Tonight: The Jonathan Ross Show
The promotion of Rebel Heart started in January with the Living For Love performances at the Grammy Awards and at the Brits, and with the Queen of Pop crossing the pond, a triplet of special tv show appearances was planned for France, Italy and the UK.
As you all know the first interview to be recorded was set to be the last one to air, with Madonna speaking to Jonathan Ross the night after the Brits in a special recording of The Jonathan Ross Show. The episode will finally air tonight, Saturday March 14 at 9.20 GMT on ITV.
You already know what Madonna and Wossy talked about and which songs from Rebel Heart she performed on the show thanks to our live coverage from the London studios courtesy of our friend and MadonnaTribe Team member Neil aka andifeel.
Ahead of tonight’s broadcast, here is some more about the special episode, straight from the ITV press centre:
Madonna speaks openly and frankly about family, fashion and touring her own comedy. She also responds to her BRIT Awards fall and performs two very special performances from her Rebel Heart album
Global icon, Madonna, joined Jonathan Ross for an exclusive sit down interview due to air on Saturday 14th March where she talked openly and frankly about life, love and her family. She also performed two very special live performances from her new album, Rebel Heart, donning a black and red matador ensemble for Living For Love and a black Marc Jacobs dress and boots for new single, Ghosttown.
ON HER BRIT AWARDS FALL:
Joining Jonathan on the sofa, Madonna joked, “You have no idea how happy I am to be sitting on this couch!”
In the special recording of The Jonathan Ross Show – which will air on ITV on 14th March – Madonna began by telling all about her fall during her BRIT Awards performance last month: “I didn’t hurt my butt, I hurt my head. I did. I know how to fall, I’ve fallen off my horse many times and I tucked and I have good core strength… but the thing is, I had a little bit of a whiplash and I smacked the back of my head so there was a man standing over me with a flashlight until about 3am making sure that I was still compos mentis.”
And on some people suggesting that her fall was a stunt because of the lyrics of her song, Living for Love, Madonna shook her head and said: “I’m never writing lyrics like that again! The universe was trying to teach me a lesson I guess.”
The Queen of Pop added: “I’m a creature of habit and I rehearse everything – everything, everything, everything – and I was thrown a wrench at the very beginning of my entrance. I was told to tie my cape and start much further back than we had rehearsed so because I had to walk so much further, everybody was worried that my cape was going to slide off because it’s quite heavy so they tied it really tight around my neck… So here I am marching in like a queen and I got to the top of the stairs and I pulled my silky string and it would not come undone and my two lovely Japanese dancers basically strangled me off the stage. I had a choice, I could either be strangled or fall with the cape and I fell.”
Madonna – who did not want to watch the clip back during her interview – continued: “It was a horrible nightmare because I like to be amazing. Seriously I rehearse and I rehearse and I rehearse so that when I do the show, it’s effortless and I create magic and I did the opposite. I actually created a horror show for everyone,” she joked.
Madonna – who famously tweeted that she was nervous before her BRIT performance – admitted she is always apprehensive before a live show: “I’m always nervous before live TV,” she started, “When you’re singing live you can’t make any mistakes!… I like to make my shows dangerous so then there’s danger, as you could imagine.”
ON HER PERSONAL LIFE AND FAME:
Jonathan – who last sat down to interview the superstar 12 years ago – spoke about the singer writing more about her personal life in her songs now than she used to: “I think I always have a handful of songs on all of my records that are quite personal but I think on this record in particular, probably the majority of them are quite personal.”
On the lyrics to her song, Joan of Arc, which are about feeling hurt by what people say about her, Madonna said: “I like to think of myself as a soldier who is going to get through it and after over 30 years in this business, I have learned to tune out the noise and to focus on my work and to focus on what matters in life but there are times when what people say does get to me and especially when I feel wrongly accused of something or seriously misunderstood. I know it goes with the territory but I’m not going to lie, it does bother me from time to time so I guess that’s what that song is about, that I can’t always brush it off my shoulder and sometimes I am wounded by things that people say.”
On the tough image that she conveys, she revealed: “One has to have a tough image to survive in this business. One has to be tough and you know that when people are overtly tough, that’s their armour to protect themselves and that’s how I’ve survived for so long but obviously there’s the flip side… The flipside is that people think that I am an armadillo and they can say whatever they want and nothing is going to bother me and that’s simply not true.”
On not shying away from the limelight, Madonna continued: “I don’t want to step away from it, I love my job, I’m the luckiest girl in the world to do what I do but it does come with [a downside], especially after being in the public eye for so long and doing it for so long, people really feel like they know me and in some ways they do but of course in many ways they don’t. So I don’t want to be anonymous, I feel really lucky, as I said, to be in the position that I’m in.”
Reflecting on her life and journey since arriving in New York aged 18, Madonna shared what she’d say to her 18 year old self: “Fasten your seatbelt, you’re in for a bumpy ride. Laughing, she continued, “A fun ride, yes, you won’t believe it.”
ON LONDON:
Now based in New York, Madonna said she enjoyed spending time in the UK and city of London: “I still like being here, I love London, I love my house and I really do love it.”
She continued: “Do you know what I really liked about being here? I felt like I could start all over again, and I really enjoyed, I felt like I was in an exotic place even. England is very similar to America in many ways, it’s very different so I learned to love and appreciate things about English culture that I didn’t grow up with. I grew up in the midwest [of America]. My house had aluminum siding on it, I never heard of Georgian architecture before, I’d never been horseback riding before, I didn’t know about fly fishing, I never drank ale, I mean the list goes on and on… I really enjoyed living here and I love adapting to new environments and I did enjoy myself, I learned a lot.”
ON FASHION:
Speaking about fashion, Madonna spoke about her current image: “I’m working the matador theme, that’s the feeling that I’m in right now… First of all I love the fashion, I like the high waisted pants, I like the jackets, they’re very embellished.”
Speaking about her famous flashing at this year’s Grammy Awards, Madonna laughed, “I couldn’t help myself! One is allowed, one cheeky moment per awards show.”
On running her outfits past her children, Madonna admitted that her daughter Lourdes finds some of her choices embarrassing: “If Lola [Lourdes] is around she will definitely give me the once over and say ‘Oh mum, no you are not leaving the house like that!’ She did take a picture of my butt sticking out [at the Grammys] and sent it back to me saying ‘mum, really?!’ and I said it was a wardrobe malfunction.”
On flashing her bottom at the photographers at the awards ceremony last month, she continued: “I swear to God, it was after I left the big pen you have to stand in where all the paparazzi are standing and I turned around and that naughty devilish voice in my head – sometimes I tune into it and sometimes I shut it off completely – said ‘lift up your skirt’ and I did!”
ON MUSIC:
Madonna went on to speak about her music and collaborations and said she has to love the artist’s music in order to work with them: “First of all, I have to love their music and I think that Kanye [West] is definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to music and especially his production. I love the sound, he always has unusual and unique ideas and I wanted to work with him and at first it didn’t seem like it was going to happen and then it did at the last minute and I’m glad that it did.”
On working with the US rapper, Madonna said she did have to work hard to tie him down with his other commitments: “Well he does want to create a fashion empire so I had to compete with the fashion and I had to compete with Kim [Kardashian, his wife] and he has a baby and there’s just a lot of things going on… Honestly this is the world that we live in now… Whilst he was multitasking, I was marching around with my clipboard going ‘let’s finish the song’ and we did in the end.”
On how she discovers music, Madonna said it’s a mix of her children’s influence and finding it herself: “It’s a combination of both, I listen to stuff, I have my mind set on people, I always wanted to work with Diplo. However my children, both Lola [Lourdes] and Rocco have excellent taste in music and I would say they’re definitely ahead of the curve so they turn me on to a lot of music.”
The singer also revealed that despite being world famous hits, her children aren’t really aware of her early songs including Holiday: “They don’t even know [what] that is… Honestly they don’t go past Vogue… I mean it’s just, it’s another century isn’t it? It’ll happen. They’re in the 90s [songs] right now, I can’t ask them to go back another decade!”
Madonna – who has just announced that she will start a tour later this year in Miami in August with UK dates starting in December – said she doesn’t find that performing is getting more difficult as she gets older: “Nothing can stop me and plus, I’m a showgirl that’s it.”
Speaking about young performers today, Madonna said: “I love Miley [Cyrus] I think she’s great and I’m happy to have opened the gates for all those girls, I think it’s good.”
ON HER FUTURE CAREER:
On moving into another type of entertainment, Madonna admitted she’d like to try her hand at comedy: “I’m going to do stand up comedy,” she promised, “You’ll see, I’ve already worked it all out.
I have [practised in front of people] but I made them laugh. Why do you sound so surprised? I’m funny!”
On how her show would look, she said: “I like the idea of me just coming out, sitting on a chair, table, maybe a drink or two, and just talk about my life and then say funny things, tell funny stories… Let’s call it ‘sit down comedy.’”
“I would just give men advice,” she joked before explaining the easiest way to stop one’s other half being mad at them: “Honestly men just don’t realise how easy it is to get the other person in their life to stop being mad at them.”
Jonathan asked, “So you’re in an argument, the other half is angry, what’s the answer?”
“You’re so right,” Madonna said and repeated the phrase over and over as she laughed.
