Madonna Information & Fan Community
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Over And Over was released in 1984, appearing as the fourth track on Madonna’s second album, Like A Virgin. More than 20 years later when snippets of Madonna’s earliest recordings from 1979 appeared online, it was brought to light that Over And Over had a much longer history than fans originally knew. One clip revealed a very early cut of the song with Madonna singing a slightly modified version of the familiar chorus accompanied solely by her guitar. This discovery makes Over And Over the oldest known Madonna composition to ever be released on one of her studio albums.
To hear a snippet of the 1979 recording, click here and forward to the 1:28 minute mark.
Steve Bray received co-writing credit with Madonna for the 1984 recording of Over And Over after he contributed new music to the track which was produced by Nile Rodgers.
Although it was not issued as a worldwide single, Over And Over did receive a considerable amount of exposure. It was released as a single in Italy in 1985 and was performed on The Virgin Tour. In 1987, a remixed version appeared on Madonna’s compilation album You Can Dance.
The highly anticipated Broadway debut of ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’ apparently has a few changes underway.
The West End show features numerous mentions of Kylie Minogue but bosses of the hit musical are replacing her with Madonna’s name in the US version, reports the Mirror.
“Kylie’s not a household name in the States so they needed an equally fabulous gay icon for the show. Madonna was the obvious choice,” a source said.
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An old rejection letter to Madonna from Millennium Records president Jimmy Ienner has been unearthed.
In it, Ienner says that he “enjoyed listening to Madonna” and liked several of her songs, but did “not feel that she is ready yet.”
Ienner closes saying, “I will pass for now, but I will wait for more.”
Madonna released her debut through Sire Records a few years later and she did pretty well for herself.
Madonna’s feature film “W.E.” will not be screening as part of the Festival de Cannes in May, according to IMGlobal, the sales agent that is handling the film.
While the French newspaper Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui said on Thursday that the film would appear at the festival, the Madonna-directed movie, which is currently in post-production, it is not expected to be completed in time for Cannes and is instead aiming for a bow on the fall film circuit.
Madonna is expected to visit Berlin next month to host a private screening of select footage for foreign distributors attending the European Film Market.
W.E. stars Abbie Cornish and Oscar Isaac in parallel stories about the love affair between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII as well as one about a modern romance.
The official selection of films that will appear at Cannes won’t be announced by artistic director Thierry Fremaux until April.
Madonna’s boyfriends are just a “distraction” for her as her emotional needs are met by her children, her brother has claimed.
The singer famously fell out with her sibling Christopher Ciccone after he released a book titled Life with My Sister Madonna in 2008. The tome included many personal insights about the superstar, such as comments about her dedication to the Kabbalah religion and revelations about how she treated people she worked with.
Christopher also commented about his sister’s relationship with her now ex-husband Guy Ritchie when they split, and she has not spoken to him since.
Madonna and film director Guy split in 2008, and she has gone on to have relationships with model Jesus Luz and Brahim Zaibat, both of who are over 20 years younger than her. Christopher insists his 52-year-old sister has no problem with romancing such men, as she gets much of her emotional support from her four kids Lourdes, Rocco, David and Mercy.
“I guess if she continues to date all these much younger guys, it could start to look creepy,” he told RadarOnline.com. “But I think that a lot of Madonna’s emotional needs are met by taking care of her children; these boyfriends must really be like a kind of distraction for her.
“She certainly isn’t following societal values, but then again my sister never has and probably never will either.”
Christopher used to work as Madonna’s personal assistant, as well as her stylist and artistic director. He remains amazed by the impact she has had on the music industry, and believes stars like Lady Gaga could never dream of emulating her success.
“I can see a lot of my sister’s influence in what Lady Gaga is doing today. It’s like ‘Madonna on speed’ actually,” he said. “I think Lady Gaga is a great writer, singer and performance artist, but sometimes she goes too far with her costumes and persona and it must be hard for her fans to identify with that.
“Madonna was a genius at changing her image into something that her fans could identify with and replicate if they wanted.”
Source: York Daily News
Shock for villagers forced to move out to make way for girls’ school as plan is axed
Under a hot sun, boys herd goats in search of green grass. In a nearby plot a couple weed a crop of maize. The ceremony and fanfare that surrounded the visit of Madonna in 2009 now seems very distant.
It was here in the village of Chinkhota in southern Malawi that the pop superstar broke ground for the construction of a prestigious academy for underprivileged girls. Billed as a “gift” to the African country from which she has adopted two children, the $15m (£9.37m) institution was to take in 500 girls and prepare them to be “future women leaders”.
Now local elders have accused Madonna of letting them down, and the Malawi government has been forced to admit it does not know what her plans are, after she announced that the academy had been scrapped.
Madonna stated that she would instead focus on building secondary schools across the country, rather than one school, but officials in Malawi have been left scratching their heads as to what this will entail. “I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls,” she said in a statement this month. “I want to do more and I want to do it better.”
The news has come as a bombshell to villagers who surrendered their ancestral land to make way for the school. The Malawian government said it had not been consulted and will now summon the 52-year-old singer to explain herself.
“We’d like to know why she has changed,” said Peter Mutharika, the education minister. “Yes, we do appreciate that it is her project; she devised it and she knows best how to implement it. But still, as government, we’d be interested to know why there is this change.” Mutharika, tipped to be the next president when his brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, ends his final term in 2014, added: “I honestly don’t know the number of schools she is going to construct, where she will build and for how long. So until we talk to her, we can’t comment much.” He said the government will also review the memorandum of understanding it signed with Madonna to “see what it says before we can embrace her new approach”.
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest nations, with more than half of the population of 12 million living on less than one dollar a day. Some 200 people were removed from Chinkhota village, on the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe, to make way for the Raising Malawi Girls Academy.
Most of the villagers were born here and thought the land belonged to their ancestors. They threatened to block the project until Madonna dipped into her pockets to compensate them with $500,000 (£312,800). The Malawian government, which has often defended Madonna’s charitable work, helped evict the villagers, claiming it was state land meant for development projects.
Chinkhota became a building site – but without a building. Construction of the academy was delayed over a dispute between the Raising Malawi charity and villagers who claimed they were not adequately compensated for land.
The building was due to be completed in December this year. However, the earth-moving machines that had been landscaping the area have disappeared. Villagers feel betrayed and accuse Madonna of breaking her promise. Maxwell Matewere, Malawi’s leading children’s rights activist, said Madonna should not “dump” the project.
Matewere, director of Eye of the Child, led two unsuccessful attempts to prevent Madonna adopting two children – David, five, and four-year-old Mercy – from Malawi after their mothers died.
He said the pop star was trying to “run away from long-term obligations” and she should go ahead with the academy because “you educate a few to educate others. She must borrow a leaf from others like Oprah [Winfrey] who have done it in South Africa.”
Madonna is funding several charities in Malawi, including homes for children with Aids. She has built a multi-purpose community centre 30 miles from Lilongwe which looks after more than 8,000 orphans. “In a country where only 33% of Malawian girls attend secondary school, I realise that the plans we had in place for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls simply would not serve enough children. My original vision is now on a much bigger scale.”
She said she was in the process of implementing several changes and additions to the management of Raising Malawi in the US and Malawi.
Madonna said she had teamed up with Trevor Neilson and his team at Global Philanthropy Group to “shift the strategies so that we can accomplish our goals with more efficiency as we continue to consult our government partners in Malawi”.
She said Raising Malawi was focused on an approach which includes building schools within communities across the country. A pilot school is on the cards that will “address the barriers keeping girls from secondary education”.
Neilson said the new community-based approach by Raising Malawi “will provide the opportunity for many more girls to receive a quality education”.
Madonna’s spokeswoman did not comment today but said she would seek further information from the singer’s management.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/21/madonna-breaks-promise-malawi
Berlin – Madonna is to give a sneak preview of her latest film project during the Berlin Film Festival next month, organizers said Thursday, confirming media reports.
The 52-year-old singer and actress is to show excerpts from her project, entitled W.E., about the relationship between British king Edward VIII and American socialite Wallis Simpson during the 1930s, B.Z. newspaper reported.
The private screening will reportedly take place on the first weekend of the Berlinale festival. The full film is not to be shown until the Cannes film festival in May.
The first film directed by Madonna – a romantic comedy entitled Filth and Wisdom – was screened at the Berlin film festival three years ago.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1613278.php/Madonna-to-give-sneak-preview-of-film-project-at-Berlin-festival
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/prince-and-madonna-end-decades-long-feud-20110120
Fellow music superstars Prince and Madonna appear to have ended their decades-long feud.
The Material Girl, 52, was among the celebrities cheering on Prince’s sold-out Tuesday show at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. (Other A-listers in attendance: Jimmy Fallon, Donald and Melania Trump and an awestruck Leighton Meester, whom Prince serenaded onstage.)
During the show, an attendee reports that Prince, also 52, made a good-natured joke about the high price of Madonna’s concert tickets. “I know I’m expensive!” he joshed, then making a friendly call-out to Madonna by name.
Things were far less friendly between the pair, who briefly dated in 1985 and who dueted on “Love Song,” a track from Madonna’s 1988 Like a Prayer album.
Madonna sniped in an interview that Prince was a “little troll,” and quipped in 1994 that he wouldn’t eat during a dinner date. “He was just sipping tea, very daintily,” Madonna said. “I have this theory about people who don’t eat. They annoy me.”
PHOTOS: Famous celebrity feuds
For his part, Prince slammed Madonna — and her growing brood of children — during a 2007 concert in London, sniping, “I got so many hits y’all can’t handle me. I got more hits than Madonna’s got kids.”