POP BITES: Madonna

As the Queen of Pop, Madonna’s changed the face of music as often as she’s changed her image. But it’s sometimes a struggle keeping up with Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, or living up to her kids’ expectations as a Yummy Mummy. Here she lives to tell the tale…
 
On…keeping up with the challengers to her pop crown
When I’m making a record I don’t really intellectualise about how ‘cutting edge’ something is, or worry about ‘is this working?’ Once you’re in the recording studio you just let it happen and hope for the best. But I do consciously pick artists, songwriters and producers to collaborate with who I think are doing interesting things and pushing the envelope - and I expect them to do the same when they’re working with me!

On…being hounded by the paparazzi
It’s annoying, but I just try not to go out where I know the paparazzi are going to be. It’s not as crazy in London as it is in L.A., believe it or not. Also, if you live in one place for a while then after a while they get bored of you, so they don’t bother you as much.

On…being a fashion icon
I don’t think I am a fashion icon! I’m perfectly happy to muck around in pair of drawstring pants and wellies. Sometimes my daughter gets angry with me, because I go to school wearing my tracksuit. She says; ‘Please can’t you just wear normal clothes?’ I think she wants me to be a ‘Yummy Mummy’ but that’s just not me. You know, I wish people would put more emphasis on my creative input to music, rather than my style. Sadly, people seem very interested in the surface right now – people’s personal lives, the way they dress, their hair…but I’m not interested in any of that.

On…collaborating with hotshot producers like Timbaland and Pharrell Williams
When I worked with them that first week was like being on a rocky boat, because they encouraged me to sing in a syncopation that I wasn’t used to. It was hard getting used to that at first, but it ended up being good because they really pushed me as a singer. I remember thinking, after I did ‘Candy Shop’ with Pharrell, ‘Oh wow this is going to be good’ and it really inspired me to push myself for the rest of it.  I like working with people, like that, who really push the boundaries, take their jobs seriously but don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s playful but at the same time very professional.

Check the full interview with Madonna in the new issue of Rip It Up out now.

By Des Sampson