Rebel Heart
Rebel Heart is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released by Interscope Records on March 6, 2015. She worked on the album throughout 2014, co-writing and co-producing it with various musicians, including Diplo, Avicii and Kanye West. The album also features guest vocals by boxer Mike Tyson and rappers Nicki Minaj, Nas and Chance the Rapper.
This article is about the album. For the title track, see Rebel Heart (song). For other uses, see Rebel Heart (disambiguation).Rebel Heart
March 6, 2015
2014
55:06
- Madonna
- Diplo
- Ariel Rechtshaid
- Avicii
- Blood Diamonds
- Billboard
- Jason Evigan
- Shelco Garcia & Teenwolf
- Kanye West
- Mike Dean
- Toby Gad
- AFSHeeN
- Josh Cumbee
- Salem Al Fakir
- Symbolyc One
- Magnus Lidehäll
- Vincent Pontare
- Astma & Rocwell
- Carl Falk
Thematically, Rebel Heart represents the singer's romantic and rebellious sides; the ideas grew organically during the writing and recording sessions. Musically, it is a pop record which merges an array of genres such as 1990s house, trap, and reggae, while using acoustic guitars and a gospel choir. Some of the songs are autobiographical in nature, while others talk about love and Madonna's career. Unlike her previous endeavors, working with many collaborators posed problems for Madonna in keeping a cohesive sound and creative direction for the album.
The record had been set for a March 2015 release, with the first single to be released on Valentine's Day. However, after a flurry of unexpected album content leaks, Madonna released Rebel Heart for pre-order on the iTunes Store on December 20, 2014, with six songs made available immediately for download. A police investigation led to an Israeli man being arrested and charged with hacking into Madonna's computer and leaking the songs. The album's artwork became popular on social media, leading to numerous memes being created.
To promote Rebel Heart, Madonna gave several performances on television and embarked on the Rebel Heart Tour, which visited North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, from September 2015 to March 2016. "Living for Love", "Ghosttown", "Bitch I'm Madonna", and "Hold Tight" were released as singles from the album. Rebel Heart received predominantly positive reviews from music critics; multiple reviewers called it Madonna's best effort in a decade. It debuted and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, while reaching number one in major music markets such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. Rebel Heart was certified gold or platinum in seven countries.
Background and development[edit]
Following the release of her twelfth studio album, MDNA (2012), Madonna embarked on The MDNA Tour to promote it.[1] The tour created widespread controversy over her statements on violence, human rights, politics, her use of fake firearms, and her on-stage nudity. She was threatened with several lawsuits.[2] Madonna was enraged by many world events, which she claimed were acts of "injustice" against humanity.[3] In September 2013 she released Secretprojectrevolution, a short film she directed with Steven Klein, dealing with artistic freedom and human rights. The film launched a global initiative known as Art for Freedom to promote freedom of expression.[4] Madonna said in a L'Uomo Vogue interview her next album would be connected with Art for Freedom. She is committed to the initiative and must use her voice as an artist.[5]
By December 2013, Madonna's manager Guy Oseary commented that the singer was "eager to get started" on her next album.[6] However, she had another project in mind: developing the screenplay for a film adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer's novel The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells. Madonna decided to split her time between writing the screenplay and writing songs for the new album.[7] In February 2014, Madonna confirmed she had begun working on her thirteenth studio album.[8] Her previous work had been produced with a small core group of people developing the music. Working with many collaborators on Rebel Heart, Madonna encountered problems keeping a cohesive sound and creative direction for it. She observed that many of the people she enlisted to work on the album could not stay in one city for any length of time due to their schedules. This resulted her not finishing songs in one session. "It was challenging ... with people coming and going in a revolving door of creativity."[9]
Credits adapted from Madonna's official website.[210]
Notes