http://www.madonna.c...dex/setcookie/1
New Pit contest from ICON!



NAME THE PIT & WIN YOUR TICKETS TO IT!

Dear Iconers,

A Madonna concert wouldn't be the same without her Iconers up close and dancing! So Madonna made sure to design a pit area for her fans to be part of the stage.

We all know Iconers do it better, so who better to ask what to name this stage pit? If you are a Legacy member of Icon, here is your chance to officially name that famous pit! And if Madonna picks your idea, Icon will celebrate your success by sending 2 pit tickets your way!

Already have the perfect name for it in mind?

E-mail us with your full member info (including your Icon username, First Name, Last Name and chosen name for the pit at icon@moov-u-mail.com before April 9th at 11:59pm EST, using "Name Madonna's Tour Pit Contest" as your e-mail's subject line. One entry per Legacy member please.

Madonna will review the valid submitted entries and pick 5 of them. Her favourite will win a pair (2) of pit tickets to the show of their choice.

The other 4 finalists will be mailed a copy of the Truth or Dare blu-ray, which is to hit the stores on April 3rd.

Good luck!

The Icon Team
http://www.madonna.com <-- to enter

Universal Music scores its third #1 in a row as Nicki Minaj's projection increases a little today. Here's how it looks headed into the Easter weekend:

*Nicki Minaj (Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic) 215-235k
Adele 21 (XL/Columbia) 155-165k
*Rascal Flatts (Big Machine) 110-120k
Lionel Richie (Mercury Nashville) 100-110k
One Direction (Syco/Columbia) 70-80k
The Hunger Games soundtrack (Universal Republic) 45-50k
*Marvin Sapp (Verity) 45-50k
*Of Monsters & Men (Universal Republic) 45-50k
Madonna (Interscope) 40-45k
Shinedown (Atlantic) 35-40k
Kelly Clarkson (19/RCA) 27-30k
Now 41 (Capitol/EMI) 27-30k
Luke Bryan (Capitol Nashville/EMI) 24-27k
Shake It Up: Live 2 Dance (Hollywood) 24-27k
Gotye (Fairfax/Universal Republic) 24-27k
Adele 19 (XL/Columbia) 22-25k
*Alabama Shakes (ATO) 21-24k
Bruce Springsteen (Columbia) 21-24k
Whitney Houston Greatest Hits (RCA) 21-24k

mdna will have a drop of 87-89% noramllu u would expect 2nd week sales to be almost 3 times this number. It is the worst 2nd week drop in billboard history

[Edited 4/6/12 6:35am]

MADONNA BACKS FAN CALLS FOR TARANTINO VIDEO

Madonna has backed the fan campaign to convince Quentin Tarantino to direct the video for new track Gang Bang, admitting she is "waiting for his call".

‏The pop superstar recently revealed her dream promo for her upcoming single, explaining, "I have the whole thing worked out. All Quentin has to do is show up with a camera. I can't afford a director's fee."

Fans flocked to Facebook to back a campaign to get Tarantino involved with the project, and Madonna is hoping they will convince the moviemaker to find a gap in his schedule for her.

In a Twitter chat with fans last night Madonna told followers, "He's shooting a movie til June. That's no excuse. I'm still waiting for his call."

Linking to the Facebook campaign page, she noted, "This is very cool - just love it."

When one fan asked, "If you could be a fly on the wall, who would you spy on?", Madonna replied: "I would follow Quentin Tarantino around for a day and see if he is really too busy to direct Gang Bang."

And last but not least, she had the artwork creadted by Steven Leven as the profile picture from facebook.com/TarantinoForGangBang on the cake her team surprised her with yesterday, to celebrate MDNA's Number One debut on the Billboard 200.

Based on an article by Contactmusic.

I wondered what they put on the cake. I'm glad she's trying to promote Gang Bang. I was expected her to attempt to promote the best tracks of MDNA.

rlittler81 said:

Paisley4u said:

Hey, I have NO problem with peole who have hits, but there are artists who have hits with the music they make on their own (George Michael or Prince for instance) and there are artists who work with the right producer on the right time: justin Timberlake worked with Pharrel when he was hot and later with Timbaland. I love both albums but it´s clear these are commercial products, good ones but made to sell! Sure, they all wanna sell albums, even Prince and co, but some go further in doing it.I believe Madonna is in control since somewhere in the 80´s and she chooses the "hot" producers!

Madonna has been doing this also...and like I said, I love her hits from the 80´s till now...I just feel she tries more than before, just my opinion.

[Edited 4/5/12 3:53am]

So she should work with 'just good enough' or 'cold' producers. Girl can't win. She aims to make good music that she and other people will enjoy, after all that's the point of music, it's a form of entertainment, right? She has a gift for catchy melodies and hooks, hence her commercial success. The producer just helps her with the sounds, she's the real magic behind the mixing desk.

[Edited 4/5/12 4:03am]

Sure she is the driving engine behind her albums, otherwise those top-producers would release best selling albums with unknown singers each month

But nobody can denie that a good producer can make or break an album!

Jam&Lewis were very important 4 Janet´s succes &sound, some of Jay-Z best were produced by Rick Rubin or Timbaland. A lot off us still think it would be interresting 2 see what producers would do with a Prince album. Because they do make a difference : I read a review that says MDNA would have been even better if Orbit would have produced the whole album!!

Anyway, she succeeded and let´s enjoy the music

CNN article: Why Madonna still leads, others follow

By L.Z. Granderson, CNN Contributor

updated 8:09 AM EDT, Fri April 6, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• LZ Granderson says Madonna topping Billboard chart with new album; she's so not over
• He says it's hard to dismiss singer who, by most measures, still leads the pack at 53
• He says fate of Houston puts success of Madonna, a "bad girl," in perspective
• LZ: Artists from Lady Gaga to Beyonce are walking on ground Madonna broke

Editor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs Watch him on Tuesdays on CNN Newsroom in the 9 am ET hour.

(CNN) -- I thought she was over. Madonna, that is.

I thought she was too old to be referring to herself as a "girl." I thought pop music passed her by. I thought Lady Gaga had killed her.

And then I look at this week's Billboard chart and I see I thought wrong.

Her 12th CD, "MDNA" debuted No. 1 on the album chart and she has two singles on the dance-chart Top 10. She's 53 and the clubs are banging her new stuff, including "Give Me All Your Luvin," which became her 38th top 10 hit on the pop chart. For those of you keeping score, that's more than Elvis, more than The Beatles. I'm not saying she's better, but clearly she's done -- correction -- doing more.

LZ Granderson

This year she won another Golden Globe and her halftime performance at the Super Bowl drew more viewers than the game itself, according to Nielsen. I know the perception is that only gay men care about Madonna, but if that were true, given the 114 million viewers who tuned in to watch her at halftime, maybe "don't ask, don't tell" should have been called "just assume."

The reality is it's hard for pop music to leave behind someone who keeps leading the pack. Madonna had the highest grossing tour ever for a solo artist (2008) and has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. She's an '80s child whose 2005 single "Hung Up" holds the Guinness Book record for topping the charts in 41 countries, while 2012's MDNA was No. 1 on iTunes in 40 countries.

That's not "over," that's now.

When you look at where Madonna's career is today in the same week we learned Whitney Houston drowned in a foot of water, you're reminded that God truly does work in mysterious ways. The two pop icons released debut albums within two years of each other, Madonna in 1983 and Houston in 1985.

Of course, Houston was the former model with a voice for the ages, while Madonna was the thin-voiced tart rolling around on the floor of the MTV music awards in a wedding dress proclaiming that she felt like a virgin. If anyone might have been expected to meet a desperate, tragic end, back then the safe money would have been on Madonna. And yet Houston's gone, Michael Jackson's gone, Prince is semi-retired and everyone else, with the exception of U2, is making their money off nostalgia.

Meanwhile, Madonna has methodically become, arguably, the greatest recording artist of all time. Who would've thunk it?

As for the music, her latest CD is not breaking any new ground, but it does remind everyone who owns the ground Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce and others are walking on. In fact, each time they receive a royalty check, they should be sending Madonna a cut.

While MDNA is about three songs too long for my taste, I will tell you the first five songs make it very difficult not to want to dance, and that the track "Gang Bang" is pure genius. As you could probably figure out from the title, it's not radio friendly, but likely not because of what you may think. And that, in a nutshell, is why Madonna is who she is.

You can tell you're watching a Woody Allen film with the first five minutes of dialogue. You can identify the beautiful prose of Toni Morrison within a couple of pages. But my 15-year-old came home one day and asked who I was listening to. I told him Madonna and my son, who loves techno and hip hop, thought I was joking.

"Seriously... like your Madonna?" he asked.

"Yep," I said.

"Well, she's still old but that song's not."

The song was "Gang Bang" and I'm glad he left the room before she started singing. As I said, it's not radio friendly. But then again, it wouldn't be Madonna if a song like that was.

Follow us on Twitter: @CNNOpinion.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

aardvark15 said:

I wondered what they put on the cake. I'm glad she's trying to promote Gang Bang. I was expected her to attempt to promote the best tracks of MDNA.

MDNA Tops the United World Charts at #1

http://www.mediatraffic.de/

Global Chart Report Madonna and Justin's boyfriend lead Friday, April 6, 2012 by Fred Chuchel, Dresden As expected Madonna's 12th studio album 'Mdna' bows easily at the top spot of the global album chart after first week sales of 740.000 copies. This is much more than her former effort, the best-of album

'Celebration' sold in its best week (323.000 copies, week 41 / 2009), and only slightly less than her last studio-album 'Hard Candy' moved in its best week (758.000 copies, week 21 / 2008). 'Mdna' is Madonna's first effort at the Interscope label. At the same time Rhino released a box with all Madonna's former studio albums, which sold 25.000 units last week. That's enough for no.39 on the tally, and we ought place all these 11 albums at this position, but that's against our chart-rules. So we arranged the sets according to their importance (sales). That's why 'True Blue' is at no.39 and 'Like A Virgin' at no.40, following by 'Ray Of Light' (no.41), 'Like A Prayer' (no.42), 'Music' (no.43), 'Madonna' (no.44), 'Confessions On A Dancefloor' (no.45), 'Bedtime Stories' (no.46), 'Erotica' (no.47), 'Evita' (no.48) and 'Hard Candy' (no.49). Adele's '21' slides at no.3 (down 8% to 228.000 copies), its lowest position and sales frame this year so far. Sandwiched between Madonna and Adele bows the seven-member Japanese boy band Kis-My-Ft2 with their first set 'Kis-My-1st' (254.000 sales). American rock-act Shinedown arrives at no.5 with this week's second highest new-entry, 'Amaryllis' (124.000). Outside the top debuting Porno Graffitti's 'Panorama Porno' at no.12 (57.000), CN Blue's 'Ear Fun' at no.13 (56.000), Silbermond's 'Himmel Auf' at no.19 (44.000), Iron Maiden's 'En Vivo! Live At Estadio Nacional, Santiago' at no.23 (40.000), Mars Volta's 'Noctourniquet' at no.26 (37.000), The Used's 'Vulnerable' at no.27 (35.000), Meshuggah's 'Koloss' at no.32 (28.000) and All American Rejects' 'Kids In The Street' at no.38 (25.000).

I gave this a thorough listening yesterday in the car and it's growing on me very fast. There's more filler than expected ("Beautiful Killer'' is superb), but it's solid and pulsating with her signature energy.

It's a worthwhile disc to own.

Identity said:

SPOILER!!!!!

The MDNA World Tour will open on May 29th in Tel Aviv and, thanks to our sources, Madonnarama has learned some new info on the setlist Madonna is currently rehearsing for the tour!

If you don’t want any spoilers, look away now, if you can't wait for the exclusive, then enjoy…
Keep in mind that Madonna is currently in rehearsals and that the final setlist might include some changes.

The MDNA Tour opens up with religious chants that lead into Girl Gone Wild. Just like the album version it includes the Act of Contrition intro and also has a new instrumental part featuring whip-sounds and even some Material Girl lyrics. Then comes Revolver featuring Lil Wayne, who will appear in the backdrop video, followed by Gang Bang. The fourth title on the setlist is the first real surprise: an edited version of Papa Don't Preach!

Hung up has completely been reworked to fit the theme of the MDNA tour and next up is guitar-heavy I Don’t Give A featuring Nicki Minaj.
Some of you might have noticed similarities between Best Friend and Heartbeat from the Hard Candy album. You’re not the only ones, because the tour version now includes more Heartbeat references and even some lyrics.

Express Yourself has some HUGE surprises that will have everyone talking, but we won’t spoil these for the moment.
After this we go into the Just Blaze remix of Give me all your Luvin’, followed by Turn up the Radio.

Another surprise on the setlist is a completely reinvented version of Open Your Heart, which is followed by a track from the MDNA album,Falling Free. The tour version is very similar to the album version, but has a more prominent violin sound.

The second part of the show also includes a totally reinvented version of the William Orbit remix of Justify my Love, including new lyrics, and a Nobody Knows Me video interlude.

ok so... we can see the way this is written chronologically ... all of part 'one' and a couple pieces of part 2. of all the rumoured setlists this one seems most likely.

so we know...

Part ONE

Show intro: "Act of Contrition" from LAP -or-just the Act of contrition from the actual GGW intro with "Material Girl" included

"Girl Gone Wild"

"Revolver"

"Gang Bang"

"Papa Don't Preach"

"Hung Up"

"I Don't Give A"

"Best Friend" (samples "Hearbeat")

"Express Yourself"

"Gimme All Your Luvin" (remix)

"Turn Up the Radio"

"Open Your Heart"

"Falling Free"

Part TWO

includes:

"Justify My Love" and later a "Nobdoy Knows Me" interlude.

I can so see this being real!!!!