Madonna says she has had COVID-19

Madonna said Thursday she has recovered from the coronavirus which forced her to pull out of a string of concerts in Paris in February and March.

The "Queen of Pop" said she had tested positive for antibodies which may mean she had COVID-19 -- though at the time she said she didn't realise she had it.

"I am not currently sick," she told her 15 million followers on Instagram.

"When you test positive for anti-bodies it means you had the virus, which I clearly did as I was sick at the end of my tour in Paris over seven weeks ago along with many other artists in my show," she said.

The 61-year-old star only played a single night in Paris on February 22 before calling off the next show, citing "ongoing injuries".

She later called off two further Paris concerts -- the last in her Madame X world tour -- after French authorities banned large gatherings in a bid to stem the spread of the virus in early March.

"At the time we all thought we had a bad flu," Madonna wrote in her post.

"Thank God we are all healthy and well now."

- 'Cursed' -

The Paris dates on Madonna's tour seem to have been cursed, with her opening night concert not starting till after midnight, three and a half hours late.

Scientists are sceptical about the accuracy of many antibody tests which claim to show a person has had the virus.

Some warned that even those tests that meet the US government's informal standards may produce false positives.

The singer revealed she had the virus after sharing an article about her donating $1.1 million (one million euros) towards research to find a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Madonna was among 200 artists and scientists who signed an open letter Wednesday calling for radical change across the world rather than "a return to normal" after the coronavirus lockdowns.

Alongside Hollywood stars Cate Blanchett, Jane Fonda and Marion Cotillard and a clutch of Nobel Prize winners, she pleaded for an end to unbridled consumerism and a "radical transformation" of economies to help save the planet.

"The ongoing ecological catastrophe is a meta-crisis," the open letter said.

"Unlike a pandemic... a global ecological collapse will have immeasurable consequences," it added.

Madonna made a large donation to a fund organised by the EU to find a vaccine for COVID-19, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen revealed last week.

Agence France-Presse

Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Katy Perry lead celebs mourning Clinton loss

Lady Gaga called for kindness, Miley Cyrus was in tears, Madonna vowed never to give up and Katy Perry urged Americans not to weep as Republican Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.

Celebrities, many of whom had campaigned for Clinton, were shocked as Trump was elected after a long and bitter campaign.

A tearful Cyrus posted a video on social media on Wednesday saying she had not slept because of Clinton’s loss. But the “Wrecking Ball” singer, 23, who had said earlier this year she would leave the country if Trump won, urged unity, saying “Donald Trump, I accept you as President of the United States … Please treat people with compassion and respect.”

Lady Gaga went to Trump Tower in Manhattan early on Wednesday and posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding a “Love trumps hate” campaign poster.

“I want to live in a #CountryOfKindness #LoveTrumpsHate. He divided us so carelessly. Let’s take care now of each other,” she wrote.

Hollywood actors, comedians and filmmakers had thrown their support behind Clinton. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, entertainment sources contributed $22 million to her campaign and to pro-Clinton super-PACs through Oct. 19, compared with less than $290,000 for Donald Trump, Hollywood trade publication Variety reported this week.

Cher, who had said earlier in the campaign that she would move to Jupiter if Trump was elected, tweeted “World will never be the same. I feel sad for the young.” She made no mention of moving out of the United States.

Perry, who performed for Clinton at several campaign rallies, said “Do not sit still. Do not weep. MOVE. We are not a nation that will let HATE lead us.”

“A New Fire Is Lit. We Never Give Up. We never Give In,” wrote Madonna on Twitter.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who is British, got into a Twitter spat after urging her followers to challenge “racism, misogyny and hatred.”

But Trump too had his show business supporters.

“CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT TRUMP! @realDonaldTrump against all odds ..against the establishment and even against most from the GOP..U did it!,” tweeted former “Cheers” actress Kirstie Alley.

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the brother of “Saturday Night Live” star Alec Baldwin, tweeted that he was “proud to have been part of such amazing history.”

source: interaksyon.com

Madonna celebrates 58th birthday in Havana

HAVANA | Madonna celebrated her 58th birthday Tuesday in Havana, dancing to Cuban beats during a night on the town and drawing crowds as she toured the city.

The Material Girl’s visit got a write-up in the Cuban Communist party’s official newspaper, Granma, which reported that she “toured different city squares to start the first day of her visit, which will last until Wednesday.”

It said the U.S. pop superstar was in Cuba with her eldest daughter, Lourdes, a 19-year-old model whose father is Cuban dancer and fitness trainer Carlos Leon.

American photographer Steven Klein and stylists B. Akerlund and Andy Lecompte are traveling with them, it said.

Madonna posted a picture of herself to her Twitter account with the caption “Cuba Libre.” It shows her wearing a revealing black dress with yellow flowers and smiling as she tips a black hat.

Videos posted online by fans show her dressed in the same outfit strolling through the streets of Old Havana and dancing to Cuban beats at a restaurant in the historic city center as onlookers cheer.

The news site Cubadebate said Madonna was planning a “big party” Tuesday with the “rhythms and flavors” of Cuba.

Madonna is the latest in a string of U.S. celebrities to visit Cuba since its historic rapprochement with long-time enemy the United States was announced in December 2014.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Usher, Paris Hilton, and Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian have all toured the Caribbean island recently.

U.S. citizens are still officially banned from traveling to Cuba as tourists under the embargo Washington has maintained on Havana since the 1960s.

But President Barack Obama’s administration has loosened travel restrictions, enabling more Americans to make the trip under permitted categories such as “cultural exchanges.”

source: interaksyon.com

Taylor Swift world’s highest paid celebrity: Forbes

NEW YORK | At the tender age of 26, Taylor Swift is the world’s highest-paid celebrity, pulling in a whopping $170 million over the past year, Forbes magazine said Monday.

The pop diva’s take from June 2015 to June 2016 is the highest total of her young career, the magazine said, more than doubling her previous record of $80 million last year.

She out-earned other famous musicians including Adele ($80.5 million), Madonna ($76.5 million), Rihanna ($75 million) and Bruce Springsteen ($60.5 million).

The “Shake It Off” singer also outpaced rival Katy Perry who was last year’s top-earning musician at $135 million, according to Forbes magazine’s annual list of 100 highest-paid celebrities.

Perry dropped to number 63 on this year’s list, earning a mere $41 million.

Swift’s huge earnings were largely thanks to her “1989 World Tour” during which she smashed the Rolling Stone’s North American record, grossing $200 million on the continent en route to a quarter of a billion worldwide, the magazine said.

Coming in at number two on the list this year was the boy band One Direction, ($110 million), followed by author James Patterson ($95 million).

Taylor’s former beau, musician Calvin Harris, also made the cut coming in at number 21 ($63 million).

“The world’s 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in $5.1 billion pretax over the past 12 months, more than the GDP of Belize, Gambia and Bhutan combined,” Forbes said.

Magazine editor Zack O’Malley Greenberg said live entertainment continues to be a major cash draw.

“From soccer games in Spain to concerts in China, fans are willing to shell out to see big names – and this is driving the celebrity economy to ever greater heights,” he said in a statement.

On the Hollywood front, Jennifer Lawrence was the industry’s highest-paid actress for the second consecutive year, earning $46 million, a slight drop from the $52 million “The Hunger Games” star banked the year before.

Actor Dwayne Johnson wrestled the highest-paid actor spot from “Iron Man’s” Robert Downey Jr., earning $64.5 million, largely thanks to the billion-dollar “Fast and Furious” franchise and the surprising success of 2015′s “San Andreas” movie.

Many athletes also made the list, including Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($88 million), tennis man Roger Federer ($68 million), and German race car driver Sebastian Vettel ($41 million)

source: interaksyon.com

Madonna crowned top music earner in 2012 due to world tour

REUTERS – Madonna was named the biggest money maker in music in 2012 on Friday, with a world tour helping her take home up to $34.6 million and highlighting the earning power of live performances as the industry increasingly goes digital.

The 54-year-old Material Girl topped Billboard Magazine’s annual list of 40 top money makers for the second time after earning an estimated $32 million — 93.5 percent of her revenue — from her 88-date “MDNA” tour, 2012′s biggest tour.

Madonna, who also led the list in 2008 due to tour income, was the only woman in the top 10 with last year’s winner, Taylor Swift, who fell to 15th place as she did not tour in 2012.

In second place in the music magazine’s list was Bruce Springsteen whose $33.4 million revenue was also primarily driven by touring, playing to sold-out stadiums and arenas.

Springsteen, who also released a No. 1 album, “Wrecking Ball,” last year, earned 92 percent of his revenue from live shows where strong merchandise sales also boosted takings.

Roger Waters, founder of Pink Floyd, came a distant third with earnings of $21 million largely from “The Wall Live” tour and Van Halen was fourth with $20 million after touring in support of their album “A Different Kind of Truth”.

“When it comes to making the biggest score, the most money always comes from high-paying live performances,” Billboard’s editorial analyst Glenn Peoples wrote in explaining the list.

“Ironically, the most popular touring artists are usually well past their peaks on the album sales charts.”

Country music veteran Kenny Chesney, the Dave Matthews Band, country’s Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean, and British band Coldplay came next on the list.

Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber was 10th, earning almost $16 million of which about $10 million came from his sold-out “Believe” arena tour.

“The entire top 10 averaged 84.2 percent of their income from concerts, and the number would have been higher, if not for Justin Bieber’s mere 60.1 percent share at No. 10 dragging down the average,” said Billboard.

However touring was not vital for every act on the list such as Swift and Britain’s Adele.

Swift earned $12.7 million after selling the most digital tracks in 2012. She sold more than 3 million digital albums and 15.6 million digital tracks driven by her hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”.

Adele took the year out after having a baby but still earned nearly $14 million, putting her 11th in the rankings, due to continuing strong physical and digital sales for her album “21″.

Maroon 5, ranked 33rd in the list, took the highest share of streaming revenue which made 3.5 percent of its $7.2 million.

Billboard said streaming music online to paying customers has not caught on with older generations and was small in percentage terms but growing.

“Yet even in the coming years, as streaming services become a more important revenue source, possibly replacing digital downloads and CD sales, one thing is unlikely to change: concerts will have the greatest influence of top earners’ overall earnings,” said Peoples.

The list was compiled by Billboard editors using data for Boxscore archives of U.S. concert gross figures, Nielsen SoundScan data for sales, YouTube, and Nielsen BDS data.

source: interaksyon.com

Madonna provokes lawsuit with swastika video

PARIS – France’s far-right National Front said Sunday it plans to sue Madonna over a video at the US pop star’s concert in France showing party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead.

“We cannot accept such an odious comparison,” National Front vice-president Florian Philippot said, adding that the legal action would be filed this week.

The video, which served as a backdrop for Madonna’s performance of the song “Nobody Knows Me”, flashed a picture of Le Pen’s forehead superimposed with a swastika, followed by an image resembling Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

There was an audible gasp from the audience at the Stade de France on Saturday when the image of Le Pen appeared briefly on a giant screen in a video clip which also showed Madonna’s face merging with a number of public figures including Pope Benedict XVI and toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

“Projecting such an image of Marine Le Pen with a swastika implies that she is a Nazi,” National Front lawyer Wallerand de Saint-Just told AFP, adding that the civil complaint for insult would be lodged with a court this week.

Tour promoter LiveNation declined to comment on the National Front action against the queen of pop, who has been no stranger to controversy during her long career.

“This is just another provocation in Madonna’s world tour so that people will talk about her,” Philippot charged, claiming that the stadium was “far from full” for Madonna’s gig and that the tour was a “fiasco”.

“Marine Le Pen will defend not only her own honor but her supporters and the millions of National Front voters.”

Le Pen, a French presidential candidate, had already warned the US superstar in June that she was mulling legal action after the video was shown at Tel Aviv gig in May when Madonna, 53, kicked off her world tour.

“(When) old singers want to get people to talk about them, it’s understandable that they do such extreme things,” the 43-year-old Le Pen said at the time.

SOS Racisme however said it supported Madonna, paying tribute to her “resolutely anti-racist” stance. “She made clear last night that the fight against discrimination is a fundamental battle.”

About 70,000 people were at the Stade de France to watch the “Material Girl” perform on Saturday night, the latest concert in her “MDNA” tour which covers about 30 countries in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas and will wrap up in Australia in 2013.

Madonna will next appear in France in Nice on August 21.

In 1987, Madonna caused a stir when she threw her panties into the crowd at a concert where then president Jacques Chirac was in attendance.

On her latest world tour, she made headlines when she flashed a nipple at a gig in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul last month.

Le Pen, the daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, won 18 percent in the first round of the presidential election in April.

But she lost her bid to win a seat in legislative elections last month although the party — which wants to ditch the euro and battles against what Le Pen calls the “Islamisation” of France — returned to parliament for the first time since 1998.

source: interaksyon.com

Madonna's Super Bowl Show: Halftime Fumbles Queen of Pop slips and M.I.A. flashes the bird during performance.

During the 13 minutes Madonna took over Super Bowl XLVI for her highly anticipated halftime show, there were plenty of surprise cameos, high-tech stage lights and, of course, some of the biggest classics in pop music.

But even though the Queen of Pop's glitzy show Sunday night (February 5) appeared to run smoothly, the over-the-top theatrics might have shadowed some of the fumbles. Take a look at the list of onstage slip-ups MTV News caught during the pop performer's set.

Madonna's Almost Fall(s)
It was only a few minutes into the show, but Madonna lost her balance and almost fell as she jumped around the flashing bleachers with her dancers during her performance of "Music." She also teetered a few minutes later while getting up after getting down with LMFAO. Fortunately, the singer found her ground and demonstrated how a professional handles a little performance slipup, continuing without missing a beat.

M.I.A.'s Finger Flash
Madonna wouldn't be Madonna without even a little controversy, but this time, it wasn't even her fault. During the performance of the pop titan's new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin," M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj appeared as sideline cheerleaders to spit their rap contribution to the pop gem. Known for her rebellious attitude, M.I.A. flashed her middle finger for a split second that has already fueled headlines all over the Internet.

Backing Track
While Madge is getting lots of love from celebrities, there are many who are criticizing the Queen of Pop for what appears to be a mostly backing-track performance. However, lip-synching isn't unfamiliar territory for the Super Bowl. Back in 2009, the championship game's producer Ricky Minor told the Associated Press that he requested Jennifer Hudson lip-synch her rendition of the national anthem to limit the chances of possible mistakes.


article source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678570/madonna-super-bowl-halftime-fumbles.jhtml