Madonna Celebrates 60th Birthday By Dropping Never-Before-Seen Video
Madonna celebrated her 60th birthday by unveiling a special treat for fans: the first full-length video of her 2018 Met Gala performance.
The Queen of Pop dropped the video, which can be viewed above, on YouTube and her social media accounts early Thursday. In a note posted with the clip, she said the video was a thank-you to fans who had donated to a fundraiser for orphans and children in Malawi, launched to coincide with her birthday on Aug. 16.
The footage shows the pop superstar making a dramatic entrance at the top of a staircase inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Great Hall. Dressed in a floor-length robe, she sings her 1989 classic “Like a Prayer” amid a huddle of backup singers accompanying her with Gregorian chants.
In true Madonna style, she then removes the robe to reveal a white corset as she segues into a sparse, unreleased tune ― thought to be titled “Beautiful Game” ― before concluding with an emotional version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Prior to Thursday, only a few snippets of Madonna’s May 7 mini-concert had surfaced online, courtesy of gala attendees who captured the moment on their cellphones. Later that week, Bravo TV personality Andy Cohen admitted he’d pushed aside Stephen Colbert in an effort to get close to Madge as she descended the museum’s staircase.
The new song is thought to be from Madonna’s forthcoming album. Though no release date has been announced, the Material Girl is reportedly teaming back up with longtime collaborator Mirwais Ahmadzai, who worked on her “Music” and “American Life” albums.
In an interview with Vogue Italia released earlier this month, Madonna revealed how her newly adopted home of Lisbon, Portugal, was influencing her work as a singer and performer.
“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,” she said. “I don’t see how I could have gone through that year without being informed by all this input of culture.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
