logo
Madonna's Quarter-Century-Old Song Almost Breaks Back Into The Top 10

Madonna's Quarter-Century-Old Song Almost Breaks Back Into The Top 10

Forbes9 hours ago
Madonna's decades-old classic single "Erotica" returns to multiple charts in the U.K. as fans ... More prepare for her next chapter, which may include music and TV. American singer and actress Madonna filming the video for her song 'Papa Don't Preach' in New York City, 1986. The video is being directed by James Foley. (Photo by)
For months now, Madonna has assured her enormous fanbase that she is hard at work on her next chapter — or chapters.
The pop icon had been writing a screenplay intended to tell the story of her life, but after the movie was scrapped, she pivoted to television. It now appears that a limited series based on her rise to superstardom is in the works.
At the same time, Madonna is also putting the finishing touches — or so it seems — on her next album. She has referred to the project as Confessions 2, making it sound like a sonic sequel to her Grammy-winning full-length Confessions on a Dance Floor. Nothing has been heard yet from the highly anticipated set (at least not by the general public), but people are already excited as the world waits to hear the first taste of Confessions 2.
One of Madonna's oldest singles returns to multiple charts in the U.K. and nearly becomes a top 10 smash once again amidst all the excitement and uncertainty around what's coming next for her.
'Erotica'' Returns to the Charts
"Erotica" appears this week on the Official Vinyl Singles and Official Physical Singles tallies. It's common for a tune to end up in similar positions on both rankings, as one focuses solely on the bestselling songs available on vinyl, while the other looks at the top-selling tracks of any style, as long as they are sold on a physical format, with vinyl being perhaps the most important at the moment.
"Erotica" breaks back onto the vinyl-only list at No. 12 and lands at No. 17 on the Official Physical Singles chart.
Madonna's Former No. 1
"Erotica" debuted at No. 1 on the Official Vinyl Singles chart in November 2022 and has since racked up 24 appearances on the format-specific ranking.
Its journey on the Official Physical Singles chart is a bit different. On that list, "Erotica" opened at No. 88 in the summer of 2017. The smash wasn't seen for years, and when it returned in November 2022 — at the same time it debuted on the vinyl tally — it soared to a new peak of No. 2.
"Erotica" has spent almost twice as long on the Official Physical Singles chart as it has on the vinyl ranking, as it is now up to 43 stays on that roster.
'Erotica' Introduced Madonna's Album of the Same Name
Madonna originally released "Erotica" in the fall of 1992, coming up on a quarter-century ago. The track was another major hit for the pop superstar, peaking at No. 3 on both the main singles list in the U.K. and the Hot 100 in America. "Erotica" introduced the album of the same name, which also features beloved hits like "Deeper and Deeper," "Bad Girl," and "Fever."
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Why Led Zeppelin's Unexpected Collab With '70s Rock Legend Is Still Dividing Fans 30 Years Later
Why Led Zeppelin's Unexpected Collab With '70s Rock Legend Is Still Dividing Fans 30 Years Later

Miami Herald

time39 minutes ago

  • Miami Herald

Why Led Zeppelin's Unexpected Collab With '70s Rock Legend Is Still Dividing Fans 30 Years Later

When it comes to legendary guitar players, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page has been consistently topping the lists of countless music lovers for decades. Also counted among the most iconic axe men in rock history is Neil Young - but the two musicians have drastically different styles of playing. So it makes sense that one epic '90s collaboration featuring Page and Young would result in mixed no one could have predicted that people would still be arguing about the performance decades later. In 1995, when both Led Zeppelin and Young were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they took the stage together to perform a rendition of Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" featuring a particularly unforgettable solo from Young (and a bit of surprise additional shredding by Robert Plant). In keeping with initial reactions to the performance, commenters on a recently shared clip were divided by Young's contribution. "Sigh. Young cannot play solos. Great talents, but not on the guitar. And everyone being polite and pretending, like he's the 4 year old kid brother pretending. This is embarrassing," one person wrote, with another calling the clip "painful." However, others were quick to defend Young. "People saying Neil was bad don't understand this era of music and what this was about. Sorry it wasn't auto tuned for you," somebody argued. "I frigging love Neil Young's guitar solos," someone else declared, adding, "Probably because I usually dislike guitar solos. All these so-called guitar heroes boring us with their 'fret work', yawn. Feel the passion, not the 'technical ability.'" "Boo boo Neil Young can't play, he sucks, boo hoo" - dude sitting at home with his phone, who will never be remembered for his contributions to music, unlike Neil Young," quipped yet another fan. One person who was reportedly thrilled with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame collab was Young himself, who had such a positive experience performing with Zeppelin that he considered recording an entire album with the band, according to Rolling Stone. While that never came to pass, Young did write a song inspired by the experience, per American Songwriter - "Downtown," the lead single on his 1995 album Mirror Ball (recorded with members of Pearl Jam). Related: Legendary Rock Star, 79, Thrills Fans With Rare Throwback Pic on Anniversary of Iconic Performance Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Q&A: ‘Love Island's' Iain Stirling reflects on the hit reality TV show that's taking over the country
Q&A: ‘Love Island's' Iain Stirling reflects on the hit reality TV show that's taking over the country

Miami Herald

time40 minutes ago

  • Miami Herald

Q&A: ‘Love Island's' Iain Stirling reflects on the hit reality TV show that's taking over the country

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Iain Stirling, the comedian cracking jokes as contestants on "Love Island" battle it out for love and cash, is wrapping up the latest season of the reality TV megahit and hitting the road on a stand-up tour that's slated for shows in New York and Los Angeles this fall- and yes, his set will include "Love Island" material. Stirling has been the narrator of the reality TV dating competition for more than a decade, and even he couldn't believe how many people are gathering at local bars across the United States for " Love Island" watch parties. "I genuinely thought people were photoshopping them and sending them to me," Stirling shared during a recent video call from his home studio in London. "Love Island" has been popular in the U.K. for quite some time, with many fans in agreement that Season 5 was when it really hit is stride with contestants who are now household names such as Molly-Mae Hague, Tommy Fury and Maura Higgins, the last of which now hosts "Love Island: Aftersun" in the U.S. For Stirling, it's interesting to witness the rise in popularity of " Love Island USA" over the past year, and how it parallels the achievement of the U.K. version. He's been narrating the series since the show first aired on ITV2 in 2015, and joined the U.S. version of the show in 2022 when it made the move from CBS to NBC's streaming service Peacock. The success of the franchise has catapulted him to iconic U.K. theaters, such as the Apollo Theatre in London, and now he's bringing his stand-up to the States. In an interview edited for length and clarity, Stirling chats about "Love Island," the early stages of his stand-up career in Edinburgh, and other career highlights that have come, in part, thanks to his wildly popular narration of the TV show. Q. You've been the narrator of "Love Island" for 10 years. What's been the biggest change you've noticed with the series? A: The biggest change is how well the Islanders prime and prep themselves. In earlier series, it was more like a "Survivor" vibe. Everyone just got a bit disheveled, but now obviously they're very primed. Q. Are there any major differences you've noticed between narrating the U.K. version of the show compared to the U.S. version? A: You know what the biggest one is? I don't know if it's just a "Love Island" thing or if it's an American thing, but in the U.K., we joke about people's jobs all the time. In the U.K., it'll be like "my name's this and I do this for a living." Whereas in America, it's like "my name's this and I'm from here." Like what state or area in America you are is a bigger blueprint for what you're like as a person. We've got loads of jokes [on "Love Island" U.K.] about jobs. In the U.K., we're very straight when we say what we do for a living. I feel like in America, they have all this fancy language to make their jobs seem a bit fancier than what they actually are. In the U.K., we've got like dog walkers and farmers and stuff like that, whereas apart from "pool boy Austin," there wasn't really anyone who had a job that we could joke about. Q. What is the recording process like for both "Love Island USA" and U.K? A: It's a lot more fluid in the American one. But, fundamentally, it's the exact same process. The U.K. one, I write with Mark Busk-Cowley, who actually came up with the format of "Love Island" way back in the day. In America, there are three of us: Me, Steve Bugeja, and an amazing New York comic, Caroline Hanes. It feels more writer-roomy. We all chuck ideas around like a Saturday Night Live writer's room. Whereas me and Mark have been working together for so long, it's like joke, next one, joke, next one. Q. I don't know if you've seen, but "Love Island USA" watch parties have taken over across the country. A: I genuinely thought people were photoshopping them and sending them to me. And then I'm lucky because Caroline's from New York and she's of the right age and demographic that her friends watch it. And I'm online a little bit, but I'm also like a dad with two jobs, so I'm not really an online person. I've only now realized that it's not a joke. I genuinely thought someone was watching the Super Bowl and they'd green screen that, but it's legit. Q. I've been writing about "Love Island USA," and my editors were like, "Can we send you to a watch party and have you cover it?" A: Did you go? Q. I did. It was crazy. I went to one in West Hollywood. I got there two hours early, and 10 minutes later, all the seats were taken. Thirty minutes later, everyone is packed like sardines and it's standing room only. I think it was the best episode I could have seen live because it was one with the plot twist at the end that Nic and Olandria were safe. A: That's honestly so cool. I can't remember the year, but when "Love Island" U.K. really took off, and obviously it's still massive here, but when it was the same [height of popularity as what is in the U.S. now], it was when the World Cup was on, and England had a really deep run in the World Cup. So, there were loads of images of all the sports bars' screens, all showing England in the World Cup semifinals, but then there was another section of the bar that was "Love Island." And obviously, for a sports bar to not show the national team in the semifinals of a World Cup and show something else is nuts. Q. This season of "Love Island USA" has been a roller coaster for a lot of things, but there have also been quite a few iconic moments aside from the drama. What's been the most memorable moment for you in the U.S. this season? A: There's obviously Nic and Huda's "Mommy, Mamacita?" That's gone so viral, but even my voice over into it, I did a joke about Nic not knowing what a mother is. I think those little fun moments are incredible. Also, there's a really lovely, vindicating moment when everyone clocked how popular Amaya was, and she had about four guys fighting for her. It felt really full circle because to be yourself unapologetically, when you keep getting it thrown back in your face, must be so, so difficult. Especially when she's not got her phone to have that positive feedback from the American public. I found that really beautiful and empowering for her, and also hilarious that all these guys were shamefully being like, "You know what? I just realized I think you're great." And she got to go, "Piss off." Q. People who know you best from hearing your playful, cheeky comments as the narrator of "Love Island," what can they expect from your stand-up show? A: We do the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year, where you have to come up with these narrative shows. There's a story at the heart of the show, and a theme and narrative. The closest thing I can compare it to is a Mike Birbiglia, if anyone's familiar with his stuff. I've never done stand-up about "Love Island," but I'm only doing a handful of dates, a couple of New York, and a couple of L.A., so I feel like with the way "Love Island" is going, I want to do some stuff on "Love Island." There's a really funny comparison: There's a male contestant in "Love Island" U.K. who's got a 4-year-old kid, just like Huda, and I find it really interesting how underplayed the male being on "Love Island" is compared to the mother being on "Love Island," I think that's really interesting, and just sort of bad, but also a funny area as a father to talk about. Q. You studied law at the University of Edinburgh. What led to the career pivot to comedy? A: I'm from Edinburgh and I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the reason I went to Edinburgh University is that they've got a group called the Edinburgh Improverts. It didn't quite work out there; improv wasn't my thing, so I started doing stand-up, and once I did stand-up, I fell in love. Q. Since your 2022 special "Failing Upwards," you and your wife have welcomed your first child together. Has fatherhood had a role in your comedy style? A: I like to keep my private life as private as I can. I've made an unwritten rule that I talk about being a father, but I don't talk about my daughter. I feel like that's her story to tell when she's old enough to tell it. The main change on stand-up is two things, and they sound like they counteract each other, but they totally don't. One, I've got a much bigger appreciation for people who spend money and take time to come and see my show. Now that I'm a parent, I'm the one that's got to book child care and find parking and do all that when I go to an event. So I really appreciate people that come to see me. And second, I think I'm a better stand-up because I'm a lot more relaxed. Before marriage and children, my whole self-worth was how good my stand-up was and how well it was received. Q. My final question: What's been your biggest career highlight? A: Probably putting on these American [tour] dates and them selling so well. It feels like such a massive achievement to do a voice-over in a reality television program. When you're doing voice over for two minutes in an hour-long show, and for anyone to leave that show going "that voice over was good," feels like such a massive achievement. When I first started doing it 10 years ago, I wasn't hired to write. My friend Mark [Busk-Cowley] was going to write it, but I went in the room every day and wrote it with him because, like, I'm in Spain. What else am I going to do? And then between us, we came up with this really fun way of doing it that no one else had done. And then when I did these big theaters in the U.K., the Hammersmith, Apollo in London, and all these mad theaters, because I do voice over on a reality television program, it's sort of wild. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.

What Trump knows about ‘Superman' — that Hollywood can't comprehend
What Trump knows about ‘Superman' — that Hollywood can't comprehend

New York Post

time2 hours ago

  • New York Post

What Trump knows about ‘Superman' — that Hollywood can't comprehend

The new 'Superman' movie isn't an attack on President Donald Trump's immigration policies, but it reveals how alienated from America many liberals, in Hollywood and politics alike, now feel. Every kid used to know Superman fights for 'truth, justice and the American way.' That slogan has been around since the 'Superman' radio show of the early 1940s, and featured in the 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve that inaugurated the modern comic-book movie blockbuster. James Gunn, director of the Man of Steel's latest flick, has his own take. ''Superman' is the story of America,' he told The Times of London. 'An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.' Conservatives feared this hinted Gunn's film would pit the hero from Krypton against Trump's immigration crackdown. It turns out the bigger problem is the rest of what Gunn said: His Superman is a man from nowhere whose creed is simple sentimentality, not 'the American way.' In Gunn's film, America is nothing special. Neither, for that matter, is Superman. This bland and demoralizing vision isn't just the director's, however; it's rather all too typical of liberals today. Gunn declared on Twitter during Trump's first term, 'We're in a national crisis with an incompetent president forging a full-blown attack on facts and journalism in the style of Hitler and Putin.' Perhaps it's good he directs comic-book movies when his politics are at such a stereotypical comic-book level. He might as well have likened Trump to Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor. In the movie, he does, up to a point. Luthor colludes with Russia — sorry, 'Boravia' — and runs a social-media troll farm dedicated to smearing Superman, who gets sent to a super-Gitmo when the US government authorizes Luthor to take the hero into custody. That's about the extent of the parallels between Luthor and Trump — or George W. Bush, however. Despite the villain's constant references to Superman as an alien, immigration isn't a theme of the movie. Indeed, assimilation is more of a theme than immigration is — but assimilation into what? The young Superman is sent from the dying planet Krypton in a rocket that crashes in Kansas, where this powerful alien is brought up with good Midwestern values. That's where his devotion to 'the American way' comes from. Last year Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as Kamala Harris's running mate, demonstrated just how hard it is for today's liberals to sound authentically zealous about Midwestern values. The new motive portrays Superman's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, as ludicrously folksy stereotypes that would give a Hallmark movie a bad name. After Superman discovers to his horror that his biological parents might not have had benign intentions toward Earth, Pa Kent advises him to 'be yourself,' regardless of your family's background or beliefs. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that — except this Superman has no self: He's no more a Kansan or an American than he is an invader from outer space. This Superman doesn't utter a word about 'the American way,' and when he confronts Luthor at the film's climax, he insists his failings are what makes him human. The movie is a mirror of liberal psychology. First, no one is extraordinary — Superman is just one of a crowd of superbeings in this film, and he's not even the only 'Superman': three other iterations of the character appear onscreen, one of them a dog. Second, sentimentality takes the place of patriotism — Superman hasn't assimilated to America, but to an unplaceable idea of niceness and self-affirmation. Third, and ironically, it portrays liberalism's own ideals as doomed. The thing that distinguishes Superman from other superhumans in this crowded film is his refusal to kill; violence, if necessary, must not be lethal. Maybe this Superman wouldn't defund the police, but he might take away their guns and certainly wouldn't support the death penalty. Yet Superman gets humiliated at every turn for adhering to this code: Other heroes have to put down a Godzilla-scale monster terrorizing the city, and the Boravian warlord Superman spares is left alive to start more wars. Worst of all, Superman watches powerless as Luthor shoots a man in the head. Gunn's defenders claim 'Superman' isn't a cynical film, but it is — its mixture of cynicism and denial is rather like what the Democratic Party has become. What viewers want in Superman is a hero who knows why he stands for America, one who doesn't kill not because he's weak, but because he's so strong he never has to. Trump made a joke with a serious point by putting his own face on the movie poster: He understands Superman better than James Gunn does. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review and editor-at-large of The American Conservative.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store