Confessions Daily – Vol. 9
Has it been barely a week? Or an entire month? It is almost impossible to keep up with the flood of emotions, news, visuals and music coming in from what’s clearly much more than the promotion of a new Madonna album.
Let’s use this edition of our Confessions Daily to track down what has happened since last Thursday, that includes five main chapters:
- Madonna X Grindr – Live in Times Square
- Love Sensation – single release
- Tribeca Festival World Premiere
- Confessions II – The Film
- The KIKO Show
On Thursday, 4 June Madonna made history, delivering an electrifying live performance in front of a record-breaking crowd of 50,000, giving the world a taste of three tracks from Confessions II – including never-heard before remixes of I Feel So Free and Bring Your Love – this one was performed as a Madonna-only version – and the first listening of Love Sensation.
Just thirty minutes after announcing the surprise show in the Grindr app, Madonna took over Times Square, stepping onto stage wearing a Dolce & Gabbana corset and ensemble. In addition to the new music, she performed three classics from the original Confessions on a Dance Floor album: Get Together, I Love New York and Hung Up.
Following the livestreaming, the performance made a quick pit stop in the cutting room – click here to watch the new edit of Madonna – Confessions II Live in NYC on YouTube.
On related news, exxxclusive Grindr X Madonna merch – including t-shirts and hats is now available from shop.grindr.com.
Read our full report here. Thanks for coming.
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Love Sensation – single release
Just a buch of minutes before Madonna took the stage at The Square, the third song from Confessions II was released by Warner Records on the streaming platforms worldwide.
Love Sensation is available digitally in two versions:
- Love Sensation (3:48)
- Love Sensation – Radio Edit (3:02)
As of now a text-free version of the 16-track album artwork is used for the song which doesn’t come with its own cover. Love Sensation is also the first song from Confessions II to have its radio edit released to the general public; both the radio edits of I Feel So Free (3.00) and Bring Your Love (2:51) remain promo-only as of now.
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Tribeca Festival World Premiere
The event that was announced with the longest advance notice – something unusual in this era as you’ve all realized by now – the World Premiere of Confessions II – The Film at The Tribeca Festival took place at The Beacon Theater in NYC on Friday night.
A few hours before the premiere, Madonna herself announced that the movie was going to be realesed on YouTube for everyone to see on Monday, June 8 at 11 AM ET, so it wasn’t hard to remain spoiler free, although the conversation with Madonna and the film directors TORSO hosted by Anderson Cooper (who stepped in instead of Jimmy Fallon last minute) that followed the screening was full of insightful information about this one project and the other ones Madonna is looking forward to was something not to miss.
Courtesy of Interview
To add even more excitement, yesterday Interview Magazine published exclusive photos from the premiere by Alex Antonioni & Ricardo Gomes, giving the fans a look at what happened inside an event that required everyone to store their electronic devices – cameras included – in Madame X-style Yondr pouches.
The caption of the opening photo in the article by Ary Russell also lets us know that on the night Madonna was wearing Gucci Primavera silver seamless jersey embroidered tank dress, Generation Gucci ivory shearling coat, sunglasses and all over crystals high heel Gucci pumps. Make-up by Marcelo Gutierrez, hair by Matt Bens.
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Confessions II – The Film
While some of us were hoping to use the last few hours before the general release of Confessions II – The Film to quietly recover from the Times Square and Tribeca buzz, Madonna herself started to boost it up with a clever invention that made this release unique in yet another way: a series of Instagram-ready cards showing part of the movie cast started appearing online, promplty reposted by Madonna in her stories.
Cast members Daniele Sibilli, Prince Lyons, Gwendoline Christie, Debi Mazar, Julia Garner, Feid, Honey Dijon, Arca, João Pedro, Archie Madewke, Richard E. Grand, Shygirl and the one and only Kate Moss – were all photographed by Ricardo Gomes – most likely on location on the same day of the film shooting; Gomes portrayed them in the same costume they wear in the film, serving as de-facto spoilers. All the artists accompanied their own card to an image of the movie poster that Special Offer, inc., all designed in pure Confessions II style.
At 11 AM sharp NY time on Monday CONFESSIONS II – The Film, was finally released on YouTube (click here to watch it again) following the enthusiastic response with multiple ovations during last week’s premiere at the 25th Tribeca Film Festival.
Directed by TORSO, produced by DIVISION and powered by Dolce&Gabbana together with Maverick and Warner Records, the film offers an immersive cinematic experience accompanying Madonna’s forthcoming album Confessions II, through the first six songs, musically directed by the album’s main executive producer, Stuart Price:
- I Feel So Free
- Good for the Soul
- One Step Away
- Bring Your Love with Sabrina Carpenter
- Danceteria
- Read My Lips with Feid
If you missed our full story about the film release, you can read it here. The Madonna-only remix of Bring Your Love by Stuart Price is played at the beginning of the end credits roll, followed by a short and yet unknown unreleased track, extending the film duration of an additional three minutes.
The end credits include the complete list of cast, crew, and production teams in all three filming locations of the movie: London (where the bathroom scene was filmed), Los Angeles (where the filming of the rave sequence with Sabrina Carpenter took place) and New York City. And, of course, the full credits to the six songs.
It is impossible not to reserve a special mention to the amazing work of the choreographers who worked to blend the images to the music in a masterful way, starting with main choreographer and longtime Madonna collaborator Damien Jalet, YBOG for the Good For The Soul choreography, rave choreographer Megan Lawson, rave scene movement director Nicolas Huchard and choreographer assistants Sierra Herrera, Zoe Hollinshead and Matt Cady.
Make sure to dive deep into the list at the end of the film: it is a much due recognition to each and everyone who took part to the project – everbody here is a work of art.
It’s virtually impossible to report about all the reactions, the analysis, the reviews and the comments that literally flooded the Madonnaverse since the minute the film started playing. Here are a few ones that captured our attention:
Madonna’s Confessions II short film is her boldest (and best) work in years — and all she did was tell the truth
Joey Nolfi on Entertainment Weekly breaks down the celebrity-filled Confessions II film and what it means for Madonna’s future as the world’s foremost pop star.
By the final shot, it’s evident that “safety in numbers,” for Madonna, means she has nothing left to prove. Whether she (or those living in her influence) are swallowed up by a crowd and spat out the other end, Madonna simply “is.” She endures as one woman — the woman — running the show. You can dance with her or against her. Either way, her music will play on and on, whether she’s staring down the lens or watching from above.
Full story on ew.com.
Madonna’s Confessions II Short Film Is a Phantasmagoric Disco Dream
Sal Cinquemani on Slant discusses the star-studded “cinematic experience” that made its debut at Tribeca Film Festival last week.
By the time the song titles flash on screen, Confessions II – The Film starts to feel like little more than a highlight reel for the album, which is exactly what music videos were originally conceived to be. Madonna helped revolutionize the format during MTV’s nascent years, wielding it not just a marketing tool but an extension of the music itself. But interest in conventional videos has dwindled in recent years in favor of 30-second TikTok reels—even Taylor Swift’s latest video has only amassed six million views on YouTube in two months—so while each of the segments in Confessions II – The Film would make for a dazzling standalone video, Madonna seems to be asking, why bother?
Full story on slantmagazine.com.
Confessions II Represents Another Peak Madonna Moment
M-Encyclopedian Matthew Rettenmund explains on Boy Culture how this is the day Madonna reasserted herself as the premier music-video artist of all time with the unveiling of her monumental visual film Confessions II.
She’s had plenty of good videos all along the way, but Confessions II is a confident left turn away from anything safe or expected, yet is also a shameless collection of some of her greatest, most flattering looks in ages. Confessions II is a spectacular appetite-whetter for the album. It feels in some ways like the album is already here.
Full story on boyculture.com.
Courtesy of KIKO Milano
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The KIKO Show
And now a partnership that we probably didn’t see coming even if we should have – since all the clues were there: Madonna was announced as the new KIKO Milano Global Ambassador on June 8.
Madonna has been using cosmetics from the #1 makeup brand in Italy since a while, and last month Marcelo Gutierrez – her make up artist who you got to know a little closer in the Grindr Presents: Confessions with… Madonna video last month – was appointed as the company’s first Global Makeup Artistry Creative Director.
Furthermore, at the beginning of May KIKO Milano announced plans to expand its presence in the U.S. through a new retail partnership with Macy’s, with a national rollout starting June 6 at Macy’s Herald Square in NYC.
As we can see clearly now, the project doesn’t come exactly out of the blue.
It does, on the contrary, land on Madonnaplanet at a time when the hype around the Confessions II film is at its best, showing once more that what we are experiencing live is not a traditional campaign for a new record launch, but a mission to let Madonna rule the world once again. Drew Elliott, Chief Brand Officer at KIKO Milano, explained:
Madonna is the blueprint. She’s everything. Working with Madonna let us push KIKO Milano to the next level. It’s designed to demand an audience, just like our muse and just like the products themselves. The KIKO show has just begun, and we have more up our sleeves. The secret is out.
The new campaign – The KIKO Show – is set to an exclusive Stuart Price remix of Bring Your Love and shows the Queen of Pop shifting through different beauty personas.
It is all created by members of Madonna’s current creative team, including photographer Rafael Pavarotti and creative make-up director Marcelo Gutierrez. Hair by Eugene Souleiman, nails by Naomi Yasuda, set design by Mary Howard.
Madonna wears pieces from her own Confessions Tour archive, and vintage YSL by Tom Ford, all styled by Sadie Davies.
KIKO Milano celebrated their new Global Brand Ambassador with a party at Macy’s Herald Square on Monday night.
Honey Dijon was on the decks and The Kiko Girl herself showed up in the dee-jay booth and danced to some of her tracks, including Dijon’s remix of Phisical Attraction!
The campaign celebrates a new era for the brand, one rooted in transformation. Madonna introduces us to the KIKO woman with a simple question: have you met KIKO? From there, we learn who KIKO is, and she’s the ultimate embodiment of ‘Italianity.’ She’s playful. She’s impossible to ignore. She’s Italian. She’s global. As the story unfolds, the dramatic, smoke-filled silhouettes cut to the high-intensity shift to close-ups, celebrating the rich Italian DNA shared between Madonna and KIKO MILANO. Both are bold and uncompromising.
After a teaser clip posted on Monday, The KIKO Show is now live with the first ad and a behind the scenes featurette directed by Nuno Xico.
Have you met KIKO?
