MADONNA LEAVES MADAME X

"Madame X" has 15 songs (18 in the luxury version), of which Madonna wrote all the lyrics - in English and Spanish - and shared the production with three regulars, Mirwais, Mike Dean and Diplo and Major Lazer.

A committed album

Asked about her title I Rise, which begins with the voice of Emma Gonzalez, a young high school student who was rescued from the Parkland shooting on February 14, 2018 Madonna, an expatriate in Portugal, responds by taking a more critical look at her country of origin . "America is undergoing extreme changes, some are very disturbing," she says. Song containing a sample of a speech by Emma Gonzalez, activist for the prohibition of firearms, clip featuring transgender rapper Mykki Blanco as Joan of Arc at the stake ...

For her return, "the queen of pop" does not take four paths. "I walked this Earth as black, queer, and HIV positive, but no offense against me was as powerful as the hope that I opposed it." This quote from Mykki Blanco appears at the end of the Dark Ballet clip.

She who has always fought against discrimination does not intend to rest her pilgrim's staff, nor to be silent in the face of the rising of extremes. Hence the sometimes dark tone of Madame X whose cover shows a brown and severe Madonna, with the lips as sewn with a black thread to prevent it from expressing itself.

A disc constantly oscillating between Latin, pop and rap, the return to the production of Mirwais, the former musician Taxi Girl, who had made his last great albums ("Music" in 2000 and "American Life" in 2003), the influence of Lisbon, where she lives since 2017, this character of "Madame X" described as "a secret agent who travels around the world, who changes his identity and fights for freedom" make this 14th album, melting pot with unequivocal political messages, an "uppercut". Mistress shot.

The star will be touring from September in the United States in small venues, before passages in Lisbon, London. She will perform next year at the Grand Rex, in the heart of the capital, for a residency event from February 18 to March 1, 2020. "I will have dancers but not as much as usual. I will have by my side many musicians that I have but not as much as usual. I will have with me many musicians whom I met in Lisbon, I will put them forward ... "

"I found my people here and a magical world of incredible musicians, who reinforced my beliefs about music as the universal soul, connected across the world.