Alright stans, listen up. Madonna, after three years of musical silence (excluding a jingle about condoms and a collab with Quavo and Cardi B) following 2015's Rebel Heart, has announced her new album: Madame X. It's already clear that it's going to be a massive spectacle and a new transformation. Fans have been guessing an album announce was on the way since early April, when Madge started filling up her grid with a giant red X. A week ago, she started posting puzzle pieces tiles of a document listing the many sides of the mysterious "Madame X." In a video trailer, Madonna confirms that Madame X is the title and leading lady of the fourteenth record of her career. Here's what we know about "Madame X," the woman and the album: 'Madame X' is a concept project. The album takes place in the world of the eponymous Madame X. In the trailer, Madonna introduces us to this world, which is dark and shadowy, taking unsubtle cues from spy film (James Bond, most obviously) and noir cinema. She dramatically stubs a cigarette out in a martini glass, punches away at a typewriter in leather gloves and transforms into 10 different looks (including sunglasses and a trench, a bonnet, an eye patch and a cowboy hat — Madonna's next yeehaw moment, imminent?). The only dialogue in the clip is, "I decided to call my record Madame X," which she tells a table full of men. The clip was created by video artist Nuno Zico and photographer Steven Klein, who it seems likely she's working with on the full body of album imagery. Watch the trailer: Madame X, the character, is a Carmen Sandiego-esque international spy and femme fatale. Well, Madame X is apparently a lot of things (many hats!). Here's the full list: "I'm a secret agent. Traveling around the world. Changing identities. Fighting for freedom. Bringing light to dark places. She is a dancer. A professor. A head of state. A housekeeper. An equestrian. A prisoner. A student. A mother. A child. A teacher. A nun. A singer. A saint. A whore. The spy in the house of love. I'm Madame X." The first single is with Maluma. In a global collab fitting for an international global spy, Madonna is teaming up with the Colombian reggaeton star. Their collab is called "Medellin" (like the city) and it's out on Wednesday. Both artists shared the luxuriant single art on Instagram. "This seems incredible, I still can not believe it, but it IS a REALITY !! On April 17 we release our song called #MEDELLIN," Maluma shared. Madame X plays the accordion. Madge has shared a couple of clips of Madame X playing instruments. Sadly, they're audio-less, so our only sonic clue so far is the eerie piano song with auto-tune ripples that plays in the background of the trailer. The album was influenced by Madonna's time in Portugal. Madonna covered Vogue Italia this past summer and confirmed her new record to the magazine, explaining that it was shaped by the year time spent living in Lisbon, where she moved in 2017 so her son David could train with a Portuguese soccer club. "I've just met lots of really amazing musicians, and I've ended up working with a lot of these musicians on my new record, so Lisbon has influenced my music and my work," she said. "I don't see how I could have gone through that year without being informed by all this input of culture." Specifically, she discussed discovering traditional fado music, which originated in Lisbon. "I always say three f's rule Portugal: fado, football and Fatima." She continued, also mentioning flamenco, jazz and kuduro. "Sometimes there would be gypsies flamenco dancing, and a lot of times there would be people playing the music of Cesária Évora [editor's note, a famous Cape Verdean singer], and who knew her. You'll always hear lots of fado and lots of kuduro music from Angola. A lot of jazz also – old school jazz, which is pretty cool." It's a mystery worthy of Madame X what the accordion and reggaeton piled on top of that list of influences, plus Madonna's pop touch, will sound like, but she indicated to Vogue Italia, that she, as always, wants to do things differently. "It's also such a nice antidote to what's going on in the music business now where everything's so formulaic, and every song has 20 guest artists on it, and everyone sounds the same. Something's gotta give," she said. Fans are hoping to learn more concrete details at Madonna's upcoming show at the Eurovision Song Contest in May. Whoever she is — armed with an endless closet of disguises, Carmen Sandiego energy, accordions and flamenco — we're extremely ready for Madame X.<doc-sep>Madonna has been almost everything — that’s the party line of her nearly four-decade-long career. But on her 14th album due in June, “Madame X,” she promises to become an actual shape-shifter, a secret agent “fighting for freedom” and “bringing light into dark places” in the guises of a professor, a housekeeper, a nun, a cabaret singer and a prostitute, among others. If her overstuffed 2015 album “Rebel Heart” was a touch reflective, reckoning with elements from her past as a not-always-embraced cultural rabble-rouser, “Madame X” so far promises to be a bit of a romp. She has said the inspirations come from her adopted home, Lisbon, and her longtime fascination with Latin music, which has been a part of her aesthetic since she touched down in New York at age 19. Its first single, “Medellín,” is a spotlight for the Colombian star Maluma, who met Madonna backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards last year and cheerfully glides through the track. Though this is likely the song on which she morphs into a cha cha instructor, Madonna is playing a fantasist. The producer Mirwais, who was one of Madonna’s core creative partners from her 2000 album “Music” through “Confessions on a Dance Floor” in 2005, returns to help provide a dreamy backdrop for her carefully sung (and digitally tweaked) voyage to an alternate past: a life, and love, in Medellín. The track soars when it hits its arms-outstretched chorus and dips when it reaches its most cringe-worthy lyric, but while its missteps aren’t barbed enough to deflate a reverie, it feels more like a stride in the right direction than an emphatic stomp forward. CARYN GANZ<doc-sep>
Madonna has posted a lot of material on social media positioning the concept of her new album, “Madame X,” but until “Medellin,” the first single from the album, dropped today, there was precious little information about the album itself. We knew she’d worked with “Medellin” collaborator Maluma, longtime producers Mirwais and Mike Dean… and that’s about it. Well, now we know the album, the follow-up to 2015’s “Rebel Heart,” will arrive on June 14. The video for “Medellin” will arrive during an MTV special called “MTV Presents Madonna Live & Exclusive: ‘Medellín’ Video World Premiere,” that airs at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on Wednesday, April 24. According to the announcement, the album is “Influenced creatively by [Madonna] living in Lisbon, Portugal over the past several years” and is “a collection of 15 new songs that celebrate Madonna’s career-long affair with Latin music and culture as well as other global influences.” (The full tracklist appears below.) Along with Maluma, the album features guest spots from Migos’ Quavo, Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee, Brazilian singer Anitta. Madonna sings in Portuguese, Spanish and English. Along with “Medellín,” other tracks include a Jamaican dancehall-inflected song called “Future” featuring Quavo (co-produced by Diplo, who also worked on “Rebel Heart”) as well as the Mirwais collaboration “Dark Ballet.” The album was recorded over 18 months in Portugal, London, New York and Los Angeles. “Lisbon is where my record was born,” Madonna says. “I found my tribe there and a magical world of incredible musicians that reinforced my belief that music across the world is truly all connected and is the soul of the universe.” “Madame X” will come in a standard and deluxe version of the album. A Target CD version will feature the deluxe version plus an additional two tracks. A variety of special bundles of Madame X with one-of-a-kind limited merchandise, as well as special vinyl and cassette versions of the album, are available now for pre-order as well HERE. Further details regarding the album, videos and appearances will be announced in the coming weeks. Last year, she shared multiple posts from the album’s recording sessions. In one clip, her six-year-old daughter Estere plays with a keyboard while singing into a microphone. The full track listing for Madame X standard and deluxe versions are: