iTunedIN | MADONNA Announces CONFESSIONS II
- JC Alvarez
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
A Pop Music Feature
The Queen of Pop clears the runway and sets a date for the much-anticipated sequel to her 2005 dance opus, with CONFESSIONS II feeling free and fabulous, stunning festival attendees at Coachella, and showing everyone how it’s done!
Last week was an eventful weekend for Madonna fans, as the undisputed Queen of Pop unleashed the first wave of publicity surrounding her much-anticipated fifteenth album release, CONFESSIONS II. For weeks, the artist has been teasing posts across all of her socials of herself in the studio alongside producer Stuart Price. The pair have collaborated many times, but the last time they were in the studio, the result was 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor. It’s hard to imagine that COADF just celebrated its 20th Anniversary. Madonna marked the occasion by re-releasing the album with a non-stop mix of the original tracks, bonus songs, and remixes.
Madonna and Price have enjoyed a mutually beneficial working relationship, and, truthfully, fans were eagerly awaiting a live compilation of the songs performed on her groundbreaking 2024 Celebrations Tour, which harked back to her four decades as a musical act. Stuart recorded and mixed all the songs that were performed in that tour’s setlist. When the pair were seen in the studio, many assumed they were putting the finishing touches on a live album; instead, Stuart Price was engineering productions for Bedtime Stories - The Untold Chapter, which included previously unreleased, unfinished tracks from the 1994-era recordings.
Even after the release of that retrospective compilation, the duo continued their efforts, and before long, confirmed what long-time fans were expecting — new music was on the way! Rather than reinvent the wheel, given the challenges of the times, it appeared that Madonna wanted to return to her rhythmic roots. Perhaps inspired by her return to the label that started it all, the artist recently announced a new recording deal with Warner Brothers, or maybe Madonna is moved by much of the darkness in the world, and wants to reinvigorate a sense of nostalgia. Whatever it is, all roads lead back to the dance floor, or more accurately, a sequel project with COADF2.
We Feel So Free!
It couldn’t have been more perfectly orchestrated. The week of April 13, Madonna began by deleting her social media content — heralding a brand-new beginning. She even replaced her profile pic with a blurred image, and before long, as everyone eagerly awaited an update, the time to exhale had arrived. On Wednesday, April 15, the announcement came that CONFESSIONS II was coming! The official release date for the new album is July 3rd, and it’ll be issued via Warner Records. The “first taste” of any new music would arrive two days later when the first track “I Feel So Free” was unleashed, along with the pre-order for the album in all its available incarnations, vinyl, CD, and cassette.
Madonna promises that COADF2 will be a spiritual experience. Expressing these tenets as the overall manifesto: “We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices.” Although “I Feel So Free” has hit the public space, it’s not the album’s lead single. That is still to come, but the song serves as a bridge from its predecessor to its sequel. “I Feel So Free” is reminiscent of the Giorgio Moroder disco productions that gave us that music revolution, and also inspired the original COADF. It’s trance-like and euphoric, a club banger with a pulse and drive that pays homage in a relevant way, while ushering in a new era.
Announcing the new album, making it available via pre-orders, and issuing its inaugural track were only Madonna’s first acts. Twenty years ago, she appeared in the dance tent at the Coachella Music and Art Festival. It was the first time for a pop artist of her stature to appear at the week-long outdoor, nearly all-day, all-night concert event. This year’s headliner was Sabrina Carpenter. During Carpenter’s final night, she surprised her fans by bringing Madonna onstage. The familiar opening licks of “Vogue” played as the Queen of Pop appeared. The pair performed a new duet, “Bring Your Love,” that will appear on COADF2 and brought down the house with a soulful rendition of “Like a Prayer.”
Truly a show-stopping full circle moment for both performers, and to see Madonna, twenty years after debuting Confessions on a Dance Floor, return to the scene of the crime is markedly inspiring.
And with that, Madonna’s latest era was launched. “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong,” Madonna said. “The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: a ritualistic space where movement replaces language.” Perhaps, with these words, Madonna is giving the world the proper tonic required for the tumult of our times. If we’re guaranteed anything, with her help, we will soon be able to leave it once again on the dance floor.
Here is your #FanzEyeView of the Lyric Video for Madonna’s “I Feel So Free” the first song on Confessions II:
CONFESSIONS II | by MADONNA | is available now on the madonna.com site in various special vinyl edition releases and as a digital download on iTunes.
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