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Tag: Madonna

  • JADE’s Love is “Unconditional”

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    Marking the seventh song to be “unveiled” from That’s Showbiz Baby just ahead of its release, JADE’s “Unconditional” embodies another disco-fied sound that’s comparable to “Plastic Box.” And, though each song was crafted by different producers (the former by Grades, Oscar Görres [a.k.a. OzGo] and MNEK, and the latter by Sabath), both of their sounds and lyrical motifs share some DNA, with “Plastic Box” representing one kind of love and “Unconditional” another. In the former, she speaks to romantic love (as inspired by the “toxic energy” she had toward her boyfriend, Jordan Stephens, at the outset of their relationship—mainly due to her own jealousies about his ex) and, in the latter, she speaks to familial love. For she was specifically motivated to write the song because of and as a tribute to her mother, who has had an ongoing battle with lupus ever since JADE was a child. Hence, a verse like, “If only my love could be your medication/I could fix you so much better than your own prescription/If I lose you now, then I lose it all/If you’re going down, I can take the fall.”

    In a certain sense, it has a similar theme to Taylor Swift’s 2019 song (dedicated to her own mother), “Soon You’ll Get Better”—except “Unconditional” is far less of a cheesy buzzkill. Indeed, it was JADE who commented to The Guardian of the danceable disco beat (one that’s Robyn-worthy, which is saying something), “How can I write a really sad song that we’re all going to want to shake our tits to?” The answer lies, perhaps, in her characterization of the track as “Donna Summer meets MGMT meets Beth Ditto.” Though it definitely fits in more with Donna’s oeuvre than MGMT’s or Beth Ditto’s. As for the “official visualizer,” directed by twin sisters Fa and Fon (who previously worked with JADE on “Midnight Cowboy”), it actually comes across more like a right proper music video, with JADE bringing her A-game in terms of treating it like there should still be some sort of narrative.

    So it is that the “visualizer” starts out with her getting hair and makeup done in her dressing room, then anxiously pacing around in it once her glam team is gone. Almost as if she’s nerve-racked about something—like, say, her mother’s health. Or any other loved one that might be suffering, whether emotionally or physically. Such concerns are apparent in the first verse, during which JADE frets, “If I lose you now, then I lose it all/If you let me down, don’t know who I’d call.” Her sense simultaneous of anxiety and devotion continues to radiate from the subsequent pre-chorus and chorus, “You got me kickin’, shakin’ and screamin’ for ya/Got nothin’ you could do to make me leave/Ah, ah, ah, ah/Unconditional/I will hold your hand forever/Even if my heart explodes/Unconditional/I can’t put you back together/But I’ll always love you so.” Whitney and Dolly know something about that, too.

    Amidst her pacing and panicking, someone else walks in and, per the caption, tells her, “Jade, we’re ready for you.” With more than just some degree of reluctance, she leaves the room, at which time the disco-fied beat drops, echoing the one in Anita Ward’s signature disco hit, “Ring My Bell.” From there, we see her engage in all manner of different photoshoots, perhaps meant to remind her fans that she had to do many style changes for the sake of her album cover, which features her in five different guises (sort of like a one-woman Spice Girls [since Little Mix didn’t have five members]). At one point, while she’s on the phone with someone (yet again), she bemoans, “I can’t talk right now. I’m in a fucking teacup!” (yes, literally—she’s sitting in a giant teacup). This “said,” once more, through a caption. Granted, most of these captions are lyrics to the song, with JADE conveying the same emotionalism evoked by her words. This done mostly via looking as though she’s on the verge of tears at any given moment, especially when she’s on the phone. Perhaps intending to instill the idea that she’s talking either to her mother or someone who’s giving her a health update about her mother.

    Whatever the case may be, the award for best actress goes to JADE, who also indicates that there is an immense amount of pressure put on performers to always be “on,” even when the turmoil of their personal lives might be weighing on them. This conveyed as JADE is forced to go through shoot after shoot, enduring the rigmarole of being “done up” and restyled over and over again.

    Indeed, there is a moment when she’s getting her makeup done (while sporting blonde hair and a generally Showgirls-meets-Euphoria kind of aesthetic) that has shades of Britney Spears’ disaffected look while playing Lucky in the video for the song of the same name. Further reiterating the idea that being a “star” can actually be quite inconvenient when it comes to nurturing one’s personal life. And as the song comes to a close, with JADE belting out the chorus for the final time, it all gets to be too much for her to keep doing the work. To keep being constantly photographed and “handled” by everyone.

    Thus, there comes a breaking point where, amidst the cameras flashing, she proceeds to run away from everyone (in a scene that has plenty of Madonna in the “Drowned World/Substitute for Love” video vibes). All iterations of herself effectively fleeing the scene. But it’s the blonde JADE that we see carry out the escape in its entirety, running down the street with her phone while still wearing underwear that reads, “Ride of your life” on the back. Because, yes, she’s ready to drop everything and “just ride” (rather than be ridden, as it were) if it means she can be there for the person she loves.

    As for the mélange of disco meets rock sounds (so maybe that is where the Beth Ditto influence shines through) that take turns dominating throughout the track, JADE noted to Zane Lowe, “There’s, like, a merging, and I think that’s where I strive, is, like, the merging and sort of Frankenstein-ing of sounds to create what is the JADE of it all.” With “Unconditional” being one of the best examples yet of said “Frankenstein-ing.”

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Sabrina Carpenter Pays Fashionable Homage to Cher, Britney Spears, Madonna, and Marilyn—In One Night

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    Sabrina Carpenter is the undisputed queen of vintage. Her musical epic, punctuated by her global hit “Espresso,” never ceases to embrace the codes of yesteryear, as in the case of her latest single, “Tears,” with its ’80s disco pop sounds, which she performed on stage at the VMAs 2025 last Sunday. For her performance, Carpenter first appeared on stage wearing a fringed top adorned with rhinestones and a matching miniskirt. But halfway through, the singer changed up her look. The new outfit? A diamond-spangled halter bra and black sequined mini-shorts. It was a more daring and sexy ensemble, not to mention a nod to a pop star from the 2000s: Britney Spears.

    Sabrina Carpenter on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards 2025 on September 7, 2025 in New York.

    Christopher Polk/Getty Images

    Christopher Polk/Getty Images

    In 2001, Spears wore a similar bra designed by Bob Mackie for a performance of “Baby One More Time” featured in an HBO documentary about her Dream Within a Dream Tour. Originally, the lingerie piece was designed for the Las Vegas revue Jubilee! in 1981. However, the bra sold at auction this year for $78,000 (over 66,200 euros); Sabrina Carpenter’s version being a replica, not the original.

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    Carpenter’s vintage fashion marathon and tribute—not only to Mackie but another foundational pop diva—continued outside the musical ceremony. And yes, you’d have thought that after winning three awards, including Album of the Year for Short n’ Sweet, the singer would be tuckered out, but no, far from it. Carpenter celebrated her victory at her own “Sabrina54” afterparty, and donned another look straight from Cher‘s archives for the occasion.

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    Olivia Batoul

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  • Madonna’s Influence Once Again Makes Itself Known in the Work of Sabrina Carpenter—This Time Via Her 2025 VMA Performance

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    Just when you think Sabrina Carpenter might be taking a break from her busy schedule of making Madonna references (whether doing her interpretation of M as Marilyn for Vogue [after already doing her interpretation of M as Marilyn from the 1991 Oscars] or infusing “Like A Virgin” aesthetics into a “Bed Chem” BRIT Awards performance), she goes and does something like her live debut of “Tears” for the MTV VMAs. And while most pop culture connoisseurs were quick to make the connection between Carpenter’s “Tears” performance and the rain-soaked “…Baby One More Time” performance from Britney Spears’ 2001-2002 Dream Within a Dream Tour, the overall Madonna-ness of what was happening onstage couldn’t be denied. Starting, perhaps first and foremost, with the set design taking its inspiration from late 70s NYC.

    This blip was, of course, not only one of the heights of the city’s “creativity bursts,” but also the very era when Madonna herself blew into town to become part of that vibrant creative scene flourishing amidst the urban decay. Because, yes, the mid- and late 70s were also the peak of New York’s financial crisis—hence, the infamous New York Daily News headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead” when ol’ Gerald refused, initially, to give a bailout to NY when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. A reality that became glaring in its ever-crumbling buildings and infrastructure. Accordingly, the town devolved into a crime-ridden horror show, the stuff of nightmares. To the point where law enforcement actually distributed a now notorious pamphlet at the airport called “Welcome to Fear City,” designed to warn visitors about all the various perils that would meet them should they dare to set foot inside the cesspool.

    Despite all the warnings to people about visiting this modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, let alone living there, dreamers and “free spirits” (so often “code” intended to refer to people in the LGBQTIA+ community) couldn’t be dissuaded. The arrival of these “brave souls” who chose to set up shop in the city at a time when it wasn’t just affordable, but actually dirt cheap resulted not only in a hotbed of experimental creativity, but also a hotbed of sexuality—oozing out of everyone’s…apertures. Even after the AIDS epidemic cast a dark pall over everything as soon as the 80s arrived. Almost like a swift punishment for all those unmitigated, orgiastic good times in the 70s.

    The kind of times that Madonna conveys so well in her work—revisiting it often in her visuals and sounds. Case in point, her performance of “Deeper and Deeper” during 1993’s The Girlie Show. Awash in sweltering, rhythmic writhing, Madonna and her dancers, all outfitted in 70s, nightclub-ready attire, turn the stage into one giant, festering pore of sexuality (a look and theme also revisited in the video for and live performances of 2005’s “Hung Up”—another very 70s number, and not just because it samples from ABBA). Carpenter attempted a tamer version of that for “Tears” during the VMAs (but then, the entire ceremony was decidedly tame this year, with Carpenter’s appearance standing out as the most “salacious” of all—and mainly because it was the queerest). Because, although there might have been plenty of flamboyant gays to go around, it didn’t mean things weren’t going to remain “family friendly” (since so many pearl-clutchers make the correlation that to be gay is to be “unfriendly” toward the proverbial family). After all, the show was being broadcast for the first time ever on CBS. The type of network that generally reaches an older demographic than MTV was once accustomed to.

    That said, many viewers likely had no idea what Sabrina and co. were talking about with all their mention of “dolls” on the protest signage being paraded around the stage. A stage that looked almost as fraught and filled with queerness as the segment in The Girlie Show that begins with “Express Yourself” and segues into “Deeper and Deeper” (itself a 70s-themed video). Emphasis, of course, on “almost” for Carpenter and her dancers’ performance. For while it might be intentionally visually chaotic, there is nothing sexually fraught about it, with Carpenter using words (through the abovementioned protest signs) instead of physicality to get her pro-LGBTQIA+ message across.

    Madonna, in contrast, was never afraid to get visceral—“uncomfortably” sexual—when it came to showcasing queer love. This done at a time when it was considered especially “disgusting” by conservatives (and “liberals” alike) as a result of AIDS. But rather than recoiling from the idea of showing physical touch among her queer dancers, Madonna leaned into it all the more, in both the Blond Ambition Tour and The Girlie Show, which both toured the world at a time when the AIDS scare was still at a peak. For, as she puts it during her The Girlie Show rendition of “Deeper and Deeper,” “Sometimes you gotta tell the world the way you feel. Even when they don’t wanna hear about it.”

    While Carpenter is “noble” for addressing a topic that “the world” doesn’t want to hear about and for being the only musical act during the 2025 VMAs to say something even remotely political (shit, even Lady Gaga couldn’t be counted on for it this time around), she still didn’t go as “all the way” as Madonna surely would have. And it isn’t just the 70s stylings of this segment in The Girlie Show that draws easy comparisons to Carpenter’s “Tears” performance. There’s also her 2019 “God Control” video, during which she, once again, returns to the 70s for a night out at the disco where gun violence breaks out within the erstwhile “safe space” for queer people.

    The song, like “Tears,” also has 70s-infused musical backing, produced in the spirit of disco. Yet another reason why the “Deeper and Deeper” connection was made to “God Control” (with both videos sharing a club setting, albeit the latter with a far more macabre tone). And as Madonna dances all devil-may-care in the moments before an armed white male enters to shoot up the place, the contrast between what the viewer sees and the chirpy sound of her voice singing, “This is your wake-up call/We don’t have to fall/A new democracy/God and pornography” is of a breed of irony and sardonic humor that Carpenter has yet to master.

    In her own 70s-infused way, Carpenter is also saying “this is your wake-up call” to those who don’t understand that the loss of trans rights is the loss of human rights. And that when one sect of humanity is degraded in this way, no one else is safe from such harm either. She just happened to present it in a less “in your face” manner than Madonna would have, opting to incorporate a random Britney reference as well. One that seemed to be done mostly for the sake of looking “hot” while being political. Something Madonna has also frequently done without being quite so random about her allusions. In any case, one modern hetero blonde pop star advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community is better than none.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Apart from Sabrina Carpenter, the 2025 VMAs Keeps It Pretty Tame (and Straight)

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    Perhaps it was only right that Doja Cat should kick off the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards with a performance of her lead single from Vie, “Jealous Type.” Not just because it throws shade at the notion of how artists get so competitive with one another at these sorts of award shows, but because, with her “new” sound embodying the sonic landscape of the 80s, it’s in keeping with the identity of the erstwhile “cable” network that was born at the dawn of said decade. A channel that changed the entire industry forever in that it made musicians fully grasp that their music was in need of a visual just as memorable (and/or “iconic”) as the song itself.

    To further heighten the overall “80s-ness” of her performance, Doja Cat appeared amidst the kind of set design that can best be described as something out of Patrick Nagel’s wet dreams. And then, of course, there was her decision to tap Kenny G as the person to perform the opening saxophone solo of the track (though, obviously, no saxophone solo will ever hold a candle to the one in “Careless Whisper”). She was also certain to evoke more than slight hints of Janet Jackson in the musical dance break toward the middle of her performance, which was rounded out with a keytar player that looked like a former member of Jem and the Holograms. All of which is to say that there’s definitely a reason the word “nostalgia” was used to describe the ceremony. Since, of late, that’s what MTV has been coasting/banking on in terms of staying afloat. This clearly being part of the reason that, for the first time, the ceremony was also aired on CBS, a network not exactly known for appealing to “youths.”

    In this sense, it’s as though MTV has decided to pander to the Gen Z view of their network as something dated, out of touch and generally “dinosaur-y” (a reality that still seems unfathomable when considering how “edgy” it once used to be). And yet, a great many of the musicians that dominate TikTok were in attendance, including Doja, Tate McRae, Sabrina Carpenter, Sombr and Conan Gray. However, those considered of the “older” generations now, including Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga also took precedence in terms of their performances.

    As for Mariah, who received the Video Vanguard Award this year (marking her first Moonman ever), her medley touched on “Sugar Sweet,” “Fantasy,” “Honey,” “Heartbreaker,” “Obsessed,” “It’s Like That” (interpolated with “Dangerous Type”) and “We Belong Together” (complete with a violin-playing ensemble behind her). And even her alter ego, “Bianca,” made a little cameo onstage. Her first appearance being in the “Heartbreaker” video as “the other woman” that Mariah catches Jerry O’Connell with at the movie theater. Alas, the homage to her greatest hits was more than slightly flaccid, especially since, after Carey’s appearance, she was quickly outshined by the greater dynamism of a live broadcast of Lady Gaga’s performance of “Abracadabra” and “The Dead Dance” from her Mayhem Ball show at Madison Square Garden. This (the fact that Gaga didn’t actually perform at the VMAs venue), however, further proving, in some sense, that the awards show was mostly phoning it in.

    What’s more, Gaga didn’t have a very queer performance, at least not in a “hit you over the head” kind of way. Nor did she have a very sexual one. Even so, there were errant moments of “spiciness.” Namely, when it came to Tate McRae dancing to her hits, “Revolving Door” and “Sportscar,” with her coterie of muscular male backup dancers starting out as “statues” on platforms before jumping in to join her for “Sportscar” and, then, to quite literally play in the same sandbox as her.

    Then, of course, there was Sabrina Carpenter, who, in the absence of both Madonna and Chappell Roan, appeared to take up the mantle for showcasing queerness onstage thanks to her rendition of “Tears.” That queer and trans advocacy being on-brand for the accompanying The Rocky Horror Picture Show-themed video. Throwing it back to late 70s-era New York vibes (since, again, most of the musicians at the VMAs are relying on already overdone sound tropes of the past for their “current” selection of music), Carpenter emerges from a sewer next to a trash bag as drag queens gather ‘round to have a kiki. Toward the end of the performance, there’s a bit of an “It’s Raining Men”-meets-Flashdance-meets Britney singing “…Baby One More Time” during the Dream Within a Dream Tour (and Carpenter is no stranger to imitating her at the VMAs either) moment when water begins raining down on Carpenter and the stripper-looking cops dancing next to her. The queer folk parading around the stage with protest signs that offer such insights as, “If you hate you’ll never get laid,” “Protect Trans Rights” and “Dolls Dolls Dolls” reminded the audience that, with the current administration in office, these are messages well worth reiterating. Particularly before the boot comes down completely, and all such forms of free speech are suppressed.

    Swinging the pendulum back toward straightness, Sombr, who comes off like a mash-up of Benson Boone (sonically and visually) and Austin Butler (just visually), also did his quote unquote best to “sex it up,” albeit with a very straight male perspective as requisite “hot girls” danced around him while he sang “12 to 12.” This after commencing the performance with “Back to Friends.” His only other “male competition” (in the same age bracket, that is) was Conan Gray, who served as this year’s dose of Kate Bush-meets-Chappell Roan with his romantic performance of “Vodka Cranberry.”

    As for the big winners of the night, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande, all three played up their gratitude and appreciation for the fans (this being the go-to for the VMAs, whereas “God” is usually for the Grammys). And yet, one wonders anymore who MTV thinks that demographic includes. For, the older the network gets, it doesn’t appear to matter if they have the “newest” (ergo, youngest) acts onstage. Because, more and more, MTV is playing it as safe as possible—this extending to a kind of “sexlessness” and general lack of controversy compared to years past.

    It’s also saying something that the tameness of the show comes at a time when Paramount (a.k.a. MTV’s “parent” company) is accused of cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, ultimately, because of an Orange One-related vendetta. Perhaps prompting MTV to keep its content less “offensive” to certain (political) parties, while also trying to keep appealing to the generations it started out with: X and millennial. In other words, the generations that can even still remember what a marvel it was to have cable.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Cape Fear: The Madonna and Armani Dust-Up

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    Upon Giorgio Armani’s death, at the age of ninety-one, on September 4th (much to Beyoncé’s dismay), the usual outpouring of celebrity condolences arrived. But one notable celebrity who had worked with Armani in the past remained pointedly silent: Madonna.

    Meanwhile, people like M’s self-appointed nemesis, Mariah Carey, posted an image of herself with the designer “lovingly” captioned, “Rest in peace, Mr. Armani,” with an angel wing and broken heart emoji underneath it. Others who “emerged” (online) to pay their respects included Salma Hayek, Celine Dion, Cindy Crawford, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Jessica Chastain, Cate Blanchett and Michelle Pfeiffer.

    But while Pfeiffer and co. might all be “heartbroken” about the loss, it’s safe to say that said word isn’t necessarily what would be used to describe Madonna’s feelings about it. After all, the two share a famously fraught history, centered on one of Madonna’s most notorious performances at the 2015 BRIT Awards. As in, the one where her backup dancers went to rip off her cape, as previously rehearsed, only to find that the cape not only wouldn’t budge (even though one can clearly see Madonna attempting to loosen the string beforehand), but that it yanked the Queen of Pop down a flight of stairs along with it.

    And so, what would (and should) have been a pristine performance of “Living for Love,” the lead single from her then new album, Rebel Heart, became yet another opportunity for media and internet cruelty against her (particularly of the kind, as usual, directed at her “caducity”—as if a cape pulling her backward couldn’t have happened to someone of any age). With such scrutiny and harshness in the aftermath of the fall, part of Madonna’s explanation for the turn of events was a matter of improper design in that the heaviness of that cape meant that she and her team were concerned it might fall off prematurely.

    So it was that the tie on the collar was knotted extra tightly, sealing Madonna’s tumbling fate out onstage. Armani, however wasn’t about to take any blame, leading with the assertion, “Madonna, as we know, is very difficult.” But before getting into the rest of what he said as his “counter-argument” about the cause of the fall, let us first unpack how that declaration panders to misogyny in general and the specific misogyny so often funneled toward Madonna. In this instance, contained heavily in the conspiratorial “as we know”—like everyone, whether or a friend or stranger to Madonna, is well-versed in her “diva antics.” Branded a diva largely only because of her gender.

    A reality she was already keenly aware of back in the 80s, when she unapologetically announced to People, “I’m tough, I’m ambitious and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.” But it still wasn’t “okay” to many men, whether “civilians” or those in and orbiting the entertainment industry. Armani certainly fitting the latter bill, currently being credited as the man responsible for reshaping the red carpet at awards shows (particularly the Oscars). Though, of course, none of Madonna’s signature red carpet looks were ever Armani. Telling indeed.

    As it is that the only thing that really makes her a “bitch” (or “difficult,” the “polite” euphemism for bitch) is the fact that she isn’t a man, the only gender from which such “outlandish” behavior—assertiveness—is accepted. With Armani himself being a, let’s say, very fastidious man himself. The sort of man who wouldn’t take kindly to suggestions about making “adjustments” to his clothes. For, as Armani was also sure to add to his defense in the matter of M’s BRIT Awards fall, “This cape had a hook and she wanted a tie, and she wasn’t able to open it with her hands. That’s all there is to it.”

    But oh, there’s so much more to it than that. For a start, his “logic” doesn’t entirely track. Seeing as how hook closure could have easily caused a similar issue, even more so to a certain extent. Because to time, exactly right, the moment when she would need to unfasten the hook as the dancers pulled her cape off would also have plenty of “snafu” potential. In truth, the best “closure mechanism” for the garment would have been a snap—not a hook or a tie.

    Alas, no such compromise was reached, and it seemed their ephemeral working relationship never quite repaired after what would become one of Madonna’s most unforgettable performances for all the wrong reasons. And the entire incident likely only confirmed to Madonna why, when it comes to couture, she had always been such a loyal collaborator with, primarily, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Dolce & Gabbana. And Versace, for that matter. Both Gianni and Donatella. It was the latter who wrote a particularly effusive elegy for her fellow Italian designer: “The world lost a giant today. He made history and will be remembered forever.” To Madonna, however, he will merely be remembered forever as the man that almost made her “RIP” before he did.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • A Lust (and Big Butt) Flare-Up Plagues Zara Larsson in the “Crush” Video

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    Following the success of Zara Larsson’s eponymous second single (with its 00s/Madonna in the “Love Profusion” video aesthetics) from Midnight Sun, she’s continuing to drum up interest in her fifth album with “Crush” (not to be confused with Jennifer Paige’s 1998 bop of the same name). Hence, her third video thus far from the seemingly Lisa Frank-inspired world of Midnight Sun. Directed by Grant James Thomas, there is, at certain key moments, a kind of Alice in Wonderland quality to the visuals in terms of the surrealism applied—not to mention that Larsson, by the end, becomes, let’s say, “too oversized” for the house she’s in. Though it’s one part of her in particular that bears the brunt of…enlargement (courtesy of someone named Mathis Laurenceau, in charge of the “butt prothesis” department, so to speak, for Larsson). 

    Before that enlargement happens, however, the spidery stage of the video is set with an opening that features a tropical backdrop that’s more than slightly marred by a pink spiderweb. One that, when the camera zooms out, reveals the spelling of the word “CRUSH.” Almost as if Charlotte of Charlotte’s Web herself had been there. The video then cuts to Larsson also set against a “tropical backdrop” that’s really just a poster as she runs on her treadmill contraption. Thomas then showcases Larsson doing a headstand and some other assorted yoga poses before she’s shown generally checking herself out in the mirror (and why not after all the hard work she’s just put into her body?). 

    Having already described the essence of a crush in the opening verse, “Talkin’ to you/Gives me butterflies/Wanna text you all the time/I can’t help that I feel like this/Talkin’ to you/Stayin’ up all night/Yeah, he knows somethin’ ain’t right/But it’s innocent ‘til we kiss,” Larsson soon experiences the kind of physical pain to mirror that emotional one when, out of nowhere (though it could also be seen scurrying near her feet in a previous scene), a spider descends from the ceiling and scares the living shit out of her. And, right as she jumps so far back in horror that she lands in her bathtub (conveniently filled with water to break her fall), the chorus bursts out, “Oh, baby, I’m crushed/It will never be us/That’s why they call it a crush/It will never be love.” Yes, Larsson hits the nail on the head with why a crush is named as such. Indeed, maybe not since Jim Baker (Paul Dooley) in Sixteen Candles said, “That’s why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they’d call ‘em something else” has someone put it so aptly. 

    Stumbling from the bathroom all wet, Larsson makes her way into the living area as she keeps slipping on the floor, deciding to just run with the slippage and turn it into choreo. Then, as if by magic, she’s suddenly dry—and in a new outfit. Specifically, one that features pink yoga pants with the words “Bite Me” (a Reneé Rapp-approved sentiment) on the back. Which is exactly what this indefatigable spider does as it crawls along her bum and gives it a huge “love” bite (complete with heart eyes being “activated” right after doing so). 

    The Barbie-ish (-meets-creepy anime doll) version of Larsson that’s occasionally been interspersed amid these scenes is then shown with her ass getting blown up from the bite as she’s suspended in midair to showcase that newly inflated “feature” as a heart shape (though, in truth, all the best asses already have that shape). Thomas then cuts back to the real-girl Larsson, her own big butt flare-up slowing her down as she frantically tries to chase the spider with a golf club, breaking and shattering just about everything in her apartment.

    Then, at one point, the “extra weight” on her body is apparently so much that she spontaneously breaks the floor beneath her while standing in heels, with half her body now suspended above her neighbors’ apartment and the other half stuck in her own. Even though, logistically, this doesn’t make much sense since, at the end of the video, the domicile is shown as a right proper house, not an apartment building. But it’s not as though there’s anything “logical” about this entire video premise to begin with. 

    Instead, there’s plenty of “poeticness,” with the spider being wielded as a metaphor. This pesky, uncontrollable thing that Larsson just can’t seem to contain or kill. Something that a woman already in a relationship especially wants to do. And this is the perspective Larsson is coming from, singing such verses as, “What’s the need for destruction?/This might get ugly, you will ruin my life/Tell me, why do I crave your attention?/I got someone at home who treats me right/It’s only just a—/Crush.”

    Prior to that, she also alluded to playing a “dangerous game” by even slightly entertaining this crush by saying, “In the gray zone of morality/Feelin’ dangerous when you’re callin’ me/Somethin’ ‘bout the secrecy of us.” That secrecy being part of what adds to the fuel that’s flaming the passion behind the crush. For part of what makes a crush feel so “ardor-laden” is that, more often than not, it can’t ever be realized. 

    So it is that Larsson finally does manage to “contain it”—that is, the spider. Using a glass topper to quell its dangerousness, the spider miraculously defies all laws of nature by then turning into a butterfly that Larsson soon after unleashes back into the proverbial wild (Larsson, by the way, is very into butterflies for this era). 

    In a scene that serves as the “tag” of the video, an exterior shot of the house that Larsson pretty much destroyed while trying to catch and/or kill the spider (a.k.a. crush) shows the pink graffiti on its façade that reads, “Got the spider!” And then, as Larsson quickly says “crush” one more time, a pair of giant, pink, shimmering stiletto heels comes along to decimate the house entirely. One presumes they belong to the Alice in Wonderland-ified Larsson, now too big to fit inside the house, and too big to deal with small (bullshit) crushes anymore either. 

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Dakota Johnson Says She and Madonna Are “Weird Friends”

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    Dakota Johnson and Madonna are friends? Evidently. Though the two celebrities might seem to have nothing in common, their friendship goes back a long way. Speaking to E! News recently, Johnson talked about her relationship with the singer, who is thirty-two years her senior. “I really love her,” Johnson said. “We’ve been, like, weird friends for a while.”

    The Materialists star added that she and Madonna first met on the set of the musical Evita. Released in 1996, the film starred the singer and Antonio Banderas—who was married to Dakota Johnson’s mother, Melanie Griffith, at the time.

    “I met her when I was really young, because she did a movie with my stepfather,” Johnson continued, “and then I got to know her later because we were gonna work together on something.” It seems that project never got out of the development stage, but that hasn’t changed the nature of their relationship in the slightest. Just last month, Johnson and Madonna spent an evening together celebrating the birthday of Maha Dakhil, their joint agent. “We’ve always kind of circled each other, but she is like an energy to be near that is so beautiful and so wild,” said Johnson. æIt’s just cool that she even wants to talk to me.”

    Dakota Johnson’s relationship with Madonna is on par with other unexpected friendships in Hollywood, like Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart or Helen Mirren and Vin Diesel. The latter two met in 2017 on the set of Fast and Furious 8, before reuniting in three other installments of the saga. “I am blessed that she is a part of our mythology… but even more grateful that she is a part of my family off screen,” Diesel said on Instagram at the time.

    Original story in VF Italy.

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    Olivia Batoul

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  • Doja Cat Is An 80s Music Video Girl in “Jealous Type”

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    Like Charli XCX with her 2022 video for “Baby,” Doja Cat has been very inspired by the visual cachet of 1980s aesthetics for her new era. One marked by the release of Vie, her fifth studio album. As the French word for “life” (hence, calling her tour the Ma Vie World Tour), it seems Doja wants to showcase plenty of vigor in the first single from the record, “Jealous Type.” A song with the same 80s vibe as its accompanying video, directed by Boni Mata. 

    And while Doja might have stirred controversy by previously writing Hot Pink and Planet Her off as nothing more than “cash grabs,” it seems she actually quite liked the cash, hence a return to this more “accessible” pop sound (not unlike the one that The Weeknd has been banking on for years; so perhaps Doja took a page from his 80s playbook after collaborating with him on the remix of After Hours’ “In Your Eyes”). A sound that was noticeably absent on her “adversarial” fourth album, Scarlet. What’s more, there is no producer out there that creates hit pop songs with 80s-inspired beats quite like Jack Antonoff (just ask Taylor Swift), who co-produced the song with Y2K.

    As such, from the moment Doja presses the power button on her very 80s-era electronic equipment at the start of the video, the sound is one of pure “Decade of Excess” ebullience. To boot, Doja has the confidence to commence the song with the chorus (rather than easing listeners into it), “Boy, let me know if this is careless, I/Could be torn between two roads that I just can’t decide/Which one is leading me to hell or paradise?/Baby, I can’t hurt you, sure, but I’m the jealous type/I’m the jealous type.” This, in truth, being a refreshing admission in a climate where everyone seems to be so la-di-da (and/or polyamorous) in relationships. In fact, probably not since 2013 has someone been so frank about their jealousy (hear: “Jealous” by Beyoncé). Such an “antiquated,” “unevolved” trait as it is in matters of l’amour these days.

    But since Doja Cat is technically a millennial (try as some might to bill her as a “Gen Z pop star”), perhaps she can’t help but be of a time and mindset when it was still acceptable to admit to being, well, the jealous type. Thus, the unapologetic verse, “I said, ‘You wanna do what now with who?’/I don’t need a pin drop or a text tonight/I ain’t even coming out with you/You don’t wanna show me off to your ex or your friends tonight/Nigga, you must be on molly/‘Cause y’all ain’t kick it when we started up/And if she really was a friend like you said she was/I would’ve been locked in, but I called your bluff, ha/No girl enjoys trying to tough it out for a party boy/Everyone wants you and you love all the noise/You want what you can have, but I made a choice/I’m not your type (boy, let me know).” 

    During the first portion of the video, a blonde wig-wearing Doja watches herself dressed in a leopard getup in the video projected on her wall, almost as if she’s aroused by her own image (which also isn’t out of the question in an era as narcissistic as this one, regardless of this visual being “set in the 80s” or not). Maybe that’s why she starts to strike some tantric-meets-Madonna-esque yoga poses in front of it before Mata cuts to another scene in Doja’s very Patrick Bateman-styled abode (again, just like Charli’s in the “Baby” video, except Doja’s is clearly in Los Angeles—hence, all the space).

    In this segment, she’s outfitted in red lingerie while dancing in her hallway. It doesn’t take long for another scene to start cutting into this one, with Doja now dressed in a form-fitting metallic pink dress as she dances in front of an elevator (yes, it’s quite the versatile house). All of the scenarios the viewer has seen thus far then start to sort of collide into one another, with Mata then inserting yet another new setting for Doja to be featured in: the exterior of the house (which looks like it was made in the style of a miniature from Beetlejuice). The only thing that looks more 80s than the interior. 

    Standing out front is Doja next to a limo. And in that limo is, who else, Doja. But not the same Doja, the leopard-outfitted one from the screen (side note: the other Doja ogling her outside is wearing leopard-print lingerie). Living the “glamorous life,” as Sheila E. (and now, Addison Rae) would call it. Sipping champagne in the back, perhaps too unbothered with all her wealth to worry about such petty emotions as jealousy. 

    Another swift cut then sees the various worlds of the video bleeding into each other as the red lingerie-bedecked Doja starts dancing inside the elevator where the pink metallic dress-outfitted Doja was dancing in front of. It’s in the elevator that a miraculously appearing fire sprinkler starts raining down on Doja as she’s doing her seductive dance moves. In a moment, of course, that’s not unlike what happens to Jennifer Beals as Alex Owens in Flashdance, pulling the chain above her onstage chair to make it rain…water down onto her already scantily-clad body. This being the iconic opening scene of the movie. Indeed, Flashdance was simultaneously criticized and heralded in its time for being among the first movie of its kind to emulate the “MTV style” of showcasing “non sequitur” scenes that “read” like standalone music videos rather than scenes from a movie. The same can be said of the style wielded here, which is, of course, very meta considering it is a music video in and of itself. 

    As the song comes to a close, Doja repeats the lines, “Oh, I’m jealous, baby, yeah, I’m jealous/Oh, I’m jealous, baby, I’m the jealous type.” A sentiment not unlike the 2020 Bebe Rexha single that Doja herself is featured on, “Baby, I’m Jealous” (from the much underrated Better Mistakes). And as the mélange of Doja’s various postmodern selves continue to intermingle, courtesy of what would been called “slick MTV editing” back in the 80s, she finally presses the “off” button on her “ancient” entertainment system, leaving the audience wondering if she finally got so turned on by herself that she decided to go out in that limo and pick up some sex workers, Patrick Bateman-style. 

    And, speaking of dangerous types like Bateman, since Mariah is actively looking for the “Dangerous Type,” she might very well find it in the likes of a “Jealous Type” like Doja. 

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • When It Comes to Her Father-Daughter Dynamic, It’s Just as Madonna Once Said: “Life Is a Circle”

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    There was a time in Madonna’s life when it probably would have been unfathomable (mostly for Madonna herself) to imagine having a close relationship with her father, Silvio “Tony” Ciccone. But it seems that, with time, not only has the Queen of Pop “softened,” but so, too, has her father. At least in terms of his erstwhile strict views on how his daughter should act. The very same views that forged Madonna on the path toward becoming famous as a direct result of her perennial rebellion, her staunch flouting of “the rules.” Or, as she once put it, “I wouldn’t have turned out the way I was if I didn’t have all those old-fashioned values to rebel against.” So yes, there’s no denying the masses that came to adore and admire Madonna have none other than Mr. Ciccone to thank. A man who was himself raised with some very strict, old-fashioned values. After all, his parents were of the Greatest Generation, and “Old World” Italian immigrants, to boot.  

    Part of the Italian diaspora that took place from 1880 to 1924, Michelina Di Iulio and Gaetano Ciccone settled in the Beaver County area (yes, of course Madonna’s roots would have such a suggestive name), with Silvio, their youngest son, being born in Aliquippa. Eventually, “Tony” as he came to be known, thanks to the Americanization of many Italians (whether genuinely dal vecchio paese or “first generation” and beyond), started working in a steel mill in Pittsburgh. It doesn’t get more working class than that. But Tony clearly wanted to transcend this status, to take advantage of the then still believable and achievable American dream that would allow him to have the better life his parents had immigrated to the U.S. for in the first place.

    As Madonna told Time in 1985, “My grandmother and grandfather spoke no English at all. They weren’t very educated, and I think in a way they represented an old lifestyle that my father really didn’t want to have anything to do with. It’s not that he was ashamed, really, but he wanted to be better.” And so, he became an optics engineer after serving in the Air Force, where his friendship with a fellow Airman led him to Madonna Fortin, a Bay City native, as her eldest daughter, Madonna Jr., would be. Though, of course, to her eventual fans, there was only ever one Madonna—theirs. MLVC: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. 

    To Madonna herself though, M Sr. would forever loom large as the idol of her own life, saying during Truth or Dare, “She seemed like an angel to me.” That opinion would only increase the more that time went on in the years after Madonna Sr.’s death from breast cancer when “Little Nonnie” was just five years old. And it was her mother’s death that seemed to harden Tony all the more, to reinforce that he had to be strict with his children. And that, furthermore, they needed a new mother figure to help light the way. Enter Joan Gustafson, the Ciccones’ housekeeper. In somewhat cliché fashion, Tony would end up marrying her because, hey, what is the ideal wife if not a housekeeper? He did so in 1966, three years after Madonna Sr.’s death. Obviously, Madonna was not a fan. Neither of Joan, nor of her father being so quick to seemingly “forget” all about his real wife.

    Besides that, it was apparent that Madonna was exhibiting some classic signs of the Electra complex, which she, for all intents and purposes, openly addressed in the abovementioned Truth or Dare. This when telling her then bestie, Sandra Bernhard, “I had those dreams for, like, a five-year period after that. That’s all I dreamed about was that people were jumping on me and strangling me and I was constantly screaming for my father, and no sound would come out.” Bernhard then asked, “And what happened when you woke up? Were you crying?” Madonna replied, “I’d just be sweating and afraid and I’d have to go to sleep with my father.” This “subconscious” word choice leaving it open to plenty of innuendo-laden connotations since she didn’t opt to instead say something more measured, like, “I had to go into my father’s bedroom and fall asleep there.”

    Even so, Bernhard practically invokes what follows when she further questions, “How was that when you slept with him?” Without missing a beat, Madonna says, “Fine, I went right to sleep—after he fucked me.” She starts laughing and quickly adds, “No, just kidding.” Though, of course, there was a small kernel of truth in what she said in terms of wanting to “possess” her father fully, to have ownership over all aspects of his love, in a way that she wouldn’t ever be able to from a romantic/sexual perspective. And certainly not after Joan entered the picture to kick Madonna out of Tony’s bed—literally. 

    The friction Madonna experienced with Joan, who she had nothing but contempt for as a teenager, based on comments about Joan making her wear the same exact dress patterns as her sisters and refusing to let her use tampons, only compounded the friction she already had with her father, who she undeniably resented for bringing a strange woman into their home. A woman who was now not only replacing Madonna Sr., but also Madonna, with the latter taking on the “wife role” as the eldest daughter. With Joan in the mix, it appeared as though Madonna’s drive to “get the hell out of Michigan”—or, for the time being, at least out of her father’s house—became only stronger. Breaking out of there at eighteen to attend the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship, Madonna dropped out after a year to answer the apparent call of destiny by moving to New York in 1978, a maneuver that caused a major rift between her and her father, who couldn’t understand why she would throw away a college education and a solid path to that “better life” his own parents wanted for him, and all because of some whim. A whim that even Madonna herself couldn’t fully explain, apart from taking Christopher Flynn’s advice to go where it was all happening, get on a faster track to becoming a professional dancer through Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. 

    Once she moved to the proverbial big city, Madonna’s ties to her father grew frayed, something she reflected on in that ‘85 Time article with the assessment, “When I moved away for a long time we weren’t really that close. He didn’t understand what I was doing when I first moved away. First I was a dancer and I would call him and say, ‘Well, I’m dancing.’ He never, well, he’s a sensible guy, and what’s dancing to him? He can’t imagine that you can make a living from it or work at it or be proud of it or think of it as an accomplishment. He could never really be supportive about it.” And yes, there were many times when he urged her to just give up and come back to Michigan, but the thought of doing that is what actually kept her going during some of her darkest days in New York, vowing that to return home would be the ultimate failure—the ultimate way to prove that her father was right. 

    After Tony started hearing his daughter’s songs on the radio, however, he couldn’t deny that it was Madonna who had been right. That she did “make something of herself” as she says in Truth or Dare. But as Madonna’s star rose, so, too, did her penchant for pushing buttons, for stirring up controversy. One of the apexes of that occurring in 1989, with the “Like A Prayer” video, which no doubt gave Tony a shock as much as any devout Catholic. And yet, despite stating, “More than anything, I want my father’s approval, whether I want to admit it or not,” that has never prompted Madonna to shy away from doing “scandalous” things, mainly of a sexually-charged nature. This infamously reaching an apex in the 1992-1993 era, with the back-to-back unleashing of Erotica, the Sex book, Body of Evidence and The Girlie Show. And yes, even before this point, Tony was obliged to ask his daughter of the Blond Ambition Tour, “You undress in this performance?” She balked, “No, of course I don’t.” But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t have other people undress later on in The Girlie Show. What’s more, Tony is also recorded asking Madonna if she would “tone down” her performance during the night he chose to come see the Blond Ambition Tour. She immediately replies, “No, because that would be compromising my artistic integrity.” 

    Her unwavering devotion to her craft, her work, however, is something that has always innately bonded her to Tony, who she credits for her incredible work ethic. And then, later on in life, when she had children, it seemed that she could better understand where her father had been coming from with all of his strictness. With Madonna herself turning out to be quite the “stickler” for the rules she made for her own children to abide (including, most illustriously, not letting them watch TV). 

    In more recent years, as Tony entered his nineties (indicating that Madonna, too, might have the same longevity—something she’s alluded to in her Madame X Tour, during one of the banter sections), it seemed that Madonna grew ever more protective of their relationship, of keeping him close. This even more important after the back-to-back deaths of Joan and Madonna’s younger brother, Christopher (at one point a frequent artistic collaborator of hers in the late 80s and 90s before the pair had a falling out), in September and October of 2024, respectively. This just a year after Madonna’s oldest brother (and overall sibling), Anthony, died in February of 2023.

    So yes, the sense of loss in the Ciccone family has been palpable of late. Which is surely part of why Madonna had a Thanksgiving with Tony at the table in ‘24, sharing pictures of her children and father, along with a caption that read, “Watching him cry in the cemetery when we buried my brother Christopher—right after he lost his wife—was a moment I will never forget. Spending time with him and all my children on Thanksgiving was Medicine for the Soul.”

    In June of ‘25, Madonna shared another post featuring an image of herself and Tony (plus Madonna’s current much younger boo, Akeem Morris, for an added bit of freaky-deaky cachet) in honor of his 94th birthday (June 2, 1931), captioning it, “Congratulations for riding the roller coaster of life with humor and sanity intact. Thank you for sharing your mantra in life with me, which is: ‘I’m gonna go until the wheels fall off.’”

    This year, as Madonna turns sixty-seven, not only does she herself continue to adhere to that mantra despite all the naysaying against her (she’s too “old” to keep putting out music, she should just pack it in, etc., etc.), but she also appears as in touch with her father’s Italian roots as ever, spending yet another birthday in Italy. The place that essentially helped give her what Norman Mailer called “a heart built out of the cast-iron balls of a hundred peasant ancestors.” Madonna’s own patriarch being a very integral one of those hundred “peasant ancestors.” For, yes, life truly is a circle, as M sings on 2019’s “Extreme Occident” (or, as she says in a different way on 2003’s “Easy Ride,” “I go round and round/Just like a circle/I can see a clearer picture/When I touch the ground, I come full-circle/To my place and I am home/I am home”). And it’s a circle that has led her right back to the father she once so vehemently rebelled against. But whose love and approval she still so badly wants.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Lady Gaga Focuses on Shaking the “Disease” of “Lee Quinzel”

    Lady Gaga Focuses on Shaking the “Disease” of “Lee Quinzel”

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    It doesn’t seem coincidental that Lady Gaga would opt to release a new single soon after the critical and commercial failure of Joker: Folie à Deux. Even if it was by no means as remotely affronting as House of Gucci. In fact, Joker: Folie a Deux seems grossly misunderstood…and this is coming from someone who generally loathes Lady Gaga performances in film (and possibly in general). Regardless, it’s easy to discount one’s own internal voice when the negativity of others is so loud. Thus, it would appear that, despite how she might have originally felt about the role—being so effusive in interviews promoting both the film and the accompanying record she made for it—Gaga’s confidence has given way to all-out embarrassment. An embarrassment that has called for the immediate signaling of yet another new “era,” with some “insiders” positing that the failure of Joker’s second installment made Gaga see the light in terms of realizing she’s better suited to focusing on the pop star avenue.

    Another “assist” in terms of coming to that realization was her fiancé, Michael Polansky, who Gaga cites as the person that convinced her to pivot back more fully to pop. Per Gaga, “Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record. He was like, ‘Babe. I love you. You need to make pop music.’” Perhaps that’s part of the reason Gaga entrusted him to help her co-write “Disease,” the first single from what will be LG7 (for those who count Harlequin as LG6.5). And yes, apparently enough time has passed since the pandemic for such a track to come out. However, ostensibly not wanting to take any chances on whether or not she had a hit, Gaga tapped Cirkut and Watt to co-produce the moody, “Judas”-like music. And, speaking of that 2011 single, the “ah-ahhhs” she repeats are pointedly similar to the ones in “Judas.” Again, no coincidence, for she’s well-aware that everyone has been clamoring for her to return to, at the bare minimum, “Born This Way-era Gaga”—though many would prefer that she returned all the way back to The Fame.

    And that she has, with the “dark pop” sound also recalling a single like 2010’s “Dance in the Dark.” But this song in particular bears lyrical traces of Depeche Mode and sonic ones that sound more like an Atticus Finch/Trent Reznor production. The Depeche Mode correlation isn’t difficult to find seeing as how they have a song called “Shake the Disease.” Released in 1985, it felt like a pointed time to wield such a title when taking into account the AIDS epidemic. Even if Depeche Mode was merely creating a “love metaphor” with the chorus, “Here is a plea from my heart to you/Nobody knows me as well as you do/You know how hard it is for me to shake the disease/That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these.”

    Just as Lady Gaga is creating her own love metaphor with the “Disease” chorus, “I could play the doctor, I can cure your disease/If you were a sinner, I could make you believe/Lay you down like one, two, three/Eyes roll back in ecstasy/I can smell your sickness, I can cure ya/Cure your disease.” And cure it with what else but love, of course. A metaphor she already made use of on 2017’s “The Cure” (alas, not an homage to the band). Complete with lyrics like, “If I can’t find the cure, I’ll/I’ll fix you with my love/No matter what you know, I’ll/I’ll fix you with my love.” Things get decidedly non-consensual when she also adds, “And if you say you’re okay/I’m gonna heal you anyway.” With “Disease,” too, Gaga paints herself as something of an everyday superhero and her love a superpower—or at least a panacea.

    So it is that she sings, “Screamin’ for me, baby (ah-ah)/Like you’re gonna die (ah-ah)/Poison on the inside/I could be your antidote tonight.” At least this time she uses the language “could be your antidote” instead of essentially foisting a potentially unwanted “cure” on the object of her affection. At the outset of the song, she assures, in a somewhat Ariana Grande fashion (read: “Ain’t got no tears left to cry”), “There are no more tears to cry/I heard you beggin’ for life/Runnin’ out of medicine/You’re worse than you’ve ever been.” But if the “medicine” has been Gaga all along, then how could he have ever run out considering her enthusiasm for administering the antidote?

    As for medicine as metaphor, Jennifer Lopez also made use of it in her 2019 song, “Medicine” (obviously). But instead of presenting it as a “love injection” analogy, Lopez warns, “Think you need some medicine/I could be your medicine, yeah/Think you need some medicine/Give you a taste of what you give out.” Gaga, instead, prefers the romantic use of the allegory, continuing to insist, “I can cure your disease” (something Isabella “He put his disease in me” Rossellini would have been grateful for in Blue Velvet). One wonders, of course, which lyrics might be attributable to Polansky. Perhaps he was the one who thought to paint a picture of “Stefani” sleeping at night with the lines, “You’re so tortured when you sleep [sounds like Billie Eilish]/Plagued with all your memories/You reach out, and no one’s there/Like a god without a prayer.” Unsurprisingly, there had to be just a touch of Madonna in the lyricism (#likeaprayer).

    But what is decidedly not Madonna-like in terms of Lady G’s music is the fact that her albums, for quite some time, have left most people disappointed when comparing them to her first two releases. With Madonna, it took arguably until her fifth studio album, Erotica, for people to be truly disappointed by her musical output (and that was largely due to the puritanism of the early 90s in America). With Gaga, by album three (Artpop), things were taking a dive.

    And while “Disease” is being universally praised (a.k.a. most are just grateful Gaga isn’t putting out still more show tunes), it’s never a good sign when people say the phrase “return to form” in that it entails one has been out of step for a while in terms of “giving the people what they want.” Incidentally, something Lee tells Joker they should do. And it seems Gaga has taken Lee’s advice, even while in the process of shaking the “disease” that role turned out to be for her.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Masks! Innuendos! Double Cigarette Smoking!: Addison Rae’s “Aquamarine”

    Masks! Innuendos! Double Cigarette Smoking!: Addison Rae’s “Aquamarine”

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    While Addison Rae might have only been five going on six years old when Aquamarine came out, clearly it had a lasting subliminal impact on her. For the title of her latest single to follow up the Lana Del Rey-“coded” “Diet Pepsi” doesn’t just seem to be an allusion to the color of the ocean (or at least the parts of it that haven’t been ravaged by human-helmed pollution), but also a mermaid or mermaid-like creature.

    That’s the perspective Rae definitely sounds like she’s speaking from as she sensually coos phrases such as, “Aquamarine/Honey, dive into me/I’m not hiding anymore/I won’t hide/The world is my oyster/Baby, come touch the pearl” (it’s only slightly “subtler” than, “Yeah, you fuckin’ with some wet-ass pussy”). Clearly, the word “cookie” has some new competition now that Rae has used “pearl” this way (not that Mia Goth’s Pearl would mind). And to play up the sensual nature of the song, where else would Rae film the video but in Paris?

    Reteaming with her “Diet Pepsi” director, Sean Price Williams (who also did the cinematography, as that’s been his long-standing métier), parts of it were shot in deserted streets and alleyways at night, while the rest was filmed in The Peninsula Hotel (which gets a thank you in the listed credits). It is in the latter milieu that Rae takes advantage of the most, sporting an “Eyes Wide Shut-worthy” mask as she prances around at a party, spritzing Chanel No. 5 on herself (again, playing up Paris, not Camila Cabello’s lackluster single) and splashing around in the bathtub while spewing water out of her mouth like a fountain (or like Aquamarine, the mermaid).

    As for the sonic landscape, created by producers Luka Kloser and Elvira (Anderfjärd), it mimics the lulling nature of being underwater or simply floating in it. Which is precisely Rae’s enchantress-y intent as she sings in her most siren-meets-Ariel (à la “Part of Your World”) voice, “I’m dancing in my own reflection/I’m the ray of light” (re: that phrase, Madonna has been quite the influence lately on lyrical language, from FKA Twigs’ “Perfect Stranger” to Shygirl and Saweetie’s “Immaculate”). Of her overall prowess/embracing her feminine power, Rae also adds, “I’m transforming and realigning [something MARINA knows all about]/I’ll take you with me high, high, high, high.”

    To show off part of why she’s feeling so confident, Rae engages in all manner of well-choreographed acrobatics—whether on a chair in the middle of the sidewalk or a bridge overlooking the Seine (which comes across as being suspiciously shimmery and romantic in this context). As for the chair dancing, it of course harkens back to Britney Spears in the “Stronger” video (itself riffing on the chair dancing of Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” video). And Rae has very much been in “Britney mode” lately with her Spears circa 2003 attire. So it’s no wonder she starts chanting (like some sort of “Daddy”-conjuring love spell), “Give me more” toward the end of the song—something Spears already illustriously chanted in her own sensual way on 2007’s “Gimme More.” At the same time, it doesn’t seem like Rae needs anyone to give her more (unless it’s more nicotine) in order to validate her self-confidence.

    Case in point, in contrast to Rihanna telling a man, “Want you to make me feel/Like I’m the only girl in the world,” Rae is quick to assert that feeling for herself by declaring, “The world is my oyster/And I’m the only girl.” It certainly appears that way as she struts down the street blowing smoke in the direction of a wowed onlooker. In point of fact, it seems as though the real reason she homed in on Paris as her filming location was for the cigarette appreciation there—hence, smoking two cigarettes at the same time in one scene. A “feat” that was highly appreciated by the Cigfluencers account on Instagram.

    Elsewhere, a reference to Titanic serves as a romantic nod paired with a more “profane” suggestion in contrasting lyrics that describe, “Heart of the ocean around my neck/Don’t have to say it/You know what’s next.” (Hopefully, being painted in the buff…not drowning.) During the third act of the video, Rae does a costume change into a nude-colored ensemble as she dances in an alley with backup dancers (among them being Belen Leroux, Jal Joshua, Lea Vlamos and Patric Kuo) that also seem to have watched some of Madonna’s more orgiastic choreo (e.g., the end of “Deeper and Deeper” from The Girlie Show or pretty much any performance of “Hung Up”). And yes, there is an instance where it looks like Rae and company are giving their own update to vogueing with those hand gestures of theirs.

    The video concludes with her leaning against one of her dancers as though not only surrendering to the night and the proverbial pleasure, but as though to accent her final declaration of the song: “I’m free.” Sort of like the original Aquamarine at the end of the 2006 movie of the same name.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Shygirl and Saweetie Birth “Immaculate” (A Song, Not A Collection)

    Shygirl and Saweetie Birth “Immaculate” (A Song, Not A Collection)

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    Madonna might have released The Immaculate Collection (a riff, obviously, on “the immaculate conception”) in 1990, but she surprisingly never did offer a song called “Immaculate.” That honor, instead, has been left to Shygirl and Saweetie (on a side note: considering that Shygirl has cited Madonna as one of her primary influences, it’s not “reaching” to make the connection between the song’s title and the Queen of Pop). And while it might seem as though this duo is an unlikely pairing, Shygirl’s ascent into the mainstream has been written in the stars thanks to her long-standing link to Charli XCX, who tapped Shygirl as an opening act on the Sweat Tour, which swept through an array of “all-American” cities this fall.

    Indeed, Saweetie even joined Shygirl onstage during the San Francisco date of the tour to debut “Immaculate” live (because, while Saweetie might be a SoCal girl, she has ties to SF thanks to her uncle, Willie Harper, being a former linebacker for the 49ers). Their performing energy together was more electric than expected, displaying a chemistry that doesn’t always come off in “duets” (see: Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea on “Pretty Girls”). As for Saweetie potentially “boosting” Shygirl and vice versa, it’s worth noting that, while Shygirl has more EPs and an actual studio album under her belt, Saweetie is the more well-known between the two of them. Especially stateside, where hits like “Icy Grl,” “My Type” and “Best Friend” featuring Doja Cat are more recognized than any of Shygirl’s many bops.

    This includes tracks like “Slime,” “Tasty,” “4eva” and “Mr. Useless” (the latter two singles being from her recent Club Shy EP). But, like Charli XCX before her, Shygirl’s music has long been deemed too “fringe” to make it out of the niche she’s currently locked into. With the addition of Saweetie into her musical repertoire, however, there’s a chance Shygirl could cast a wider net to a new range of listeners. For she isn’t exactly associated much with the rap genre. The closest she might have gotten to such a “realm” was on the Tinashe-featuring “Heaven” (a video that often looks as though it’s trying to imitate TLC’s “Waterfalls” on the visual effects front—and as listeners found out again this year, Tinashe clearly likes TLC). Yet Tinashe’s vocal stylings are hardly rap (save for on rare instances like “Nasty”), instead sounding more like they’re in the same register as Shygirl.

    But with the “clout” of Saweetie on her side, she’s opening herself up to a different set of ears, (particularly West Coastian ones, as that’s Saweetie’s “turf”). Even if the co-producers on the song, Oscar Scheller and Blue May, are decidedly not of the rap/hip hop bent. Nonetheless, they meld the divergent vocals of each thirty-one-year-old (one a Taurus, the other a Cancer) seamlessly to a rhythm that is “Shygirl” through and through. Not to mention the braggadocious chorus that repeats the phrase, “Pussy be the gun” like a mantra after saying, “Hold a nigga hostage.”

    And of course pussy is the gun when your other personal philosophy goes, “Yeah, this pussy is immaculate/Wetter than the ocean/I can tell you cannot handle it/Well-spoken, got its own vernacular/Suck a nigga dry, better call this pussy Dracula.” An “on-theme” name check considering the single’s release a week before Halloween (with another Charli XCX favorite, Tove Lo, also recently paying homage to the month with “Cave”).

    Saweetie soon joins in to put her own stamp on the single by asserting, “I’m so hot, hot, hot/Couture/Big look, pose, walk/Dior/IVin the morning, I be going too hard/I’m the it girl of the it girls [though some of the “brats” mentioned by Charli on “360” might beg to differ]/Yeah my Venus a Taurus.” And yes, that’s not just a nod to Shygirl being a Taurus, but also Saweetie’s rising sign being that as well. To that point, it’s no surprise when she adds, “I’m a foodie/Gobble up a bitch/Miss Chew Chew,” later admitting, “I’m a Cancer, a lil’ cuckoo.”

    Both “crazy” and “foodie” qualities are displayed by both women in the accompanying visualizer (though perhaps a “real” video will arrive eventually), wherein they prowl the streets of Hollywood in between visiting a convenience store filled with snacks galore. There are additional interspersed moments (filmed in night shot) of the two in the back of car dancing, posing and generally looking smug. After all, why shouldn’t they when their pussies aren’t just “wet ass,” but immaculate? Though that doesn’t mean conception is. Unless what one is referring to is the immaculate conception of this song, an unlikely empowerment anthem between two even unlikelier collaborators. And hopefully, its earworm of a beat and chorus will further aid Shygirl in ascending to the coveted mainstream like one of her other partners in crime, the Brat herself.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • FKA Twigs’ “Perfect Stranger” Offers Only Pros to Meeting Strangers, While Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” Is More Cautiously Aroused

    FKA Twigs’ “Perfect Stranger” Offers Only Pros to Meeting Strangers, While Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” Is More Cautiously Aroused

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    Madonna as the titular character in Desperately Seeking Susan once said, “Good going, stranger.” It seemed, in its odd way, to presage a song of hers that would come out fourteen years later: “Beautiful Stranger.” While it was the lead single for a less than elegant movie, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Madonna’s message on the track (which sounded like a holdover from the Ray of Light era, but was actually recorded the same year it was released, 1999) captures a timeless message: love at first sight. Or, at the bare minimum, lust at first sight. The thrill of initial attraction that can only come from not actually knowing someone. From being able to project all of your fantasies and expectations onto them. And yes, this is usually based on looks alone as opposed to “energy radiated.”

    At the time, Madonna’s inspiration for the song was reported to be Andy Bird, a British “regular person” posing as a “filmmaker” (which was a loose way of saying unemployed). Obviously, he was Guy Ritchie 1.0, a set of training wheels before Madonna unearthed a more legitimate Brit in the world of film. Nonetheless, you didn’t see Madonna being inspired enough by Ritchie’s looks to write such a song about him (instead, he got “Push”). Indeed, Bird typified the phrase “tall, dark and handsome” or, even better for Madonna’s songwriting purposes, “tall, dark stranger” (this being a common vague description for fortune tellers to assure, “You will meet a tall, dark stranger” [a cliché that Woody Allen turned into a title for one of his “late era,” particularly bad movies]).

    And yet, despite the attraction she feels for this stranger, Madonna knows that she’ll pay the piper later if she ignores her instincts about him being fundamentally dangerous. For, as it used to be said before the arrival of apps like Uber and Airbnb: “Stranger danger.” What’s more, some of Madonna’s most formative years were at the height of AIDS in the 1980s, when sex with strangers suddenly started to feel more dangerous than ever (regardless of being gay or not). This fear of the risk that came with “casual sex” (the latter practice seeming to reach a crescendo in the late 70s) is also inherent in Madonna’s 1993 video for “Bad Girl,” which riffs on the premise of Richard Brooks’ 1977 movie, Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Itself a cautionary tale of what can happen when one falls down the rabbit hole of meeting beautiful strangers almost every night (especially as a woman). And going home with them.

    With FKA Twigs’ latest single, “Perfect Stranger,” it’s difficult not to recall Madonna’s 1999 song also highlighting the agonies and ecstasies of encountering someone new (for sexual or romantic purposes, needless to say). Except that, in Twigs’ case, there seems to be no drawback whatsoever to a perfect/beautiful stranger. In fact, throughout the song, she riddles off all the ways in which keeping someone at arm’s length skillfully enough to remain a stranger is the hottest thing since latex. So it is that she sings, “You’re perfect, baby/My perfect stranger/You’re beautiful, you’re worth it/You’re the best, and you deserve it/You’re a stranger, so you’re perfect/I love the danger/You’re the perfect stranger.”

    In another instance of ostensible Madonna homage, Twigs ruminates at one point during the outro, “What is this human nature?/No answer, I’m infatuated.” Madonna’s own song, “Human Nature,” also has a video punctuated by Madonna and her backup dancers in “boxes” (just as the “Perfect Stranger” video is characterized by “box rooms”). Not to mention the same S&M aesthetic that Twigs wields during one particular “vignette” from the Jordan Hemingway-directed video.

    In contrast to Twigs’ lustiness in the song, Madonna approaches her stranger (and strangers in general) with much more cautious arousal. Which is why she self-deprecatingly says, “If I’m smart, then I’ll run away/But I’m not, so I guess I’ll stay.” She also notes that one has to have a predilection for the dangerous (as Twigs does) in order to give in fully to an attraction to a perfect/beautiful stranger, singing, “You’re some kind of beautiful stranger/You could be good for me/I have a taste for danger.” If one doesn’t have that taste, however, things could get dicey. From Madonna’s perspective, anyway.

    As far as Twigs is concerned though, “That’s okay with me/To live my life with some mystery/Please don’t say that I must know/And that’s alright, I say/We’re all getting through this our own way/I’d rather know nothing than all the lies/Just give me the person you are tonight.” Madonna, conversely, seems to want her expectations of the perfect/beautiful stranger to eventually pan out in some way once the two get to know one another more fully. Even if more than part of her expects to be disappointed…if the following lyric is anything to go by: “I looked into your eyes/And my world came tumblin’ down/You’re the devil in disguise/That’s why I’m singin’ this song to you.”

    But the reason Twigs is singing her song to her perfect stranger is to emphasize that disappointment can never come if you never truly get to know someone. Thus, the dual definition of “perfect stranger” to mean, on the one hand, simply “a total stranger” and, on the other, someone being “perfect” solely because they are a stranger, and one therefore doesn’t have any awareness of their “defects” yet. It’s also interesting to hear Twigs’ predilection for incorporating the sound of 90s house and dance music into the production, whereas Madonna’s song, actually made in the 90s, is deliberately intended to be more sonically reminiscent of music from the 60s. While this might have been because it was made for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Soundtrack, there’s also another element at play: the idea that meeting a stranger in the 60s—especially the late 60s—was infused with just as much of a sense of danger as it was titillation, what with Cold War paranoia besetting everyone.

    In the here and now, Twigs’ chooses to ignore all the paranoia associated with the present (from catfishing to being scammed in some other egregious way) and play up the sheer romance of encountering a stranger, particularly on the dance floor. The not knowing is what makes it sexy rather than scary (“I don’t wanna have the anxiety/Please don’t say so I won’t know”). And besides that, “What we don’t know will never hurt.” Granted, it didn’t hurt Twigs to “meet” (a.k.a. invite) former stranger Madonna and “powwow” with her at the Central Saint Martins BA fashion graduation show back in 2022. Surely, that meeting of the minds might have helped with the genesis of “Perfect Stranger,” if Twigs happened to brush up on M’s back catalogue afterward. Not that she wasn’t already pole dancing to “I’d Rather Be Your Lover” and incorporating “Vogue” into live versions of “Give Up” well before the fashion show came along.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Madonna Endures a New Era of Survivor’s Guilt

    Madonna Endures a New Era of Survivor’s Guilt

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    Throughout her life, Madonna has frequently talked about having survivor’s guilt. Namely, when it comes to all the people she lost in the 1980s to the AIDS epidemic. And then, later on in life, as she pointed out somewhat “flexingly” during her 2016 Billboard Woman of the Year speech, her contemporaries started to die, too. Hence, her remark, “Michael is gone, Tupac is gone, Whitney is gone, Prince is gone, Amy Winehouse is gone, Bowie is gone…and I’m still standing.” Sure, Amy and Bowie weren’t her contemporaries (and Tupac was “just” a lover), but the message was clear: Madonna continued to have survivor’s guilt. Managing to outlive the majority of the musical artists she came up with, in addition to those who inspired her before and after she became famous.

    As for the “before” part of being famous, her younger brother, Christopher Ciccone was instrumental to this phase. Which is why, in the wake of his death—at just sixty-three years old—Madonna reflected, “He was the closest human to me for so long. It’s hard to explain our bond. But it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo. We took each other’s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood. In fact, dance was a kind of superglue that held us together. Discovering dance in our small Midwestern town saved me and then my brother came along, and it saved him too. My ballet teacher, also named Christopher, created a safe space for my brother to be gay. A word that was not spoken or even whispered where we lived. When I finally got the courage to go to New York to become a dancer, my brother followed.”

    Christopher tells it somewhat differently in his 2008 memoir (though more “tell-all”), Life With My Sister Madonna, noting that Madonna was the one to lure him, “siren”-style to the big city, insisting, “Come to New York, and you can stay with me in my apartment. I’ll introduce you to people. I’ll take [dance] classes with you. I’ll get you into a company.” Christopher then does as he’s told only to be greeted by Madonna bluntly telling him, “‘Hi Christopher, you can’t live here after all.’ Straight and to the point, with no sugarcoating. ‘What do you mean I can’t live here? I just gave up my life in Detroit. My apartment, my job, everything.’ Madonna shrugs, ‘Whatever…’ Seeing my crestfallen face, she relents slightly, ‘You can sleep on the floor for a couple of nights but that’s it.’”

    Madonna’s reasons weren’t entirely callous, for Christopher later learns that the building owner supposedly found out about her intentions to have a permanent houseguest and put the kibosh on it. Or who knows? Maybe it was just Madonna’s fucked-up way of pushing her brother out of the Midwestern womb so that he could be born into his complete gay self. And, like professional dancing, Madonna was convinced New York was the only place to do that. Turns out, for Christopher, however, that it would be Canada, with an Ottawa-based company called Le Groupe de la Place Royale hiring him for three hundred dollars a week. A rather cush job (at least for a dancer) that Madonna ended up “siren-ing” him out of as well, promising him a gig as her backup dancer for the club performances she was planning to do around the state and nation in order to promote “Everybody” and her debut album, Madonna.

    Naturally, after Christopher already gave up his steady dancing gig, Madonna told him the day he arrived back in New York that the position was actually filled. But, as he said, that time, she let him live with her—so that was a step up. For a while afterward, Christopher got a job as a “card counter” at a greeting card company before Madonna finally decided she did need him to accompany her on this mini tour. One gets the sense that, through all the shade about Madonna’s blasély cold comportment, Christopher was always looking to her as the catalyst for what to do next in his life. And being a catalyst or galvanizer is what any older sibling worth admiring tends to embody.

    Still, that didn’t stop Christopher from a very pointed dedication at the beginning of the book that reads: “For my father, Silvio, and to Joan, who has always been a mother to me.” That latter part of the dedication was an automatic knife dig into Madonna, who never warmed all that much to Joan, painting her as the wicked stepmother early on in her career as she told stories of their housekeeper-turned-mother figure that depicted an oppressive portrait. Case in point, informing Carrie Fisher in a 1991 interview for Rolling Stone, “My stepmother told me I wasn’t allowed to wear tampons until I got married. Can you imagine?” Joan Gustafson (before she became Ciccone) also sewed the Ciccone daughters the same uniform clothing with no personality that Madonna despised. Prompting her to make distinct amendments in order to stand out. As she said in her 1985 interview with Time, “I really saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella. You know, I have this stepmother and I have all this work to do and it’s awful and I never go out and I don’t have pretty dresses. The thing I hated about my sisters most was my stepmother insisted on buying us the same dresses. I would do everything not to look like them. I would wear weird-colored knee socks or put bows in my hair or anything.”

    But if Christopher’s dedication to Joan at the beginning of his book is an indication, perhaps he never felt as hostile toward their stepmother as Madonna did (or, again, the effusive nod was just a means to goad Madonna). Maybe, like Silvio Ciccone, he was simply grateful to have a maternal replacement. Madonna, however, would not forget her real mother, her namesake. And she was determined to free herself of both Michigan and Joan when the time came. Ultimately, her freedom would extend to breaking Christopher out of the Midwest as well, taking him along for her crazy ride in New York and then into the moated world of fame and fortune. It was his attraction to this world, he admits, that inspired him to withstand so much abuse. Like anyone would be, he was seduced by this realm of privilege and influence, especially as a formerly middle-class Midwesterner.

    In many ways, Madonna seemed to “choose” Christopher as the lone member of her family to join her in this embarkment upon success precisely because he seemed so “malleable,” so willing to go with the flow. Alas, Madonna had another thing coming if she didn’t think Christopher, a Sagittarius cusping Scorpio the day before his birthday (November 22—also JFK’s assassination day), wasn’t going to say something eventually. Though perhaps she didn’t imagine it would be as public and immortal as a book.

    Whatever catty ills he speaks of her in Life With My Sister Madonna, though, he knows, in the end, that he would not “exist” without Madonna, his “maker,” of sorts. So it is that he states, “I finally understand and accept that one aspect of my life will never change: I was born my mother’s son, but I will die my sister’s brother.” Eerily prescient words considering headlines like, “Christopher Ciccone, artist and Madonna’s brother, dies at age 63,” “Madonna’s brother, Christopher Ciccone, has died at 63” and “Madonna’s Brother Christopher Ciccone Dies at 63, Less Than 2 Years After Brother Anthony’s Death at 66.” Indeed, Anthony Ciccone was the eldest of the brood, and, like Christopher, portrayed by the media as having a highly contentious relationship with his sister—that is, if and when they ever spoke at all.

    Around 2014, Anthony lashed out by telling the media, that his sister “doesn’t give a shit if I’m dead or alive. She lives in her own world. I never loved her in the first place, she never loved me. We never loved each other.” Harsh words, and something of an ultimate betrayal with regard to the Italian-American view of family as sacrosanct. At least Christopher had the decency to mention at the outset of his memoir, “…when all is said and done and written, I am truly proud that Madonna is my sister and always will be.” Just as Madonna will be of him, regardless of the rift they endured starting at the end of the 90s, just as Madonna was taking up with Guy Ritchie, a man Christopher has no problem mocking in the memoir and, in turn, his sister’s egregious mistake in marrying him. As Madonna put it in her “Instagram obituary,” alluding to the memoir, “I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue, which he sometimes used against me but I always forgave him.” Even if it might have taken Christopher getting prostate cancer for her to do so.

    In another part of the book, Christopher corroborates some of Madonna’s contempt for her stepmother by illuminating some of Joan’s harshness toward the eldest female Ciccone in an anecdote that details her telling M, “Shut up and put it on” of the aforementioned banal dress she sewed from the same Butterick pattern for all the sisters. Even with Joan’s recent death of cancer at the age of eighty-one, it’s difficult to imagine Madonna forgiving her for that sartorial slight. No matter that it probably subliminally helped pushed her to be the style queen she is today. With Joan’s death occurring just weeks before Christopher’s, the tectonic shifts in Madonna’s family of origin are palpable.

    And while Madonna has endured a triple wallop of familial loss in the past two years, it is Christopher’s death that has undeniably affected her the most—thereby leaving her with that nagging sense of survivor’s guilt she’s long been known to possess. Further compounded by Christopher being her younger brother. His death before hers defies the “natural” order—even if Madonna has every intention of living until at least a hundred. Something her father is also hopefully poised to do, now currently ninety-three. Because, in truth, Silvio’s death anytime soon would be an emotional blow Madonna might not be able to take on the heels of all this loss.

    Whatever ill will this brother and sister duo had, Madonna was quick to commemorate Christopher’s life by additionally remarking, “We soared the highest heights together. And floundered in the lowest lows. Somehow, we always found each other again and we held hands and we kept dancing. The last few years have not been easy. We did not speak for some time but when my brother got sick we found our way back to each other. I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end.” This description evokes the image of 80s-era Madonna at the bedsides of her gay friends dying of AIDS, all while she funneled funds into keeping them alive (or at least comfortable) for as long as she could. Mercifully, Christopher was not lost to that epidemic—though Madonna’s ex, Sean Penn was sure to make him feel dirty anyway when he asked him if he had AIDS years after the two had apparently done a “blood brothers pact” at the behest of Sean.

    In some regards, the ire Christopher had for both of Madonna’s husbands was a sign of his fueled-by-protectiveness jealousy. After all, he himself once noted that their relationship oftentimes felt like a marriage—complete with all the bickering and fights that one entails. And maybe, in some sense, Christopher was the only man who ever could be “married” to her. For, to quote a Vietnamese proverb used in Christopher’s book, “Brothers and sisters are closer than hands and feet.” Christopher, indeed, always acknowledged his position as the “feet” a.k.a. “humble servant” to his big sister while working in such wide-ranging roles as dresser (during The Virgin Tour), tour director and set designer. Not to mention his interior design efforts on multiple Madonna abodes. And with each “auxiliary” role, he excelled as only someone who knows another person so well could. Maybe too well, hence Madonna eventually getting spooked by their closeness and pushing him out (as he also posits in his memoir). Only to let him back in when it was at the “too late” stage.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Madonna remembers her brother Christopher Ciccone in moving tribute

    Madonna remembers her brother Christopher Ciccone in moving tribute

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    Madonna is mourning the loss of her younger brother.Christopher Ciccone, a designer, dancer and artist, died “peacefully” on Friday, according to a statement from Ciccone’s family provided to CNN by his representative Brad Taylor. He was 63.The superstar paid tribute to Ciccone in a post on her Instagram page on Sunday, calling him “the closest human to me for so long.”Their bond, she wrote, “grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo.”The “Vogue” singer recalled how the art of dance symbolically “saved” both herself and Ciccone, describing it as the “superglue that held us together” and the reason why they both moved to New York City early on in her career.”My brother was right by my side,” she continued. “We soared the highest heights together. And floundered in the lowest lows. Somehow, we always found each other again and We held hands and we kept dancing.”Ciccone served as Madonna’s creative consultant as her career exploded, serving as the artistic director for her 1990 Blond Ambition world tour, which was chronicled in the 1991 music documentary “Truth or Dare.”He also choreographed in the music video for her 1982 song “Everybody” and directed the “Peace Train” music video for Dolly Parton in 1997. In 2008, Ciccone released his memoir titled “Life with My Sister Madonna,” where he detailed their at-times turbulent relationship.Later, Ciccone had worked as an interior designer and footwear designer.”The last few years have not been easy,” Madonna candidly wrote in her tribute on Sunday. “We did not speak for sometime but when my brother got sick, we found our way back to each other.”According to his family’s statement, Ciccone died “surrounded by love” following a battle with cancer.”I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere,” Madonna wrote.Ciccone is survived by his father Silvio Ciccone, his siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and husband Ray Thacker.

    CNN —

    Madonna is mourning the loss of her younger brother.

    Christopher Ciccone, a designer, dancer and artist, died “peacefully” on Friday, according to a statement from Ciccone’s family provided to CNN by his representative Brad Taylor. He was 63.

    The superstar paid tribute to Ciccone in a post on her Instagram page on Sunday, calling him “the closest human to me for so long.”

    Their bond, she wrote, “grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo.”

    The “Vogue” singer recalled how the art of dance symbolically “saved” both herself and Ciccone, describing it as the “superglue that held us together” and the reason why they both moved to New York City early on in her career.

    “My brother was right by my side,” she continued. “We soared the highest heights together. And floundered in the lowest lows. Somehow, we always found each other again and We held hands and we kept dancing.”

    Ciccone served as Madonna’s creative consultant as her career exploded, serving as the artistic director for her 1990 Blond Ambition world tour, which was chronicled in the 1991 music documentary “Truth or Dare.”

    He also choreographed in the music video for her 1982 song “Everybody” and directed the “Peace Train” music video for Dolly Parton in 1997. In 2008, Ciccone released his memoir titled “Life with My Sister Madonna,” where he detailed their at-times turbulent relationship.

    Later, Ciccone had worked as an interior designer and footwear designer.

    “The last few years have not been easy,” Madonna candidly wrote in her tribute on Sunday. “We did not speak for sometime but when my brother got sick, we found our way back to each other.”

    According to his family’s statement, Ciccone died “surrounded by love” following a battle with cancer.

    “I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere,” Madonna wrote.

    Ciccone is survived by his father Silvio Ciccone, his siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins and husband Ray Thacker.

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  • Christopher Ciccone, artist and Madonna’s younger brother, dies at 63

    Christopher Ciccone, artist and Madonna’s younger brother, dies at 63

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    Christopher Ciccone, an artist and former dancer who was also singer Madonna’s younger brother, has died, his rep Brad Taylor confirmed to CBS News. He was 63.

    He died from cancer on Oct. 4, surrounded by his husband, Ray Thacker, Taylor said in a statement.

    Born on Nov. 22, 1960, in Pontiac, Michigan, Ciccone was an artist, interior decorator and designer, who began his career as a dancer. He joined the Le Group de La Palace Royale in Ottawa in 1980 before moving to New York two years later to support his older sister’s music career as a backup dancer.

    LS.GlobeParty.3.0119.GF.b Madonna, winner of Golden Globe for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical
    Madonna, winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy with her brother Christopher Ciccone at the Disney party following the awards ceremony.

    Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images


    As Madonna’s career grew, Ciccone became more involved — serving as the art director on his sister’s Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990 and as the tour director for her The Girlie Show in 1993. He also directed music videos for megastars Dolly Parton and Tony Bennett in the 1990s.

    His role expanded away from music when Ciccone took on the role of interior designer within the homes his sister owned and occupied in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.

    In 2012, Ciccone released his own shoe line, The Ciccone Collection, at London Fashion Week.

    He told CBS News at the time that his goal is to make the brand “accessible to everybody” and not too pricey.

    “The great thing about doing shoes is that potentially everyone could have a pair. When you’re doing art, there’s only one,” Ciccone said

    Ciccone, who was openly gay, claimed that his sister outed him during her 1991 interview with The Advocate.

    gettyimages-157177546.jpg
    Christopher Ciccone attends OUT Magazine and Buick’s celebration of The OUT100 on November 29, 2012, in New York City.

    Mike Coppola/Getty Images for OUT Magazine


    Ciccone released a tell-all autobiography called “Life With My Sister Madonna,” leading to reports that the two had been estranged, but Ciccone told CBS News in 2012 that he was glad he wrote the book. 

    “I don’t regret any of that,” he said. “I think because of that it sort of led me to this. It gave people an opportunity to think of me as a creative person, as an artist and not just as Madonna’s brother, which is a tag I’m going to wear forever,” Ciccone said in 2012. “But I’m hopeful that at some point it will be Christopher Ciccone first. It’s cool…I’m perfectly happy being what I am.”

    The two eventually made up.

    “Our relationship is fine as far as I’m concerned,” he told CBS News.

    Ciccone and Thacker — a British-born actor — married in 2016.

    Ciccone’s death comes fewer than two weeks after the death of his and Madonna’s stepmother, Joan Clare Ciccone, from cancer. His eldest brother Anthony died in 2023.

    Lucia Suarez Sang

    Lucia Suarez Sang is an associate managing editor at CBSNews.com. Previously, Lucia was the director of digital content at FOX61 News in Connecticut and has previously written for outlets including FoxNews.com, Fox News Latino and the Rutland Herald.

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  • Kylie Minogue Serves Her Version of Britney Spears’ “Lucky” Video With “Lights Camera Action”

    Kylie Minogue Serves Her Version of Britney Spears’ “Lucky” Video With “Lights Camera Action”

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    Proving that female pop stars only get better with age (even if Madonna already did that starting as early as 1998), Kylie Minogue is having a very productive year. It started with an underrated summer anthem called “My Oh My” featuring Tove Lo and Bebe Rexha, then continued with a feature on The Blessed Madonna’s “Edge of Saturday Night.” With her latest single of 2024, however, Minogue is officially paving the way for the release of Tension II, her follow-up to 2023’s Tension. Although an “addendum” to the latter, Tension II is sure to have enough additional bops in the vein of “Lights Camera Action” to make the record worth “buying” (tangibly or otherwise). As for the phrase itself, while Lana Del Rey might have been known to repeat it a few times in partial Spanish (“lights, camera, acción”—a phrase originally taken from a demo called “Put Me in A Movie”) during “High By the Beach,” it is Britney Spears who Minogue channels the most in terms of the video’s meta concept, directed by Sophie Muller.

    For, just as it is in Spears’ Dave Meyers-directed “Lucky” video from 2000, Minogue is merely playing a character in “Lights, Camera, Action”—though viewers are initially made to believe that she really is some kind of espionage mastermind as we see her sitting in a “Madame X” type of environment, complete with a map of the world hung up behind her. One that she approaches with her “obey everything I say” pointing stick to indicate to one of her lackeys what she plans on dominating next (by design, presumably, she aims her stick in the direction of her native Australia). So it is that we’re initially lulled into this “world of international intrigue” (complete with the black and white film used for this part of the video) led by Minogue until, at the thirty-five-second mark, she breaks character and yells, “Cut!”

    Minogue then appears flustered and dissatisfied with her performance (probably much the same way Taylor Swift does while self-directing her videos) as she demands to reshoot the scene. It’s an instant that immediately recalls the actress version of Spears in “Lucky” breaking her own character after the director shouts, “Cut!” at which time the actress allows herself to go back into diva mode by seething, “Finally! We’ve done it fifty million times.” After this audible irritation, viewers are allowed to see the behind-the-scenes of everything and everyone that goes into making a set such a believable “reality.” The same goes for “Lights Camera Action,” as the camera pans backward away from Minogue and then whips around at the forty-nine-second mark to reveal the innerworkings of the sound stage in color. By this part of the song, too, the rhythm has picked up even more (courtesy of producer Lewis Thompson), augmenting the rapid-fire intensity of the flashing lights of the various cameras, further amplified by the presence of photo umbrellas.

    “Lights Camera Action” then majorly serves “Lucky” again in terms of Minogue playing two versions of herself (as opposed to, say, Halsey trying to create an ersatz shot-for-shot remake of the video). In this case, the photographer and the photographed subject. Observer and object. In the next segment, Minogue the Actress/Object appears in a robe and curlers (somewhat reminiscent of a certain Taylor Swift look in “You Need To Calm Down”) as she sits in her director’s chair studying lines. This, too, is in keeping with the style of Spears the Actress’ busy, harried state in between takes during “Lucky.” Minogue takes it one step further by staring at herself in her vanity mirror and practicing her fake cry.

    In the next scene, Minogue, all dressed in espionage-ready black again and looking like the “sexy spy” she was playing in the first part of the video, proceeds to walk down a track as massive, industrial-grade fans blow wind behind her. The continued message? All glam is manufactured, everything is artifice. But, unlike Britney in “Lucky” (with such resigned lyrics as, “It’s time for makeup/Perfect smile/It’s you they’re all waitin’ for”), Kylie isn’t sad about that. Indeed, she seems ready to own her fame in a way that Chappell Roan would never “deign” to do. As both star and director of her own career. This much is played up again when the same Minogue we saw walking down the track is also shown behind the camera that’s set up for the tracking shot that will follow her.

    Thus, although Minogue might be referring to the dance floor as usual when she sings, “And this place is the space where I let it go” (how very “I know a place where you can get away/It’s called a dance floor”) it is the act of performing itself that she highlights in the video with these lyrics. Elsewhere adding, “And I hate to be waiting, so hold the door/I got shades on my face and I’m looking like Lagerfeld’s in Vogue.” Here, the “in Vogue” part may very well have a double meaning. For while Lagerfeld might literally be “in Vogue,” there was also a time when he was more “in vogue,” before his insufferable qualities were deemed too cancellable by modern standards (though Anna Wintour never got the memo).

    No matter to Minogue, apparently, who also makes another Madonna allusion (apart from “vogue”) by name-checking Jean-Paul Gaultier via the lyric, “I look stellar tonight/My armor is by Gaultier/It’s one hell of a ride/Make sure you know you wanna play.” In this moment, Minogue could just as easily be addressing anyone (like the aforementioned Roan) seeking fame at all. Because, if the “Lucky”-esque video is anything to go by, one has to be willing to be pushed and pulled in a million different directions—many of which prompt an inevitable difficulty with deciphering the real from the fake.

    To that end, Minogue gleefully acknowledges a kind of willful detachment from “reality” (whatever that means anymore) as she belts out in the chorus, “Here I go/Tuning in, tuning out/All I want is the noise/Turn it up, turn it loud/Till you ain’t got a choice/We’re turning sinful tonight/It’s about to go off/Tell me, can you feel it?”

    So it is that she saves one of the most fanfare-laden scenes for last—dressed in a caution tape-inspired dress (with caution tape all around her as part of the set design, naturally) while a mound of glitter falls ostensibly “from the sky” (this also being another very “Lucky” sort of image). Minogue’s pièce de résistance in terms of lending the same kind of meta cachet that Spears does to “Lucky” is finishing the video with a scene of her actress self in a “watching the dailies” type of movie theater as she appraises her performance—the one shown in the very first part of “Lights Camera Action.”

    Needless to say, she’s quite pleased with it. Probably far more than the eponymous Lucky was with her own…despite winning an Academy Award. This being, perhaps, the mark of a fundamental difference between overconfidence and insecurity when it comes to how certain celebrities deal with fame.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Janet Jackson Is Presented as Sinner and Saint in the Span of a Week

    Janet Jackson Is Presented as Sinner and Saint in the Span of a Week

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    “Janet Jackson saved my life” is a far cry from some of the other digs lobbed at the singer this past week, after an interview conducted by Nosheen Iqbal for The Guardian, published on September 21st, revealed Jackson to be skeptical of presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ Blackness. It was Eve whose statements about Jackson’s saintliness somewhat counteracted the backlash/“sinner” narrative surrounding the Queen of R&B (but not Pop) for her ignorant and hurtful comments that seemed to be in line with those of a MAGA supporter. Eve’s quote comes from her new memoir, Who’s That Girl? (again trying to co-opt that title from Madonna, who will always have the monopoly on it, and is supposedly calling her forthcoming biopic as such, repurposing the name of her 1987 movie and accompanying lead single from the soundtrack).

    But before the excerpt from Eve’s book started widely circulating in time to vaguely mitigate Jackson’s unexpected comments about Harris, Jackson’s rhetoric had already resulted in a major backlash from fans and ordinary observers alike. Especially considering Jackson’s unique responsibility as a highly influential Black woman. Alas, she seems to be one of those Black women who deems certain other Black people not “Black enough” (sometimes known as: colorism). Except that Jackson continued to double down on her comments that Harris isn’t Black at all, just Indian. So vehement about her stance, apparently, that she was sure to have her “actual” team publicly decry the apology issued by a man claiming to be her manager, Mo Elmasri. In the aftermath, Jackson opted to skip issuing a “real” apology of her own, which of course speaks volumes.

    Whoever he really is, Elmasri’s statement attempted to do damage control, while Jackson sought to undermine his mea culpa by speaking out against the false apology. Meanwhile, fellow famous Black entertainers like D.L. Hughley lashed out at Jackson by saying, “Janet Jackson’s interview sounded like a Trump rally! FYI!! It’s a little ironic to question whether someone is black while you’re breathing through the nose of a white woman!” This jibe at her plastic surgery also harkens back to her brother, Michael, who seemed to spend the majority of his adult life trying to turn completely white (oh the fucked-up psychology this racist society can wreak).

    As for the exchange that has so many people (Black and otherwise) enraged with Janet, it went as follows:

    “America could be on the verge of voting in its first black female president, Kamala Harris. ‘Well, you know what they supposedly said?’ she asks me. ‘She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.’ She looks at me expectantly, perhaps assuming that I have Indian heritage. ‘Well, she’s both,’ I offer. ‘Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days,’ she coughs. ‘I was told that they discovered her father was white.’ I’m floored at this point. It’s well known that Harris’s father is a Jamaican economist, a Stanford professor who split from her Indian mother when she was five. ‘My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,’ Harris wrote in her book, The Truths We Hold. The people who are most vocal in questioning the facts of Harris’ identity tend to be hardcore QAnon-adjacent, Trump-loving conspiracy theorists. I don’t think Jackson falls into that camp, but I do wonder what the algorithms are serving her. I start again. Harris has dual heritage, I say, and, given this moment, does Jackson think America is ready for her—if we agree she’s Black? Or, okay, a woman of color? ‘I don’t know,’ Jackson stage whispers. ‘Honestly, I don’t want to answer that because I really, truthfully, don’t know. I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem.’”

    That last statement is the only one Jackson made that had any sense to it. For she’s not wrong that America’s political and racial divide is so intense that there will be bedlam no matter who wins. And let’s not kid ourselves that the extremist white supremacists won’t come out of the woodwork to cause a stir if Harris does win. Or kid ourselves that Trump doesn’t still have an eerily good chance of keeping her from the presidency. Despite his own racist comments at the National Association of Black Journalists convention during which he indicated that he felt Harris suddenly “became Black” for more political clout and appeal. Though, if he knew anything about what it is to be Black in America, he might understand that such a characteristic isn’t usually touted for benefit in a The System setting.

    Jackson’s repetition of this sentiment might be shocking to some, but, at the same time, she isn’t exactly known for being super “lucid” these days with all her mumbo-jumbo religious bullshit. To boot, many have dredged up an old comment of Harris’ circa 2004 that weighed in on Michael Jackson’s then latest child abuse trial, speculating that Jackson secretly still harbors resentment about it.

    One person who holds no ill will toward from something that happened back in the 2000s is Eve, who rehashed the miraculous way in which Jackson came to her aid on the night of the 2007 VMAs (you know, the one best known for Britney Spears’ trainwreck performance of “Gimme More”). This from an excerpt from her new memoir that’s been making the rounds. In it, she recalls how she had the misfortune of drinking a drugged beverage (maybe it was Diddy who was responsible) at an afterparty and how “Missy [Elliott] came in to check on me, but I was just unable to collect myself. Then who walks in, Janet Jackson. I had never met her before, and so her first introduction to me was seeing me hysterical. None of that mattered to Janet; she actually just sprang into action and told people to get aspirin, water, hot sauce and a piece of white bread. That concoction knocked me right out of my hysteria. So basically Janet Jackson saved my life.”

    A declaration that many others would probably echo…up until her Harris comments. Because there’s no doubt that the racist whites will glom onto them so that they can say, “See? Even a real Black person knows that Kamala isn’t Black, just pretending to be.” And yes, Jackson’s controversial comments with regard to this election are far more offensive than Chappell Roan’s (though, in her case, “offensive” should be put in quotes). Nonetheless, it would be nice to think of Jackson in the same “saintly,” “angel from above” way that Eve did in ’07. But it’s going to be hard to if she continues to repeat these false claims about Harris’ ethnicity.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Rae Gives Del Rey: The “Diet Pepsi” Video

    Rae Gives Del Rey: The “Diet Pepsi” Video

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    Although Addison Rae might be Charli XCX’s number one fan (though it sometimes seems like the other way around), it is Lana Del Rey who she most closely mirrors on her latest single, “Diet Pepsi.” If the title alone wasn’t a dead giveaway of that similarity (echoing Del Rey’s 2012 track, “Cola”), then the music video itself is sure to emphasize the LDR influence on the song. Not just lyrically, but also aesthetically.

    Directed by Sean Price Williams (who also recently directed Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”), the video follows Rae in the front seat (and sometimes the back seat) of her boyfriend’s car. Played by Drew Van Acker, who Rae said reminded her of Tyler Durden a.k.a. Brad Pitt from Fight Club when she first saw a picture of him, his James Dean thing is definitely what one could call “Del Rey-approved” (she, too, secured her own version of Dean via Bradley Soileau in the “Born to Die” and “Blue Jeans” videos). Along with the entire “riding in Daddy’s car” visual that “happens to be” très “Shades of Cool.” Because, while Charli XCX might be known for constantly offering up songs about wheels of some sort (hear: “Vroom Vroom,” “Dreamer,” “White Mercedes,” “Crash,” “Speed Drive,” etc.), it is Del Rey who imbues them with a “quintessential American” meaning (which, alas, XCX is incapable of due to her Britishness). Emphasizing that the car is the thing in the U.S. The place where everything happens, including, of course, a budding romance-turned-carnal sex act. Particularly during the fifties and sixties era that Rae gravitates toward in this video (and that Del Rey gravitates toward all the time).

    The black-and-white “time capsule” (especially for someone so “TikTok-oriented”) is further lent its mid-twentieth century Americana feel by commencing with Rae opening a tape case and slipping it into the car’s tape deck as an I Love Lucy-adjacent font appears onscreen to tell us the song’s name: “Diet Pepsi.” Which is fitting since Rae can, in this scenario, be called the “diet” version of Del Rey in that she’s Gen Z to her millennial, therefore far more diluted in artistic value and originality. And while Del Rey iconically opened “Cola” with the declaration, “My pussy tastes like Pepsi cola,” Rae chooses to mention Diet Pepsi in the second verse with, “Sitting on his lap, sippin’ Diet Pepsi.” And yes, like Del Rey, she also mentions this cola just once despite naming a song after it.

    In the intro verse, Rae also immediately sets the Del Reyian stage via the lines, “My boy’s a winner, he loves the game/My lips reflect off his cross gold chain/I like the way he’s telling me/My ass looks good in these ripped blue jeans/My cheeks are red like cherries in the spring/Body’s a work of art you’d die to see.” Del Rey, in fact, uses one of those exact terms on “Black Beauty”: “I keep my lips red/To seem like cherries in the spring.”

    As for the visual nods to fifties and sixties-era car culture, wherein many teenagers (read: teenage girls…since boys never have to bear the same “stain” after having sex) would lose their “innocence”—this includes the common term of “necking” in the back seat—it’s also present in Rae’s chorus, “When we drive in your car, I’m your baby (so sweet)/Losing all my innocence in the back seat/Say you love, say you love, say you love me.” Of course, the girl in question would likely only do these “dirty” acts in the back seat in the hope that the object of her desire would say just that: “I love you.” As for Rae’s illicit tryst with the boy she speaks of in the song (a boy who, if the casting choice is anything to go by, is much older [also Del Rey-approved]), it’s additionally highlighted in the lyrics, “Break all the rules ’til we get caught/Fog up the windows in the parking lot/Summer love (ah, ah), sexy.”

    With regard to describing, euphemistically, “losing all [her] innocence in the back seat,” not only does it channel Del Rey on “Gods and Monsters” repeating, “It’s innocence lost, innocence lost” (herself riffing on John Milton, who famously declared in Paradise Lost, “Innocence, once lost, can never be regained”), it also harkens back to the Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) and Danny Zuko (John Travolta) dynamic in Grease. While Zuko is the proverbial leather jacket-wearing bad boy with a convertible, Sandy is the virginal girl he tries to “defile” in it while the two are at the drive-in movie theater (the car, again, being like a “bedroom on wheels,” particularly for teenagers back then). Unlike Rae, however, Sandy isn’t amenable to losing her innocence in the front or back seat, berating Danny when he keeps trying to “do sex” with her, “You think I’m gonna stay here with you in this sin wagon?” before running off and leaving Danny “stranded at the drive-in” (even though he’s the one with the wheels to leave).

    Rae, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to stay in Van Acker’s “sin wagon” all night. Only getting out, at one point, to showcase some scenes of herself in a bikini as an American flag materializes to drape over herself—again, Lana Del Rey-style. In fact, it was Barrie-James O’Neill, Del Rey’s ex-boyfriend, who succinctly stated, “You American girls walk around as if your pussies tasted like Pepsi-Cola [yes, he inspired the lyric], as if you’d wrap yourself into an American flag to sleep.” Del Rey speaks of “sleeping” in something entirely different on “Fucked My Way to the Top,” commanding, “Lay me down tonight in my diamonds and pearls.” The motif of diamonds is often present in her lyrics; case in point, “National Anthem,” during which she speaks in the same kind of baby voice as Rae on “Diet Pepsi” by cooing such “isms” as, “Um, do you think you’ll buy me lots of diamonds?” and “Everybody knows it, it’s a fact/Kiss, Kiss.”

    Rae also gives the “Daddy’s girl” aura Del Rey perfected in the “Ride” video by describing, “Sitting on his lap, sippin’ Diet Pepsi/I write my name with lipstick on your chest/I leave a mark so you know I’m the best.” Here, too, one can’t help but think of Del Rey assuring, “Baby, you the best” on “Summertime Sadness.”

    What’s more, in the spirit of Del Rey, the imagery that Rae wields throughout the limited location video is a postmodern parade, from the image of a hand wiping steam away from the window (Titanic-style) to Rae going wide-eyed over a banana split (innuendo indeed)—while doing the splits, naturally. To boot, no nod to Del Rey, ergo Americana, would be complete without draping the aforementioned American flag over herself at some point. Or, for that matter, finding herself in a convenience store (another favorite milieu of Del Rey’s in both song and photoshoot output) where she pulls a Diet Pepsi out of the refrigerator section and sips on it—which, obviously, leads everything to turn into color (sort of like how it did for Betty Parker [Joan Allen] in Pleasantville when she had her first orgasm).

    During one of these final color moments, Rae is also shown biting on a pearl necklace “Lana-style,” which, in reality, is Marilyn Monroe-style—with one of her most famous photoshoots by Bert Stern finding her posed on the beach with pearls all around her and, in one photo, biting the necklace.

    But Williams doesn’t cite Monroe or Del Rey as influences on his aesthetic choices. However, his eye was key to assembling the necessary “collage of homages” that gives “Diet Pepsi” its Del Rey feel (particularly “Shades of Cool” and “Music To Watch Boys To” [namely, when Rae dons headphones…even if the earpieces aren’t crafted in the shape of flowers]). But at the base of that is what Williams characterizes as: “Visually, Russ Meyer, plus the driving sequence in Fellini’s Toby Dammit, plus Bruce Conner’s Breakaway equals ‘Diet Pepsi.’” And, of course, like any adept payer of respect to postmodernism, Rae also weighed in on one of the most important sartorial decisions: wearing a cone bra. For, as she herself mentioned, “I love Madonna so it only felt right to include a cone bra in the video.”

    However, while Madonna’s influence always ends up creeping into every subsequent “pop girlie’s” music and videos, it is Del Rey that outshines all other influences on “Diet Pepsi.” Which works out since the world is apparently in need of a new “sultry soda song” after Del Rey has said she will no longer perform “Cola” after the whole Harvey Weinstein thing…

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • FKA Twigs Reminds: Don’t Ever Fucking Work In An Office…Because You Might Not Experience “Eusexua” Long Enough to Escape It

    FKA Twigs Reminds: Don’t Ever Fucking Work In An Office…Because You Might Not Experience “Eusexua” Long Enough to Escape It

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    In the annals of “office music videos,” there are very few. In the recent past, there have been the likes of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer” and Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It,” but these played with the idea of “office aesthetics” more than trying to “make a statement” about office work and its soul-crushing nature. And, in its way, that’s what FKA Twigs’ music video for her eponymous first single from Eusexua does. Except that it also incorporates the kind of message that Avicii and Nicky Romero’s 2012 hit, “I Could Be The One,” does in its own music video, where an office worker (played by Inessa Frantowski) endures the daily drudgery of her life—dominated mostly by the banal tasks she’s “required” to do for eight hours a day—until she gets the wake-up call to abandon it entirely (resulting in an ironically tragic denouement).

    In a similar fashion, we see a frantic FKA Twigs running into the generic office where she works at the outset of the Jordan Hemingway-directed “Eusexua.” Clearly, she’s dangerously tardy and doesn’t want to get caught. “You’re late,” the drag queen-esque co-worker who looks like Eartheater tells Twigs as she scurries into the fluorescently-lit space (and maybe it is Eartheater—after all, “Alexandra Drewchin” has a co-songwriting and co-producer credit on the track). Plopping down in her seat and taking off her glasses, Twigs barely has time to get her bearings before the boss man materializes to demand, “Have you got a second?” Reluctantly, Twigs says, “Yeah.” “Have you seen the new comments?” “I…haven’t. Were they on GroupSpace?” “No, TeamZone Chat.” Automatically, Twigs seems to be trolling the ridiculous names that get used in a corporate setting, all under the guise of “improving communication.”

    Frantic to accommodate her boss, Twigs tries to log in on her computer to see what’s what, only to keep getting an error message that makes checking her latest emails impossible. Meanwhile, her boss drones on, “We’re phasing out GroupSpace. Everything’s on TeamZone now.” “I’m really sorry.” “It’s fine. Loads have missed it. That’s why I’m standing here physically right now.” Before she can keep engaging in this banal conversation, the phone on her desk rings. Telling her boss “one second,” she answers it, ostensibly receiving some sort of hypnotic message that leads her into a state of what she calls “eusexua.” This being a term Twigs created to describe the feeling of transcending time, space and your body when you find yourself in a euphoric moment that can turn into hours passing without realizing it (this inspired by her clubbing period in Prague while filming The Crow—disastrous for her acting career, but great for continuing to spur her musical one). Indeed, that definition and the events that take place also recall Avicii’s video for “Levels” (he obviously understood how soul-sucking office [non-]life was, despite enduring the different kind of soul-sucking lifestyle entailed by being a world-famous DJ).

    And, evidently, whoever is calling her wants her to remember what that feeling is after she’s so clearly gone numb as a result of spending most of her time in an office setting (and for a company called “CroneCorp” no less). Her boss initially regards her with a strange look at the sight of her own bizarre expression while she listens to whatever is on the other side of the phone (an alien race seeking to remind humans that they’re wasting their potential on “busy work” for the sake of pay?). But then, he, too, is overtaken by eusexua, along with the rest of the office as they get into formation to perform what is sure to become among Twigs’ most iconic choreography—courtesy of Zoi Tatopoulos, “best known for her extraterrestrial approach to creative direction and movement choreography” (so maybe that alien theory holds weight). The accompanying Janet Jackson-y backbeat does not yet let us hear the actual song. Instead, we’re given a preview of “Drums of Death,” which is to be the fourth track on Eusexua. Thus, as though Twigs is speaking from the “head alien” perspective, we hear her voice command, “Listen, girl, drop your skin to the floor/Let your clothes body talk/Shed your skin/Rip your shirt/Flesh be torn/Feel hot, feel hard, feel heavy/Fuck who you want/Baby girl, do it just for fun.”

    It is after this mantra that everyone in the office really has shed their “skin” (a.k.a. work clothes) in favor of wearing solely their skivvies. The lyrics to “Drums of Death” then continue to play as Twigs asks, “Hello, what you like?/Do you wanna meet later?/Relax and ease your mind ‘cause you work so much/I know what you like, and you’re my main character/I’m here anytime, you can call me up.” And with the shedding of her “work skin,” as it were, Twigs is also the only one to be given what will now be known as her “Eusexua era haircut.” Which means a “semi-2007 Britney,” as only half of her head is shaved (the front part).

    Before Twigs and her fellow (erstwhile) office workers cease their dance, Twigs concludes it with the sound lyrical advice, “Crash the system, diva doll/Serve cunt, serve violence.” It is then that Hemingway focuses the camera on a computer keyboard with someone’s hand repeatedly tapping the same button before then panning downward to reveal the office in topsy-turvy mode, with its ceiling now showing signs of dirt and decay infecting the space—almost like a commentary on how fucking antiquated this type of work setup is. At the same time, it’s also a means of remarking on how humans need to literally get back to the earth. Away from all the trappings of so-called modernity that have turned them into automatons. At the “bottom” of the dirt-caked ceiling, Twigs is suddenly outfitted in a black, extraterrestrial-chic “ensemble” (mainly a pair of tights) just as the setting switches entirely and she’s pulled upward (or downward, depending on how you look at it) into an earthen backdrop—this moment somewhat mirroring her being pulled up into a new surreal setting during her famous “cellophane” video.

    Writhing in sexual unison with the former office workers who have joined her in this “state of being” (eusexua), they, too, look as though they’ve been ejected—birthed—from out of the dirt that was spilling into the office ceiling. And yes, this type of sexual writhing is something Madonna perfected during The Girlie Show via a performance of “Deeper and Deeper” that concludes with plenty of orgiastic flair (she perfected this writhing, once again, during her performance of “Justify My Love” for The Celebration Tour).

    Channeling the lyrics of Olive’s 1996 song, “You’re Not Alone” (during which Ruth-Ann Boyle assures, “You’re not alone, I’ll wait ’til the end of time/Open your mind, surely it’s plain to see/You’re not alone, I’ll wait ’til the end of time for you”), Twigs sings, “You’re not alone (under the stars)/Do you feel alone?/You’re not alone.” A statement that, although seemingly “simple,” still has plenty of importance and meaning to the many people who feel perennially lonely—even more so in this increasingly dehumanized world (and that sort of dehumanization was arguably refined with the advent of the office space).

    By the end of the video, Twigs has somewhat left the height of eusexua long enough to realize she’s still in the office (now back in her “professional” attire) as other co-workers appear to remain in a state of feral bliss. Seeming to remember where she is, Twigs also remembers that she probably shouldn’t stay in this hellhole another second…because she might not get the “eusexua call” again. The one that shook her out of her coma in the first place.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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