14 DAY TRIAL // Madonna's new album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," is to be released on November 15 from Warner Bros. (one day earlier internationally). A special edition, which includes a picture book and bonus track, is due in December.
"It was like, honey, I want to dance," she told Billboard during an interview in her New York hotel suite. "I wanted to lift myself and others up with this record.(?) I wanted a record with no ballads.(?) I wanted there to be no breaks, with one song segueing into the next -- just like in a disco", she added.
The 12-track album, inspired by the many remixes her songs have received over the years, show the entire world that Madonna is in the mood to dance and wants everyone's attention as she has some new things to say.
Madonna brought her music back to the place where she first made her mark in the early '80s: the clubs.
But now she is considered the queen of pop, while then she was seen as a sex bomb debutante. The Catholic girl who dressed in a wedding dress and sang "Like a Virgin" is now a Kabbalah believer, calls herself Esther and comes on stage wearing a gym suit and high heels, singing "Hung Up"?
Madonna was a role model for many of her fans, who dressed like her, talked like her, but most of all found the courage to speak their mind, just like she did.
Now Madonna is married, has two kids, lives in London and defends a religious belief, not an attitude. Some of her old fans are proud of the star she has become, but disappointed of the religious path she has followed. On the other hand, her young fans look up to her. They praise Madonna's lively acts, her charity works and her Kabbalah turn, which they find interesting and fun.
Madonna has even received critics for influencing her husband Guy Ritchie to put some Kaballah aspects into his latest movie, Revolver, which was badly received by a part of the media.
She did not escape controversy with "Confessions on the Dance Floor" either. Madonna will promote a song which is about letting go of and tackling your fears, titled Isaac that has drawn the ire of some rabbis and religious scholars, who claimed the song is about 16th-century Jewish mystic/Kabbalah scholar Yitzhak Luria.
"You do appreciate the absurdity of a group of rabbis in Israel claiming that I'm being blasphemous about someone when they haven't even heard the record, right?", Madonna said.
The singer "reinvented" herself. The Material Girl now turned Esther and has mounted a strong defense of her devotion to the Kabbalah faith, saying: "It would be less controversial if I joined the Nazi party." She said her religion is not a cult and asked people to be more tolerant.
The 47-yeart-old star claims: "The world's in the cult of celebrity. That's the irony of it." Her statements came as it emerged that the guru who first drew her to Kabbalah had been placed under house arrest by a Tel Aviv court on suspicion of extorting more than ?28,000 from a terminally ill cancer patient. Shaul Youdkevitch and a number of rabbis running the Israel Kabbalah Centre were recently accused of persuading Leah Zonis to make a "significant and painful donation" if she wanted to recover, and sold her bottles of "holy water" under the Kabbalah label at inflated prices. The woman died, and her husband, Boris, filed for a lawsuit.
The catholic-born Madonna insists her pop career is still central to her character, but she includes her Kabbalah beliefs in everything she does, from raising her kids, to her music.
She was even suspected of putting her name on three of the children books she released, which are believed to have been written by a Kabbalah Centre member.
The religion, based on a branch of Judaism dating back 4,000 years and denounced by some rabbis as crackpot mysticism, claims it is the source of all spiritual wisdom and will help its followers translate the secret laws of the universe and experience fulfillment.
Madonna is convinced that Kabbalah is good for the world and has also persuaded some music stars, who look up to her, to embrace the belief as well. Britney Spears, one of the most influential young singers in the US, is now a mother. She was recently asked by some Kabbalah Centre members to write a children book, and she might follow in Madonna's footsteps in this direction?
Madonna wants to sing and dance and prove the entire world she deserves her pop queen title. "I'm not thinking of quitting", she said. "I ain't going nowhere", the singer added.
She is proud of having worked with director Jonas Akerlund on her new documentary, "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret", which chronicles the 2004 Re-Invention world tour and debuted on MTV, with subsequent airings on VH1 and Logo. A DVD release is expected next year. In addition, the diva plans a summer tour, to promote her latest album and is also set to direct a film. She confessed she found her "Ray of Light" in Kabbalh in 1998. The singer is said to have paid ₤3.5million for Kabbalah's London headquarters and is believed to have donated ₤16million in recent years.
Although some investigators think that the Kabbalah Centre is a sinister sect that bears little relation to the ancient and respected faith, and have accused one of the leaders, Philip Berg, of preying on the vulnerable and foolish, Madonna defends her religion.
Meanwhile, Guy Ritchie is said to have admitted the mistake he made by putting his Kabbalah beliefs into his movie, and has never praised the cult since.
The queen of pop won't give up on Kabbalah. But she should take a moment to think over the enormous power she has through music. If she wants to make a better place, Madonna should let her acts speak, she may visit poor countries, make donations for people in need or adopt kids and renounce to the discourses about her beliefs, focusing on what she does best: singing and lighting up the dance floor.
