Madonna Talks ‘Rebel Heart’ Lead Single “Living For Love” And A “Possible” Grammy Awards Performance

Bradley Stern | December 22, 2014 5:45 am
Madonna Releases 'Rebel Heart'
Surprise: A new Madonna album arrived on iTunes — and 6 songs are available now!

Everyone’s favorite #UnapologeticBitch Madonna is also quite the #UnapologeticBusyBitch as of late, having taken a break from taking those Instagram selfies to push out six freshly mastered songs from her upcoming 13th studio album Rebel Heart, all in an emergency response to an out-of-control stream of leaked demos over the past weeks…which, sadly, only seem to keep coming.

But! There’s nothing else to do but forge ahead with the campaign anyway, including the three Q&A pieces released yesterday with The Guardian, Rolling Stone and Billboard in which the Material Girl talks about those unexpected demo leaks, the meaning behind Rebel Heart (equal parts rebellious and romantic!), and new songs including lead single “Living For Love,” a glorious nod to those halcyon ’90’s House days backed by Diplo and company.

In her interview with Billboard, the Queen Of Pop gave us some new insight into the euphoric break-up anthem — as well who is and isn’t on the track…yet.

The singer confirmed to Billboard that there were “definitely more than 10” version of her Rebel Heart lead single, due to the fact that her team wasn’t entirely sure which direction the song should go. “There’s so many different levels of dance music and even different categories of house music. So, it was really like, what’s the bass line gonna sound like? Is it gonna be really stripped down and sparse, or is it going to be loaded up? Is it gonna be Chicago house? Is it gonna be U.K. house?” she explained of her decision-making process.

In the end, they finally came to an agreement with the final version of the song, which you can hear above.

She also revealed that while soulful UK superstar MNEK, one of our favorite breakout acts of 2014 (who Madonna is a “huge fan” of as well!), isn’t featured on the current album version of the song, he will be featured soon: “There are versions of “Living For Love” that MNEK is singing on, and those will be coming out, but just not yet.” Plus, you can also hear Miss Alicia Keys playing piano on this version. It’s a full house!

And when Madge confirmed that a second batch of songs is due out in February around the time of the 2015 Grammy Awards, she also (maybe?) spilled the beans when asked about a potential performance: “Yes, that would be wonderful. That’s possibly something that’s gonna happen,” she said with a laugh.

“Versions” of “Living For Love”? A music video still to come? A possible Grammys performance? Roll on, 2015!

Are you excited for “Living For Love” to be Madonna’s lead single? Sound off in the comments below.

[via Billboard]

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