Includes a lengthy and fantastic looking preview of the upcoming MDNA Tour concert film. Madonna also picked up two additional Billboard awards prior to the televised ceremony: Top Dance Album for MDNA and Top Dance Artist.

[Thanks to YouTube user Gutten1977 for uploading the video!]

The material girl grossed more than $305 million from 88 sold-out shows during her 2012 MDNA tour.

Madonna will be honored at the Billboard Music Awards show this month for her 2012 MDNA tour, the high grossing concert tour of the year, organizers of the awards show said on Wednesday.

The singer will accept the Top Touring Artist award at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 19th for the tour that grossed more than $305 million from 88 sold-out shows and attracted an audience of 2.2 million people.

“A cultural icon, Madonna is one of the most successful and influential entertainers of all time and was recently named Billboard’s Top Money Maker of 2012,” Billboard said in a statement.

The chart-topping singer holds numerous other Billboard awards, including the record for the most top 10 singles (38).

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/

More than two decades after the song topped the charts, a court explores who created what and which producer was sleeping with another.

Thanks to new technology, it has become much easier to figure out the source of samples in songs. The tracing technology holds legal ramifications: Now that copyright owners of sound recordings can point to better evidence of their work being used without license, they stand a better shot of proving an infringement. What isn’t clear is whether a sample so artfully hidden as to be undetectable without advanced technology is used substantially enough to trigger any liability.

One thing technology will never change is relationships in the music production business.

Witness a lawsuit overMadonna’s 1990 international hit, “Vogue,” which according to a lawsuit filed last year, incorporates a horn sound from a decades-old composition called “Love Break.” The litigation has just taken an incredible turn with one of the defendants — “Vogue” producer Robert “Shep” Pettibone — saying he co-authored the plaintiff’s song and further alleging that the plaintiffs worked on the defendants’ song. And, in the middle of this, there’s said to be a romantic relationship that factors into both the creation of and subsequent lawsuit over one of Madonna’s most famous works.

VMG Salsoul is the plaintiff in the case initiated in July 2012 against Madonna, Pettibone, WB Music and others. The company has asserted ownership over “Love Break,” which it says was written by Vincent Montana around 1975. The company says in its lawsuit that the sampling of its song could only become “confirmed” once technology was made available to it in 2011.

In advance of a possible jury trial next month, the defendants are looking to kill the lawsuit with a motion made on Monday for summary judgment. According to the defendants’ court papers, VMG Salsoul is owned by the Verse Music Group whose chief executive is Curt Frasca and whose senior vice president of production is Tony Shimkin.

Pettibone now says that what Montana actually composed in the mid-70′s was a song for Salsoul called “Chicago Bus Stop (Ooh I Love It),” and that in 1982, Salsoul’s owner asked him, Pettibone, to use it as inspiration to create a new composition and sound recording. Pettibone states that “Love Break” was the result of this request, and that even though he’s only credited with “remixing” and “additional production” on “Love Break,” that because there was no written agreement providing that Pettibone made the song as a work-for-hire, that “as a matter of law Pettibone owns (or at least co-owns) the copyright in the ‘Love Break’ recording.”

In short, Pettibone claims that the plaintiff’s song is his own. But wait, it gets even better…

In 1989, Craig Kostich, the head of dance music at Warner Brothers Records, is said to have asked Pettibone to create a song for Madonna. Pettibone worked with others to make “Vogue,” but disputes that the song incorporates a horn stab from “Love Break.” Instead, “Vogue” allegedly created the horn sound using a device called a “proteus emulator.”

“Vogue” also was released as a 12-inch record with three club remixes, which Pettibone says were credited to him, Fresca and Shimkin. Yes, two of the individuals who are said to be running the plaintiff’s company.

“Pettibone, Shimkin and Frasca were more than just co-workers,” says the motion for summary judgment. “Shimkin lived with Pettibone rent free in New York City for almost five years and engaged in a romantic relationship with Pettibone that Pettibone ultimately ended.”

The motion continues, “Frasca and Shimkin worked for Pettibone for many years and the three of them vacationed together in the Caribbean and enjoyed frequent getaways toPettibone’s home in the Poconos; and both Shimkin and Frasca credit Pettibone for helping them establish their music production careers.”

Pettibone says that Frasca hired Shimkin 11 months before filing the lawsuit.

The defendants give several reasons why a judge should throw out the case: One is that VMG Salsoul doesn’t possess a copyright registration on “Love Break.” Another is that song lacks originality and if there’s any copying, it’s de minimis.

But the lawsuit is now being attacked on other grounds including that Pettibone as an alleged co-author of “Love Break” can’t be sued for infringing his own work. Also, the plaintiff is allegedly barred from bringing a lawsuit over “Vogue” because Shimkin and Frasca have “unclean hands.”

According to the motion, “To the extent there is any infringement, they are co-infringers.”

Here is the full motion filed by attorney Paul Duvall, which represents just one side of the story of the creation of Madonna’s “Vogue.” Besides Madonna, Pettibone has worked withGeorge Michaels and The Pet Shop Boys and is credited as being influential in the development of ’80s dance-pop music scene.

We’ve also reached out to Shimkin and Frasca and will update with anything they say. Frasca has worked with Prince, Janet Jackson, Avril Lavigne and others. VMG Salsoul is represented by attorney Robert Besser.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

Material girl, Madonna, made a very “un-materialist” gesture…

The pop star donated a Fernand Leger painting from her private collection that sold for $7.2 million last night, May 7, at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening sale in New York City.

Madonna bought the painting, “Trois Femmes a La Table Rouge” for just over $3 million in 1990 at a Sotheby’s New York sale. The proceeds from last night’s sale, over the estimate high of $7 million, will benefit Madonna’s Ray of Light Foundation according to Sotheby’s.

The foundation “supports girls’ education projects in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa,” according to a Sotheby’s release.

“I am thrilled that my painting sold above and beyond expectations, “ said the singer.

“I’m eternally grateful to the anonymous collector who bought it—as will every girl who will have a chance to go to school because of their generosity.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

Perhaps the three “thank you’s” correlate to the number of women in the painting…

The work, part of a series depicting three women, is perhaps Leger’s most cubist example with strong use of color and geometry.  At 21-inches by 32-inches, the oil on canvas is smaller than many of the artist’s other works.

Other examples from the series hang in the Dallas Museum of Art and theBeyeler Foundation in Basel Switzerland.

http://www.forbes.com

Premium network EPIX will premiere Madonna’s MDNA tour – an EPIX Original Concert Event – on June 22 at 8:00 pm ET. One of the most spectacular and controversial extravaganzas of 2012, Madonna: the MDNA Tour was filmed primarily in Miami as well as other locations. The MDNA Tour was the most successful and highest grossing tour of 2012 and was seen by over 2.2 million Madonna fans during the course of the 88 sold-out shows around the globe. The concert includes performances of several of her biggest hits including “Vogue”, “Like A Prayer” and “Hung Up.” She also performs songs from her MDNA album including “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” “Girl Gone Wild”, “Gang Bang” and “Turn Up the Radio.” The album debuted at No.1 in over 30 countries. Madonna, along with her seven member band, outstanding troupe of 27 dancers (all clothed in 1500 costumes) and state of the art visuals and sound electrified crowds around internationally with what the Material Girl termed “the hardest but most thrilling and challenging show I’ve ever done.”

“My show is a journey… the journey of a soul from darkness to light. It is part cinematic musical theatre – part spectacle and sometimes intimate performance art. It is journey from anger to love and from chaos to order. There are good guys and bad guys to help illustrate this point. Sometimes I play both. It must be watched with an open heart from beginning to end. I am sure if it is viewed this way, you will walk away feeling inspired, invigorated and will want to make the world a better place.” concluded Madonna in describing the show’s intent.

EPIX CEO and President Mark Greenberg commented, “Madonna’s stunning musical performance and show-stopping moves continue to prove that she is truly a timeless entertainer. We launched the EPIX network with Madonna’s previous tour, Sticky and Sweet, premiering the concert the first night that EPIX was on air. We are very excited to have her back on the network.”

The MDNA Show was directed by Danny Tull and Stephane Sennour. Tull has worked with Madonna editing previous shows and her feature film W.E.

madonna.com