Show-business news

Madonna's team expands on Tuesday for a three-story building in central London. From the outside there is nothing exceptional more than a security guy with a penguin. Inside, dozens and dozens of people move like lazy mosquitoes from one place to another bringing and bringing chairs, computers, audiovisual equipment, folded papers, writings, underlined and crossed out. You find them typing their cell phones in any corner, sitting on the stairs or on the way to another room. All the rooms seem to have two doors, and all are also stuffed with things piled up, APA reports citing Tellerreport.

Someone asks to speak lower doing shhhhh . A waiter serves drinks slowly. A journalist is wearing a white long-stemmed rose . Liz Rosenberg, the woman who has been Madonna's publicist since 1983 and who was supposed to have retired, passes her pipe by driving new shipments of journalists through the guts of the house. "Where are you from?". From Spain. "¡Viva España!", He says in Spanish, indicating the room where three media will share the interview. All the people in charge here are women.

In Madame X , the X does not have to do with sex, but with the letter that is associated with the unknown: with the unknown. Paradigm of the liquid identity, Madonna built her empire on the transformation , on the permanent evolution of an album to another. Now his fourteenth album, published this Friday, proposes a change of identity from one song to another, which is how pop is heard today on the internet.

During 56 minutes, 64 in its deluxe version -which includes two other songs-, the listener goes through a jungle of sounds and references with a global conscience in which there are non-Anglo-Saxon urban rhythms like reguetón and kuduro, others traditional like fado, morna and batucada , pianos and guitars, violins in formation and waves of bass, and of course digital productions of disco-funk, dance-pop, electro, R & B and heroic house.

At 60, the new Madonna is, of course, the Madonna of always , a woman who has not invented anything but who has done everything as anyone, and who knows how to calculate the risk margin that can be adopted.

His lyrics, sung in English with phrases in Portuguese and Spanish, will be familiar to his followers. In them he identifies with the martyrs and the marginalized , calls to wake up against injustice, links music with spirituality and whips religious hierarchies and inept politicians without citing any, although we all know that he supported Hillary Clinton in the elections of USA of 2016.

It enters with a suit of hyperbolic neckline whose thousand silver sequins absorb the light of the room and reflect it in all directions like a mirror ball. Even the hairpin that orders her blonde hair is decorated with little glitter.

He wears the patch of his new alter ego, black leather gloves that go up beyond the elbow, booties also of black leather and half of grid. He speaks calmly but is lively in his answers , jokes a little and corrects if he considers it necessary, as befits the president and general manager of a company that produces millions of euros a year.

I will never forget the night Miguel Bosé took me to see flamenco. It was simply amazing, something beautiful and magical.

In the song 'Killers who are patying' he sings several times: "I know what I am and I know what I am not". What is and what is not? I am a human being looking for the truth, looking for answers, a curious person who looks for his place in the world. What I am not is a person who has all the answers, a person who is perfect, a person who always makes the right decisions, a person who knows everything.I am not those thingsIdentify Madame X, her character on the record, with a "freedom fighter", do you think that freedom is especially in danger now? Well, there is personal freedom and communal collective freedom. And yes, both are in danger because we, as a community, as a group, as people, you know, as a society, our freedoms are in danger in all aspects and areas of life. We must constantly value and not take for granted what we have achieved and the freedoms we have. I refer to the fact that I can now say what I think without worrying that the henchmen of a dictator break into this room and drag me to jail for speaking out against a government, for example, or for saying something against a church or a religion. We should not take that freedom of expression for granted because there are people in the world who do not have it. On the other hand, people's freedom is slowly being violated, in a very subtle way it is being taken from us, they are taking it away in our own noses without really knowing what is happening. It is quite scary. And then I think that, on an individual level, as human beings we are slaves of many things. We are slaves of our desires. We are slaves to our addictions, whether the approval of society, tobacco, alcohol, work or exercise, there is always something that controls us, like our ego, for example. We are all slaves of our ego. In that sense, our freedom is always being challenged and we must always remain vigilant and awake not to become slaves. Are you walking the dog or is the dog walking you? On the disk there are numerous references to God and beliefs. Are you at this moment a religious person? I would not say that I am religious, I would say that I am spiritual. For me religion has a connotation of dogma and belonging to a group and an elite, and I do not agree with that. I have a deep faith in God and I have my own rituals, but they are rooted in science, wisdom and history. I study Kabbalah, which is the mystical interpretation of the Old Testament, but I am not a member of any organized religion. Why do not you act on Fridays? Because it is 'sabbat'. What do you think about the resurgence of feminism in recent years? It is strong enough. It needs to be bigger still. You need to be older, you need more voices that support women, that encourage women to be more entrepreneurial, to be more political and talk, to take action, to support other women. Yes, more is needed. There is not enough feminism.

I adore Rosalía, she is really unique in a world full of pop stars that sound all the same

In addition to singing in Portuguese, on the album he sings in Spanish. Remember when you discovered our language? When I was a little girl, my mother used to have exchange students living in our house in Michigan, and one of the first we had was Mexican. He always spoke Spanish at home, it was the first time I heard him and I do not know why he stuck me forever. When my mother died [Madonna was five years old], several women came to take care of us and some were Latinas, so again I listened to the language and I have always felt close to her. I have never spoken fluently, unfortunately. What do you think about Rosalia? It is truly amazing. I admire her because in a world full of pop stars that sound the same and look the same, she is truly unique and true to herself. I like it. There is something special about her. It's unique because, in the first place, it's a fantastic flamenco singer. And I appreciate that. I discovered it more than a year ago and did everything possible to come to Morocco on my birthday [August 16] and act for me. At that time no one knew who I was, I thought that I was the only person who knew her [outside of Spain] and thought: "Oh, I discovered someone that nobody knows". I said to myself: "I'm going to get him to come". But everything became complicated. When she and I started talking it was a simple transaction and all she needed was her guitarist and some palmeros; They were going to share rooms because we were staying in a very small hotel.

Then a manager appeared, and then an agent, and then there were five people involved and they wanted to charge an extraordinary amount of money, and then there were 36 people and I was like "wait, wait, what?". So it did not come. I did not hear from her for a while and suddenly she became a big star and said to me: "Yes, I was right". Remember that famous night listening to flamenco in Spain with Miguel Bosé, in 1998? Oh my God, that was an incredible night. I will never forget her. Simply amazing, something beautiful and magical. I remember that people started coming in, singing, dancing, new instruments arrived, and then another group came in and the music went on and on throughout the night. It was so organic and I felt the same way that when I lived in Lisbon and I went to the houses of the people and musicians came. We were sitting drinking a glass of wine, chatting and, suddenly, we started singing, playing the guitar or wooden percussion, then someone else would appear and play more music, like an endless revolution of music, poetry and singing. So yes, he still plays the guitar. He once said he felt he had had a previous life in Spain, probably during the Inquisition. Yes. I had that feeling, that intuition that I lived during the Spanish Inquisition and saved many lives of Jews. I dreamed about it.

I have a deep faith in God and I study Kabbalah, but I am not a member of any organized religion

What have you learned doing 'Madame X'? I have learned the great amount of talented, incredible and brilliant musicians in Portugal. I learned a lot about Portuguese History. The history of the colonization of Africa by Europe and fado, its meaning that is a music that comes from places like Guinea-Bissau and Angola. I received many History lessons while I lived there and I wrote these songs. The record has quite a few unusual sounds. Are you worried about success? I worry about success, of course. I would like the album to reach many people, but I did not propose to make an album full of pop songs of formula. I'm not interested, the world already has enough of that. In 'Madame X' there are elements that were already present in its beginnings. What would you say to the Madonna who, at the age of 19, went to New York to try her luck? [Laughs] Fasten your belts, it will be a bumpy ride.