Madonna Drops Spanglish Maluma Collab 'Medellín' — Her First New Single in Four Years
Introducing: Madame X!
A new era of Madonna is upon us. On Wednesday, the pop icon released the Spanglish Maluma collaboration “Medellín,” her first new single in four years.
The dance track boasts an island vibe, as Madonna opens the track: “I took a pill and had a dream / I went back to my 17 year / Allowed myself to be naïve / To be someone I’ve never been / I took a sip and had a dream / And I woke up in Medellín / The sun was caressing my skin / Another me could now begin.” After the first verse, Maluma joins in, rapping and singing in Spanish.
Medellín is a city in Colombia, the home country of 25-year-old reggaeton singer Maluma (real name: Juan Luis Londoño Arias).
Madonna and Maluma met at the 2018 MTV VMAs last summer and connected to collaborate afterward.
“Madonna and I are cooking there together, making some beautiful songs. I’m very excited,” Malumba told Forbes. “That’s a huge step for my culture, for Latin culture, it’s very, very big.”
The track — which shares a similar vibe to her 1986 hit “La Isla Bonita” — is the first single off Madonna’s upcoming 14th studio album, Madame X, which she’ll drop June 14. After premiering “Medellín” with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio, Madonna shared the full track listing for Madame X on her Instagram account.
Madame ❌ June 14, 2019 ❌ listen to #Medellin ft. @maluma now ❌. @stevenkleinstudio @mirwais.official
A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Apr 17, 2019 at 9:02am PDT
The star, 60, teased the LP in a series of Instagram posts on Sunday. In one clip, an unreleased Madonna song begins: “The thing that hurt the most was that I wasn’t lost … I wasn’t lost.”
In the same video, the singer then announced her album.
“I decided to call my record Madame X,” she said. “Madame X is a secret agent traveling around the world, changing identities, fighting for freedom, bringing light to dark places. Madame X is a dancer. A professor. A head of state. A housekeeper. An equestrian. A prisoner. A student. A mother. A child. A teacher. A nun. A singer. A saint. A whore. And a spy in the house of love. I’m Madame X.”
Madonna hasn’t released an album since 2015’s favorably reviewed
, which she promoted on a world tour through March 2016.
Welcome to the World of Madame ❌. ..................... @nunoxico @stevenkleinstudio
A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Apr 14, 2019 at 8:41am PDT
Madge has kept busy in the years since.
In February 2017, Madonna adopted twin sisters — Estere and Stella, now 6 — from Malawi, expanding her family to six. She is also mom to 22-year-old daughter Lourdes Leon (with ex-boyfriend Carlos Leon), 18-year-old son Rocco Ritchie (with ex-husband Guy Ritchie), as well as son David Banda, 13, and daughter Mercy James, 13, whom she also adopted from Malawi.
In addition to focusing on her family, Madonna has continued her philanthropic pursuits. In July 2017, her charity Raising Malawi opened the Mercy James Centre for Pediatric Surgery and Intensive Care, the first children’s hospital in the southeast African country.
The singer and her clan also relocated to Lisbon, Portugal, in late-2017, and the move has inspired her.
“I’ve just met lots of really amazing musicians, and I’ve ended up working with a lot of these musicians on my new record, so Lisbon has influenced my music and my work. How could it not? I don’t see how I could have gone through that year without being informed by all this input of culture,”
