Madonna: I'm The Picasso Of Pop

"I like to compare myself to other kinds of artists like Picasso. He kept painting and painting until the day he died. Why? Because I guess he felt inspired to do so. Life inspired him, so he had to keep expressing himself, and that’s how I feel. I don’t think there’s a time, a date, an expiration date for being creative. I think you go until you don’t have any more to say.” - Madonna, speaking to the Associated Press. Her next world tour launches in early September.

Beyonce Celebrates SCOTUS: #LoveWins

This afternoon Beyonce posted an Instagram clip with this message: "Never too late. #LoveWins. ❤️." At this writing the clip has 760K likes and over 40K comments.

Liza To Return to London Paladium

Britain's Pride Life reports:

Last summer, Liza Minnelli was forced to cancel her only scheduled UK appearance on the advice of doctors, leaving many of her British fans fearing that they may never get to see this living, breathing, all-singing, all-dancing icon in the flesh. Imagine the excitement, then, upon hearing that Minnelli, now 70, plans to return to these shores later this year, for a series of “intimate” performances, beginning at her London “home”, the London Palladium, on 20 September. Fittingly it was at this same theatre that a then 18-year-old Minnelli appeared alongside her mother, Judy Garland, in a now legendary concert, in 1964. An Intimate Evening With Liza Minnelli will adopt the format of “An Audience With…” Minnelli will discuss her life onstage, invite questions from the audience, and sing the songs that have made her an undisputed star. The evening will culminate with Minnelli’s induction into the Palladium’s Hall of Fame.

Click over to Pride Life for Liza's thoughts on her gay fans and her favorite song. Follow Pride Life on Facebook for breaking LGBT news out of the UK.

VIDEO: Below is that famed concert in full.

Madonna - Bitch I'm Madonna (Remix)

Via Billboard:

Billboard has the exclusive premiere of the Sick Individuals remix of Madonna's new single "Bitch I'm Madonna." Listen to the thumping reworking below. "Bitch I'm Madonna," which features Nicki Minaj, is the third single from Madonna's Rebel Heart album. "Bitch" follows "Living For Love" and "Ghosttown," which both reached No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart. Remixes for "Bitch I'm Madonna" will be commercially released on June 16, the same day that its music video is due to premiere.

Releasing this during Pride Month is not a coincidence.

Cyndi Lauper Testifies Before Congress On Behalf Of Homeless LGBT Youth

Yesterday Cyndi Lauper testified before a Senate subcommittee on youth homelessness. After the hearing, she and GOP Sen. Susan Collins discussed the Senate's recent refusal to reauthorize an LGBT-inclusive funding bill. Via the New York Times:

The problem, Ms. Collins said, was “confusion” over parts of the amendment, including a measure misinterpreted as a restriction on faith-based organizations’ ability to show preference in hiring those of their own faith. Ms. Collins pointed out that the Justice Department already provided that protection. She said she hoped to clarify that when and take another crack at passing the measure she originally introduced. “Well, when will that be, do you think?” Ms. Lauper asked. “I don’t know exactly,” Ms. Collins said. “Then what should we do?” Ms. Lauper said. Keep pushing, Ms. Collins responded. But she has yet to discuss another effort to reauthorize the legislation, either as a stand-alone bill or an amendment, with Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. “Who is that guy?” Ms. Lauper asked. “He is the majority leader,” Ms. Collins said. “He decides what comes to the floor.”

Quote Of The Day - Madonna

"The person I most want to meet is President Obama. When the heck am I going to meet him? He just needs to invite me to the White House already. He probably thinks I'm too shocking to be there. I'm serious. If I was a little bit more demure or if I was just married to Jay Z. Hey, if Jay would only take me as his second wife, then I'd score an invitation.' - Madonna, in an US Weekly piece titled "25 Things You Don't Know About Me." Other things include that she hates Material Girl and suffers from "major" claustrophobia.

Madonna Responds To Dolce & Gabbana

(Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

Howard Stern Interviews Madonna

Billboard recaps:

Did you know Madonna wrote "Vogue" in just a couple of hours? Or that she doesn't like being stoned? Or that she dated Tupac Shakur? (We really didn't know that one.) Well, she revealed that and much, much more in a nearly 90-minute interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday (March 11) -- her first interview ever with the radio personality. The chat covered a lot of ground, from her childhood and the early death of her mother to the time she was raped but didn't report it and her odd friendship with Michael Jackson. Madonna's latest album, Rebel Heart, was just released. In the interview, Madonna revealed that the album's next single will be "Ghosttown," for which she's shooting a video next week.

Madonna Announces 2015 Tour Dates

Madge's last tour in 2012 was the top-grossing concert tour of that year, taking in an estimated $305 million. Her tours in this century alone have grossed over 1.2 billion. Ticket sales for the Rebel Heart tour begin tomorrow for Madonna fan club members and open to the general public on Monday when buyers will also get a "super deluxe" free download of the album plus six unreleased tracks. Ticket prices at Brooklyn's Barclays Center start at $55 and top out at $415. Until it sells out, of course, and then the resellers and scalpers will score their usual three and four times face value.

Madonna Ties Billboard Chart Record

Via Billboard:

The Queen of Pop reigns again with 'Living for Love,' tying with George Strait, the King of Country, for the most leaders on a single Billboard chart. Madonna makes Billboard chart history, as she earns her 44th No. 1 on Dance Club Songs, where "Living for Love" lifts 2-1. With the coronation, Madonna equals George Strait, who's logged 44 No. 1s on Hot Country Songs, for the most leaders ever by an act on a singular Billboard chart. It's fitting history for the artists also known, respectively, and reverently, as the Queen of Pop and the King of Country. With her 44th leading title on Dance Club Songs, Madonna pulls further ahead of runners-up Beyonce and Rihanna. In fact, Madonna has tallied as many No. 1s as they have combined: 22 each. (The chart launched as a national survey in the Billboard issue dated Aug. 28, 1976.)

Living For Love has failed to make the Hot 100 pop chart, however. Madonna's first #1 on the dance chart came in 1983 with Holiday.

RELATED: Since Madonna just vented about ageism, perhaps it's worth noting that the oldest artist to achieve a #1 dance single is Yoko Ono, who last year scored her 11th dance chart topper at the age of 81 thanks to a remix by popular EDM artist Dave Aude.

Feds Partner With Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund On LGBT Homelessness

Via press release from the True Colors Fund:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the True Colors Fund are excited to announce the beginning stages of implementation of the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Prevention Initiative, a first-of-its-kind effort to identify successful strategies to ensure that no young person is left without a home because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD and the True Colors Fund have been working together since 2013 to conceive the elements of the Initiative, which is now ready to be implemented in Harris County, TX and Hamilton County, OH. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth comprise up to 40% of the homeless youth population in the United States, yet they make up only 5-7% of the general youth population. Family conflict is the most frequently reported reason that young people experience homelessness, and for LGBTQ youth, that conflict is often related to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Madonna - Living For Love

The video launched yesterday on Snapchat.

"Living for Love" shows Madonna dressed as a bullfighter fighting her dancers dressed as bulls. The dramatic visual, which takes place on a stage in front of a blood red velvet curtain, was directed by J.A.C.K. (Julien Choquart and Camille Hirigoyen) and ends with a Friedrich Nietzsche quote ("Man is the cruelest animal. At tragedies, bullfights and crucifixions he has felt best on earth; and when he invented hell for himself that was his very heaven.")

Betty White's 93rd Birthday Flash Mob

Madonna Releases Six New Tracks

Via Rolling Stone:

Madonna hadn't planned on releasing her 13th album, Rebel Heart, until spring 2015. But leakers had other plans for the Queen of Pop's follow-up to 2012's MDNA, unleashing early mixes of 13 tracks onto the Internet this week. In response, Madonna has put six official versions of the songs up for sale on iTunes and other digital music retailers, effective immediately. More music will be available February 9th, and the full album will be released the first week of March via Interscope. "I was hoping to release my new single 'Living for Love' on Valentine's Day with the rest of the album coming in the spring," she said in a statement. "I would prefer my fans to hear completed versions of some of the songs instead of the incomplete tracks that are circulating. Please consider these six songs as an early Christmas gift."

One of the new tracks is a duet with Nicki Minaj titled Bitch, I'm Madonna. You can find rips of all six singles on YouTube. Below is the only one posted so far to Madonna's official channel.

Madonna - Rebel Heart

Via Billboard:

A snippet of a new Madonna song, rumored to be titled "Rebel Heart," leaked to the Internet on Thursday (Nov. 27). Madonna's publicist had no comment about the leak, but the diva's manager, Guy Oseary, tweeted: "I would be grateful to any Madonna fans that can assist us in finding those responsible for the leak. We appreciate your help." It's assumed the song is titled "Rebel Heart," as Madonna is heard singing the phrase at one point in the snippet, and because she used the #RebelHeart hashtag on her Instagram for months. The song might be a co-production with Avicii, as Madonna used the #RebelHeart hashtag in a photo of her with him and his team nine months ago. It's unknown if the song clip is from a demo version of the song or a recording of a finished track.

The full song was leaked today. If the clip below gets yanked, Attitude has the file.

UPDATE: And it's gone.

RELATED: Madonna's last album, 2012's MDNA, reached #1 in the US but barely achieved gold certification. MDNA sold two million copies worldwide. Her top-selling album is the 1990 greatest hits package, The Immaculate Collection, with 30 million copies sold worldwide.

Gaga & Bennett - It Don't Mean A Thing

Out today is the latest single from Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett's album of American songbook standards, which was a surprise hit and made 88 year-old Bennett the oldest living artist to achieve a #1 pop album.

RELATED: In other "gay icon remakes oldies" news, Bette Midler tied Babs for a chart record last week.

Bette Midler celebrates a fifth consecutive decade of top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, as It’s the Girls debuts at No. 3. She's only the second woman, following Barbra Streisand, to notch Top 10 albums in each of the last five decades (1970s through 2010s). The new album's arrival gives Midler her highest debut ever, her second-highest charting album, and sixth top 10 overall. The three-time Grammy Award winner's first Top 10 came with her debut, The Divine Miss M, which arrived almost 42-years ago on the chart dated Dec. 9, 1972. It peaked at No. 9 the following March. She later visited the top 10 with a self-titled album (No. 6 in 1974), the Beaches soundtrack (No. 2 in 1989), Some People's Lives (No. 6 in 1991) and Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (No. 10 in 2005).

Bette Midler - Tell Him

Another track from her girl groups tribute album.

Bette Midler - Waterfalls

Via the Advocate:

Bette Midler is paying tribute to some of the greatest harmonies performed by girl groups in music history with her upcoming collection of covers It’s the Girls. The album, available November 4 from Warner Bros. records, features 15 classic tracks by legendary ladies including the Ronettes, the Supremes, TLC, and the Chiffons, among others.

TLC's critically-raved original spent seven week atop the Billboard pop singles chart in 1995. Bette includes their reference to HIV ("three letters took him to his final resting place"), but coupled with this rather funereal arrangement, that sort of doom somehow feels less fitting nearly 20 years later. She does sound as great as always.

COMING: Donna Summer 9-CD Box Set

Coming in December is Donna: The CD Collection, a nine-disc remastered retrospective of Donna Summer's lesser-known catalog from the years after the late 70s peak of her disco fame. Included are The Wanderer, the eponymous Donna Summer, Cats Without Claws, I'm A Rainbow, All Systems Go, Mistaken Identity, and Another Place And Time - the Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced smash which has been expanded to three discs that include a whopping 25 remixes of the hits that returned Summer to the top of the charts in 1989. In addition to the CD box set ($120), there will be a vinyl box set that includes digital downloads ($300). All of the albums will also be sold individually. (Tipped by JMG reader Ian.)

Babs: I'm Not A Diva

She said as she sat in the host's chair in order to show her most flattering side.