had begun to seek legal advice from top lawyers.
Ritchie was reported to have hired Mayfair law firm Forsters, which specialises in 'high net worth' family law cases, to represent him.
But a spokesperson for the company has dismissed the reports, stating: "We are not acting for Guy Ritchie in this matter."
And Ann Northover, head of Forsters' family division, has reinforced the fact, adding, "I can only say I have no involvement at this moment."
Madonna is rumoured to have met with Fiona Shackleton, the attorney who represented Sir Paul MCCartney during his court battle with Heather Mills earlier this year (08).
Shackleton's employers, Payne Hicks Beach, is refusing to comment.

source : contactmusic

Madonna photographed getting into her SUV in New York (June 26 2008)

from Madonna.com:

With nearly 1 million tickets sold to date along with sold out performances in Paris, Lisbon & Zurich; New York, Boston, Chicago; Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and 2 Mexican stadium shows on Monday, Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour is once again poised to be the tour of the year! The demand for tickets in Paris for Madonna's September 20th performance was so staggering that a second and final performance was added on September 21st. The Sticky & Sweet Zurich show at the Military Airfield Dubendorf August 30th is sold out at 70,000 and her show date in Lisbon 14-September is also sold out with over 75,000 tickets. In Vancouver, Madonna's October 30th performance sold 50,000 tickets in a record breaking 29 minutes. This past Monday, Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour sold out two Foro Sol stadiums in less than 3 hours adding to a list of sellouts that include four sold out Madison Square Garden shows in New York City; 2 sold out performances in Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Denver; and additional sell-outs in E. Rutherford, Boston, Oakland, Las Vegas, and Houston. And now, London fans who missed out on tickets will have a new opportunity to see Madonna with newly announced special guest Paul Oakenfold on 11-September at Wembley Stadium. With the completion of the production for Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour, promoters Live Nation announced today that the sight-lines are better than previously anticipated and as such a limited number of tickets in all price levels are now available from www.livenation.co.uk or 24 hr box office 0844 576 5483 (all tickets subject to booking fee). Tickets will be limited to 6 tickets per person. Paul Oakenfold has long been one of the most important--if not the most important--name in modern club culture. He was one of the first DJ's to have a residency on the Island of Ibiza, leading to both a new sound and a yearly festival. He started regular "Balearic" club nights in London, attracting a crossover audience and remixed legendary bands such as The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, Along with production partner Steve Osborne, he's remixed tracks by legendary bands New Order, The Cure and Massive Attack. In 1991, he first worked with U2 remixing "Even Better Than the Real Thing" and "Mysterious Ways" from their Achtung Baby album. It was the start of a long partnership with that band which included his spot as DJ on their historic ZOO TV tour and the remixed versions of the band's "Beautiful Day," a number one hit for U2 on the U.S. and U.K. dance charts. Over the years, he's remixed tracks for everyone from Madonna to Elvis Presley to Justin Timberlake to Muse to Snoop Dog. He's the first electronic artist ever to be in the Guinness Book of World Records--for being the biggest DJ in the world. He's the only DJ to have a display case in the Hard Rock Cafe's Rock & Roll Museum. He has worked on the music for major Hollywood films including Swordfish, Collateral, Planet Of The Apes & Matrix Reloaded". Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour begins 23-August at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium with stops in Nice, Berlin, Zurich, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Rome, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Paris, Vienna and Athens in addition to the 11-September Wembley date.

A second show in Mexico City was just added to the 'Sticky & Sweet' Tour itinerary. The show will take place at Mexico's Foro Sol on November 30, 2008. A devoted Fan Club postsale will start at 10 am local time on Thursday June 26th for Legacy Icon members and noon local time for Icon members.

source : madonna.com

Live Nation is on the defensive about the health of its $120 million Madonna deal.

Big sales around the world for the Material Girl's upcoming "Sticky & Sweet" tour have been overshadowed in music industry circles by chatter about the large number of tickets still available for a key stop in Los Angeles in November and softer-than-expected sales of her latest album "Hard Candy."

The tour so far has grossed more than $74 million in sales for 13 dates in Europe and piled up a string of sellouts at arenas across North America, according to Live Nation.

Arthur Fogel, chairman of global music and CEO of the global touring division at Live Nation, projects the tour will gross more than $250 million in ticket sales - surpassing her record-breaking "Confessions on a Dance Floor" tour two years ago, which pulled in $195 million worldwide.

But just over half of the 43,000 seats available for a Nov. 6 date at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium - 27,000 tickets in all - have been sold in their first three weeks of availability, raising red flags about the limits of US demand for the 49-year-old Madonna at this stage of her career.

It also comes as Live Nation's management has been at odds over the strategy of handing out big-bucks, all-encompassing contracts, known as 360 deals, for aging stars like Madonna and Jay-Z. The rift led to last week's exit of company chairman Michael Cohl.

To be sure, Madonna's sales have been better at other venues.

A Nov. 4 show at San Diego's Petco Park has sold 29,000 of 35,000 seats. And over 33,000 out of 42,000 available tickets were sold for a Nov. 26 stadium date in Miami.

And her US arena dates, including three nights at Madison Square Garden, have sold out.

But at the biggest venues, consumers in the US are not rushing for Madonna tickets with the same fervor that they are in Europe and other parts of the world.

An Aug. 30 show at the Military Airfield Deubendorf in Zurich, Switzerland, sold over 70,000 tickets in days in May, and an October date in Vancouver, BC, sold 50,000 tickets in 29 minutes.

The economy could be a factor - top tickets for Madonna are running as high as $500 at a time when food and gas costs are soaring.

Her latest album is doing solid but unspectacular business in the US. "Hard Candy" has sold 544,000 copies domestically, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's barely half of what rapper Lil Wayne recently sold in the first week for his latest album "Tha Carter III."

Analysts note that the album could be hard pressed to match the business of her last album "Confessions on a Dance Floor," which sold more than 1.6 million copies in the US.

Fogel, who has produced Madonna's last three tours, said concern about ticket demand is overblown.

He noted that there are close to five months to go before the US stadium shows in question open, and each one has already grossed $3 million to $4 million in sales.

Live Nation stock closed down 3.92 percent, or 46 cents, at $11.27.

source : new york post

Madonna with Guy Oseary, Ingrid Casares and her kids at the New York Yankees game (June 22 2008)

Madonna with son David on lap : Madonna turns out to watch the Bombers beat the Reds

Albums :
24 (26) Madonna - Hard Candy (Warner Bros)

Singles :
13 (11) Madonna Ft Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes (Warner Bros)
25 (36) Madonna - Give It 2 Me (Warner Bros)

Traverse City Film Festival officials want an online auction site to remove ticket listings to a Madonna documentary screening, a marquee event of this summer's film event.

Entertainment superstar Madonna is scheduled to introduce in person her film, "I Am Because We Are," on Aug. 2 at the State Theatre. The $25 tickets sold out in a flash, and some subsequently showed up for sale on eBay. A search of the auction site Wednesday found about 10 tickets.

One listing reached $1,625 by Wednesday afternoon, with the seller updating the listing to say the auction was for a souvenir T-shirt and a ticket at face value. Another listing showed two tickets priced at $3,550, with time remaining to bid.

The second-time-around ticket market troubles festival officials.

"(We) contacted eBay and asked them to remove the erroneous listings," said festival Executive Director Deb Lake.

Proceeds from the festival's sale of tickets benefit Raising Malawi Foundation, Madonna's charity for orphaned children. Festival founder Michael Moore said he wanted to keep ticket prices reasonable.

Festival officials are concerned about what some Internet sellers promised potential buyers. "This is a once in a lifetime chance to talk with Madonna herself!!!!!" read a listing. Another said moviegoers "may have the opportunity to meet" the star, and perhaps talk with her in small groups following the film.

"The claims and the descriptions are erroneous," Lake said.

When the event was announced, Moore said Madonna would conduct a question-and-answer session after the film. But all that's confirmed now is that she will introduce it.

Marc Danyal of Keego Harbor posted two tickets for sale on eBay but is holding one for himself to see the film. Selling his tickets on eBay offers other Madonna fans a chance to see her, while Danyal plans to use the proceeds for a Madonna concert.

The State seats about 540, and those shut out of tickets also turned to the Internet. RJ Steyer, of Madison, Wis., posted a plea for tickets on a craigslist Web site, but hadn't yet obtained tickets. Steyer couldn't travel to Michigan to purchase tickets himself when they went on sale.

"I would really like to see the movie, and I don't even know if it's going to be released in any type of theater. Plus, I've been a fan for 25 years," Steyer said.

Steyer is willing to pay $125 for a movie ticket but knows Madonna is a hot commodity. Tickets to the singer's concerts fetch many more times than face value, Steyer said.

Avid Madonna fan Anne Dettmer, of Chicago, found someone through craigslist who was wiiling to sell her a ticket.

"Actually, I don't want to say much because the tickets haven't come in the mail yet," she said.

The cost was less than what eBayers are asking for, so Dettmer thinks she "got a deal."

source : record-eagle.com

An electronic musician and a member of Madonna's touring band since 2001, Price attracted acclaim for his remixes of No Doubt's It's My Life and The Killers' Mr Brightside before co-writing and co-producing Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor in 2005. He recently produced Seal's System and is currently working on the new Keane album.

We were at Madison Square Garden in the middle of the 2004 Re-Invention tour, and it had got to that point where everyone was just completely bored. Touring with Madonna is like taking everything you've learned from the age of 14 about playing small pubs and clubs in bands and chucking it all out of the window. It's more like Cirque Du Soleil than the Pheasant & Firkin, put it that way. Essentially, the show has so many moving parts that if you go out on a limb you might end up losing a limb.

Madonna can be quite spontaneous, but she's not spontaneous when it comes to doing a show in front of 20,000 people! Similarly, the soundcheck is often quite a choreographed affair, but this time she just started messing around. She started playing this very basic, two-chord riff on the guitar and making up these lyrics about how she loved New York. It was just a real fun, mess-around song. Later I went into her dressing room with a guitar and a portable multi-track and said, "We're just going to stick something down for a reference", so we had a rough sketch of the song.

Later on in the tour we were playing Slane Castle with Iggy Pop, and while we were watching him Madonna said, "Let's make the song a bit like The Stooges." She was making a documentary on that tour, I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, and there was a scene in it that featured New York, and she decided she wanted a kind of Stooges version of I Love New York to play over it.

So I took the riff and the guide vocal away to a friend's house in Reading. We went into his bedroom and propped the bed up against the wall to make room for the drum-kit. His brother played guitar, I played bass and we tracked this Madonna song in the bedroom of a house on the Wokingham Road! And that's the version that appears on the documentary.

Right after that, we started making Confessions On A Dance Floor. Madonna said, "We're doing a dance record. I really like this song, but it doesn't fit in. Let's work on it." That week I was going to Australia to DJ and I promised to try and figure something out while I was away. As a travelling producer, working by yourself, you don't want to book into a two grand-a-day studio. It's overkill. You're looking for smaller places. I was in Sydney and I found this guy who said he had a small studio - I got there and it was literally a shed in his back garden! Right, OK! Let's see what we can do! So I effectively started remixing it in a shed in Australia.

I did what I normally do when I remix. I pull it all back to just the vocal, stick in a kick drum and try and work around it. I had this old Yamaha ZX100 keyboard which had a nice Detroit-y sound. That's where one of the main keyboard lines in the album version of the song came from. I remixed it and reworked it, and it went from Detroit rock to Detroit techno. I was sending it backwards and forwards to Madonna from Australia. Obviously the time difference couldn't have been worse, but that was how the final version of the song began to emerge. While I was away patching together the track, she was forming the lyrics. When I came back to London I took a version of the track to a club where I was DJing and it really worked on the dancefloor.

Then we came back to Olympic Studios in London and reunited to finish it for the album. As a collaborator she knows exactly what she wants, but on the other hand she wants you to do it! She'll say, "You need to be the visionary now; I'll be the visionary later." It's a complex chemistry but it plays out really well. What's brilliant about Madonna is that she's blissfully unaware of how a computer really works, so she's not there saying, "Can we try this effect?" or (pointing at a screen), "Can we move that bit over there." There's none of that. She sits on the couch and says, "I don't like it", or, "I like it." You're left to do your own thing without someone leaning over your shoulder.

Madonna works on instinct a lot more than people realise. I Love New York travelled all round the world, but everything - the riff, the vocal melodies, the lyric ideas - really came pouring out at that initial soundcheck.

source : wordmagazine

source : perez hilton

Choice Music: Single
Chris Brown - With You
Jonas Brothers - When You Look Me In The Eyes
Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes
Miley Cyrus - See You Again
Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music

Choice Music: Hook-Up
Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain - Low
Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown - No Air
Lil Mama featuring Chris Brown & T-Pain - Shawty Get Loose
Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes
Nelly featuring Fergie - Party People

Video stream is US only

source : 961kiss.com

Chart-topping dance duo Freemasons have revealed that their popularity meant they were forced to say no to a Madonna remix.

The Brighton pair - whose recent remix of Kelly Rowland's Work reached number four in the UK singles charts - told inthenews.co.uk that they had to turn down the chance to remix the Material Girl as they were simply too busy.

"We turned down Madonna the other week," explained Russell Small.

"Not because we wanted to but because of a time issue. We've got two more remixes to do and we've just co-produced a track for the Will Young album so we just didn't have time.

"And we want to make an album at the end of the summer, so we're not taking on new material."

Small also admitted that the pair almost turned down the chance to rework Rowland's Work.

"We were expecting Matthew Knowles - Beyonce's father, who also manages Kelly Rowland - to ask us to do a house mix of the song," he explained.

"And we're very precious about our vocals and when we sped the Kelly Rowland vocals up, it sounded... dreadful.

"So we went back to them and said we wanted freedom to do what we wanted. And they said we could do whatever we liked!"

Freemasons' new single When You Touch Me, featuring Katherine Ellis, is released on June 23rd.

source : inthenews.co.uk

Things just keep getting better and better for Robyn. Having just finished an amazing sell out UK tour, she has now been asked to support the world's sweetest pop star Madonna on her recently announced European Sticky & Sweet Tour. This is a major honour as Robyn will be one of the few performing artists to appear on tour. Additional Sticky & Sweet concerts will feature special guest DJ's as support. The Swedish popstrel said "Having been a fan of Madonna since I was a little girl, I'm very excited about sharing a stage with her and playing to her audiences...I'm thrilled." With nearly 1 million tickets sold to date along with sold out performances in Paris, Lisbon & Zurich; New York, Boston, Chicago; Montreal, Toronto & Vancouver and more, Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour is once again poised to be the tour of the year! Robyn recently completed a whirlwind tour of the States where both her live shows and eponymous album met with rave reviews across the board. Her star shows no sign of waning any time soon...

Robyn will appear on the following dates:
26-August - Nice - Stade Charles Ehrmann
28-August - Berlin - Olympic Stadium
30-August - Zurich - Military Airfield Dubendorf
02-September - Amsterdam - Arena
04-September - Dusseldorf - LTU Arena
09-September - Frankfurt - Commerzbank Arena
14-September - Lisbon - Parque da Bela Vista
23-September - Vienna - Danube Island
27-September - Athens - Olympic Stadium

source : madonna.com

Madonna may have starred in a few big-screen blockbusters but her favourite acting job ever was in the sitcom Will And Grace.

She said: "It was purely and simply very fun to do. I got to invent a new catchphrase - 'Cut to me' - which fans say to me all the time. I loved it."

source : dailystar

Albums :
26 (22) Madonna - Hard Candy (Warner Bros)

Singles :
11 (8) Madonna Ft Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes (Warner Bros)
36 (-) Madonna - Give It 2 Me (Warner Bros)

Thanks to Hector

We are happy to announce that a new city was just added to the "Sticky & Sweet Tour" itinerary.
Madonna will perform at Mexico City's Foro Sol on Saturday, November 29. Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday, Jun 25, at 11am Local Time, while a devoted fan club presale will start on Thursday, June 19, at 11am, LOCAL TIME.

source : madonna.com

Thanks to Sébastien from New Madonna Music blog

As part of her 'Sticky & Sweet' Tour, Madonna will perform at Vienna's Donauinsel on Tuesday, September 23. Tickets will go on sale June 23 at 10am Local time.
If you're a member of Madonna's Official Fan Club, please note that a devoted presale will start on Wednesday, June 18 at 10am LOCAL TIME.

source : madonna.com

Forbes : The World's Most Powerful Celebrities list

#21 - Madonna
Pay rank : 29 ($40 mill) - Web rank : 15 - Press rank : 20 - TV/Radio rank : 67

The onetime material girl, famous for reinventing her image, cut a deal with concert promoter Live Nation that gave her a reported $18 million signing bonus. Endorsements with Sunsilk and H&M brought in even more.

full list

Pharrell Williams admitted he reduced Madonna to a sobbing wreck while working on her recent album 'Hard Candy'.

The producer said he made the icon cry like a baby during recording sessions for the record.

"I totally made her cry like. Like a baby. I had to get her a towel," he told Shortlist. "We were alone recording the album and she kept talking a lot of rubbish, so I shouted a lot of rubbish and she started crying her eyes out."

The N.E.R.D man admitted he had been quite nasty to Madonna, but said he had no plans to make their scrap public until the singer spoke about it herself.

"I just said some really nasty stuff, I guess. And yeah, she cried for a really long time actually," he said. "To be honest I can't believe she told someone about it. The whole situation was quite intense. It's totally weird to make Madonna sob, but even stranger when she tells everyone, 'Pharrell made me cry'.

source : nme

...Christopher Ciccone's "extraordinary" story has been the subject of much hype in recent months, with the industry anticipating a mystery memoir.

Simon & Schuster have now unmasked the writer, who has previously worked closely with the singer as a creative advisor for her live show.

"Life With My Sister Madonna" will have a first print run of 350,000 in July and the publishers expect great things of the book.

"Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his life and 47 years of growing up with and working with his sister - the most famous woman in the world", they said.

Ciccone and his sister are not said to be close anymore, according to the star's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg.

Speaking about the book, she said: "Madonna has not cooperated with any biography about herself."

source : yahoo

The mystery is solved: Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone, is writing a memoir about his sister, to be released in mid-July by Simon & Schuster with a first printing of 350,000, the publisher told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The publisher had been promoting a celebrity memoir for July, asking bookstores to order copies without identifying the author or contents.

Persuading stores to make "blind" orders has been tried before. In 2006, William Morrow offered a mysterious tell-all that turned out to be by Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, who had already written about her. Retailers were angered and the book sold poorly.

Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS Corp.

source : ap

Today we added a brand new section - Madonna Press Archive - which already contains 60 transcribed interviews and articles from various magazines. Click here to check them out.

We're still looking for more interviews / articles to add and If you want to contribute, please email us at admin@allaboutmadonna.com

He's had his fair share of stunning co-stars, but according to Mike Myers, Madonna was his best ever on-screen kiss.

"It was terrifying," Mike who smooched the star during a Wayne's World sketch, told People magazine. "It was like kissing the Eiffel Tower in terms of how famous she is. And my best off-screen kiss was my mum on my 10th birthday - it's still my best birthday ever because she made me baked Alaska."

Mike also paid tribute to his Love Guru co-star Justin Timberlake, and joked that they may even do a duet together in the future.

"Oh I'd love to," he said. "If I ever get that call, I'll definitely be there. I think he's one per cent water and 99 per cent talent. I've not met a girl who isn't insanely in love with him."

So, with Mike getting stuck into his new self help character Pitka in The Love Guru, will we ever see him return to the Austin Powers fold?

"I don't know," said Mike. "It has yet to be written."

source : metro

Duran Duran bassist John Taylor has accused Madonna of copying their ideas by installing Justin Timberlake and Timbaland as producers on her new album, 'Hard Candy'.

It's the same partnership that worked on Duran Duran's 2007 album 'Red Carpet Massacre', which entered the UK charts at number 44.

Taylor said that he wasn't surprised to see Madonna employ both artists but claimed it was their idea.

"It wouldn't be the first time Madonna's copied us. She's been doing it for years," he told the Daily Star.

source : gigwise

from Madonna .com :

We are happy to confirm that Madonna's 'Sticky & Sweet Tour' will stop in Athens, Greece, on September 27.
Tickets will go on sale Friday, June 27th at 10.30am, Local time.

If you are a member of Madonna's Official Fan Club, please note that a devoted presale will start on Tuesday, June 24th at 10am, LOCAL TIME.

Madonna's publicist has hit back at claims that the superstar hired Heather Mills' hard-hitting divorce lawyer, Nicholas Mostyn QC, suggesting a bitter feud was about to erupt.

A celebrity gossip website reported the couple may not have a prenuptial agreement, leaving them both exposed to a harsh fight for joint assets, as well as threatening Madge's estimated £40m fortune.

The lawyer claimed to have been hired has had a series of high profile divorce proceedings including Earl Spencer and Ray Parlour as past clients.

A source told the gossip site that the alleged separation was due to the couple "growing apart" after spending more and more time estranged and suggested the negative media attention over their adoption strained the relationship further.

Madonna's public relations agent told Metro that these rumours are "completely untrue" and the couple's eight year relationship is still intact.

Rumours have been circulating for months speculating that the couple might be on the rocks and Guy Ritchie fuelled further gossip as he failed to show up to his wife's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction in March.

The multimillionaire couple have one son together, Rocco, as well as David Banda, who was adopted. Madonna's daughter, Lourdes, is from a past relationship.

source : metro.co.uk

The current state of hip-hop music is akin to one big incestuous orgy. Artists and producers, who are all musically related by at least one degree, repeatedly intermingle, copulate, and reproduce copious amounts of collaborations, mixes, remixes, feature appearances, guest appearances, and club destined records with such frequency that it's difficult to keep track. (The roll calls at the beginning of many such collaborations are a helpful aid to discern who's beefing and who's banding together.) Challenging Punnett squares and probability, the chance of unwanted mutations increases exponentially for the musically involved parties and so what results is a high percentage of mutilated musical offspring. In other words, the more musical synergy the more banal the music. However, every so often a perfectly beautiful and symmetric pop track is conceived from this melee, but the infrequency of such gems helps keep us attuned.

When hip-hop breached mainstream pop in the late 1990's artists like Beck ingeniously transcended genres, consequently fusing profound generational pop. But a more profound shift was in the works. Pop's biggest stars, and record labels (not to be left out) eagerly harnessed the capabilities of hip-hop production, and its measurable success was manifested by stars like Christina Aguilera and Destiny's Child. Gwen Stefani embraced the new direction, recording the Grammy winning "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" in 2002 with Eve and producers Dr. Dre and Scott Storch. Her hip-hop/pop hybrid solo debut Love.Angle.Music.Baby. soon followed. Artists like Britney Spears quickly emulated, singing over beats by hip-hop luminaries like The Neptunes and Timbaland while at the same time rap-metal was helping hip-hop permeate mainstream rock with a more aggressive sound.

The permutation of pop music production, its overlapping collaborations and rates of success are a result of this confluence of genres. That Madonna has chosen to follow suit is as platitudinous as it was inevitable. Her latest, Hard Candy, adheres to the pop formula du jour: hire from a pool of hip-hop producing lions, add your choice of an opposite sex hook-singing specialist, apply a licentious but street-buffed image, and then reapply twelve times.

Of the album's 12 tracks, its assets are summarized in three songs--the apparent average rate for pop success among highly collaborative efforts. "4 Minutes", employing Justin Timberlake's insatiable hook and Timbaland's burly synths, finds Madonna immersed in the homogeneity of contemporary hip-pop, overshadowed yet chaperoned by her two leading men. Both successfully guide her through the genre's nuances delivering a hit.

On "Give It 2 Me", Pharrell switches to an offbeat rhythm, airing out the lingering rich heavy beats and evoking the finesse and Euro club appeal of Madonna's youth. Unfortunately, a West-African inspired percussion bridge-airdropped onto the album and randomly landing at this point--completely disrupts the song's full potential. A similar bridge miscalculation occurs on "She's Not Me". Disjointed and unsettling, Pharrell drops out the bass and shimmering synths take over from the funk-guitar heavy, Donna Summer-infused track. Complete with alternating traffic whistles and double hand-claps its main riff is delightfully infectious. It coolly recedes, but into an unexpected and undesirable outro. So close to a complete track! The album, incomplete without the obligatory Kanye contribution, features "Beat Goes On" and continues the Donna Summer touch, this time opting for "beep beep" vocals on a surprisingly sweet track.

I do long for the hypnotic melodies and beats of "Like a Prayer" and "Holiday", but I am equally eager for Madonna to display some much-anticipated lyrical maturity. But this is increasingly a pipe dream, an unattainable ideal to which we can no longer heed. Instead one must settle for the sing-song-y affable rhymes that easily linger in one's head.

Of equal concern is the aggregate unoriginality that Hard Candy encompasses. It is overpopulated with recycled pop that is indistinguishable and artificial, something Madonna's soothing arpeggiating vocals cannot alleviate. Its conception is juvenile and contrived, but in a desperate, not naive, way. She has run out of barriers against which to rebel. At one point the album's tediousness (e.g. "Heartbeat", "Miles Away", "Incredible") is such that one assumes Ashlee Simpson and Britney have already passed on the material because even they deemed it too redundant.

Unsurprisingly, Madonna is striving to reassert her once risqué preeminence. Her domain, however, is waning as she struggles to usurp the burgeoning uniformity that dominates the pop hemisphere. That this is a jubilee year for pop of sorts (Michael Jackson and Madonna, the King and Queen respectively, both are over the hill in August) calibrates the scope of Madonna's past dominance, the ascent to her apex, and, perhaps, signifies the start of a long descent.

Rating : 5 / 10

Madonna has scrapped plans to screen her docu "I Am Because We Are," about the plight of Malawian children, at the Glastonbury rock festival in Blighty, according to local press reports.

"Madonna hoped the film could be shown on the Saturday and there was talk of a question and answer session," a source told the Daily Mail newspaper. "But poor ticket sales for the festival put her off. After talks with organizers it was decided the festival was not the right venue to showcase the film."

Last year, Glastonbury sold out in about two hours and attracted 177,500 people. This year's festival, which runs June 27-29, still hasn't sold out nine weeks after tickets went on sale, and organizers have resorted to selling 10,000 tickets through retail chain HMV.

source : variety

Albums :
22 (13) Madonna - Hard Candy (Warner Bros)

Singles :
8 (4) Madonna Ft Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes (Warner Bros)

Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 07 2008)

David Badour appeared worn out and anxious as photographers huddled around the State Theatre box office to snap shots of the Mount Pleasant resident as he stepped up to the window.

Badour arrived at the State around 3 a.m. Thursday to be the first in line for tickets to see Madonna present her documentary, "I Am Because We Are," at this summer's Traverse City Film Festival.

By the time tickets went on sale at 11 a.m. Saturday, Badour was at the head of a line of more than 300 people that snaked down Front and Park streets to the Grandview Parkway.

"I've been a fan since kindergarten. I have been to many of her concerts, but this is the first time I've had to wait," said Badour, who made the trip north with his brother Cody Badour and friend Jamie Slavik.

"It was definitely worth it. You get to know a lot of people" in line.

The film, written, produced and narrated by Madonna, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring, and roughly half of the State's 540 tickets sold out in about 30 minutes Saturday. The queen of pop will be at the theater Aug. 2 to introduce the film that details her personal observations on the poverty and AIDS-stricken African country of Malawi. An additional 300 tickets were also on sale for another yet-to-be-named location where Film Festival officials will simulcast the event.

Traverse City resident Deb Korreck, who arrived in line around 5:30 p.m. Friday, said an overnight downpour forced Madonna fans to work together to construct makeshift tarp tents for shelter. Despite the foul weather and early morning heat, Korreck was impressed at how well the diverse group got along during the night.

"Everybody around was like our neighbors. There are teenagers and everyone up into their 50s like me, and we were all hanging out," Korreck said, adding that she looks forward to the Material Girl's perspective on the AIDS epidemic.

"I grew up listening to her music and dancing to her music. I'd just like to listen to what she has to say."

Madonna's outlook on Malawi was the main motivation for Kerri Finlayson, who recently witnessed the birthplace of Madonna's adopted son on a bicycle trip through Africa. Finlayson, though, was the next person in line Saturday when tickets for a seat at the State sold out.

"What I noticed was that there were young teenagers that were the moms ... and the 30 to 40-year-olds were missing. AIDS just wiped out a generation," she said of her trip.

Other fans, like Garret Reinhart and Jeff Rohlmann, simply couldn't miss an opportunity to see the pop star.

"I am just a huge, die-hard Madonna fan, and knowing Madonna will be three hours away I can't miss that," said Rohlmann, who came down from Sault Ste. Marie with Reinhart Friday morning.

"She is from the state of Michigan, so we support a home-state girl," Reinhart said.

source : traverse city record eagle

Madonna played nursemaid to Gerard Butler during the making of her husband's new film.

The Material Girl turned into Florence Nightingale when the 38-year-old Scot caught a bacterial infection on the set of Guy Ritchie's movie RocknRolla.

"She was awesome," said the Glasgow actor, grinning. "She was very, very cool.

"She played a bit of nurse to me, because I got sick in the middle of the film. She turned up with all these medications. In fact, the first day I met her, she was like, 'So you're the sick one. Take this, take this, take this.' "The infection was in my throat and chest and I was really run down.

"Madonna thought the whole thing out and helped me get better."

source : daily record

If you happen to catch Madonna's worldwide Sticky & Sweet Tour this summer, pay careful attention to the Material Girl's onstage garb. That's because she may be wearing creations from the collective mind of Heatherette, the New York-based design duo who've helped the likes of Gwen Stefani, Pamela Anderson, Mya, Kelis, Pink and Paris Hilton look their best.

On May 23, at the "M Is For Madonna" exhibit at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery in Los Angeles, where more than 100 artists from around the globe showed off their Madonna-inspired work, MTV News caught up with Heatherette's Traver Rains and Richie Rich. They told us they've been approached by Madonna's camp about designing the outfits she'll be sporting when her tour kicks off August 23 in Cardiff, Wales. The trek picks up stateside on October 3 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

"Liz Rosenberg, her publicist, just contacted us and said that she wants us to come up with some sketches, some ideas and some inspirations for her tour," Richie Rich explained. "I think, basically, for Madonna's tour, we'll come up with some sketches, some inspirations and listen to the album to get some ideas, and as young designers, we'll come up with what we think is happening right now. That's why Madonna's a genius -- she picks out the new blood, and we'll see what happens."

But for Heatherette, their mission will be especially challenging, given Madonna's iconic, ever-changing style over the years. They said they're intent on not replicating any of the styles she's rocked in the past, but they're certainly up to the task.

"She already did the cowboy hat, so we'll need to think of something else," Rich joked.

source : mtv

ELLE Argentina, June 2008 Issue

Thanks to Matias

Filth and Wisdom, the debut movie by pop star Madonna will be shown at the Cinema City Festival that takes place from 14th to 21st of June in Novi Sad, Serbia. The story about problematic life of artists in London is going to be shown in Planet Rock, the music films selection, in the open-air cinema in Katolicka Porta.

Screening :

Sunday, June 15 - 21:15 - Prljavština i mudrost / Filth and the Wisdom, Madonna, 61 min, UK, 2008. / Madonna's direction debut, Planet Rock

Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 06 2008)