[Vinylfantasy]

Pharrell showed up and did Beat Goes On and Give It 2 Me with her at MSG.

Rapper Williams joins Madonna gig

Rap star Pharrell Williams has made a surprise appearance with Madonna in a New York date on her world tour.
Williams, who co-produced and sang on Madonna's Hard Candy album earlier this year, joined her on stage during her final song of the show - Give It 2 Me.
Madonna also continued her recent attacks on Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Playing a screeching note on her guitar, she said: 'This is the sound of Sarah Palin thinking.'
After singing an a capella version of her 1989 hit Express Yourself, she told the crowd: 'I'd like to express myself to Sarah Palin right now.'
She also threw condoms into the crowd at Madison Square Garden, saying that they promoted safe sex as they had a picture of Mrs Palin on them.
Pharrell Williams has appeared on the Sticky and Sweet tour before, but only in video form.
During previous dates, he and Madonna's other recent collaborators - Justin Timberlake, Kanye West and Britney Spears - have 'performed' in the show as lifesize images on moving video walls.
At the New York show - the 21st date on the four-month world tour - there was a more tender moment as Madonna dedicated a song to her eldest daughter Lourdes to mark her 12th birthday.
She performed You Must Love Me, which she originally sang when she starred in the 1996 movie adaptation of the hit musical Evita. Madonna told the crowd: 'My beautiful Lola is 12 today but when I first sang this song she was growing inside me.'

Source: BBC News

Miles Away out on November 24th

News is just in from the UK that the release date for the third single off "Hard Candy" has been set.

"Miles Away" will be released on Monday, 24th November.

Also, fans will also be happy to learn that the cool promo cd cover artwork we showed you last month has been confirmed as the cover of the commercial single.

Source: Madonna Tribe

'I Am Because We Are' premiere in France

I AM BECAUSE WE ARE, the extraordinary documentary film from director Nathan Rissman and writer/producer Madonna, makes its next festival stop in France.

Cinema Verite’s 2nd International Rendezvous for Socially Conscious Cinema will host I AM BECAUSE WE ARE on Sunday October 12th in Paris. The event is a public platform designed to bring together prominent film-makers, politicians, and opinion leaders to address social issues and generate pressure for growing societal concerns through the medium of film.

The Paris screening of I AM BECAUSE WE ARE will be introduced by Raising Malawi Executive Director Philippe van den Bossche and Raising Malawi Trust Chairman Victoria Keelan.

Malawi is a nation in crisis. Right now, more than one million parentless children languish in Malawi’s streets, villages, and orphanages without proper food, shelter, education, and seemingly without hope.
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE takes an unflinching look beyond these devastating statistics at the desperate lives of Malawian’s most vulnerable citizens, its children. The film asks hard questions, but also explores the real possibility of lasting solutions to Malawi’s humanitarian crisis. Some of the world’s brightest and most compassionate social activists, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Bill Clinton, and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, offer their insight on how a worldwide population is connected to, and ultimately responsible for, ending suffering in the developing world.

I AM BECAUSE WE ARE director Nathan Rissman depicts a country of contrasts. Malawi’s extraordinary beauty and the exuberance of its people are juxtaposed with the horrors of crushing poverty and deadly disease. Madonna’s narration, inspired by her own journal entries, illuminates a very personal journey into the nation known as the ‘warm heart of Africa’.

The film goes quite beyond simply bearing witness to difficulties in the developing world. It is a call to action under the banner of umuntu – we are all inextricably linked and, rich or poor, share a common fate. I am because we are.

After moving audiences at its New York premiere, at Cannes, and in Traverse City, Michigan, I AM BECAUSE WE ARE will inspire another rapt audience this month at the Cinema La Bastille in Paris.

Source: RaisingMalawi.org

Robyn on Madonna

"Seeing that a lot has been reported about my experience of being on tour with Madonna in the press, I feel like I have to tell it like it is! So with my own words, here I go:

I got a chance to go on tour with Madonna in Europe and like any one who's been a fan of her since the age of ten I was super exited. Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere its been FUN! I've played to Madonna's audience in eleven different cities, all of which have received us well even though I was only the opening act. Me and my band got to know Madonna's production team and they were very helpful. Madonna's management was super cool and we hung out with the band and dancers and had a lot of fun with them. When I met her at the end of the tour she was really cool and natural. I got a chance to thank her for putting me on and she even told me she was a fan! It was a very special moment i will never forget.

When I arrived on the first day of the tour I was surprised by the tight security that involved us as well. It took a couple of days to find my place on this big adventure but the tour has been a once in a lifetime experience. I have gotten the rare opportunity to see an enormous production from the inside and get the chance to perform in front of tens of thousands of people at every show.

In one interview I was asked if I wanted a career like Madonnas and I said no, my worst nightmare would be trying to be a Madonna. She's an icon and a pioneer, but only Madonna can be Madonna. It would be sad to try to copy her model. Times are different nowadays as well. Even if I tried, it would be hard to build what she has achieved in the climate of the music industry today. I want to be me and work from my own small independent record company.

I want to be left alone in my creative process. I imagine she has lots and lots of people telling her things. Every one watches her every move. Obviously she can cope with that, but for me that pressure would be a burden. Too many other people have cracked under much less pressure in the music world and as a woman it's even harder to stay at the top. The peer pressure, fashion mags and media celebrate youth, beauty and the new in females and most people are lucky to stay around for 5 years. I learned that next to the president of the United States of America, Madonna must be the most famous person on earth whose every little move is watched by millions and a complete security state is surrounding her!

I´m from a little country called Sweden where even though a lot of people know me here, I still can go to the store and buy milk in my underwear. And I would love to keep that for me.

But who am I to judge her? Watching her on stage during the tour I could tell that she was really enjoying herself. She is probably doing exactly what she wants to do and that´s why she is so inspiring. I want to be like that as well, I want to be myself."

Source: Perez Hilton