Special statement from Madonna

"Its official! I need to move. I need to sweat. I need to make new music! Music I can dance to. I'm on the look out for the maddest, sickest, most bad ass people to collaborate with. I'm just saying......" - Madonna

Source: madonna.com

Timecapsule: 1 year of "Revolver" single

On March 2009, Madonna's representative Liz Rosenberg confirmed that Madonna was planning to release a greatest hits album by fall 2009. She also added that Madonna had plans to go to the studio and record new material for the album. The next day, Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, asked fans on his Twitter for input regarding the track listing of the greatest hits album. It was later confirmed that she wrote three new tracks for the album, with Paul Oakenfold being confirmed as producer for two of the new songs. Warner Bros. Records reported the title of the greatest hits to be "Celebration" through Madonna's official website. They also reported that the final song on the collection was to be "Revolver", a collaboration with Lil Wayne and whose demo version was already present in the net. It was present alongside the title track, "Celebration". Before the album was released on September 29, 2009, the original version of "Revolver" was released on the internet; the track had previously appeared in May as a demo recording. In December 2009, NME confirmed that "Revolver" will be released as a single. The song was released digitally in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2009 by Warner Bros. Records along with a digital maxi single release worldwide on December 29, 2009, featuring remixes by David Guetta, Paul van Dyk and Tracy Young.

"Revolver" was written by Madonna, Carlos Battey, Steven Battey, Lil Wayne, Justin Franks and Brandon Kitchen, and produced by Madonna and DJ Frank E. The audio mixing was done by Demacio Castellon while the Pro Tools editing was arranged by Ron Taylor from Warner Bros. Records. "Revolver" takes its name from a similar-titled song "Hot Revolver", present on Wayne's seventh studio album "Rebirth". According to Rolling Stone, musically "Revolver" is similar to Britney Spears' song "Radar".

The chorus of the song has Madonna singing the line "My love's a revolver, my sex is a killer, do you wanna die happy?" Wayne has a verse towards the end of the song, and sings the lines with reference to ammunitions, and Auto-Tune is used in his vocals. The song is electropop in its composition style and is set in the time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. As per the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, the song is composed in the key of B♭ minor, with Madonna's voice spanning from the tonal nodes of Ab3 to Eb5. "Revolver" follows in the basic sequence of B♭m–Db–Ab–B♭m–Db–Ab as its chord progression.

The "One Love Club mix" of the song, by David Guetta, received a nomination in the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical category of the 53rd Grammy Awards.

The song charted on the Canadian Hot 100 for one week on #95, but fell off the chart the next week. On the Billboard issue dated January 16, 2010, the song made a re-entry on the chart at a higher position on #47. It made a top-twenty debut on the official chart of Finland, at #19 and moved to #18 after two weeks.

In the United Kingdom, the song was initially positioned at #188, but after a few weeks it jumped up to a #130 on the UK Singles Chart. The One Love remix of "Revolver", featuring David Guetta, reached #26 on the Flanders chart and twenty-five on the Wallonia chart in Belgium. The song debuted at #41 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart as the highest debut of that week and has moved to #4 staying for two weeks at the same position. In Italy, the song debuted at #16 on the singles chart. The song also charted in Ireland, at #41. In Spain the song reached #39 on the chart, for one week only. In the Czech Republic, "Revolver" debuted at #66, and reached a peak on #22 after seven weeks.

No video was made to promote the single.

Timecapsule: 21 years of "Dear Jessie" single

"Dear Jessie" was the fifth overall single from Madonna's 4th studio album "Like a Prayer" and was released on December 10, 1989 by Sire Records. 

It was released only in the UK, some European countries and Australia. The fourth single "Oh Father" was released only for U.S. market in October the same year. "Dear Jessie" was the last of Madonna's 1980s singles.

The song was inspired by co-writer Patrick Leonard's daughter, Jessie. The single sold strongly in the UK during the Christmas period peaking at #5 with sales of 250,769, remaining one of Madonna's best selling singles that side of the Atlantic. The song did not receive a worldwide release like "Oh Father" single, which was re-released in 1995.

The music video was produced by Animation City, an animation company in London, England and directed by Derek Hayes. The video does not feature Madonna, except as an animated fairy. It was included on the 1990 promotional-only video compilation "She's Breathless".

The song peaked at #51 in Australia, #25 in the Netherlands, #21 in Austria, #19 in Germany, #17 in Spain, #16 in Switzerland, #9 in South Africa and on Eurochart Hot 100, #5 in U.K. and #3 in Ireland.

The B side of the record was also a song from "Like a Prayer" album - "Till Death Do Us Part" and "Holday".

Timecapsule: 7 years of "Love Profusion" single

"Love Profusion" was composed and produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï. It was originally released as a single in Australia, Italy, and the United Kingdom on December 8, 2003, but was later released in North America and in France on March 16, 2004. Madonna's record label, Warner Bros., decided to wait with a single release of the song in North America to combine promotion for the single with the release of the Estée Lauder perfume commercial 'Beyond Paradise' which used the song. All North American CD Maxi-singles contained a perfume tester. The song was first heard on the AOL website on April 14, 2003.

It was the fourth and final single from "American Life" album. The single did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, making it the second single from "American Life" to fail to chart within the Top 100 in the US. The song was a dance hit though, peaking at #1 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Club Play chart.

In the UK, the song missed the top 10, making it only the seventh Madonna single release ever - of more than 60 - not to chart in the UK top 10, after "Everybody" (didn't chart, 1982), "Lucky Star" (#14, 1984), "Take a Bow" (#16, 1994), "Oh Father" (#16, 1995), "One More Chance" (#11, 1996) and "Miles Away" (#39, 2008). Part of the reason behind this was that the video didn't premiere until 4 days before the official release, thus minimising the song's pre-release promotion. Madonna became the first artist to have 4 songs at the same time in Romanian Singles Chart: "Hollywood", "Nothing Fails", "Me Against the Music" and "Love Profusion".

Remixes of the song were made by Blow-Up, The Passengerz, Ralphi Rosario, Craig J. and Ray Caroll.

Though "Nothing Fails" was pushed forward as radio single in most territories, it was only "Love Profusion" that got a video, directed by Luc Besson and shot on October 28, 2003 at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. It was shot alongside the Estée Lauder "Beyond Paradise" fragrance television advert to maximise sales of both the fragrance and single, Madonna provided the theme song to the commercial. Besson later directed Madonna in the 2007 animated film "Arthur and the Invisibles". "There are a lot of special effects," Madonna said of the clip. "I talked to things that weren't there - which is what you do when you're doing green-screen or blue-screen stuff. There's going to be a lot of fairies dancing around me. Isn't that exciting?" she added, laughing. "I always have a lot of fairies dancing around me."

The video originally world premiered in Europe on December 4, 2003 and its US premiere was on February 11, 2004 on AOL's First View. The video received mixed reviews: some gave it acclaim for turning on to a new side of Madonna after the gruesome videos for "American Life", "Die Another Day" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl".

Surprisingly, although one of fans favorite songs, "Love Profusion" wasn't played on the "Re-Invention Tour", even though it was Madonna's most recent single. According to rumours she did rehearse the song but cut it out of the final setlist.

Timecapsule: 16 years of "Take a Bow" single

"Take a Bow" was weitten and produced by Madonna and Babyface and it aperas on her 1994 studio album "Bedtime Stories". It has since also appeared on her compilation albums "Something to Remember" (1995), "GHV2" (2001) and "Celebration" (2009). Released as a single on December 6, 1994, it became her longest-running number-one hit in the United States. Madonna performed "Take a Bow" with Babyface at the 1995 American Music Awards. It was her first single to reach number one in the United States after 1992's "This Used to Be My Playground".

"Take a Bow", the second single from the "Bedtime Stories" album, became Madonna's eleventh number-one single in America, remaining at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a seven-week run, the longest of her career thus far. Co-written by Babyface (who also provides backing vocals), the ballad became the singer's first United States number one in almost three years and became the highest-selling single of 1995. Despite its success on the charts, Madonna has never played the song on any tour.

"Take a Bow" was featured in the final episode of the first season of "Friends", "The One Where Rachel Finds Out", when Rachel goes to the airport to tell Ross that she knows he is in love with her. "Take a Bow" was also used for promos for the final season of original "Beverly Hills, 90210".

The song contains oriental pentagonics and exotic strings, giving the impression of Chinese or Japanese nights and their opera. The verse is sustained through a long descending chord sequence, with a few melodic twists added. Madonna sings the song in the sleepy languid mood that characterises the songs from "Bedtime Stories". The chorus expresses the theme of saying goodbye to a lover who had taken her for granted. The title plays upon the line "all the world is a stage and everyone plays their part" which was a line by William Shakespeare in his play "Romeo and Juliet".

"Take a Bow" was a huge success for Madonna on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It topped the chart for seven weeks and is her longest-running number-one single on this chart. "Take a Bow" became Madonna's fifth number-one single on the Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S., following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", "Cherish", and "I'll Remember". The song is also notable as Madonna's last single (to date) to make the top forty of the U.S. R&B chart.

The single received the remix treatment from prominent DJ and record producer Steve Hurley. Madonna won Best Female Video honors at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.

Although the single was a major hit in the United States, garnering gold accreditation, it became one of only a handful of her releases not to reach the UK top ten and ended a ten-year run of thirty-five consecutive top ten hits. Sales, however, were buoyed by the Christmas period and "Take a Bow" still sold 102,739 copies which was more than several of Madonna's other top ten hits. In Canada the song topped the charts, becoming her twelfth number-one single in that country.

The music video (directed by Michael Haussman) was a lavish period-style piece filmed from November 3–8, 1994 in the bullring of Antequera, Spain. The plot sees Madonna as a bullfighter's (played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz) neglected lover, yearning for his presence. Others, however, see it as a statement on classism, as the bullfighter arguably feels threatened and angered by the aristocrat's station, resulting in his physically abusing and then coldly abandoning her. Madonna's 1995 single "You'll See" is considered a follow up to "Take a Bow" as the singer and Emilio Muñoz reprise their roles in the music video. Madonna requested that Haussman give the video a Spanish theme because, at the time, she was lobbying for the role of Eva Perón in the film version of "Evita". She subsequently sent a copy of the video to director Alan Parker as a way of "auditioning" for the role.

The video generated some controversy with animal rights activists who accused the singer of glorifying bullfighting. In Australia, music video program Video Hits ran a ticker along the bottom of the screen when the video was playing, stating that the producers of the program did not endorse the glorification of the sport portrayed in the video, while ABC TV video program rage simply refused to play the video at all during their G-rated Top 50 program.

Timecapsule: 18 years of "Deeper and Deeper" single

"Deeper and Deeper" was written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Anthony Shimkin. It was released as the second single from "Erotica" album  on December 6 (worldwide) and December 8 (U.S.) 1992. 

The song went top ten on both sides of the Atlantic, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, number one in Canada, and #6 on the UK Singles Chart (not to mention topping the Billboard dance charts). In the United Kingdom, a tabloid backlash began which would last for most of 1993 and the song ended a five year run of top five hits, peaking at #6. 

There is a reference to her 1990 number-one hit "Vogue" at the end of the song.

The song has been remixed by Shep Pettibone who both co-wrote and produced the track with David Morales. Some of their remixes feature use of the pitch shift. In Pettibone's Classic 12" version, when Madonna sings "pretend", the "-tend", which echoes at the same pitch in the original, is lowered quite a few octaves, raised to normal for a few seconds, and is raised to an almost child-like pitch for about 3 or 4 seconds before going to the final line. In Morales' club mix, after she sings, "never gonna hide it again", the pitch in "deep" is alternated between the original and a slightly lowered version for nearly 32 seconds. In the dub version ("David's Love Dub"), Madonna's heavily-phased "deeper and deeper" is at normal pitch for the first 15 seconds of the song, then gets lowered an octave until the bass starts a few seconds later; however, you can barely understand her, because the loop's phased quality distorts her words quite a lot.

The song was released on vinyl as a 12" maxi single in the US and Germany but only as a 12" picture disc in the UK. A 7" single was also released in Germany and the UK. The US released a collectible 2 vinyl disc set in a full colour sleeve as a promo containing exclusive remixes.

The line "When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything" is a reference to the song "Do-Re-Mi" from the musical The Sound of Music.

The music video for "Deeper and Deeper" was directed by Bobby Woods (who was also an executive producer at Madonna's company, Boy Toy Inc.). It was an ode to Andy Warhol, shot in near identical style to many of his films.

Madonna's good friend and actress Debi Mazar makes a cameo in the video, as well as Academy-Award winning film director and screenwriter Sofia Coppola, and the actor Udo Kier. There are also brief cameos of Holly Woodlawn and Chi Chi LaRue.

The vinyl record shown playing in the video is with the Maverick Records logo, which had been just founded at that time.

Madonna performed the song on "The Girlie Show World Tour" in 1993 and during the "Re-Invention World Tour" in 2004. For the latter tour, the song was performed as a slow-cut jazz version with trumpets and an up-right bass. It was also rehearsed for her 2006 "Confessions Tour" but it was dropped from the set list.

"Hard Candy Fitness" overcomes bureaucracy

Madonna’s new gym in Mexico City was finally given a permit to operate, a local official said Wednesday, two days after she inaugurated the luxury workout space.

"Hard Candy Fitness" gym had been prevented from opening because it lacked permits for land use and for its parking lot.

Demetrio Sodi, head of the Miguel Hidalgo borough of Mexico City, explained: "It was authorized during the day (Wednesday). People usually check they have all the permits before inaugurating something".

Madonna was in Mexico City on Monday to open the first "Hard Candy Fitness" club, part of a global chain she and her business partners are unveiling around the world.

Sodi said the gym was granted a special permit for the inauguration, in a country renowned for its cumbersome bureaucracy.

The gym is set in a lavish, three-story, 3,000 square meter space in the Mexican capital’s exclusive Lomas Altas neighborhood.

Source: AFP

"Hard Candy Fitness" faces hard reality

According to the Associated Press, Madonna’s fitness club in Mexico City, "Hard Candy Fitness", lacks proper permits and could be forced to close…

City officials said Wednesday that the "Hard Candy Fitness", could be forced to shut its doors as early as Friday because it does not have a land use permit or a security plan.

“If they don’t have a land use permit, they will not be able to operate,” Demetrio Sodi, the chief of the municipality where the gym is located, told Spanish language television station Televisa. Soldi also said that the gym needs to prove that it provides parking.

Apparently, the pop star couldn’t be bothered to get the proper permits in order before hosting a star-studded opening of the club Monday, which included some voguing on a red carpet, a ribbon cutting ceremony and a intimate dance session for VIPs with beats by club music god Paul Oakenfold.

Soldi told the television that "Hard Candy Fitness" had until Friday to get a land use permit and would be allowed to turn in the other necessary documents later. The permit mess – especially in a country notorious for its bureaucratic corruption — could derail Madonna’s plan to use the Mexico City location as a launching pad for an international fitness brand.

Madonna said she planned to open 10 more Hard Candy gyms around the world, and chose Mexico City as the first location “as a place to fine-tune our brand and then expand it to other countries and, in the long term, develop a global brand that includes the United States.”

The 30,000-foot space is plastered with photos and murals of the pop icon from her nearly 30-year career, and her partners in the venture said she was involved in everything from the selection of the exercise machines to the choreography of the fitness classes.

Membership at the gym costs about $159 a month. It costs $827 to join and that includes the first two months.

Source: Associated Press