MDNA Tour DVD Press Release and Cover!

The highly anticipated and groundbreaking Madonna MDNA World Tour concert film will be released September 10th on DVD, Blu-ray and as a digital album on Live Nation and Interscope Records. Pre-order the DVD and Blu-ray now.
The two hour nonstop performance includes songs from Madonna’s MDNA album such as “Girl Gone Wild” and “Gang Bang,” as well as fan favorites including exhilarating versions of “Hung Up,” “Express Yourself,” “Vogue,” “Open Your Heart,” “Like A Prayer” and “Celebration.”

The MDNA Tour extravaganza was the most successful single tour of 2012 and was launched in conjunction with Madonna’s MDNA album which debuted in the #1 spot in 35 countries. Presented by Live Nation Global Touring, the MDNA World Tour included 88 sold out shows in 29 countries. Madonna and her ten member band lead by musical director Kevin Antunes and troupe of 27 dancers performed a wild two hour spectacle which included state of the art visuals and sound, hundreds of costume changes that fascinated, enthralled and entertained over 2.2 million fans. “I left my heart on that stage every night,” commented Madonna who personally spent six months editing the footage to perfection for the dvd release in order for fans to have a total in concert experience in their own homes.

“My show is a journey.. the journey of a soul from darkness to light. It is part cinematic musical theatre, part spectacle and sometimes intimate performance art. I know people can relate to it. It’s very important to me as an artist that my show not be taken out of context. It must be watched with an open heart from beginning to end.. I am sure if it is viewed this way, the viewer will walk away feeling inspired, invigorated and will want to make the world a better place.. And this of course is my intention,” commented Madonna in a tour manifesto she released to her fans around the globe.

Rave reviews included The Dallas Morning News: “The Material Girl proceeds to take us through a song cycle that examined sex, liberation, sin, empowerment, love, addiction, rebellion and finally redemption.. She did it all in classic Madonna Style – controversial and eye-popping.”

The MDNA World Tour DVD was directed by Danny B. Tull and Stephane Sennour and was produced by Madonna..Executive producers: Arthur Fogel , Guy Oseary and Sara Zambreno. Tour wardrobe was created by Arianne Phillips. Supervising Editor Danny B. Tull. Director of Photography Mark Ritchie.

www.madonna.com
source: Interscope Records

SEYMOUR STEIN ON MADONNA (TABLET MAGAZINE)

Seymour Stein, Record Company Man Who Signed the Ramones and Madonna

It may be hard to believe, but it’s been 30 years since Madonna released her debut self-titled album. The man responsible for signing the then-unknown twenty-something singer is chairman and co-founder of Sire Records, Seymour Stein. If you’re into popular music, odds are that you’ve heard of him. Even before Madonna, he was responsible for signing the kind of bands that changed people’s lives, like The Ramones, Talking Heads, and The Pretenders. He is popularly believed to have coined the term New Wave as a musical genre and is credited for breaking British bands such as Depeche Mode and The Smiths into the U.S. market. He is even responsible for bringing the original Fleetwood Mac to America in the 1970s, so no wonder he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

It’s been 30 years since Madonna’s first album, which of course you were responsible for. How did that happen?
This wasn’t at the beginning of my career. I already had Sire Records, which was moderately successful. I already had some very important bands before I signed her—The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Pretenders. I had another company that had all the original Fleetwood Mac recordings, so Madonna wasn’t my first big artist. I got involved with her through a club DJ named Mark Kamins, who I liked and I thought had a lot of talent. I gave him some work remixing records. He wanted to be a producer and he wanted me to give him one of my artists to produce. I told him, “I don’t give my artists to anybody. Usually they pick the producer. I try to give my artists as much artistic freedom as possible, within reason. I couldn’t recommend you because you have no track record. If you want to be a producer you have to find an artist and bring him or her or it—if it’s a band—to me. Then if I like the artist you can produce them.” He brought me a couple of things that were very good but not good enough to sign. The third artist he brought me was Madonna. I was in the hospital at the time. I had to be there for a month, I had an infection. The Walkman had just recently come out, so I had the demo sent right over to me. I loved it and being a little naturally paranoid, in a very Jewish way, I said, “I want to see her right away, I want to sign her.” So, she came to the hospital, we agreed to make a record together and the rest is history.

Did you ever think she’d be calling herself Esther one day?
Esther meine schwester? Ahh … no. I believed she would be a star. People ask me, “Did you know then, in the hospital, that she would be one of the biggest female singers of the 20th century?” I would love to be able to say, “Of course I did!” But that’s not true and I couldn’t say that. But I always believed in her, because not only did she have talent, but she had a burning desire, drive, ambition, and a work ethic that is incredible. So, she had everything and I saw that in my hospital room.

Are you still in touch with her today?
Yes. I was at one of her gigs of the last tour. Warner Bros. bought my company and if it were up to me she’d still be where she was. But she couldn’t make a new deal with Warner on the terms that she wanted and she left. It had nothing to do with me. I don’t see her that much but I’m in close contact with her manager, Guy Oseary, who is Israeli and living in L.A. and a very smart young man. Well, he’s not that young anymore. He’s certainly quite young, but when I met him he was just out of high school. He wasn’t managing her then, but he became involved with her record company and he did an excellent job. It’s been a very good working relationship between the two of them.

What do you think about Madonna’s interest in Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism?
I think it’s tremendous. I learned a bit of Kabbalah when I was young, not very much, and I didn’t take to it that well. But Kabbalah is not just for Jews. I think Madonna has done a lot for Kabbalah because she’s a spokesperson for it and I find it wonderful.

You don’t find it a bit strange?
Not at all. She was in it before the trend. She didn’t do it because it was trendy, just like she doesn’t help little children in Africa because it’s a trendy thing to do. She does it because she wants to. She’s not very interested in her own religion, the Catholic religion. I shouldn’t say this because I don’t really know, but from knowing her and being close with her my interpretation is that a lot of it had to do with her schooling at Catholic school and also with the fact that both of her parents were very religious Catholic and her mother was taken away from her at such an early age. Her mother died of cancer and she never got over it. That’s it. And then she just found the Kabbalah. I have several Jewish friends who have found Buddhism. Is that any less strange?

by Dana Kessler
tabletmag.com

Rumour: Madonna to direct ‘The Impossible Lives Of Greta Wells’?

Author Andrew Sean Greer has revealed that Madonna has snapped up the rights to his book “The Impossible Lives Of Greta Wells,” though it’s not yet clear if she’ll just produce, or take on a bigger role in the production. “I got a phone call last week…I think it’s fine. No one’s asked me about this… from a celebrity who read the book and loved it so much she called me up personally to talk to me about it,” he told Litseen. “I thought it was going to be one of her assistants who was like, loved your book, she’s interested. Right. She didn’t read it. But oh no no no. She called me. She read it. She totally got it. There were a couple other people interested and they sort of all made a deal together, and she’s optioned the rights to it. We’ll see what happens. But it’s fun because it was Madonna.”
And it’s easy to see why Madonna might be curious about this one as movie material. Like “W.E.,” the story here is also split between a couple of a time periods, with another romance at its core. Here’s the synopsis from Amazon:
From the critically acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Confessions of Max Tivoli comes The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, a rapturously romantic story of a woman who finds herself transported to the “other lives” she might have lived.
After the death of her beloved twin brother and the abandonment of her long-time lover, Greta Wells undergoes electroshock therapy. Over the course of the treatment, Greta finds herself repeatedly sent to 1918, 1941, and back to the present. Whisked from the gas-lit streets and horse-drawn carriages of the West Village to a martini-fueled lunch at the Oak Room, in these other worlds, Greta finds her brother alive and well—though fearfully masking his true personality. And her former lover is now her devoted husband…but will he be unfaithful to her in this life as well? Greta Wells is fascinated by her alter egos: in 1941, she is a devoted mother; in 1918, she is a bohemian adulteress.
In this spellbinding novel by Andrew Sean Greer, each reality has its own losses, its own rewards; each extracts a different price. Which life will she choose as she wrestles with the unpredictability of love and the consequences of even her most carefully considered choices?
IndieWire

Slant’s 15 Greatest Madonna Non-Singles

1. Secret Garden.
The day she ever stops “wanting, needing, waiting” will never happen, a point Madonna drives home at the climax of Erotica when she muses, “I wonder when I’ll start to show/I wonder if I’ll ever know/Where my place is/Where my face is.” Andre Betts’s shuffling breakbeat and the jazzy piano and sax flourishes serve as a musical palate cleanser following Shep Pettibone’s highly icy house beats. But make no mistake, she’s no closer to wrapping up this story, and the way her discontent radiates even through lines about how “the sun has kissed me” is a lens through which her entire rocky career can be viewed. Henderson
2. Impressive Instant
3. Sooner or Later
4. Thief of Hearts
5. Till Death Do Us Part
6. Inside of Me
7. Sanctuary
8. I Want You
9. Sky Fits Heaven
10. Waiting
11. Has to Be
12. Gang Bang
13. Over and Over
14. Easy Ride
15. Physical Attraction
Read the full Article at SlantMagazine.com

Pictures: Madonna in London (July 27 2013)

Madonna out and about in London (July 27 2013)

Madonna "Madonna" Album Original Rolling Stone Review!

EW: 30th Anniversary of Madonna’s Debut Album

from August 2nd issue of Entertainment Weekly:

Attention All Madonna Fans Read And Share!!!! Madonna30years!!

Lets do this!!!

Pictures: Madonna in Dublin (July 23 2013)

Madonna pays her respects as she attends her friend David Collins’ funeral in Dublin (July 23 2013)

Listen To L.U.V. MADONNA! (Jack's 2013 Megamix)!! Hot!!

Hot new Mix!! Very cool!

Madonna signs Amnesty International open letter to free Pussy Riot!

Amnesty International says that more than 100 leading musicians are calling for release of jailed members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot.
Amnesty said Monday that Adele, U2, Madonna, Yoko Ono, Radiohead, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Ke$ha, Sir Paul McCartney and Sting were among those who signed an open letter organized by the group.
The musicians say in the letter that the impact of Pussy Riot’s “shockingly unjust trial and imprisonment has spread far and wide, especially among your fellow artists, musicians and citizens around the world.”
They urged the Russian authorities to free 23-year old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and 25-year-old Maria Alekhina, who received 2-year sentences last August for an irreverent punk protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral. Their parole appeal hearings are due this week.

Madonna flies into London for pal’s funeral....

Madonna flies in for pal’s funeral

Tragedy ... together in 2007



By GORDON SMART, Showbiz Editor


MADONNA will take a grim journey to the funeral of one of her closest pals this week.
The Material Girl was heartbroken when she heard her interior designer friend DAVID COLLINS had died – just three weeks after he was diagnosed with skin cancer.
David designed the interiors of some of Madge’s favourite London haunts, including Claridge’s – as well as the inside of her homes. Madonna arrived in the UK on Friday – two days after David’s death – and walked through Heathrow airport dressed entirely in black.
She’s planning to head to Ireland this week for Dubliner David’s funeral.
A pal said: “Madonna is beside herself with grief.
“David was one of her closest pals for years – she adored him.
“They’d often have a laugh around London, driving around together. She can’t believe he died just three weeks after his diagnosis.”
Madge’s last post on her Instagram account was a photo of red roses with the message: “In memory of David Collins.
“He was a great talent and a good and loyal friend for 17 years! God bless him and may he RIP.”
David’s family have asked mourners to donate to the Macmillan cancer charity instead of sending flowers. They have set up the David Collins Tribute Fund for contributions.