Latest news with #VeronicaElectronica
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Madonna Charts A Brand New Top 10 Hit In America
Madonna scores a new top 10 with 'Gone, Gone, Gone (Original Demo Version)' before Veronica ... More Electronica arrives, landing at No. 8 on the Dance Digital Song Sales list. American singer Madonna on the set of her 'Ray of Light' video, September 12, 1998. (Photo by) On July 25, Madonna released her new remix album Veronica Electronica. The project features reworkings of many tunes from the pop superstar's beloved full-length Ray of Light, as well as one 'brand new' track. Officially titled 'Gone, Gone, Gone (Original Demo Version),' that cut was recorded around the same time as Ray of Light but never officially released to the public. Many Madonna followers are already familiar with it thanks to leaks that have circulated over the years, but recently, the singer finally dropped the highly-anticipated cut. Now, 'Gone Gone Gone (Original Demo Version)' gives Madonna another top 10 hit in America, just before Veronica Electronica has a chance to chart. Madonna's New Top 10 Smash 'Gone, Gone, Gone (Original Demo Version)' debuts at No. 8 on the Dance Digital Song Sales chart this frame. The track marks Madonna's ninth top 10 on Billboard's list of the bestselling dance cuts in the United States. Despite being one of the most successful dance musicians of all time, the icon has only reached the tally 22 times. The list was, of course, established long after many of Madonna's pioneering dance smashes had already impacted other charts in America, which explains her relatively low count. Madonna's Winning Streak Continues It's only been a year since Madonna last scored a new top 10 on the Dance Digital Song Sales ranking. In July 2024, 'Who's That Girl?' — another decades-old cut — opened at No. 9 before disappearing the following frame. The year prior, Madonna earned her first No. 1 alongside Sam Smith with 'Vulgar,' which debuted in the top spot. That same frame, 'Me Against the Music,' her collaboration with Britney Spears, broke into the top 10 for the first time. Madonna Joins Nine Inch Nails and Blackpink Madonna claims one of three debuts on the 15-spot Dance Digital Song Sales chart this week, and hers is the second-highest arrival. Nine Inch Nails starts 'As Alive As You Need Me to Be' at No. 10. Both legendary acts are beaten by 'Jump,' the latest single from Blackpink. That track debuts at No. 1, giving the K-pop girl group the comeback so many fans had been hoping for.
See - Sada Elbalad
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
Madonna Drops Album "Veronica Electronica": Stream It Now
Yara Sameh "Veronica Electronica" has finally entered the zone. After 27 years, Madonna's long-rumored "Ray of Light" remix album became a reality on Friday. The project features rare and unreleased edits of songs from her 1998 masterpiece. Remixers on the project include "Ray of Light" co-creator William Orbit and clubs kings Peter Rauhofer, Sasha, BT and Victor Calderone. It also includes the original demo of 'Gone, Gone, Gone,' a previously unreleased recording co-produced by Madonna and Rick Nowels, who co-wrote several Ray of Light tracks alongside her in the late '90s. The rest of the tracklist includes 'Drowned World/Substitute For Love,' 'Ray Of Light,' 'Skin,' 'Nothing Really Matters,' 'Sky Fits Heaven,' 'Frozen,' and 'The Power Of Good-Bye.' Released in February of 1998, "Ray of Light" remained 78 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 2. (The Titanic soundtrack hindered it from achieving the top spot.) The record generated four Hot 100 hits with the title track, 'Frozen,' 'The Power of Goodbye' and 'Nothing Really Matters' and won four Grammy awards, including the trophy for best pop album, in 1999. "Ray of Light" was a major moment for electronic music's mainstream crossover, with Madonna being the first major pop artist to do an entirely electronic album and thus helping push '90s club culture onto radio and into pop culture. While "Veronica Electronica" was originally intended to be a remix companion to "Ray of Light," it was shelved due to the success of the album, which ultimately sold more than 16 million copies. Stream "Veronica Electronica" below. read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters Arts & Culture "Jurassic World Rebirth" Gets Streaming Date News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Arts & Culture South Korean Actress Kang Seo-ha Dies at 31 after Cancer Battle Business Egyptian Pound Undervalued by 30%, Says Goldman Sachs Sports Get to Know 2025 WWE Evolution Results News "Tensions Escalate: Iran Probes Allegations of Indian Tech Collaboration with Israeli Intelligence" News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks
Scotsman
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Madonna Tim Minchin Paul Vickers and the Leg
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Madonna: Veronica Electronica (Warner Records) ★★★ Mabel: Mabel (Polydor Records) ★★★ Tim Minchin: TimMinchinTimeMachine (BMG) ★★ Paul Vickers and the Leg: Winter at Butterfly Lake (PX4M) ★★★★ Over recent years, Madonna has been re-issuing some of her best-loved albums on limited edition silver vinyl. True Blue and Like a Prayer are already part of her Silver Collection; now her long-rumoured Ray of Light remix album joins the club with the playful title Veronica Electronica. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Madonna | Ricardo Gomes There is ample competition for the accolade of best Madonna album but Ray of Light, released in 1998, must be in the running for its moody pop atmospheres, euphoric dance tracks, immaculate production by William Orbit and majestic string arrangements by Glasgow-based composer Craig Armstrong. These rare and unreleased remixes of most of the album tracks were originally intended for a companion album, but plans were shelved when Ray of Light took off, zephyr-like, rebooting Madonna's career for the new millennium. Veronica Electronica features new edits of remixes by the likes of Orbit, the late Peter Rauhofer, Sasha, BT and Victor Calderone, who may not be able to improve on the joyful source material but can tap into its renewing spirit. The title track is already an ecstatic invocation. The Sasha Twilo Mix Edit adds some spacey bells and galactic whistles, while Peter & Victor's Collaboration Remix Edit of Skin - don't those titles just trip off the tongue? - is both banging and hypnotic. The Club 69 Speed Mix of Nothing Really Matters introduces counter rhythms to the bassy beats, while Caldarone turbocharges Sky Fits Heaven with propulsive carnival percussion and irresistible electro vibrations, and Fabien Waltmann's Good God Mix Edit of The Power of GoodBye adds a fidgety thrum over which Armstrong's original swirling string arrangement soars. As enjoyable as these reinterpretations are, they are no substitute for some quality new material from Madge herself. The best she can muster here is an unheard track from the original sessions called Gone Gone Gone on which she offers hymn-like lamentations over floating synthesizers and a robust disco rhythm. Unlike many an unreleased demo, this mesmeric dance pop tune deserves to see the (ray of) light of day. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mabel | Simone Beyene Brit Award-winner Mabel's latest released comprises nine 'unfiltered' tracks recorded in her home studio in recent months. It's pretty repetitive fare in which she wrangles with positive and negative aspects of relationships, retrofitted to present a 'toxic love letter to my ten years in the industry'. Opening track Jan 19 is set at the moment when the scales are falling from her eyes. Elsewhere, she shakes a manicured finger at some disrespectful behaviour on the low-slung R&B of Run Me Down, appeals for a kinder, less judgmental approach on Love Me Gentle and advocates for people over possessions on Benz, folding in reggaeton, drum'n'bass and slow jam synths along the way. Tim Minchin | Contributed Tim Minchin made his Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2005, arriving as an unknown cabaret pianist and leaving a comedy star. Since then he has penned global musical theatre smash Matilda among other big ticket achievements. In contrast, his latest project is a personal excavation of songs written in his 'prolific-but-obscure twenties' that arguably should have stayed there, from underwhelming ballad Understand it to the jazz lounge noodling of Moment of Bliss. He crosses from sentimental songwriting to rollicking satire on Song of a Masochist but former Fringe favourites You Grow On Me and Not Perfect fall flat without the bearpit energy of a Gilded Balloon audience. Longtime Edinburgh-based collaborators Paul Vickers and the Leg present Winter at Butterfly Lake, a 'heartbreak suite' which is conventional only by their standards. Vickers' voice and Pete Harvey's string arrangements are powerful opposing forces but they style it out on the demented grungey bluegrass of Optical Illusions and chunky chamber pop of Contents of the Earth. CLASSICAL King of Kings: JS Bach (Chandos) ★★★ Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The conductor Sir Andrew Davis was famous for his hearty chuckles and precious grammar school wit. Such eccentricities live on in his orchestrations of Bach organ music, ranging from the bombastic to the intricately beautiful, as witnessed in this part-posthumous album by the BBC Philharmonic. Davis, who died last year, lived to conduct four of the tracks; Martyn Brabbins stepped in to complete the project. The organ loft was where Davis began his musical life, none so lofty as his stint as organ scholar at King's College Cambridge in the 1960s, and you imagine - certainly from his treatment here of the big Preludes, Toccatas, Fantasias and Fugues - his taste was shamelessly eclectic. Where it works - the surreal orchestral imaginings of the monumental Passacaglia and Fugue for instance - Davis' playfulness tickles the senses, and the Chorale Preludes are mostly a confection of delights. Novelty value is the key selling point. Ken Walton JAZZ Marianne McGregor: Make Believe (Self Released) ★★★★
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Madonna: Veronica Electronica review – Ray of Light rarities range from perfect to perfunctory
It's hard to overstate the impact of Ray of Light, Madonna's seventh album. Released in 1998, it totally reshaped Madonna's career, embracing trip-hop, electronica and Britpop and essentially proving to an unfriendly public that she was one of pop's great auteurs. It spawned one of her biggest singles – the haunting power ballad Frozen – and its title track is still a staple of radio and DJ playlists. In the past few years, many of contemporary and underground pop's most significant names – including Caroline Polachek, Addison Rae, a.s.o., Shygirl and FKA twigs – have referenced Ray of Light, whether directly or indirectly. It's a fool's errand to try to make a case for the best or most significant Madonna album – she has at least five strong contenders – but if there's a consensus pick, it's Ray of Light. Which is why the announcement of Veronica Electronica, a full-length Ray of Light remix album, was met with such hysteria from fans earlier this year. Madonna has spoken at length over the years about both Veronica the character – in true Madonna fashion, Veronica stems from a vaguely contradictory concept in which she is both a girl dancing at a club and, somehow, 'medieval' – and the album, which she intended to release after Ray of Light but ended up shelving. For diehards, the promised record is something of a holy grail – never mind that this long-awaited release only contains two truly new songs, one of which, an old demo titled Gone Gone Gone, has been floating around on the internet for years. Even so, it's hard to deny the simple pleasures that can be derived from hearing some all-time great Madonna remixes cut down to radio length and sequenced like the original Ray of Light. Drowned World/Substitute for Love sounds great taken out of its original glacial trip-hop context and turned into a DayGlo acid rager by BT and Sasha; the emotional ambiguities of the original song are replaced with warm positivity, and you can easily imagine the song soundtracking the final minutes of a raging house party as the sun begins to rise. Other tracks, such as Peter and Victor's remix of Skin – the other new song here – take an opposite tack; they heighten Skin's innate moodiness with a steely, exploratory techno beat punctuated by big, sharp breaks, turning the original track into something tweaky and unsettled. As is often the case with remix records, there are moments on Veronica Electronica that feel perfunctory – namely, the Club 69 remix of Nothing Really Matters. Perhaps any remix of the original song will always be held to a higher standard, given its status as one of the only out-and-out club tracks on Ray of Light, but unlike many of the remixes on the album, it feels as if there's no relationship between the source material and the rework here, aside from Madonna's vocal, which is looped to the point of irritation. It's frustrating when people claim to 'hate remixes', as if you can put a blanket statement on an entire artform, but this kind of remix may make you sympathise with the sentiment. Fabien's Good God mix of The Power of Good-Bye, on the other hand, represents all the potential of a curio project like this: a bizarrely minimal drum'n'bass rework of one of Madonna's best ballads, it finds enormous power in the conflict between Fabien's increasingly frenetic drums and Madonna's serene, sorrowful vocal. It's a surprisingly appropriate lead-in to Gone Gone Gone, a song so brilliantly weird that you really can understand why it was left off the original album. It is, essentially, a wistful breakup ballad set to a squelchy electro beat – a surreal tonal clash that hardly gels with Ray of Light's placid waters, but which gives a surprising amount of insight into Madonna's creative state at the time: here is one of the biggest stars in the world, in her creative prime, throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks. For that peek behind the curtain alone, Veronica Electronica is worth the price of admission.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Veronica Electronica by Madonna: Lost album is like a postcard from the edge of the rave era
Madonna Artist : Veronica Electronica Label : Warner From Taylor Swift to Beyoncé , pop star reinventions are a dime a dozen nowadays. But that was not the case in February 1998, when Madonna ended a four-year recording silence with her career and zeitgeist-defining seventh album, Ray of Light. This was Madge reborn, transfigured, lifted up and unshackled from her previous image as tweaker of taboos and scourge of moralists. It was also helpfully stocked with bangers – from the Tori Amos / Fiona Apple -flavoured ballad Frozen to an effervescent title track that pulsated with the joyous abandon of an evening spent raving your socks off. Eager to make the most of her return to prominence, Madonna had planned to follow Ray of Light with an ambitious remix LP, given the working title Veronica Electronica (named for the persona Madonna had adopted while toiling in the studio with producer William Orbit). However, as Ray of Light became a phenomenon, plans for a spin-off were shelved, for fear it would encroach on the success of the original record. Twenty-seven years later, Madonna's career is in a different place. There has been ongoing chatter about a biographical movie starring Julia Garner as the young Madge. However, that project is now apparently to be reworked into a Netflix series (with Garner seemingly no longer involved). READ MORE She has also been on the receiving end of unkind – and often sexist and ageist – reviews for 2019's Madame X. The accompanying tour was controversial more for its tardy start-time than for anything Madonna got up to on stage. Having once scandalised the world with her raw sexuality, now Madonna was only getting headlines because she didn't know how to operate an alarm clock. There's never been a better moment, then, for an outpouring of foot-to-the-floor Madonna nostalgia, and that is precisely what the fun, boisterous and belatedly unleashed Veronica Electronica delivers. Along with that, it is a great time capsule that brings the listener back to the heyday of the superstar DJ. This was a glorious age when remixes were less sad cash-ins than conceptual opuses, invariably conjured by figures such as producer and deck-spinner Sasha, who overhauls Ray of Light opener Drowned World/ Substitute of Love – inspired by the fun JG Ballard novel, The Drowned World – and whips it up into a supersized rave odyssey. There isn't much variety across Veronica Electronica, which more or less follows the running order of Ray of Light (the title track reworked into a rigorously OTT onslaught by Sasha). Two previously unreleased tunes, The Power of Good-Bye and Gone Gone Gone, are in a similar vein to the pre-existing material, and it is surprising to hear the latter was originally omitted because Madonna felt it jarred with the project's overall vibes. Ray of Light caught Madonna at a crossroads. She'd given birth to her first child, Lourdes Leon, in 1996 and was preparing to play the title in Alan Parker's adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. [ Distressing news about Elton John and Madonna. We don't get too many cask-strength feuds any more Opens in new window ] She had, moreover, become immersed in the Jewish esoteric belief system of Kabbalah – events that led to a period of self-questioning and a desire to move forward as an artist. 'That was a big catalyst for me,' she told Q magazine in 2002. 'It took me on a search for answers to questions I'd never asked myself before.' She was also pushing herself as a vocalist – a consequence of the singing lessons she took for Evita and which can be heard on the epic remix of Frozen, where Madonna's delivery has the quality of a storm rising over ocean waters. 'I studied with a vocal coach for Evita and I realised there was a whole piece of my voice I wasn't using,' she told Spin in 1998. 'Before, I just believed I had a minimal range and was going to make the most of it. Then I started studying with a coach.' Madonna was eager, too, to tap into the energy of 1990s electronic music – which led her to collaborate with synth-pop artist turned producer Orbit. Yet, though their alliance would prove enormously fruitful, it was not a straightforward collaboration. Orbit was a bit of a lost soul and initially thrown by Madonna's ferocious work ethic. 'She's a fabulous producer,' he would later tell the Guardian. 'When it says 'produced by Madonna and William Orbit', people don't always give her the credit for that. But she's as responsible as me.' Among Madonna fans, Veronica Electronica has long been regarded as the ultimate lost album and news of its release has been greeted with joy. But even an agnostic will find lots here to enjoy. It's a postcard from the edge of the rave era and an eloquent love letter to pop at its purest and most euphoric.
