Skip to main content

Madonna Talks MDNA Concert Special, New Album Rumors, Charity Work

(Photo: Filterlessco)
Madonna interviewed by Billboard's Keith Caulfield -- a longtime Madonna fan -- while Billboard editorial director Bill Werde looks on backstage.
Right after winning Top Touring Artist at the Billboard Music Awards last night (May 19), we caught up with Madonna backstage for a quick chat. The pop icon discussed her upcoming MDNA concert special, new album rumors and her charitable initiatives in Africa and beyond.
Madonna was quick to quiet any notion that she had started work on a new studio album. "No, not yet. I just finished editing the DVD of my ("MDNA") concert," adding jokingly, "so I haven't had any free time."
Madonna's editing handiwork will be revealed on June 22, when her MDNA Tour concert special premieres on premium network EPIX. The concert will debut at 8 p.m. EST that night on EPIX's TV network and online at EpixHD.com and on EPIX apps. A home video release of the tour is due out in fall, possibly in September.
The globe-trekking MDNA Tour was 2012's highest-grossing trek and the 10th-biggest tour of all time according to Billboard Boxscore. It played 88 shows on four continents to over 2.2 million attendees. The tour supported her 2012 studio album "MDNA," which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
At the Billboard Music Awards, Madonna also spoke about her continued commitment to girls education and outreach in Malawi and beyond.
"I continue to do my work there," she said, noting that her organization had recently finished building 10 schools, "which I'm very proud of," and that she continues "to do work with various orphanages, hospitals, medical trainees, supporting doctors (and) pediatricians."
She continued, saying how she's "trying to expand" her efforts "beyond Malawi to other parts of the world."
As part of that charitable expansion, she recently sold a Fernand Leger painting for $7.2 million, the proceeds of which will benefit her Ray of Light Foundation that supports girls' education projects in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.
The 1921 painting, titled "Trois Femmes a la Table Rouge," was sold at a Sotheby's auction on May 7, exceeding pre-sale expectations. Madonna had owned the work since 1990, when she bought it at Sotheby's for $3.4 million.
Video: Watch Madonna's Top Touring Artist Award Acceptance Speech at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Making of Madonna’s First Album Cover

Carin Goldberg — the art director behind Madonna’s debut album cover — spoke to  the Cut  about her first experience with the then-unknown pop star. It’s the first question that anybody asks me, even today: What was it like to work with Madonna? People think that maybe something dramatic or interesting or kind of wild might have happened, based on, you know, Madonna’s persona. But I would say that Madonna was probably the easiest job I ever had — the most cooperation from a recording artist I think I ever had. She was a true professional, even at that young age. It was ’83, and at that point I had my own small design firm. Warner Bros. called and asked me to do her cover as a freelance designer. When I got the call, I rolled my eyes, because it was another [musician with a] one-word name. At that time it had become clichĆ© to have a one-word name, because of Cher, so I remember thinking, God, it’s going to be one of those. So I really went into it with very little expec...

September 24 1992, Madonna baring her breasts and blowing kisses, At The Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show.

September 24 1992,   Madonna baring her breasts and blowing kisses, Billy Idol in double leather... we explore the fashion show that raised $700,000 for AIDS research Jean Paul Gaultier  is renowned for many things – his exceptional tailoring, his conical bras, his impassioned approach to sociopolitcal causes in fashion – and, on September 2, 1992, all of these elements united for a show that definitely mattered. In honour of  amFAR  (The American Foundation for AIDS Research), Gaultier held a fashion benefit whose runway included everything from lip-synching to Dr Ruth dressed in rubber to raise money for a cause that devastated (and continues to devastate) communities around the world. "Tonight will be about protection... wear rubber and protect yourself!" – Jean Paul Gaultier "Tonight will be about protection... wear rubber and protect yourself!" explained Gaultier before the show. "I think fashion can make people thin...

On July 10 1985, The Playboy magazine issue of nude Madonna photos was released !!

Playboy  publishes nude photos of  Madonna  taken before she was famous. The singer did a number of nude photo shoots from 1977-1980, starting when she was an 18-year-old student at the University of Michigan looking for some extra cash and trying to form a band. Now a huge star,  Playboy  publishes some of the shots taken in 1979 and 1980 in a revealing spread. A year earlier, the magazine turned down nude photos of Miss America winner  Vanessa Williams , which their rival  Penthouse  published. "We think Vanessa genuinely didn't know what she was doing, didn't know her photos might be published," the article states. "Madonna, on the other hand, posed repeatedly for two noted photographers who routinely publish what they shoot." One of the photographers, Lee Friedlander, says of the shoot: "She seemed very confident, a street-wise girl." Madonna has little to say on the matter, but doesn't shy away. "I'm not ashamed,...