- Nice eye patch.
- [Interviewer] I don't know if anyone can see it.
But I just - Are you--
- [Interviewer] I swear, she gave me the eye patch.
- Well, we're Madame X-ing together.
- [Interviewer] You smell lovely.
- Thank you.
- [Interviewer] Is that some sort of MDNA scent?
- It's called Portrait of a Lady.
- [Interviewer] Really?
- I know.
A girl can dream.
- [Interviewer] Let's talk about tonight.
- Mmmhmm.
- [Interviewer] You just finished performing Medellín?
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] With Maluma
- Yes, Maluma baby.
- [Interviewer] Crazy, fantastic, hi-tech performance.
- Thank you. Yeah.
- [Interviewer] When did you start planning
and prepping for this?
- Um. Many many many months ago
- [Interviewer] Should be like a year ago. (chuckles)
- It wasn't a year ago,
but it was a long time ago.
'Cause the technology had to be explained to me.
And I couldn't figure it out.
I kept saying that wait a minute
let's get this straight.
And there were options.
- [Interviewer] Mmmhmm.
- So, you know there's augmented reality.
There's virtual reality.
There's combination of the two.
But they take a lot of time and preparation,
and filming and
yeah, so.
- [Interviewer] So much.
How long were you in rehearsals specific for this
to get all the dance move down and
- Well, rehearsals for the personas for the
on the green screen,
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- couple of weeks.
- [Interviewer] Mmmhmm.
- And then rehearsals for the actual performance
by myself without Maluma
for couple of weeks.
And then with Maluma,
about a week, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Okay.
And the Medellín is the first sort of taste
of new music
from the Madame X album?
- That is correct.
- [Interviewer] I feel like there's
more taste coming before the main course
am I correct in thinking that?
- There are.
We're gonna give you a little smorgasbord of
- [Interviewer] Series of appetizers (chuckles)
- Delights, some appetizers from around the world, yes.
- [Interviewer] Amazing
- Mmmhmm.
- [Interviewer] There's a Swae Lee track.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] Crave.
- Crave. Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Why did you wanna work with Swae Lee?
- Because I think he's really talented.
- [Interviewer] Of course.
- He is.
I think he's a very good writer.
I think he's a great singer.
And he's so cute.
Kid's important.
- [Interviewer] Kid's important
- Yeah he has good energy.
- [Interviewer] What was special about the track,
like how did the track come to,
was a collaboration two of you writing?
- No, I wrote a song with Starrah.
- [Interviewer] Okay.
- And it was something that I've written
when we first, when I first start
putting the record together.
And then I kind of put it on the back burner
when I started working with all the musicians
I was working with in Lisbon.
- [Interviewer] Mmmhmm.
- And then I went back to the
wait, let me revisit all the first songs I wrote.
And I listen to Crave.
And I thought I need
I need to sing with a man on this song.
'Cause it's the song about desire and
longing.
Longing.
Desire and longing.
I just. I like the tone of his voice.
So,
I ask him to be on it with me.
- [Interviewer] So it started out sort of as a solo song
and then you thought - yeah
- [Interviewer] you need a male voice on here to counterpart
- Yeah yeah.
- [Interviewer] Was it
was it hard for you to kind of narrow down
the number of songs that you had going into the album
or you just kind of going to there
with a concept of like - Oh
- [Interviewer] Here are specific tracks I want.
- No no. I had no idea how many songs
I was gonna end up with.
I just.
The record was born in Lisbon.
And I was,
originally I work with a lot of Portuguese musicians.
And sang several songs in Portuguese.
And then it kind of expanded to
different countries
To Brazil.
To Colombia.
And then intersperse, you know
working with Mirwais, the French producer.
So the song kinda, it's really a global
album.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- So.
- [Interviewer] Do you sort of consider it
like a concept album in a way?
'Cause like with the Madame X personas.
- I don't really know
what that means.
- [Interviewer] Well, in a sense of you know
there's all these different personas, you know
the equestrian and the teacher.
- But they're all.
They're all extensions of me anyways
because I do all those things.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- Believe it or not I do clean my house.
So I consider myself a housekeeper.
- [Interviewer] Really?
- And I ride horses and I love it.
And I can teach you to do the cha-cha if you want.
- [Interviewer] I might fall over.
- So, it's saying that I am all these things.
but also
the other reason that I named the record Madame X
is because it was given a name given to me
when I was 19 and I first moved to New York
by a woman who I looked up to and admired
and she gave me that name
because she said she couldn't recognize
all my different personas
'cause I kept changing the way I looked.
So,
and that was in the beginning of my career
when I didn't think about
who I should be or what I should be
I was experimenting.
- [Interviewer] Mmmhmm.
- And so,
I felt like I had come full circle
and gave the record that name.
'Cause I'm in the same
frame of mind.
Does that make sense?
- [Interviewer] Yeah. Who was the woman
that gave you the name?
- Martha Graham.
- [Interviewer] Good lord.
- The great Martha Graham.
- [Interviewer] You went to
- Do you know I
I danced in her school
- [Interviewer] Yeah. Yeah.
- Yeah. She was alive when I studied there.
And I danced in Pearl Lang
who was one of her proteges' dance companies.
- [Interviewer] You've eventually met Martha Graham
in person at some point later. - Yes, I did.
And we met
she was mad at me
then she gave me the name Madame X.
And then years later when I was
successful,
she asked me to give her an award.
And
we traded stories about those days
when I was a bad girl.
- [Interviewer] You're working with Mirwais on the album.
- Yeah
- [Interviewer] He produced Medellín.
- Many of the tracks, yes.
- [Interviewer] He produced other tracks as well.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] What was it like going back
and revisiting, working with him
after kind of a little bit.
- It was nice. It was refreshing
'cause he's a real
deep thinking
philosophical existentialist
intellectual.
And he likes to argue.
And debate.
And pontificate.
- [Interviewer] Do you like having him in studio
when you're writing.
- I do actually.
- [Interviewer] Okay.
- Because it provokes thought
which is rare these days.
And
And then it gives you idea for songs
and then you dig deep and you start
to learn about characters
like I have a song on the called Dark Ballet.
- [Interviewer] Mmmhmm.
- Which believe it or not,
is about, is inspired by Joan of Arc.
So, when we were writing the song,
we start doing all these research on Joan of Arc
that I never knew about.
And I mean I learned things about her
that I didn't know about
beyond the broad strokes that everybody knows.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- So things like that come up.
You know, then we start selling setting
filmmakers or
or philosophers
or you know quantum physics or
you name it, so.
- [Interviewer] This totally translates to pop music.
Right? - It
It does eventually.
- [Interviewer] It does? Eventually.
- Yeah, so somewhere in that pop music
is deep metaphysical thinking.
- [Interviewer] I'm assuming there's gonna be a tour
maybe at some point?
You're probably not allowed to say anything right now.
- It's been spoken about
- [Interviewer] Okay.
- In such a deep way
- [Interviewer] Okay.
- That I'm actually having a production meetings.
Yes.
- [Interviewer] So it's probably happening.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] May I make a request?
- For a song you want me to perform?
- [Interviewer] Just to consider
- Just a teeny one the tiny one.
- [Interviewer] A tiny one.
- What do you. What do you missing from the repertoire?
- [Interviewer] Okay. So you've had 38
top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
That is a record.
- I'd like to have more.
- [Interviewer] We can work on that.
- You don't like me anymore.
- [Interviewer] Lady, come on.
- Man!
- [Interviewer] You're my queen.
- Well, prove it.
- [Interviewer] I can't just make you do something
on the charts.
- You can do whatever you want.
- [Interviewer] Okay. Let's get back
- You're wearing a patch.
- [Interviewer] True. The patch can do everything.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] Back to my question though.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] 38 top ten hits but you haven't performed
3 of them
live yet.
- What?
- [Interviewer] I'll Remember,
This Used to Be My Playground,
and Rescue Me.
Just consider!
Those were top 1 hits?
Top 10 hits.
I’ll Remember was No. 2,
Rescue Me was No. 9, and uh,
what was the other one?
This Used to Be My Playground was No. 1!
Because they’re very laid back, dreamy songs
and they don't usually go in my like
Rahh Rahh Rahh ahh, you know.
- [Interviewer] True. Interlude. I don't know.
Rescue Me is kinda punching.
- Rescue Me is kinda dope. I'll actually. I'll consider that one.
- [Interviewer] Thank you Madonna.
- Okay. Your love has given me hope.
Okay, to quote the song.
- [Interviewer] The song? To quote yourself?
- Yes. Yes.
- [Interviewer] Well Madonna, this has been lovely.
- Mmmhmm.
- [Interviewer] And I wish you nothing but the best with the new album.
And look forward to seeing you on whatever that
tour is that may or may not be announced soon.
- Whatever dressing room I might be performing in.
- [Interviewer] Sure. Interesting.
- You'll come anywhere right?
- [Interviewer] Of course I will.
- Small cabaret.
- [Interviewer] Of course.
- A stadium.
- [Interviewer] There's Starbucks down the street, I'm there.
- Okay. See you there.
- [Interviewer] Thank you Madonna.
- Thank you.