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By James Dinh

It's hard for artists to keep things under wraps these days – especially when you're the Queen of Pop. Less than two months after Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, revealed that the pop titan had begun recording her next album, a just-announced promotional contest with Smirnoff has inadvertently confirmed that Her Madgesty will embark on a tour.

According to the singer's website, Madonna has teamed up with the popular vodka brand for their latest promotional blitz called "Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project," which encourages fans from all around the world to share their nightlife stories via their Facebook page. Smirnoff will culminate the campaign on November 12 with 50 different parties taking place all over the globe.

In addition to submitting personal experiences, fans can enter an online dance competition, where finalists will be chosen to attend one of the global events and compete in a dance-off right in front of the pop queen. The winner of the contest may get a not-too-shabby offer to join Madge on her next tour as one of her dancers.

"What attracted me to the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project is the combination of participating in the celebration of nightlife around the world and the opportunity to discover the world's best unknown dancers," Madonna said a press release. "The best dancers are always in the clubs looking for the most original experience, just like Smirnoff is doing." Read More...

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On this day 53 years ago in Bay City, Michigan, pop royalty was born in the form of Madonna Louise Ciccone, the third child of Silvio Ciccone and her namesake mother, Madonna Louise Fortin Ciccone.

Madonna’s rise to stardom is legendary. She briefly attended the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship before dropping out to move to New York City in late 1977. She famously arrived in NYC with just $35 in her pocket and worked briefly at a Dunkin’ Donuts before taking on odd jobs as a backup dancer and model (which came back to bite her in the butt after she got famous and some nude pics taken in ’78 were published in Penthouse and Playboy in ’85).

She was playing in a NYC-based band with an ex-boyfriend when a demo landed in the hands of then-Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who famously signed Madonna to the label from his hospital bed while recovering from a heart infection. She immediately hit the studio to record her first single, “Everybody,” which hit radio on October 6, 1982, and became a dance hit. Her self-titled debut record was released the following summer, yielding the first (“Lucky Star”) of her now-record breaking run of 37 top ten hits, more than any artist in the history of music.

The rest, as they say, is history – which we will now thoughtfully break down for you with a rundown of some of Her Madgesty’s biggest moments. Read More...

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Madonna’s manager, Guy Oseary, took to Twitter yesterday to announce that the Queen of Pop would be hitting the studio next month to begin work on her twelfth studio album – her first since 2008’s Hard Candy. “Madonna goes into the recording studio next month to begin work on new album,” he wrote. Soon after, a fan asked who M would be hitting the studio with, and Oseary responded, saying, “She has a good idea on which producers she will be working with.”

He did not elaborate further.

Which got us thinking about what we’d like to hear from the pop trendsetter who’s done it all. More than 28 years into her record shattering career, Madonna really doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone – she’s the top-selling female artist ever, has had more top ten hits than Elvis (or anyone else, alive or dead) and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. But with Lady Gaga hotter on her heels than any other diva who’s made a play for her throne, Madge does have a reason to put out a killer album.

As longtime fans, we know what has and hasn’t worked for Madonna over the years. Read on for our thought on how she should approach her next record. Read More...

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What Her Madgesty wants, Her Madgesty gets! And what Madonna wants right now is to be taken seriously as a film director.

It looks like her wish has been granted: The Weinstein Company, who scored multiple Oscars this year with The King’s Speech, has picked up the distribution rights to the Queen of Pop’s latest directorial effort, W.E., a historical romance about a contemporary New York woman, played by Abbie Cornish, who becomes obsessed with the love story between Britain's King Edward VIII (James D'Arcy) and American divorcee Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) only to find the realities of their relationship far more complicated than she ever imagined.

“W.E. is about the nature of true love, and the sacrifices and compromises that are often made,” Madonna said in a press release. “I’ve wanted to tell this story for a very long time, and bringing it to life has been a great adventure for me. I’m looking forward to working with Harvey [Weinstein] and The Weinstein Company on this film.”

Read More...

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