On the morning after the London listening session, we woke up to two different breaking news: the announcement that Madonna was co-headlining the first ever half time show at the FIFA World Cup final together with Shakira and BTS, and the reports that guerrilla-style posters had appeared in cities likes London and New York, revealing the tracklist of the 12-song edition of the album, split on the two sides of a 12″ disc.

• For the World Cup final, check out our report here.
• For the album tracklist and everything we know about Madonna’s Confessions II (so far) check out this story from Billboard.com.

Today then it was the day when the first reviews of the new album where published; two different stories, both based on Wednesday’s listening session.

The Mirror‘s Tom Bryant was among the first in the world to hear tracks from Madonna’s hotly-anticipated sequel to Confessions On a Dancefloor – and was blown away by what he heard.

First listen of Madonna’s new Confessions II album – ‘dark with filthy basslines’

• Full story here.

On The Sun, Ellie Henman explains how Madonna’s long-time collaborator Stuart Price has revealed the secrets behind the makings of Confessions II – and it says a lot about the Queen of Pop.

Ray of Night. Secrets of Madonna’s new album revealed including 3am sessions, sellotaped microphone & track recorded for late brother.

• Full story here.
• Also this morning, the Peggy Gou Energy Mix for Madonna’s I Feel So Free was release on the digital platforms.

But the most amazing news is that Madonna herself wheatpasted the walls of Soho, Shoreditch and Notting Hill with Confessions Pink:

Courtesy of Global Citizen

Madonna will co-headline the first ever halftime show at the FIFA World Cup final together with Shakira and BTS. The event will take place at the New Jersey Stadium in New York on Sunday, July 19.

For the first time in cup’s history, the final will feature a half time show curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, bringing together superstars for a singular moment at the intersection of sport, culture, and purpose, broadcast live around the world.

The event will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, a landmark initiative working to raise USD $100 million to expand access to quality education and football for children worldwide.

Join Madonna in taking action to create real change for a better world.

Madonna has supported Global Citizen through advocacy efforts including the #StandUpForUkraine global social media rally, which called for support for refugees and humanitarian relief amid the war in Ukraine. She has also supported the Global Citizen Rewards program to help drive action and engagement from Global Citizens around the world.

She will next take the stage at the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which works to expand access to quality education and football for children around the world.

For more information please visit Global citizen.org.

Courtesy of Warner Records

Two different preview sessions for Madonna’s new album took place this week in New York City and in London, giving insiders and members of the media a sneak peak into a small number of tracks from Confessions II.

In NYC, the listening session was held on Monday at Club Cumming in the East Village, with reports of possibly five different songs being played, no titles given.

The listening sessions in London took place today at Lost off Shaftesbury Avenue and we know quite more exciting news about it thanks to what has been shared by Lucy O’Brien – the author of Madonna: Like An Icon, who will be writing an album preview for a new MOJO Madonna special, coming out at the end of the month, and a full review for the June issue of the British music magazine – Ellie Henman – editor of The Sun‘s Bizarre column – Jordan Lee – a DJ and presenter best known for hosting KISS FM’s mid-morning show – James Barr – a comedian, broadcaster and storyteller – and last but not least the cool folks from Madonna Fan Party, the world’s longest running Madonna fan event, supported by her team since 2003.

Today’s session was quite special as the album’s producer Stuart Price was in attendance for a Q&A and shared many details about the process behind the new record, and because it gave us some confirmed song titles such as Love Sensation (one of the songs played at The Abbey in West Hollywood), Danceteria (which mentions Madonna’s late friends Keith Haring and Basquiat and for which she wrote three pages of lyrics in one night), Fragile (about Madonna’s late brother Christopher) and Good For The Soul.

The London listening session was hosted by Jodie Harsh, who wrote on Instagram:

I’ve spent the day confessing! It was an absolute pleasure to host the world’s first album playback of Madonna Confessions II. Listening to the songs and delving into the creation of the record with Stuart Price felt like the best night out. It’s truly going to be #MadonnaSummer.

Check out the quick reports from O’Brien, Henman, Lee and Barr on their Instagram and enjoy a sneak peak of the official promo postcard and notebook set courtesy of MadonnaFanParty below.

• From Variety:

Madonna to Premiere ‘Confessions II’ Visual Film at Tribeca Festival

• From Rolling Stone:

Madonna to Chronicle a ‘F–ked Up Night Out’ in ‘Confessions II’ Film Premiering at Tribeca

• From Billboard:

Madonna to Premiere ‘Confessions II’ 10-Minute Visual at Tribeca Festival

• From The Hollywood Reporter:

Madonna to World Premiere ‘Confessions II’ Visual Work at the 2026 Tribeca Festival

• From Vulture:

Madonna Is Bringing a 10-Minute Confessions II Film to Tribeca

• From iHeart.com:

Madonna Is Bringing Confessions II to Tribeca Film Festival

• From Broadway World:

Madonna Returning to Tribeca Festival With Confessions II Cinematic Experience

• From Awards Watch:

Madonna to Premiere ‘Confessions II’ Visual Album Film at 2026 Tribeca Festival

The Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced that Madonna will return to world premiere a cinematic presentation accompanying her forthcoming new album Confessions II, directed by David Toro and Solomon Chase (TORSO), on Friday, June 5 at the Beacon Theatre. Following the screening, she will join the directors for an exclusive conversation with Jimmy Fallon.

Confessions II is an ambitious visual work exceeding 10 minutes, built around the first six tracks of Madonna’s forthcoming album including I Feel So Free and Bring Your Love with Sabrina Carpenter.

It unfolds as a single, continuous piece, weaving together interconnected, music-driven sequences into an immersive cinematic experience. A film that gives physicality to the music, Confessions II lives in the tension between control and surrender, between being seen and disappearing into a crowd. Each song unfolds across six chapters, each one a sexy thriller, a dance delusion, an epic fever dream. Like the album, it blurs distinction between tracks, building cosmic narratives that follow a twisted dream logic.

The result is a transcendent journey that catapults the viewer through a fucked-up night out that’s remembered not for what happened, but for how it felt. Madonna is ambushed, pursued, and ultimately worshipped by a roving squad of camera-wielding femmes. From the bedroom to the club bathroom, to the car, to the arena, and even into nature, they cruise the many spaces in which music thrives. Inside these sanctuaries, we discover reflections on dualities that have accompanied Madonna’s entire career: privacy and publicity, grief and catharsis, intimacy and communion, fandom and collaboration. But everything always returns to the one, hallowed place that started it all: the dancefloor. Confessions II cinematic experience is produced by DIVISION Powered by Dolce & Gabbana.

The post screening conversation will highlight the creative process behind the project, offering a rare insight into the vision, craft, and how it was translated to the screen.

“Madonna has spent decades proving that reinvention is its own art form,” said Tribeca Festival Co-Founder Jane Rosenthal. “Confessions II feels immersive, provocative, and completely of the moment, while still channeling the kind of nightlife mythology only she could create. We are thrilled to welcome Madonna back to Tribeca.”

Photo credit: ANTONIONI Courtesy of Tribeca Festival

Madonna, recognized for bold creativity, continual evolution, and a lasting impact on culture has shaped music, fashion, and live performance. Her work often reflects a strong appreciation for film and cinematic imagery. Beyond her artistry, she has been deeply engaged in social advocacy, including LGBTQIA+ rights and global health initiatives, consistently using her platform to provoke dialogue and question societal expectations. Her distinct career remains marked by a unique ability to amplify artistic expression through sustained creative exploration.

Courtesy of Tribeca Festival

TORSO is a New York-based photography and directing duo formed by David Toro and Solomon Chase, partners in life and work. Their practice spans still photography, fashion film, runway direction, and music video production, united by a post-internet visual language that blends fashion, performance, and digital culture. They first emerged through involvement in a New York art collective focused on internet-native contemporary art practices. Their work includes collaborations with major fashion houses and global brands, producing runway shows, films, and commercial campaigns that emphasize movement, experimentation, and cinematic storytelling across both digital and live environments and contemporary cultural contexts today.

Tickets will be available for purchase starting today exclusively to Madonna Community members, accessible only through unique digital access codes.

The world premiere takes place Friday, June 5 at 8:00pm at the Beacon Theatre, New York City. Tribeca Festival at the Beacon Theatre is presented by City National Bank.

To learn more about the Tribeca Festival, visit TribecaFilm.com.

Bring Your Love starts with 4.1 million chart-eligible streams, 6.6 million airplay audience impressions and 3,000 sold in the United States in its first full tracking week (May 1-7), according to Luminate.

For Madonna this is the Hot 100’s highest debut since Give Me All Your Luvin’ in February 2012 (the lead single from MDMA opened at #13 and eventually peaked at #10, making her most recent top 10). Her more recent entry was Popular, with The Weeknd and Playboi Carti, that reached #43 in June 2023.

Bring Your Love is also Madonna’s first chart entry since she re-signed with Warner Records last year and Sabrina Carpenter’s 34th Song on the chart.

When the chart updates tomorrow, Madonna‘s Hot 100 ranking expands to 59 hits overall, 38 top 10s, and 12 #1s, since first making the chart dated October 29, 1983, with Holiday.

Bring Your Love also debuts at #1 on the Dance Digital Song Sales chart, becoming Madonna’s third and Carpenter’s first hit on the chart, at #7 on both the all-genre Digital Song Sales survey and Hot Dance/Pop Songs, #24 on Adult Pop Airplay and #29 on Pop Airplay.

The First track from the Confessions II album, out on July 3rd – I Feel So Free – jumps 14-9 on the Dance Mix/Show Airplay chart, becoming Madonna’s 10th top 10 on the list and her first since 2009, when Celebration reached #4. Of Madonna’s seven #1s, four are from Confessions on a Dance Floor.

All charts dated May 16 will update Tuesday, May 12. Ready the full story on Billboard.com.

From Madonna’s Instagram

Madonna announces on Instagram that the full Energy Mix of I Feel So Free by Peggy Gou will be available Friday, May 15.

In its first week on the UK charts, Bring You Love debuts at #29. The Official Singles Chart Top 100 is based on audio and video streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl, and is compiled by the Official Charts Company. The UK Top 40 songlist is broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

Even with no physical release, Bring Your Love is #4 in both the Official Singles Downloads Chart and Official Singles Sales Chart (the latter combines downloads, CDs, vinyl and other formats).
It also ranks at #76 in the Official Audio Streaming Chart and #78 in the Official Streaming Chart.

For the complete data, please visit officialcharts.com.

The Madonna news keep coming in, and while we use our profiles on Instagram, Bluesky and Threads for the live updates, here’s the latest recap of the more relevant ones that did not make our News page yet.

• Madonna & Sabrina’s Bring Your Love is #1 on Spotify Global Top Songs Debut chart

Warner Records on Instagram

• Bring Your Love debuts on the Official Trending Chart at #4

The Official Charts Company reports. The UK-based Official Trending Chart is based on the first four sales days of each chart week (that’s Friday to Monday) and ranks those songs showing week-on-week growth on the Top 100 Singles Chart, limited to two tracks per artist.
Bring Your Love is expected to bring Madonna back to the Top 40 when the new chart is released on Friday. The first single off Confessions II has slowed down a bit in the UK: it sat at #22 in the Midweek chart and dropped two more steps in the latest prediction, with earlier reports eyeing on a #14 debut that would have placed Madonna & Sabrina in the Top 20.

• Madonna & Sabrina’s Bring Your Love is #1 Most Added at Top 40 and Hot AC

Warner Records on Instagram

• Bring Your Love holds the worldwide #1 on iTunes for a fifth day

• Bring Your Love keeps on growing on Spotify

The song accumulated 1,039,764 streams on Monday and 1,143,749 yesterday and it has now surpassed the 7 million mark.

• Madonna shares behind the scenes images from the Met Gala

On her Instagram.

• Feltrinelli/IBS are the Italian exclusive retailers for the Baby Pink Confessions II Vinyl

The Italian publishing, bookstore and e-commerce company announced that they are offering the Baby Pink version of the 12-track Confessions II Vinyl LP as an exclusive for Italy.
It is the same release exclusive to Target in the US, HMV in the UK and FNAC in France.

You can check our updated guides to the COADF2 formats and release here.

Image credit: Librerie Feltrinelli

Opposition to the Bezoses started almost immediately after they were announced as financial sponsors in February, the New York Times reports, amid a surging anti-rich sentiment nationwide and in the City, and in the weeks leading up to the event a campaign has erupted on the streets, in subways and online, where social media users have described the event as the “Amazon Prime Gala” or “Bezos Ball.” Guerrilla activist group Everyone Hates Elon has been calling for a boycott of the event, with a drumbeat of eye-catching campaigns around the city, including plastering posters on subway cars and bus stops. On Friday, in a nod to complaints by Amazon workers of having to skip bathroom breaks and urinate in bottles instead, the group placed close to 300 bottles of fake urine inside the Met.

On the day of the event Labor is Art, a group bringing together Amazon workers, their unions and supporters, staged a show on Little West 12th Street to emphasize that labor workers have the power to tell their own stories, and it is their labor that makes Amazon – and not the man who owns 8% of it, The Guardian reports.

The event went on as planned, but there were important voices – or silences – to be noted.  “The Met Gala is now giving Bezos exactly the kind of reputation laundering and cultural rocket fuel he needs to keep destroying America,” said actress Cynthia Nixon, who ran for New York governor in 2018. “My hat is off to the mayor for not attending.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who made clear last month that he won’t be attending the ball, posted an article on X on explaining how “while the world’s eyes are on fashion’s biggest night, we’re turning ours to the garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running.”
“From true love found on the picket line to a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement, meet the New Yorkers who make it all possible,” he wrote.

“The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes – seamstresses, tailors, retail workers, delivery drivers – whose immense talent and dedication deserves to be celebrated,” he also told i-D.

The protests unfortunately did not make it to the red carpet and we haven’t heard any of the celebrities attending aknowledging or addressing them – which is something to think about and make you realize that sometimes raining on someone’s parade is the only way to avoid being ignored. Madonna was no exception – and certainly not the only A-lister who decided not to miss the night – and this makes it harder to report about how she actually stole the show last night as if we didn’t know that Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Madonna took her assignment to the letter – the ball dress code – Fashion Is Art – was themed around this year’s Costume Art exhibition – with an ensamble that, as you all know by know, reproduced closely Leonora Carrington’s surrealist 1945 painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony – Fragment II.

She was wearing a black custom Saint Laurent designed by Anthony Vaccarello, who walked with her the stairs to the Met door, a violet cloack , and seven damsels holding her trail. This was not the first time Madonna referenced the art of Carrington, which was among the inspirations of her 1995 video for Bedtime Story.

While the vessel Madonna was wearing as a headpiece was a direct reference to the painting, too, it is also a tribute on its own. The pirate-ship-shaped hat is a vintage 1994 creation by Irish milliner Philip Treacy, who created legendary pieces for the Queen of Pop over the years, including her iconic Givenchy hat for the 2012 Super Bowl Half Time Show. “The Ship” Hat has become something of a legend over the years, and when his 2015 book was released, the designer explained how he’s received many offers for it over the years, Evoke reports. When Treacy shared a video of Madonna in his hat at the ball we eventually learnt that “his” hat was owned by the late magazine editor, Isabella Blow, who died in 2007.

Madonna’s hairdo was equally intriguing, with a 50-inch wig which took 60 hours to make, created by another longtime collaborator of hers, hair couturier Merria Dearman.
As ELLE explains, such an elaborate look would normally take weeks to perfect, but as this is the Met Gala, the magic happens in the final hours, with Dearman flying to London late last week to fit the style on Madonna, and then back to New York for last night’s ball. In the City, Dearman continued to collaborate with Madonna’s hair stylist Eugene Souleiman on the final product.
“Everything’s in his hands” Dearman tells ELLE about Souleiman. “He just has a flow that he works in, and you just watch. And it’s imperfect, that’s the whole beauty of it. [Madonna’s] hair has a story in it through this texture that they’ve built. This look really represents her as a woman, saying, ‘I’m a feminist. I will keep making art. I’m not going to do what society normally tells me to do and sit down.’”

When asked by ELLE to distill the entire moment into a few words, Dearman was succinct. “Surreal, feminist, Madonna.”

“The look was rooted in an obscure feminist artist. It was surreal, textural, and emotionally driven rather than literal. From the beginning, it was never about perfection. It was about feeling,” Dearman also said in a statement.

“And I would say it’s fucking Madonna”, she told Vanity Fair. “There’s nothing else to say other than it’s completely her world.” The journey started with Madonna spotting a similar wig by Dearman while filming her cameo in season two of The Studio in Venice and immediately falling for it, VF also reports. She did not get the permission to take the piece from the set, but when the production’s hair department head advised her to get in touch with the wig’s maker, Merria Dearman, Madonna was thrilled, as she made the wigs for her Madame X and Celebration tours.

Madonna was also wearing a Falcon crest by Castro NYC, a Medusa ring of 18-karat yellow gold and silver set with diamonds and rubies and a mammoth bone cameo depicting Perseus on the back and a skull ring of 18-karat yellow gold, silver, and enamel set with rock crystal by Attilio Codognato.

MADONNA at the Met Gala 2026

Wearing Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello
Hat by Philip Treacy
Custom wig by Merria Dearman styled by Eugene Souleiman

Styling Rita Melssen
Makeup Marcelo Gutierrez using KIKO Milano
assisted by Bri Stine and Claire Brooke
Nails Naomi Yasuda