Madonna may be pushing 60 years old, but that hasn’t stopped her showing yet again that she really can make a splash in the headlines!
The American singer-songwriter is probably best known for the way she’s managed to reinvent herself over the past 30 years of her career and her latest publicity drive is definitely no exception.
Madonna’s Carpool Karaoke Trailer goes Viral
Madonna is appearing on Wednesday night TV’s The Late Late Show, presented by Gavin and Stacey star James Corden, doing a rather impressive Carpool Karaoke segment, and the teaser has sent tongues wagging for all the right (and wrong!) reasons. At the time of writing, it’s #16 on the list of Trending YouTube videos.
Unsurprisingly, outspoken presenter Piers Morgan has had quite a lot to say about the 58-year-old twerking and gyrating alongside Corden. The Good Morning Britain host jokingly retched into a sick bucket after watching the clip, claiming that the performer of Like a Prayer made him feel “nauseous” by her raunchy performance. He clearly isn’t the biggest fan of the singer, given his further comments on the ITV programme.
The multi-Grammy award-winning singer, who’s the best-selling female artist of all time, also teasingly promised to kiss and tell on her parties with the late music legend Michael Jackson during her New York car journey with Corden.
New Single?
Madonna has racked up more than 70 UK Top 40 singles in her music career, which dates back to the early ’80s when she first made her very strong mark on the international music scene. There’s no doubt she must have a new single on the way, given the fact she’s not particularly publicity shy at the moment. She’ll definitely be hoping it will reach the dizzying heights of her previous ones again. Of course, it will have a host of current hit songs to compete with. Look at the Hottest 100 odds to see what Oddschecker believes will be the next top hit, whether it’s this year’s Christmas number one or the hottest novelty tune around. Will we see Madonna on the list soon?
While it’d be great to see Madonna letting her hair down and enjoying the limelight for all the right reasons, it’s unfortunately not been the case for her lately.
Custody Battle
She’s been in the newspapers, not for her singing, but for the bitter custody battle with her ex-husband, film director Guy Ritchie, which she lost a couple of months ago.
The pair had been fighting rather acrimoniously over where and with whom their 16-year-old son Rocco should live. Rocco left his mother’s world tour back in December 2015 and went to live with Ritchie in London. However, there was a court order for Rocco to return to the US, but he didn’t want to go. Since then, Madonna and Ritchie have been very publicly at loggerheads over where to raise their teenage son – it’s probably not the publicity either one of the famous duo would want to be courting under any normal circumstances!
But now that nine-month custody battle is over and a settlement has been reached, with Rocco living permanently with Ritchie in London. The blonde superstar can presumably go back to what she’s best at and make another hit album.
Madonna on Donald Trump
Or can she? It appears the entertainer has ruffled a few more feathers this week, with her latest rant that she feels women betrayed the US by voting for president-elect Donald Trump in the recent surprising US election results.
During an interview with Billboard, which has named her Woman of the Year 2016, the pop star described feeling “heartbreak” and “betrayal” in the aftermath of the election. She said the number of female voters supporting Trump was “insanely high”, suggesting that it was caused by the fact that “women hate women”.
According to Madonna, women don’t tend to support other women and don’t believe that “one of their kind could lead a nation”. Apathy, too, was to blame for the results, she said, explaining that too many people believed that Trump wouldn’t make it anyway, so they didn’t go out to vote.
Woman of the Year
The singer, who has successfully forged a three decade-long music career with a spattering of films thrown into the mix along the way, also addressed the issue of ageism in her interview.
It’s something that she believes is constructed by society and she most definitely doesn’t care about it. Madonna made her views very clear on the matter. To her, discrimination is something that we live with in society and “sexism, chauvinism and misogyny” all end up contributing to the way older women are viewed.
Billboard obviously believes that the 58-year-old has made her mark on the world of music in a big way. The Woman of the Year award has been in existence since 2007 and its aim is to celebrate the significant achievements made by women in the music industry who not only contribute to the business, but also inspire future generations of women to continue to succeed.
American pop starlet Taylor Swift has actually picked up the award twice, but it still marks a big achievement for Madonna, especially as she’s beaten off competition from younger, more current artists to take the title this year. It’s clear Billboard doesn’t feel her age is something to discriminate against!
Charity Work
As well as a long list of music industry achievements and accolades, it’s Madonna’s charity work that has also put her in the spotlight through the years.
She adopted two children – with then-husband Guy Ritchie – from the African nation of Malawi after spending lots of time there working with non-governmental organisations supporting education in the developing country. In particular, she’s worked to ensure secondary education for girls is encouraged more wholeheartedly.
Madonna strongly believes in making Malawi a “more self-sufficient country”, and has been helping build numerous pieces of infrastructure from centres for orphans to schools to promote and support development.
What does the Future Hold?
How is the future shaping up for this multi-award-winning pop artist? According to recent interviews, as well as continuing to write music and go on tour – her most recent Rebel Heart Tour took a whopping $170m over 82 performances – she’ll be investing more time to filmmaking. She says she has no idea exactly what she wants to do next, but it’s her passion, so keep your eyes peeled for more productions with the singer’s name on them in the coming months and years.
So while Piers Morgan hangs his head in shame over Madonna’s Carpool Karaoke antics, many millions of others will no doubt be backing her (and her impressive car seat twerking!) given her many successful exploits and the fact she’s still achieving all of this at the age of nearly 60. Love her or hate her, you’ve got to admire the fact that she’s forged a career in one of the most competitive industries in the world and has successfully dominated it for more than 30 years!