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Madame X: A Missed Opportunity


eXtremeOccident
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There are discussions on a different Madonna forum (:kiss2:) about the Madame X era and how it could have panned out. A lot of us fans feel like it had a lot more potential than ultimately came to fruition -- What would have been the ideal era to you?

I envision something like this:


First off, what a theoretically awesome concept. Madonna as a constantly reinventing persona? Makes perfect sense at this stage in her career -- Really feels like a culmination of everything she is as an artist, down to all the different musical elements on the album...

Anyways, let's begin with Medellin. I'm sorry, but every Madonna fanatic friend of mine and I were disappointed upon first listen. No, it's certainly not a bad song and definitely a step up as a lead single from the last few eras (arguably the best since Confessions), but let's face it -- Not catchy enough, over half is in a different language, and the structure is all over the place. Furthermore, it sounded like a ripoff of the Latino music vibe trend at the time, even though, in retrospect, it's really held up its own.

What's hard about this album is that nothing on it particularly stands out as a showstopping single to me. It works better as a collective sum than on an individual song basis. However, there are a few songs that are objectively fan favorites and would have worked well as singles:

* I Don't Search I Find
* God Control (no, this was technically not a single)
* Come Alive
* Crave (yes, I know this was a single)
* I Rise

That's it. I just can't picture any of the other songs on a Spotify hits playlist or working with a more universal listening audience.

So, let's start at the beginning of the era --

Picture this:

The month of April, there's a "Madame X is..." media campaign with poster mock-ups featuring all of her different looks throughout the era with closeup, abstract photos of her face in shadows and featuring the eye-patch with the X. She's unidentifiable from the pics.

Multiple billboards in Times Square, big cities (Chicago, LA, Miami, etc.), etc. Internet postings. Newspaper ads in the classifieds.

In parallel to this, there is a detective Twitter account / Instagram User / Facebook Account / etc. (all the same person) who regularly updates that he / she is getting closer to figuring out who this is. The account quickly gains media traction, due to the general public interest in who this mystery person is.

He posts evidence suggesting that:
* She's always on the run
* She's blonde and wounded
* She's known for her disguises

Her management invests in a social media campaign that plants "information" via widely-followed Reddit threads, third-party Twitter accounts, and social media videos. This campaign draws big attention via viral posting and participation by social media influencers. These information leaks imply that the billboards are a result of a hacking attempt (due to her extensive knowledge of hacking tactics), that she's a foreign adversary with controversial opinions, and that she has a manifesto against world leaders that she's about to leak.

And then, the lead detective posts a video the Friday before Eurovision -- He found her last night, and he's revealing her to the world:

Madame X is a Spy.

The video link gives way to a video of I Don't Search I Find with a theme very much like the Madame X Tour, complete with detectives trying to determine who she is, and giving way to a story beginning with Madame X on the run from a hostile government / authoritarian figure. It's the perfect song. Classic Madonna elements, instantly loved by the gays (let's be real, her main demographic nowadays), and meshes well with the European music scene. The video ends with "To be continued...beginning September 17th" and links to tour dates with the same Madame X Tour itinerary. A ticket lottery is necessary in this parallel universe, because there's a huge demand for the tour.

Fast forward to Eurovision. The setlist is Vogue, I Don't Search I Find, and a continuation of the IDSIF theme into a short snippet of God Control. The video drops simultaneously with the end of the performance. It's the Hung Up of the 2010s, and it's met with universal acclaim.

Throughout the summer, she mainly sticks to the promo single release strategy she originally had, albeit with longer stretches between songs. Each promo single comes with a full-fleshed video that further explains the story of Madame X:

* I Rise at the end of June (she is a Freedom Fighter for Gay Rights)
(Promoted at Pride and via a partnership with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC))

* Crave at the end of July (she is in the House of Love)
(As a surprise summer festival performance at any Swae Lee sets)

* Come Alive at the end of August (she is traveling around the world)
(See below)

In the weeks leading up to the Madame X Tour, she does a surprise performance at the end of the VMAs, performing a medley of the entire Madame X album, much like the Beyonce Lemonade performance from 2016. The performance tells the whole story of Madame X. At the conclusion of the performance, the album surprise drops on all streaming platforms, along with an accompanying set of visuals for each of the songs.

Fast forward to the tour, where she has worked with the Celine Dion production designer to produce a world class theatre production. She's taking a different approach for this tour -- It's visual and musician focused, rather than tightly choreographed. Much like Confessions with a lot of choreographed "poses" rather than true dancing. Perfectly suited for her age and body.

She kicks off the tour in New York with the following setlist:

Act 1 - Madame X Is A Prisoner

1. Introducing: Madame X / Joan of Arc (Intro)

2. Dark Ballet

3. Killers Who Are Partying

4. Human Nature

5. What It Feels Like For A Girl

6. Bedtime Story

Act 2 - Madame X Is A Head of State

7. The Coffin (Interlude)

8. American Life

9. Papa Don't Preach (Full)

10. Express Yourself (Full)

11. Future (Piano Mix)

Act 3 - Madame X Is Traveling Around The World

11. Extreme Occident (Interlude)

12. Batuka

13. Like a Virgin (Fado Style)

14. La Isla Bonita (Welcome To My Fado Club Tempo / Instrumental) (Full)

15. Medellin

Act 4 - Madame X Is A Mother

16. Easy Ride Instrumental (Orchestral Interlude Extending Into...)

17. Frozen

18. Rescue Me Interlude / Rescue Me (Full)

19. Come Alive

20. Crave (Tracy Young Mix)

Act 4 - Madame X Is A Spy In The House of Love

21. Madame X Manifesto Extended (Interlude)

22. Vogue

23. Secret

24. Justify My Love

25. I Don't Search I Find

Act 5 - Madame X Is Bringing Light To Dark Places

26. James Baldwin Quote / Dancer Gunshots (Interlude)

27. God Control

28. Like a Prayer (With Elements of I Rise)

The tour concludes with a much-hyped streaming deal with Netflix, where they acquire all Madonna tours, including the unreleased shows. The current special is called Madame X is...an Icon. It drops simultaneously with a greatest hits campaign, complete with the works (Stuart Price remasters are dusted off from the shelved 2020 release, demoes included, never-released single mixes, etc. etc.). The accompanying media campaign is mainly driven by content that doesn't require her participation. She doesn't do the usual interview / performance circuit. Most of her work speaks for itself and is driven by retrospective documentaries, interviews with her producers / musicians / music video directors, and other footage / content from the vaults.

She rests throughout the rest of 2020 and eventually embarks on a summer stadium greatest hits tour in 2021. MDNA production. Stuart Price is the music director. Her butt implants are gone.

Madonna is back, and the world knows it.

Fin.

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2 hours ago, techno101 said:

Not catchy enough, over half is in a different language, and the structure is all over the place. Furthermore, it sounded like a ripoff of the Latino music vibe trend at the time, even though, in retrospect, it's really held up its own.
 

Maybe it's not catchy enough but it being in spanish was the best thing about it. pop music in english has been well on its way out in the global market, and this is a multicultural album so it is perfect for a lead single. I love that the song is weird for a reggeaton inspired track, I love Mirwais and this was different and unexpected. 

2 hours ago, techno101 said:

Fast forward to Eurovision. The setlist is Vogue, I Don't Search I Find, and a continuation of the IDSIF theme into a short snippet of God Control. The video drops simultaneously with the end of the performance. It's the Hung Up of the 2010s, and it's met with universal acclaim.

What she did on Eurovision was a rebellious political statement. I wouldn't trade that for universal acclaim. What she did was perfectly in line with the Madame X mantra. Performing the hits would defeat the whole purpose of what she wanted to do. It stuck out like a sore thumb and it will be memorable. 

2 hours ago, techno101 said:

Throughout the summer, she mainly sticks to the promo single release strategy she originally had, albeit with longer stretches between songs.

The best thing they did this era was do everything in quick succession. We live in very fast moving times and this was ahead of the curve for album promotion.

I would've liked more content for sure though. She uploads everything on Instagram and it's not the best place for quality content, videos are practically unwatchable... I would've liked more official high quality pictures and the behind the scenes of the music videos posted properly on Youtube. Content that can make and keep people interested and fans happy easily and raise her Youtube channel's relevancy and improve her social media numbers across the board, people like content they can share. She has the content they just need to use it a bit better imho, it costs nothing lol.

Of course we always want more but this era's roll out was very exciting anyway. 

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8 minutes ago, heartcore said:

Had to stop reading here - big yikes!

She is, first and foremost, an English speaking artist. What's wrong with what I said? I didn't say anything derogatory about it -- Just implied that it wouldn't resonate with the two biggest markets she targets -- the US and the UK.

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14 minutes ago, wtg1987 said:

arent people getting sick of these endless "what if the tour was different " topics etc and favourite singles of decade ,,,? Jesus guys cant we talk about something more tangible ???

like what? when is she going to release the BAT Bluray? :cryin:

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5 hours ago, techno101 said:

She is, first and foremost, an English speaking artist. What's wrong with what I said? I didn't say anything derogatory about it -- Just implied that it wouldn't resonate with the two biggest markets she targets -- the US and the UK.

She's been always targetting and reaching the latin countries. Every album always features something  with a latin vibe about it. This album has been conceived in Lisbon and with influences from Portugal, Africa and Latin America. The US has a huge market based around latin music. I mean just check the superbowl this year.

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Madame X had a great deal of potential, however, it just wasn't consistent. When the teasers first surfaced on her IG, it looked as if this would be an absolutely epic era with an actual theme, and a storyline that would play out well through the music. However, what was delivered was a hodgepodge mess of unnecessary and distracting autotune, conflicting genres, songs that sound severely 'undercooked', hollow politics, and a story arc that only really existed in some of the photoshoots and her IG posts. She also released the wrong choice of song as it's lead-off single... it just fell flat. She had the potential to deliver a colossal concept piece (the pieces were all there), but she seriously underdelivered. The album was a massive missed opportunity, as was the tour. Maybe it was an issue of 'too many cooks...' when recording the album... maybe had she chosen to work with a single collaborator, then the album's consistency and themes would have less flaws. Though really, someone needs to sit her down and tell her that her voice needs no autotune.... the autotune does nothing but ruin everything. There is enough attuned shit polluting the music charts today already, we don't need an icon like Madonna to join their ranks.

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What you suggested with a "detective" social media account sounds so much like what Tori Amos did with American Doll Posse. 

Tori made different profiles for the doll personas and actually wrote in character on them months before the album release (and after). 

I actually believe Madonna was inspired by Tori for this era -

image.png.16a45d9f23dd8545c9882546ff7d0f9c.png

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No missed opportunity. I love how it all unfolded and what she did.  Yeah, she could have cultivated some of the characters more, and maybe she was planning to do so at the beginning, but as she progressed on, it didn't go the way she originally was thinking. 

The only issue in this era that I found problematic was the tour shenanigans.  Ticket prices and her lateness turned me off.  Though, I accepted the lateness once she changed the times of her start time. The rest was unfortunate logistic problems and her health that really couldn't be helped. 

I love how we got so many videos. The first couple of months actually felt like Christmas with so much coming from her.  Certainly, I miss how it used to be where we had singles, and videos released every few months and the release of singles and videos used to take majority of a year. But that time has passed. We also live in much more fast paced world. Much of the public wants everything, rather wait for it.

I think she did the best she could with this era.  The staggered releases of the mixes took me back though as if we were getting a new single every few months like back in the old days.  I know the club dance charts really aren't that important in what is truly popular these days, but it's nice to see that she's able to chart on something still and make some sort of impact still.  It's only going to get more and more difficult for her to get the public's attention with her new music.  Though, she hasn't anything to prove anymore. We have enough from her that she could retire tomorrow and I would be happy that I experience it the way she intended it to be.  Nothing is perfect of guaranteed, but what I do know is Madonna is still determined to express herself and create fascinating music, 

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Sorry I don't agree with the whole "Best lead single since" because the same was said for Living For Love until it became the norm to think it's terrible, etc when in reality people were excited and happy her lead at the time was a solo song without a feature resembling a sound she popularized. That's the only issue I have when it comes to propping some singles over others and feeling Rebel Heart wasn't a solid effort. Granted, "Medellin" took a while to grow on me but it definitely did it's job. It had Maluma, whom I dislike, to gain traction on social media, streams, notice due to his fame and was her take on what the trend was/is at the time. Thankfully, the album offers a lot of delicacies for the fans to ingest. To go from Dark Ballet, God Control, Extreme Occident, I don't think the era offered missed opportunities other than possibly exploring the concept of Madame X as a character. Medellin was the safest bet for a decent charting single aside from the other features. "God Control" would have just stirred controversy but it was no Hung Up of this era as some fans like to think it would be. We also would have expected a strictly disco album and then wondering why the rest of the album was tonally different.

With Madame X, I would have liked an exploration of the character with each song or video tying into an overall story as it was originally hinted as but it seems the concept was dropped or was never truly going to be explored. Thankfully, we got "The World of Madame X" documentary which is a good companion piece to how the album was conceived, more backstage footage of the shoot, the album production, life in Lisbon and hearing her speak about the music. The promotion may have not been everyone's cup of tea but we did get a MTV video premiere which felt like the old days when videos mattered and were an event, interviews where she did open up (I Heart) and good performances (tour, BBMA's, etc). The album isn't supposed to be as accessible as maybe MDNA or Rebel Heart were but indeed feels more like a creative risk she took and I applaud she's still focusing on the unknown versus resting on her legacy and giving the hits like so many fans seem to clamor for. She also spoiled us with multiple videos and remixes this era that we have to determine what was a single and what wasn't. Getting a track every week until the album's release, videos for songs we never thought we'd get, album tracks given a remix treatment. Sure, the era is no Rebel Heart or Confessions in terms of overload promotion but she did give us a lot of goodies before the album and after the album promotion cooled due to the tour.

The only issues I have with are the tour itself and hoping she heals from her injuries given the nightmare it has been for fans to have their shows cancelled, altered and I would have preferred the tour had been cancelled or rescheduled without her health being compromised or risk of being damaged even further. Late times, the lottery etc have been discussed and debated to death along with the use of vocal effects. While I may not like the tour itself or certain aspects of the album, I feel the album did its job and given the current climate for promotion, releases and exposure that Madonna has adapted the best she could to this new climate. Multiple videos, a great album, a decent tour and trickling the goods to prolong an era even while dealing with issues beyond her control.

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People thought Rebel Heart was patchy and sounded like a collection of hit songs.

Now, people are saying the problem with Madame X is that it was too cohesive?

What?

The only thing I would change about this album is having the version of Future she does on tour instead of the album mix.

 

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The teasers

The amazing collabs

The red herring MAGIC / MAMBO /purple lips / Indian Summer feels

The Madame X album reveal

The Madame X short film

6...........6!!!! videos

Sublime music mastering and production.

Endless remixes of non album singles

A new tour style of tour with the most intimate we've ever seen her.

A great TV performance

Apart from dodgy Eurovision this woman delivered beyond belief compared to the last three eras. 

...but by all means. Tell me how it was a shit era..at 60+ years old to boot?

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I like all your ideas.i agree with @Vogueristathat Die Another Day needs to be included. and I agree with @Fighterthat Eurovision was great with Future as is. Seeing the little snippet of Dark Ballet was AMAZING! I almost like it better just as a segway between two songs. 

The whole "Madame X is..." bit is really good. And starting with IDSIF with the spy theme is genius. It woulda been so cool. 

Although I do disagree about Medellin. I love Medellin a lot. It reminds me of being a small little Madonna fan listening to Who's that Girl. Which, come to think about it... how was THAT song not included on tour??! And seeing Secret on your list... how was THAT not included??!  Two songs that could definitely tie into this "mysterious woman" theme. 

 

1 hour ago, PNutButter said:

What you suggested with a "detective" social media account sounds so much like what Tori Amos did with American Doll Posse. 

Tori made different profiles for the doll personas and actually wrote in character on them months before the album release (and after). 

I actually believe Madonna was inspired by Tori for this era -

image.png.16a45d9f23dd8545c9882546ff7d0f9c.png

This wasn't my favorite album by her.. BUTTTTTT I thought it was really cool how she would change the setlist for various evenings and take on the personae of one of her characters for that specific show. Unfortunately I didn't feel like those personas were very well translated either. but it was cool nonetheless. 

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26 minutes ago, cake said:

M wanted to create this mysterious "Spy" persona and build the era around her. Madame X was loved by the fanbase as expected but the gp didn't connect with her at all. There's great music on the album, but it got totally overlooked. Meanwhile the media is only interested her dating the 25yo dancer:stare: 

And I don't believe she will do so with future albums either.  She's had her day with the general public adoring her, (and many hating her as well).  The next time the general public will truly reconnect with her if she pays more homage to her back catalog.  As much as I hate this idea of a Greatest Hits Tour  being thrown around so loosely as it will bring her back to whatever fans are claiming she lacks, I do believe it will give a chance for the public to enjoy her again. New music will not do that. I did get a little feeling of that happening when she did the Superbowl in 2012. That was a great way to connect with the general public. In the U.S., that's probably the biggest event to reach so many diverse people.  She won't ever do that again probably until she dies unfortunately.  Not to say, she won't have an album in the future that might get some notice, but it will never be the way it used to be. I think that's what a lot of fans want. They want a piece of what it used to be like... possibly when they favored her the most or do something like their favorite work from her. It's just not going to happen that way though.  

I do look forward to see how she continues her career from this point on. And let's be completely honest here, she has limited time being she's older now.  We already see that her body is wearing down. Age is finally catching up to her, but she's had a great long run on stage.  I don't see her wanting to retire anytime soon, but I do think her health will be the true testament or possibly deterrent to how the rest of her career plays out.  She probably won't be as physical on stage and may not do as many shows as she's been doing with the last few tours. Then again, she is strong willed and determined to not let anything defeat her, including her health. Unfortunately, life happens!  But still, I'm intrigued to see where she goes from here. 

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If she goes back to Warners she could serve up a Michael Jackson History type of project.

20 of her biggest hits (or even a GHV3 from American Life onwards ) alongside a new album.

That could be a clever little trick

  1. Hung Up
  2. GMAYL
  3. Medellin
  4. Bitch Im Madonna
  5. Sorry
  6. Die Another Day
  7. God Control
  8. Ghosttown
  9. Miles Away
  10. Jump
  11. Hollywood
  12. Crave
  13. American Life
  14. 4 Minutes
  15. Girl Gone Wild
  16. Get Together
  17. Living For Love
  18. Turd On The Radio
  19. Nothing Fails
  20. Give It 2 Me

Leave Celebration and Revolver to Celebration. Cute Collection.

 

 

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