Medellin 5 Year Anniversary

[Ayham 5,491]

1 hour ago, Mattias182 said:

WE NEED A SOLO VERSION

I agree!!! 😍

[WokeUpInMedellin 1,583]

I'm shocked by the call for a solo version! I'm not a Maluma fan but I think he's excellent on this song. I loveeee the smoothness of his flow on this.

[Enrico 15,828]

1 hour ago, DiegoLCL said:

But Madame X is so many things and she's travelling around the world. I don't think the intention was to make a "portuguese-inspired" album.

I mean, you could link a different place/culture to each of these songs: Medellin and Bitch I'm Loca/Colombia, Future/Jamaica, Batuka and Funana/Cape Verde, Come Alive/Morocco, Ciao Bella/Italy, Faz Gostoso/Brazil, Dark Ballet/France, God Control/USA ... 

You're absolutely right, but this is probably one of the flaws of the album... Madame X travelling around the world doesn't really make it cohesive. Tracks 5-10 are the best section.

BTW, Ciao Bella has nothing to do with Italy, except the title. Which shows how incoherent the album is. I'd love to know the lyrics  by Dino D'Santiago, which are Africa related.

 

[Donna 16,586]

19 minutes ago, Enrico said:

You're absolutely right, but this is probably one of the flaws of the album... Madame X travelling around the world doesn't really make it cohesive. Tracks 5-10 are the best section.

BTW, Ciao Bella has nothing to do with Italy, except the title. Which shows how incoherent the album is. I'd love to know the lyrics  by Dino D'Santiago, which are Africa related.

 

I sorta felt she outlined as if it started off as she was influenced by Portuguese culture/those living room ssessions and then it sort of blossomed to more of a world album, specifically latin culture.  At the same time, she developed this Madame X character based on her supposedly being called that early on her career, only to run with that and made the character traveling around the world.  But yes, the music is more specific to Latin cultural for the most part.

[Roland Barthes 5,853]

I think the X in Madame X refers to Portugal being at the center of the world in the past, it was central to triangular trade and when Colombus went to colonize the world and boats went to asia, south & north america....Madonna's concepts are always confused but this may explain why we go from Portugal to south America to Asia and Africa...and the covers are her mothers : her real mother and her art mothers : frida Kahlo and Martha Graham...another concept within the concept. It's like she can't focus anymore since Rebel Heart, it's like she wants to put too much in one project. It's something i've also witnessed on the Celebration tour. She needs a better editor.

[Honey Little 4,009]

4 hours ago, Roland Barthes said:

I think the X in Madame X refers to Portugal being at the center of the world in the past, it was central to triangular trade and when Colombus went to colonize the world and boats went to asia, south & north america....Madonna's concepts are always confused but this may explain why we go from Portugal to south America to Asia and Africa...and the covers are her mothers : her real mother and her art mothers : frida Kahlo and Martha Graham...another concept within the concept. It's like she can't focus anymore since Rebel Heart, it's like she wants to put too much in one project. It's something i've also witnessed on the Celebration tour. She needs a better editor.

Are there Asian songs on Madame X? I know there are several foreign languages on it but I only recognize some Spanish and some Portuguese.

[Honey Little 4,009]

7 hours ago, Mattias182 said:

WE NEED A SOLO VERSION

Once again: No

[Debord 426]

9 hours ago, Roland Barthes said:

I think the X in Madame X refers to Portugal being at the center of the world in the past, it was central to triangular trade and when Colombus went to colonize the world and boats went to asia, south & north america....Madonna's concepts are always confused but this may explain why we go from Portugal to south America to Asia and Africa...and the covers are her mothers : her real mother and her art mothers : frida Kahlo and Martha Graham...another concept within the concept. It's like she can't focus anymore since Rebel Heart, it's like she wants to put too much in one project. It's something i've also witnessed on the Celebration tour. She needs a better editor.

I don't think she actually went into the record thinking "I'm going to do an album based on a character named Madame X who travels the world", it's just a theme persona she came up with akin to Veronica Electronica or Dita. MX certainly reflects where she'd been living but it's not meant to be a "Portugese album". It's just what influenced and inspired her, just as living in Detroit or NYC or London did at different points.

[PlayPause 2,688]

On 4/18/2024 at 7:21 AM, Enrico said:

I like the lyrics of the verse and the crystal quality of the voice in them.

The chorus "ven conmigo" is very weak instead. The postchorus "si te enamoro" is much better but comes in too late.

I wonder if it's always been coinceved as a duet.

What I don't like is that a Portuguese-inspired album ends up confusing so many different Latin cultures. Medellin has nothing to do with Lisbon.

The video has good ideas (cha cha lesson for instance) but then goes off the rails with too many elements (the initial prayer, the horses, that horrible grotesque marriage scene).

 

Thanks for this.

To me it's really her weirdest and weakest first single. I never got what they intended with this song : the Maluma duet could have been something meaningful but it works better on Bitch I'm Loca in comparison, the video that introduced the Madam X visuals and features soooooooooo much and especially the worst wigs she ever wore, the lyrics being absurdly personal and subversive and an acknowledgement of her age but in the end it's just "stupid poetry" as she likes to do sometimes, the holograms wtf was this idea that didn't bring anything to the performance, the storyline behind all this except she seemed to have an infinite budget for the promo.

My guess is Mirwais had to squeeze Maluma in at the last minute so the chorus featured him a lot when it doesn't make sense at all (lyrically, vocally), the chacha gimmick almost disappeared while it was the most original element of the song (it was probably the thread that held the song together in demo stage), and the song structure lost purpose and direction. The track ended up being to convoluted for a first single.

Mirwais intro is very seductive though and stands up immediately as bold take on reggaeton. The instrumental is great. The vocal take isn't, the "ven conmigo / si me enamoras" parts uses the same ugly notes as the "up up up" in Living For Love that she isn't able to sing in a pleasing way anymore.

Sonically messy, symbolically vain. Interesting yet lost plot.

[Debord 426]

Didn't  M explicitly say Medellin came from meeting Maluma and working together, hence the name? I think the live performance really reveals how magnificently it builds, and that the cha-cha-cha rhythm is key to it (rather than being a 'gimmick')

[Honey Little 4,009]

[PlayPause 2,688]

41 minutes ago, Debord said:

Didn't  M explicitly say Medellin came from meeting Maluma and working together, hence the name? I think the live performance really reveals how magnificently it builds, and that the cha-cha-cha rhythm is key to it (rather than being a 'gimmick')

Yes the live performance has obviously a lively feeling that the studio version absolutely lacks.

And for the chacha, I didn't mean gimmick in a negative way. This element/loop could have been more prominent within the song and bring more identity like the Abba sample in Hung Up or the horns in 4 Minutes.

[RebelMe 3,242]

5 years already

 

[ChromaticanMondasia 475]

On 4/19/2024 at 12:36 AM, Roland Barthes said:

I think the X in Madame X refers to Portugal being at the center of the world in the past, it was central to triangular trade and when Colombus went to colonize the world and boats went to asia, south & north america....Madonna's concepts are always confused but this may explain why we go from Portugal to south America to Asia and Africa...and the covers are her mothers : her real mother and her art mothers : frida Kahlo and Martha Graham...another concept within the concept. It's like she can't focus anymore since Rebel Heart, it's like she wants to put too much in one project. It's something i've also witnessed on the Celebration tour. She needs a better editor.

RIGHT 

like when she joined INTERSCOPE I do feel that MDNA should've definitely as a Post Divorce Rave album kept to that kinda  Tarantino pulp feel ....killer cheerleader/secret agent aesthetic for that album era with visuals for each song and effort would've definitely helped 

REBEL HEART I feel for sure should've been the more globe trotting style of theme showcasing how as a world we need to rise up and reLOVEution style 

Then MADAME X the Martha Graham what it means to be mother ....the irony that MDNA is the "mother gene" 

 

So all three albums work as some trilogy in a way and Joan of arc features on all three too 

[Debord 426]

I don't think MDNA or Madame X are particularly confused thematically. With Rebel Heart we know that the original intention was Rebel/Heart and the leaks made them change that, so that's understandable.

[Honey Little 4,009]

Madame X is my favorite of them.

 

[Roland Barthes 5,853]

On 4/19/2024 at 11:27 AM, Debord said:

I don't think she actually went into the record thinking "I'm going to do an album based on a character named Madame X who travels the world", it's just a theme persona she came up with akin to Veronica Electronica or Dita. MX certainly reflects where she'd been living but it's not meant to be a "Portugese album". It's just what influenced and inspired her, just as living in Detroit or NYC or London did at different points.

What i meant is Portugal is not just fado, especially Lisbon (i know cuz my mom is from Lisbon and i go there quite often since birth) there's a huge brazilian community and since they've had all these brazilian telenovelas for decades it kind of influenced the language and culture. There's an ancient chinese and indian communities from the colonial era. Now, musically there's this huge electro house scene as well. Of course the biggest influence is the african diaspora from portuguese colonies, cabo verde being one but there's Mozambique too. Lisbon being a port like New York, it is a mix of all that transited through it. She also referenced northern Africa culture with gnawa on Come Alive since Portugal and Spain was under arab control for 200 years (maures) and its influence is still there in the names of cities or regions (basically everything that starts with Al), azulejos and how houses are painted. So it's cohesive to have all these influences because that's where she was and was experiencing, she's not randomly going from one style to another. When she anounced she was writing songs for the album she posted the picture of ceramics representing a colossus of Rhodes that looked uncanny  like her, being at the crossroads of various continents and said something about a different point of view. So knowing Lisbon, Madame X is indeed a Lisbon album, a photographic moment of where it was in 2019 at least. 

The idea for Madame X came after, suggested by Jeremy Scott when she asked him his advice when she wondered how she was going to justify this styles hoping when she should have not stretched herself that much and just had to explain Lisbon. To me it is more interesting than the concept of being many women in one, influenced by the resurgence of feminism brought by the metoo movement, which is another idea she threw in the mix on top other concepts. Too many concepts. 

And Detroit, like its name suggests, is another port city at the confluence of other countries which use to be a huge commerce exchanging place. So she had that link within her, especially since she was born in Bay City. 

 

On 4/20/2024 at 12:47 PM, PlayPause said:

Thanks for this.

To me it's really her weirdest and weakest first single. I never got what they intended with this song : the Maluma duet could have been something meaningful but it works better on Bitch I'm Loca in comparison, the video that introduced the Madam X visuals and features soooooooooo much and especially the worst wigs she ever wore, the lyrics being absurdly personal and subversive and an acknowledgement of her age but in the end it's just "stupid poetry" as she likes to do sometimes, the holograms wtf was this idea that didn't bring anything to the performance, the storyline behind all this except she seemed to have an infinite budget for the promo.

My guess is Mirwais had to squeeze Maluma in at the last minute so the chorus featured him a lot when it doesn't make sense at all (lyrically, vocally), the chacha gimmick almost disappeared while it was the most original element of the song (it was probably the thread that held the song together in demo stage), and the song structure lost purpose and direction. The track ended up being to convoluted for a first single.

Mirwais intro is very seductive though and stands up immediately as bold take on reggaeton. The instrumental is great. The vocal take isn't, the "ven conmigo / si me enamoras" parts uses the same ugly notes as the "up up up" in Living For Love that she isn't able to sing in a pleasing way anymore.

Sonically messy, symbolically vain. Interesting yet lost plot.

The original version is much slower (Mirwais spoke about it).

[Drownedboy 1,682]

21 minutes ago, Roland Barthes said:

What i meant is Portugal is not just fado, especially Lisbon (i know cuz my mom is from Lisbon and i go there quite often since birth) there's a huge brazilian community and since they've had all these brazilian telenovelas for decades it kind of influenced the language and culture. There's an ancient chinese and indian communities from the colonial era. Now, musically there's this huge electro house scene as well. Of course the biggest influence is the african diaspora from portuguese colonies, cabo verde being one but there's Mozambique too. Lisbon being a port like New York, it is a mix of all that transited through it. She also referenced northern Africa culture with gnawa on Come Alive since Portugal and Spain was under arab control for 200 years (maures) and its influence is still there in the names of cities or regions (basically everything that starts with Al), azulejos and how houses are painted. So it's cohesive to have all these influences because that's where she was and was experiencing, she's not randomly going from one style to another. When she anounced she was writing songs for the album she posted the picture of ceramics representing a colossus of Rhodes that looked uncanny  like her, being at the crossroads of various continents and said something about a different point of view. So knowing Lisbon, Madame X is indeed a Lisbon album, a photographic moment of where it was in 2019 at least. 

The idea for Madame X came after, suggested by Jeremy Scott when she asked him his advice when she wondered how she was going to justify this styles hoping when she should have not stretched herself that much and just had to explain Lisbon. To me it is more interesting than the concept of being many women in one, influenced by the resurgence of feminism brought by the metoo movement, which is another idea she threw in the mix on top other concepts. Too many concepts. 

And Detroit, like its name suggests, is another port city at the confluence of other countries which use to be a huge commerce exchanging place. So she had that link within her, especially since she was born in Bay City. 

 

The original version is much slower (Mirwais spoke about it).

Beautiful post , ill give another try maybe.

[extreme 37]

On 4/19/2024 at 12:59 AM, Honey Little said:

Are there Asian songs on Madame X? I know there are several foreign languages on it but I only recognize some Spanish and some Portuguese.

"Extreme occident" has influences from Indian music. Madonna said that this was another reference to Portugal, as some parts of India were also part of the Portuguese empire.

[Honey Little 4,009]

The song writing camp songs like Crave should be on Rebel Heart. 

[PlayPause 2,688]

On 4/21/2024 at 10:21 PM, Roland Barthes said:

The original version is much slower (Mirwais spoke about it).

Oh OK, now I get it: Medellin would have been a somehow La Isla Bonita meets Bedtime Story kinda thing...

And it makes so much sense. Think I cracked it.

Maluma should have only featured on a verse or something. They tried and remake the Justin effect on top of it for a first single blast. Turned meh.

[Roland Barthes 5,853]

2 hours ago, PlayPause said:

Oh OK, now I get it: Medellin would have been a somehow La Isla Bonita meets Bedtime Story kinda thing...

And it makes so much sense. Think I cracked it.

Maluma should have only featured on a verse or something. They tried and remake the Justin effect on top of it for a first single blast. Turned meh.

He didn't say (on FG radio while promoting his previous book) though if it always was intended as a duet or if the lyrics always were about Medellin.

[Honey Little 4,009]

[LongIslandTea 1,593]

First reaction? Another filler song as lead single after the mega filler RH era. 

Follow by an album full of nothing but fillers 

[Debord 426]

23 minutes ago, LongIslandTea said:

First reaction? Another filler song as lead single after the mega filler RH era. 

Follow by an album full of nothing but fillers 

I know it provokes strong reactions but I've never heard Madame X called 'filler'!