Monday, September 29, 2014

MADONNA OPENS SCHOOL IN KARACHI

KARACHI: Queen of Pop Madonna’s school in Karachi has opened its gates to students.

The 56-year-old “Material Girl” singer took to Twitter to announce that the Dream Model Street School has so far admitted 1,200 kids.



Madonna tweeted: “The revolution of love continues in Pakistan! The Dream School is finally finished. 1200 kids attending. Knowledge…”
The Revolution of Love continues in Pakistan! The Dream School is finally finished. 1200 kids attending?? knowledge… http://t.co/c5GezOMdgP

Madonna announced last year that she was raising money to expand a school located in the outskirts of Karachi.

The pop star also shared a photograph of girls studying in the classroom equipped with laptops.

“Girls learning at the Dream School,” she captioned the picture.

Source : TimesOfIndia

Paloma Faith on Madonna and ageism




…and don’t get her started about Madonna and age.
She adds: “People talk about Madonna, saying she should stop wearing all that stuff, she’s too old for that kind of thing now.
“But why? She’s been doing it all along. She’s entitled to wear that but at the same time, it was important for her to do that, back in the day.”

Amen!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

“MADONNA TRACK SOUNDS WICKED” SAYS MNEK




MNEK has described Madonna’s new material as “wicked”.

The British singer-songwriter has been in the studio with the US icon to work on a track for her forthcoming new album, which is due out in 2015.

“I almost get quite scared talking about it,” MNEK told Digital Spy at the MOBO Awards launch.

“It’s happened, obviously.I did meet Madonna and I did work with her.It was great and amazing.The song sounds wicked – I’m really proud of it. Diplo’s dope, Madonna’s dope, her people are great and that side of things is working out great.”

MNEK is nominated for Best Newcomer at the MOBO Awards 2014.

digitalspy.co.uk

Madonna On Instagram September 23/14

MADONNA:

“2 sides 2 every story! #tsorrynotsorry #imdone #iconic”



MADONNA:

“Just sayin……………..#bitchimmadonna ❤️”




Madonna On Instagram September 22/14

“NICKI MINAJ : My trip to New York isn’t the same unless I bump into the Queen. #BitchItsMadonna 😜” MADONNA : We go Hard or we go Home we Gon Do this all night long! #werk



Goin to werk #bitchimmadonna




Sunday, September 21, 2014

MADONNA ADDS DJ DAHI & BLOOD DIAMONDS TO COLLABORATORS LIST




The list of collaborators for Madonna’s next album continues to grow.

The diva posted an Instagram photo on Saturday (Sept. 20) of DJ Dahi and Blood Diamonds working behind a computer, with the caption, “Nothing can stop the Sex Boyzzzzzz!”

DJ Dahi is the producer behind Drake’s “Worst Behavior,” and has worked with other artists like Kendrick Lamar and Lily Allen. Pop act Blood Diamonds (aka Mike Diamond) is a frequent collaborator with Grimes.

Madonna has also been working with super-producer Diplo, who has turned up in multiple photos on her Instagram account. In his Billboard magazine cover feature, Diplo said that he’s had multiple studio sessions with Madonna that have resulted in at least three “amazing, smashes.”

The diva’s next as-yet untitled album will be released in 2015 on Interscope Records. Her last release, 2012’s MDNA, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Based on a glance at Madonna’s Instagram feed, the set may also feature collaborations with Toby Gad, MoZella, S1, Ariel Rechtshaid, Avicii, Natalia Kills and Martin Kierszenbaum.

Mitchell Peters
billboard.com

Saturday, September 20, 2014

“YEARS” OF BEASTIE BOYS : MADONNA COME ALIVE IN EXHIBIT




The Beastie Boys, Madonna and Joe Strummer were not only the musical rebels of their time, but dear friends of photographer Josh Cheuse, as well.

In shooting these and many other famous faces, “my approach was to be kind to people, be real and just be honest,” Cheuse says. “I got good stuff because these people became my friends and family, and I respected them and they kind of got that. It wasn’t a paparazzi thing.”

Music fans with a penchant for candid moments can catch a glimpse of Cheuse’s more than 30 years of shooting artists in his new Grooving Years exhibit, opening Friday at New York’s Morrison Hotel Gallery and running through Oct. 11. The show includes rarely displayed and never-before-seen photographs of famed performers ranging from Oasis and Run-DMC and MGMT.

Cheuse’s photographic style comes from “perseverance, talent and luck,” as gallery owner Peter Blachley puts it. The native New Yorker began his photography career when he was just 16 and used his high school’s pay phone so he could call The Clash at Electric Ladyland Studios and ask to photograph them.

Having grown up just a few blocks away from the Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Cheuse struck up a friendship with him as a teen and watched as the band transitioned from its rock origins into a hip-hop group — fondly remembering the time they crashed on the floor of Rick Rubin’s mom’s house the night before a video shoot and she made them tuna sandwiches.

He also connected with other artists and bands at nightclubs throughout the city such as the now-shuttered Danceteria, where he shot and watched Madonna as she performed some of her earliest material.

“She was just the girl we used to dance with and hang out and smoke with,” Cheuse says. “She was just kind of like a friend from the club, always very sweet. She said she was going to (become) the biggest female singer of all time — and she did.”

So what is it about musicians that has entranced him all these years? For one, “it’s fun to photograph people that look cool and dress well,” Cheuse says. “Part of how they look expresses where they’re coming from. It’s interesting, and it creates good shapes and shadows.”

Simply put, “it’s something worth capturing.”

Source : USAToday

Friday, September 19, 2014

MADONNA ON INSTAGRAM : ABOUT THE NEW 2015 CALENDAR

Poppin Bottles……See for yourself in my new calendar on madonna.com! Pre order now! #bitchimmadonna



Get ready for another surprising Madonna year with this 16-month calendar featuring stunning photographs by Tom Munro, Steven Klein and Madonna herself! 12 X 12 inches.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

STUART PRICE AND THE TRUTH ABOUT MADONNA’S ‘CONFESSIONS’




Stuart Price has an impressive resume and unprecedented aliases. He also joins the short list of regular Madonna contributors, first working with the pop icon on her Drowned World tour in 2001 and later producer her acclaimed 2005 dance record, Confessions on a Dance Floor.

Price recently spoke to THUMP’s Bruce Tantum about the experience of making the album nearly a decade ago.

Right before we made Confessions on a Dance Floor, I had made a record with a girl named Juliet [2005’s Random Order]; we had made that album over Thanksgiving in New York, when the city was completely dead, and it was just the two of us concentrating on working on it. [I went] straight from that to Madonna, and I assumed that would be a much different experience, but she completely surprised me.

The real eye-opener was about how focused she was on avoiding the kind of over-the-top, excessive, entourage-in-the-studio environment that I had expected. It was the total opposite, really. She helped to create an environment where we were like two kids working together in a studio. It was exactly the same feeling as it was when I was working with Juliet. She was really… I don’t want to say “smart,” but she was really honest about music. She’s really instinctive in understanding that dance music comes from a very minimal way of working. It doesn’t come from throwing lots of money on a lavish production.

We spent five or six weeks in my apartment; the studio used to be upstairs in the loft. I would work on a track overnight, then she would come in and we’d start messing around. She would do vocal melodies and I would come up with a few ideas, and then she’d go, “Okay, I’m gonna go home and think about it.” Then she’d come back the next day and have the hook for “Hung Up” or the chorus for “Sorry.” Then I would carry on working on more tracks to keep us going. It was more of a really fluid and almost childlike environment than anything that seemed too serious.

They always say that an album sounds like the time that you had making it. I know that with that album, it was a super-productive time, but it was also really fun and natural. And I think that comes across in the way it sounds.

It’s surprising that Madonna has such a simple work mode. I would have expected her to come in with her full entourage and play the diva, at least to some extent.

Well, don’t get me wrong—I think in a lot of parts of her life, she is

Written by: Stuart Price
thump.vice.com

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Monday, September 15, 2014

Fantastic Madonna Outtake by Herb Ritts.




Beautiful. The two together were beyond magical.

Encyclopedia Madonnica 20th Anniversary Edition

It’s been 19 years since Matthew Rettenmund published Encyclopedia Madonnica. And now our friend Matthew wants to make a definitive update to his beloved and successful book. Clich here and help Matt!




You may know Matthew Rettenmund also for his Boy Culture… here is what he has to say…

It’s been 19 years since I published Encyclopedia Madonnica. It’s hard to believe that she was only about 12 years into her career then…just thinking about everything that’s happened since (Evita, Ray of Light, Confessions on a Dance Floor, MDNA, movies, scandals…children!), it’s crazy to think of all the stuff I’ll have to compile. But in those 19 years, I’ve never stopped observing and collecting—I have a gigantic archive, plus now I have the Internet and greater connectivity to other fans to help me out. I’m confident this unauthorized but fan-friendly book project will become a reality because Madonna is a popular and relevant as she was 20 years ago. I mean, who else can make headlines with every single bathroom selfie she Instagrams??? The book will have lots of unpublished photos and I’ll make it the fun read that fans expect. I simply can not wait to start work on it! – Matthew Rettenmund.


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Madonna included in the new Guiness World Records Book as Best Selling Female Artist




Of Course!!!

MADONNA, MEET MADISON – YOUR NEW PHOTOGRAPHER




I see a lot of bad photography. The other day I spent over an hour looking through the ‘editor’s picks’ on 500px. I was not impressed. Who are these editors? I must qualify this statement however. I’m not impressed by technically perfect photographs. Images that are primarily produced in a computer are also nothing to write home about – at least not in my letters. Call me old fashioned, but I like photographs that are organically intriguing, that rely on subject matter and composition, not good lighting or fancy Photoshop skills. When I do see good photography it excites me, it inspires me and, the first time I saw Madison’s work, this is exactly what happened. I was excited. I was inspired. I wanted to be Madison.

Madison (who prefers to keep his last name a mystery, kind of like Madonna) is a Dutch photographer who was born and raised in the Netherlands. He studied graphic design at The Academy Of The Arts and Fashion and fine art photography at the Photography Academy.

Madison is currently working on a major project, Claustrum Corporis Vol. I-V. After a successful solo exhibition of the first volume, titled Simulacra, the second volume, Mortui Te Salutant, is currently in production and scheduled for mid to late 2014. That work is not shown here, but it is some seriously good stuff. You owe it to yourself to take the time to search it out and consume it. It is, in a word, pure genius – okay, two words.

When I look at Madison’s photography I think of Madonna. I think this is the guy Madonna would want photographing her, if only she knew he existed. I don’t know why I feel this, exactly, but it likely has something to do with the fact that both Madison and Madonna imbue their art with their keen intellects. They both produce art with a multiplicity of layers – with immense depth. I also think of Helmut Newton, Bruce LaBruce, Anders Petersen, and even David Lachapelle (although you won’t see any color here) when I view this work. I think of these famous photographers for different reasons, but Madison’s work has elements from all of these masters. What a feat!

Source : HuffingtonPost




Friday, September 5, 2014

We are all Madonna’s children




Gary Caruso | Friday, September 5, 2014

This is not about the lady who rigidly sits atop the Golden Dome emanating her mystical Catholic presence. It is about music from the ever chameleon-like mystical pop icon who clawed her way to stardom while influencing millions of youth along her career — and whose daughter is currently an incoming freshman at the University of Michigan. Longevity of life grants one a rather bizarre worldview of existence, because life is more than a mystery, as coined by Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. Loving those moments of existence remembered at the time of penned music is why an artist like Madonna can claim each of us as her children.

Life repeats experiences with minor subtleties from one generation to the next. While growing up southwest of Pittsburgh, my mother’s “Ciccone” family would attend Italian picnics and “Pisano” gatherings in other suburbs like Clairton, Greensburg, Trafford and Aliquippa. At one outing, I recall a rowdy young girl who for the summer was visiting her grandparents (themselves most hardily socializing near the refreshments). It was a time 45 years ago just as I prepared to enter Notre Dame when I vaguely remember this 11-year-old herself was still evolving her inner-self — a being that many would religiously follow a mere dozen years later.

My Ciccone family limb is not close to Madonna’s entertainment business, but not so remote that I would annoy her to disrespectfully snap selfies. In fact, as a former Democratic White House staffer with ties to Republican staff, I arranged for the Drowned World Tour staff to visit the White House in August 2001. As is typical of her strong principled stances, my offer was ultimately declined. But it does show that life easily presented an opportunity for a new encounter three decades after our first.

During that first 1969 encounter, our chaotic nation and iconic decade finally showed its drastic decline. In 1969, like this year — actually, every year — incoming freshmen have no inkling of how their lives could ever come full circle. Like today, my freshman wardrobe back then consisted of skinny pants. Like this summer in Ferguson, Mo., racial tensions erupted the summer of 1969 in York, Penn., when a lack of political diversity in the York local government led to murder, curfews and a National Guard presence. Like courts have overwhelmingly ruled in favor of same-sex marriage this year, the Stonewall riot of 1969 shocked those who felt that society was destroying their “traditional” way of life.

My generation’s now classic music evolved through genres like Led Zeppelin’s new heavy metal sound or The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” albums. “Sesame Street” excitedly debuted in hopes that low-income children could learn through the medium of television. Ironically, “The Brady Bunch” premiered between news-breaking events like the Charles Manson mass murders and the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. Politically, Senator Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge, killing his passenger.

While our government launched four NASA Apollo missions that included two moon landings, it also prepared and conducted its first military draft in decades that targeted us freshmen. Nearly 300 students at Harvard University seized a building where 45 were injured and 184 arrested. At Notre Dame, we students staged a strike in protest of the Kent State killings. Our faculty patrolled the campus overnight to dissuade rebellious students from burning buildings. The University president at the time, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, granted us options to freeze our grades and exercise our First Amendment rights or to continue attending classes. Nationally, my fellow freshman used Woodstock as a benchmark and convergence point for free speech in support of civil rights, anti-war and women’s equality campaigns. Throughout it all, music resonated as the soul behind our ideals of civility, peace, equality and sharing.

Looking back upon the 45 years washed away from my first steps on campus, I better appreciate what made me who I am today. I am a child of the hippie culture, a charter member during the summer of love and a spectator of Woodstock — later to convert as a disciple of Madonna. Yet Madonna, like all of us, wandered within her own being as far back as her summers in Pennsylvania through her jump to the Big Apple that launched her career. Her journey molded the principles she holds and expresses to millions yearning to discover more than a momentary thrill.

Some moments are made sacred by the people and events that grace them. Today, as the Class of ’18 stumbles on its way through campus life, they may hear the songs of generations past whispering to them if they dare listen. If they dare venture, insight comes while stepping away from the crowd. Truth derives from an unconditional acceptance of others, and respect for all of mankind. In many ways, today is no different than 1969. It merely had an earthshaking woman named Madonna enter the path two steps ahead of the crowd.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

MADONNA: HAS SHE TEAMED UP WITH APPLE’S SIRI FOR ‘UNAPOLOGETIC BITCH’?


Madonna fans have noticed a possible team-up with Apple.

Rumours are circulating that the singer’s alleged new single – titled either ‘Unapologetic Bitch’ or ‘Bitch, I’m Madonna’ – samples Siri’s voice. Siri is an artificial intelligence assistant found on Apple iPhone and iPad devices.



The speculation was increased further when someone noticed that saying ‘Unapologetic Bitch’ into Siri swiftly loads Madonna’s Wikipedia page, seemingly creating a link between the service and the superstar.

Searching Wikipedia online, ‘Unapologetic Bitch’ isn’t mentioned on Madonna’s main page, making the Siri search result even more curious.

What’s more, while simply typing ‘Unapologetic Bitch’ into Google or Bing does bring up results relating to Madonna, the star’s main Wikipedia page isn’t even within the first 30 search results.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Cupertino-based company has teamed up with a female superstar. iTunes exclusively launched Beyoncé’s self-titled album last December, after she surprised fans with a stealth release on the store.

Meanwhile, Diplo recently spoke about working with Madonna on ‘Bitch, I’m Madonna’, saying the track is “very cool”.

Madonna has yet to confirm the release date for her 13th studio album, but has been teasing the recording process on Instagram with the hashtag #UnapologeticBitch.

We reached out to Siri for confirmation of a possible Madonna collaboration, but they declined to comment.



source: digitalspy.co.uk