Madame X : Madonna by Steven Klein

[MDNA]

Medellín
Celebrities - Madonna & Maluma
Directors - Diana Kunst & Mau Morgó
Stylists - Ib Kamara & Eyob Yohannes for Madonna, Julian Rios for Maluma
Hair - Andy LeCompte
Makeup - Aaron Henrikson

 

[MDNA]

bravado.de

Madame X (Cassette)
Celebrity - Madonna
Photographer - Steven Klein
Creative Director - Imogen Snell
Art Director - Giovanni Bianco
Stylists - Arianne Phillips & Eyob Yohannes
Hair - Andy Lecompte
Makeup - Aaron Henrikson

 

[lelaid]

Same credits as previously listed for stylist, hair, makeup, etc..

Video by Steven Klein & Nuno Xico

 

[MDNA]

Universal Music

 

[MDNA]

Universal Music

Crave
Celebrity - Madonna
Photographer - Ricardo Gomes
Stylist - Eyob Yohannes
Hair - Andy Lecompte
Makeup - Aaron Henrikson

 

[MDNA]

Crave
Celebrities - Madonna & Swae Lee
Director - Nuno Xico
Stylist - Eyob Yohannes for Madonna, Fatima B. for Swae Lee
Hair - Andy Lecompte
Makeup - Aaron Henrikson

 

[MDNA]

Dark Ballet
Celebrities - Mykki Blanco & Madonna
Director - Emmanuel Adjei
Stylist - Eyob Yohannes
Hair - Andy Lecompte
Makeup - Isamaya Ffrench

Mykki Blanco Explains 'Surreal' Experience of Working With Madonna on 'Dark Ballet' Video

It was a relatively regular day for Mykki Blanco: last year, the rapper was walking around an IKEA in Lisbon, Portugal, attempting to find a couch to furnish his new apartment. All of a sudden, his phone buzzed as a text message came in saying, “Hello, is this Mykki?” When the star confirmed and questioned back, asking who was texting him, he received the reply, “Hi, this is M, Madonna.”

It wasn’t a total shock for Blanco — producer extraordinaire Mike Dean had reached out two weeks prior asking if he could give Madonna his contact information. But what started as a simple text conversation turned into an elongated phone call within the confines of the Lisbon IKEA. “I was hiding in a staged kitchenette set in an IKEA with the curtains closed, and we’re talking on the phone for the first time,” he tells Billboard. “So you can imagine how surreal this was for me.”

A whirlwind transpired over the next few months — Blanco met with Madonna in her London home, heard a finished version of her album Madame X (which he calls “a manifestation of Madonna’s imagination”), and was asked to play a role in one of her new music videos.

But Blanco wasn’t offered just any role. Madonna chose him to portray the legendary French heroine Joan of Arc in her video for “Dark Ballet,” believing that the rapper could properly relate to the saint’s struggle. “She tells me, ‘Based on some of the things that you've told me you experienced in this industry and in this society, I feel that some of those things could be a modern day analogy for Joan,’” he says. “‘Because think about if you had existed as you in her time — you would have been burned at the stake as well.’”

In the new video (out today), Blanco, as Joan, is seen being held in a prison, praying for salvation before being brought before a tribunal. Ultimately, Joan is found guilty of her crimes, sentenced to death and burned at the stake. Blanco, stripped down and head shaved, wails in pain while a group of mourning nuns (including Madonna) looks on.

But the video takes a cerebral turn, as Blanco’s Joan appears in a strange dream sequence, once again before her tribunal, performing an erratic dance to Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Reed Flutes” from The Nutcracker Suite. “God is on my side and I'll be fine/ I am not afraid 'cause I have faith in him,” Madonna sings through a vocoder as Blanco thrashes around a circle of judges, newly dressed in saintly garb.

While the video was directed by up-and-coming talent Emmanuel Adjei, Blanco says that Madonna basically served as an uncredited co-director for the project, advising on acting, choreography, cinematography, and even the costuming of the background extras. “She's so invested in every detail of what she does, and when someone's been doing this for 30 years, especially a pop icon like her, I guess you would expect that,” he says. “Intention is very important to her, that's what I took away.”

In one particular exchange, according to Blanco, Madonna even took over a choreography rehearsal, saying that she wanted to try something different for a section of the video. “Within an hour and a half, we had new choreography directly from Madonna,” he says with a laugh. “Madonna's a hell of a dancer.”

The rapper says he understands that the video is surreal and strange, but adds that everything Madonna does has purpose and meaning outside of simple shock value. “We don't just shoot something or move or flail our arms just for the hell of it,” he says with a laugh. “There's always a deeper, inner intention.”

But Blanco feels that Madonna’s current innovations in her music are largely overlooked thanks to her age. Madonna would certainly agree with that statement — in an Instagram post on Thursday (June 6), the singer criticized the New York Times Magazine’s cover story on her, saying that the writer was primarily focused on her age rather than her artistry.

In our interview, Blanco says he has not had an opportunity to read the story, but he agrees with Madonna that many in the industry overlook Madonna’s creativity in favor of her age. “When people are making these comments that are so ageist, it's not only tacky, but it's so disgusting to me,” he says. “It's so misogynist, because you're saying an artistic being shouldn't continue to play and manifest their imagination however they see fit.”

It’s no surprise that Blanco identifies with Madonna’s alleged plights — the star revealed his positive HIV status in 2015 and says he thought it would be the end of his career. But seeing an artist of Madonna’s caliber celebrate him in her work has meant that he no longer has to worry about the status of his career.

“She's not doing me any favors,” he clarifies. “But for her to reach her hand out and lift me up creatively to her level … that does mean something to me. This project has exposed me to an audience that might not have been within my reach.”

billboard.com

 

[Joromana]

I loved Madonna but... I guess I just find myself not caring for her new stuff anymore? This new art direction just seems rehashed.

 

[MDNA]

Madame X (Deluxe)
Celebrity - Madonna
Photographer - Steven Klein
Creative Director - Imogen Snell
Graphic Design - Giovanni Bianco
Set Design - Jack Flanagan
Stylists - Arianne Phillips & Eyob Yohannes
Hair - Andy Lecompte
Makeup - Aaron Henrikson
Manicure - Jenny Longworth


Boy Toy / Madame X Digital Booklet

 

[MDNA]

I don't like the booklet at all, the lazy design is literally a Vogue Italia Polaroid issue rehash, and the only saving grace is the cover. BUT musically, this risk-taking album proves she still has it, God Control really got me shocked.

 

[aracic]

God, she's so stunning! The album is brilliant and so unique it's a shame that many people are going to find it messy or bad simply because they won't be able to understand its qualities.

 

[MDNA]

Boy Toy / Madame X Digital Booklet

 

[MDNA]

God Control
Celebrity - Madonna
Director - Jonas Åkerlund
Costume Design - B. Åkerlund
Stylists - B. Åkerlund & Eyob Yohannes
Hair - Andy LeCompte
Makeup - Aaron Henrikson

 

[MDNA]

Batuka
Celebrities - Madonna & The Batukadeiras Orchestra
Director - Emmanuel Adjei
Stylist - Eyob Yohannes
Hair - Andy Lecompte
Makeup - Isamaya Ffrench

 

[Benn98]

So she trained at Martha Graham!?! Wow!

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Madonna’s NYC days reads like that of the modern day Ulysses who was close with all the mythological figures of his world, Benn. Some of the most visionary giants of the creative world stood closely and intimately by her side: Martha Graham, Pearl Lang, Alvin Ailey, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Karole Armitage, Keith Haring, Prince, David Salle, Herb Ritts, Steve Meisel… (Yes, I’m aware Karole, David and Steven are very much alive, just that they’re also of her era.)

 

[Benn98]

^^^ Madonna’s NYC days reads like that of the modern day Ulysses who was close with all the mythological figures of his world, Benn. Some of the most visionary giants of the creative world stood closely and intimately by her side: Martha Graham, Pearl Lang, Alvin Ailey, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Karole Armitage, Keith Haring, Prince, David Salle, Herb Ritts, Steve Meisel… (Yes, I’m aware Karole, David and Steven are very much alive, just that they’re also of her era.)

Yes, but Martha Graham!?! Not a tutor at the school, THE Martha Graham, who is just about solely responsible for contemporary dance as we know it.

I almost want to say Madonna demeans her own accomplishments by the way she's carrying on with that ridiculous eye patch and attention-seeking outfits. And when I hear her b!tch and moan over some award show passing on her in favour of Mariah (or was it Jennifer Lopez?), a WTF expression automatically forms on my face. You don't NEED their validation. You've trained at Martha Graham and that's enough. None of your peers could ever top that.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Shabba Doo also danced with her. A leader of breakers/lockers is just as equally impressive as Martha, as far as I’m concerned.

Those early-80 shots of her in ripped jeans with all the breakers, are very much as a part of what shapes her strong identity as that gorgeous shoot of her in Martha Graham-styling shot by Lindbergh in 1994. Only she had that authenticity and complexity.

Yes, it absolutely bites at me just a little when she stoops to being so desperate to be down with Drake, Anitta, Rosalia, or when Quavo couldn’t even be bothered to pretend he knows a song of hers when asked. This is the sort of thing I’m embarrassed for her when she’s so desperately seeking to be down with these dumb kidz who prefer Mariah. They’ll never accept nor understand her artistry. (You don’t see Grace Jones desperate to work with the latest fads, ever.)

 

[eugenius]

While at a gay club this past weekend, where the crowd was the 40+ scene, the DJ played that 1-2-cha-cha-cha song, and I've never seen a dancefloor clear out that fast before! That's how lame the song is: gay men that grew up on her don't dance to it, and I can't be bothered to google the name of the song.

Phuel: Madonna, and Prince? I've read all sorts of accounts of her early days, each referencing the names you listed above, but I've never read anything about her & Prince. The only account I've read is that her first manager, maybe Guy, saw Prince, and was not impressed, but then saw Madonna, and signed on w/ her instead. Fake news..maybe? Oh, that, and "Love Song."

 

[Phuel]

^^^ LOL @that tuneless mess clearing the dancefloor.

Her and Prince in 85 was very real apparently, I remember it being referenced in The Andy Warhol Dairies. (I’m likely the only one who adores Love Song— it's very Alphabet Street with her making a decent attempt at matching Cat Glover’s vibe.)