Madonna “Rebel Heart” | “Joan of Arc” (The Ellen Show Performance)

Queen of Pop, the one and only Madonna is back to destroy again the pop world with her awaited come back to the music scene. She dropped the pre-order of her highly-anticipated thirteenth studio album “Rebel Heart” without warning on iTunes at midnight December 20th, making a pseudo-Beyoncé. Why? Because bitch, she’s Madonna!

The album will be released on digital retailers on March 10, 2015 via Boy Toy Inc and Live Nation, but unfortunately it surfaced in full online on 3 February, including the extra tracks planned for the super deluxe edition.

In 2014, the singer started the hype with her “Unapologetic Bitch” campaign on Instagram, and after the #madonnagate leak of 13 “unfinished demos” in December 2014, she and her record label decided to advance the pre-order of the album releasing 6 new songs including final versions of 5 previously-leaked tracks and one new unleaked song called “Ghosttown“.

According Billboard, this is Madonna’s most amibitious project in over a decade. The first single is the track “Living for Love“, written by Madonna with Diplo, MoZella, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad and Nick Rowe, including background vocals by London Gospel Community Choir and Alicia Keys on the piano. The deephouse influenced theme is highly-inspired by Kiesza’s smash “Hideaway”

For this album, Madonna worked with producers like Disclosure or Diplo. Los Angeles-based and Major Lazer frontman talk about the album’s track “Bitch, I’m Madonna“:

I met Madonna because of her kids and then she invited me to a party. We ended up writing seven songs together. I do not usually feel pressured to write hits, but when it’s an artist of this caliber, it’s obvious that I want to push the boundaries a little bit further and surpass myself. One of the songs we wrote is very cool and is called “Bitch, I’m Madonna”

On 1 July 2014, Madonna hinted another new track called “Messiah” on her Instagram account. British tabloid The Sun, confirmed the name of two new tracks “HeartBreakCity” and “Two Steps Behind“, both produced by Swedish deejay Avicii.

Another producers/songwriters involved in the album are Natalia Kills, Toby Gad, Mozella, S1, DJ Dahi, Blood Diamonds and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. In an interview with The Mirror, Tedder described the upcoming work as “her best stuff in over a decade – it’s really strong“. That’s some pretty high praise, considering her back catalog! “The tracks I’ve done with her are really hard to explain“.

Madonna confirmed some new details on her Instagram account on September 23rd. The track “Rebel Heart” was produced by Magnus Lidehäll, and she also confirmed collaboration with Nicki Minaj in the song “Bitch I’m Madonna“, produced by Diplo.

To promote the album, Madonna performed with her new single “Living For Love” at The GRAMMYs and BRITs Awards. The queen of pop revealed three extra tracks as countdown singles on iTunes on 9 February 2015 including “Hold Tight“, “Joan of Arc” and “Iconic“.

Tracklist/Credits

Living For Love | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Uzoechi Emenike, Annie Brewster, Alicia Keys, Maureen McDonald, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad, Nick Rowe
Devil Pray | Madonna Ciccone, Tim Bergling, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, Dacoury Natche, Blood Diamonds
Ghosttown | Madonna Ciccone, Jason Evigan, Sean Douglas, Evan Bogart, Mathieu Jomphe
Unapologetic Bitch | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Ariel Rechtstaid, Maureen McDonald, Toby Gad
Illuminati | Madonna Ciccone, Toby Gad, Maureen McDonald, Larry Griffin Jr., Mike Dean
Bitch I’m Madonna (feat. Nicki Minaj) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Ariel Rechtstaid, Maureen McDonald, Toby Gad, Onika Maraj
Hold Tight | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Maureen McDonald, Larry Griffin Jr., Uzoechi Emenike
Joan of Arc | Madonna Ciccone, Maureen McDonald, Toby Gad, Larry Griffin Jr.
Iconic (feat. Chance The Rapper & Mike Tyson) | Madonna Ciccone, Toby Gad, Maureen McDonald, Larry Griffin Jr., Chancelor Bennett, Mike Tyson, Michael Tucker
HeartBreakCity | Madonna Ciccone, Tim Bergling, Tobias Jimson, Arash Pournouri, Paloma Stoecker
Body Shop | Madonna Ciccone, Larry Griffin Jr., Toby Gad, Maureen McDonald, Michael Tucker
Holy Water | Madonna Ciccone, Natalia Cappuccini, Martin Kierszenbaum, Mike Dean
Inside Out | Madonna Ciccone, Mike Dean, Jason Evigan
Wash All Over Me | Madonna Ciccone, Mike Dean, Tim Bergling, Arash Pournouri, Magnus Lidehäll

Deluxe Edition (19 tracks)

Best Night | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Ariel Rechtstaid, Maureen McDonald, Toby Gad
Veni vedi vici (feat. Nas) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Ariel Rechtstaid, Maureen McDonald, Toby Gad
S.E.X. | Madonna Ciccone, Toby Gad, Maureen McDonald, Larry Griffin Jr., Mike Dean
Messiah | Madonna Ciccone, Tim Bergling, Arash Pournouri, Magnus Lidehäll
Rebel Heart | Madonna Ciccone, Tim Bergling, Arash Pournouri, Magnus Lidehäll

Super Deluxe Box (25 tracks)

Beautiful Scars
Borrowed Time | Madonna Ciccone, Tim Bergling, Arash Pournouri, Magnus Lidehäll
Graffiti Heart
Addicted | Madonna Ciccone, Tim Bergling, Arash Pournouri, Magnus Lidehäll
Living For Love (Paulo & Jackinsky Full Vocal Mix) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Uzoechi Emenike, Annie Brewster, Alicia Keys, Maureen McDonald, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad, Nick Rowe
Living For Love (Funk Generation & H3drush Dub) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Uzoechi Emenike, Annie Brewster, Alicia Keys, Maureen McDonald, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad, Nick Rowe

Media Markt Edition (20 tracks)

Auto-Tune Baby

FNAC Edition (21 tracks)

Living For Love (Thrill Remix) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Uzoechi Emenike, Annie Brewster, Alicia Keys, Maureen McDonald, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad, Nick Rowe
Living For Love (Offer Nissim Dub Mix) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Uzoechi Emenike, Annie Brewster, Alicia Keys, Maureen McDonald, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad, Nick Rowe

Japanese Edition (20 tracks)

Living for Love (Dirty Pop Remix) | Madonna Ciccone, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Uzoechi Emenike, Annie Brewster, Alicia Keys, Maureen McDonald, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad, Nick Rowe

________________

Devil Pray | RAI3 | 8 March 2015

Joan of Arc | The Ellen DeGeneres Show | 18 March 2015