( CNN ) -- I thought she was over . Madonna , that is . I thought she was too old to be referring to herself as a `` girl . '' I thought pop music passed her by . I thought Lady Gaga had killed her . And then I look at this week 's Billboard chart and I see I thought wrong . Her 12th CD , `` MDNA '' debuted No . 1 on the album chart and she has two singles on the dance-chart Top 10 . She 's 53 and the clubs are banging her new stuff , including `` Give Me All Your Luvin , '' which became her 38th top 10 hit on the pop chart . For those of you keeping score , that 's more than Elvis , more than The Beatles . I 'm not saying she 's better , but clearly she 's done -- correction -- doing more . This year she won another Golden Globe and her halftime performance at the Super Bowl drew more viewers than the game itself , according to Nielsen . I know the perception is that only gay men care about Madonna , but if that were true , given the 114 million viewers who tuned in to watch her at halftime , maybe `` do n't ask , do n't tell '' should have been called `` just assume . '' The reality is it 's hard for pop music to leave behind someone who keeps leading the pack . Madonna had the highest grossing tour ever for a solo artist ( 2008 ) and has sold more than 300 million records worldwide . She 's an '80s child whose 2005 single `` Hung Up '' holds the Guinness Book record for topping the charts in 41 countries , while 2012 's MDNA was No . 1 on iTunes in 40 countries . That 's not `` over , '' that 's now . When you look at where Madonna 's career is today in the same week we learned Whitney Houston drowned in a foot of water , you 're reminded that God truly does work in mysterious ways . The two pop icons released debut albums within two years of each other , Madonna in 1983 and Houston in 1985 . Of course , Houston was the former model with a voice for the ages , while Madonna was the thin-voiced tart rolling around on the floor of the MTV music awards in a wedding dress proclaiming that she felt like a virgin . If anyone might have been expected to meet a desperate , tragic end , back then the safe money would have been on Madonna . And yet Houston 's gone , Michael Jackson 's gone , Prince is semi-retired and everyone else , with the exception of U2 , is making their money off nostalgia . Meanwhile , Madonna has methodically become , arguably , the greatest recording artist of all time . Who would 've thunk it ? As for the music , her latest CD is not breaking any new ground , but it does remind everyone who owns the ground Gaga , Rihanna , Beyonce and others are walking on . In fact , each time they receive a royalty check , they should be sending Madonna a cut . While MDNA is about three songs too long for my taste , I will tell you the first five songs make it very difficult not to want to dance , and that the track `` Gang Bang '' is pure genius . As you could probably figure out from the title , it 's not radio friendly , but likely not because of what you may think . And that , in a nutshell , is why Madonna is who she is . You can tell you 're watching a Woody Allen film with the first five minutes of dialogue . You can identify the beautiful prose of Toni Morrison within a couple of pages . But my 15-year-old came home one day and asked who I was listening to . I told him Madonna and my son , who loves techno and hip hop , thought I was joking . `` Seriously ... like your Madonna ? '' he asked . `` Yep , '' I said . `` Well , she 's still old but that song 's not . '' The song was `` Gang Bang '' and I 'm glad he left the room before she started singing . As I said , it 's not radio friendly . But then again , it would n't be Madonna if a song like that was . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson .
LZ Granderson says Madonna topping Billboard chart with new album ; she 's so not over . He says it 's hard to dismiss singer who , by most measures , still leads the pack at 53 . He says fate of Houston puts success of Madonna , a `` bad girl , '' in perspective . LZ : Artists from Lady Gaga to Beyonce are walking on ground Madonna broke .