New Music: Madonna - "Living for Love" [Full Audio / Review]
Hallelujah! Madonna’s label made the right decision last night by launching the iTunes pre-order page of the queen of pop’s 13th album “Rebel Heart” (won’t be out till March 10th, 2015 but it doesn’t matter!) and it’s offering fans six tracks as instant downloads if they make their pre-orders right now! Not a bad treat, huh? All of this rush is happening after Madonna's new album leaked "in full" online earlier this week. The leaked set included 13 “demo” songs and it was titled “Iconic”. Madonna’s label is retaliating the hurtful leak by changing the album title to “Rebel Heart” (after one of the songs of the album) and extending the final tracklisting to 19 songs! Wowza!
Madonna’s team just had to “move”, and move very quickly. The leak was a major slap on the face to Madonna and I’m sure she suffered a mini heart attack when she found out of the leak. "Iconic/Rebel Heart” wasn’t supposed to be out till mid-2015 apparently but the leak is causing the album release to be pushed up to March (if it was me, I would have moved it to NOW or early January...what is Interscope plotting?). Madonna must be now figuring out how to properly promote this record or move up the promo schedule she had already lined up. Poor her!
By the way, not only the album artwork, and pre-order link were released last night, Madonna also told the world that her first single is going to be "Living for Love". Co-written by Madonna, Diplo, MoZella, Ariel Rechtstaid, Toby Gad and Nick Rowe, the full official audio of the deep house/gospel track was uploaded on Madonna’s YouTube page on Friday night (Dec. 19) too thus confirming its “lead single” status (right?). Madonna isn’t the only “vocalist” in the ‘Like a Prayer’-esque "Living for Love" as the London Gospel Community Choir also participate, and even Alicia Keys! Well, the R&B star doesn't have vocals in the song, but plays the piano!
From the second I heard the leaked album (oops!) "Living for Love" immediately became a stand-out to me. And I really made it one of my candidates for lead single so I'm extremely happy with the choice. There are a few differences between the demo version and the final version, with me loving it a bit more the demo, but in any case "Living for Love" is a stunning song and it should be a hit! Madge is back at her best!