On July 4 2015, Madonna’s third single off of Rebel Heart, Bitch I’m Madonna, was the Hot Shot Debut at #26 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs Chart in the USA.
Bitch was Madonna’s 4th highest debut after Secret debuted at #18, Give Me All Your Luvin’ at #24 and Hung Up at #25.
Not bad for an irrelevant aging has-been!
On June 27 2015, Bitch I’m Madonna earned Top Breakout and Most Added track on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart in the U.S.
On June 23 2015, Liz Rosenberg announced her retirement as Madonna’s publicist.
During Madonna’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Madonna thanked Liz in her acceptance speech:
“She’s been — and still is — the head of publicity for my entire career. Now, does anybody understand the insanity of being my publicist for the last 25 years? Well, I think Liz was smoking a joint when I first met her. I walked into her office and she very politely stubbed it out in the ashtray. I don’t think she thought I knew she was smoking a joint but it was a little bit obvious. Anyway, we hit it off right away. She was my kinda girl — tough, irreverent and funny. And we’ve had a long and amazing chunk of time together.”
On June 21 2015, Madonna and Live Nation announced that Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour would take Madonna to Australia for the first time in two decades, and her first time ever in New Zealand.
Live Nation Australia and New Zealand:
Madonna will make a historic return to Australia performing live for the first time in 23 years as well as her first ever shows in New Zealand, with her Rebel Heart Tour.
The tour will kick off at Vector Arena on March 5th and 6th in Auckland, followed by the Australian dates presented by Telstra Thanks and including concerts on March 12th & 13th in Melbourne, March 19th & 20th in Sydney and March 26th & 27th in Brisbane.
Tickets and VIP Packages go on sale Monday, July 6th at 10am.
Tour dates:
Vector Arena, Auckland – March 5th
Vector Arena, Auckland – March 6th
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne – March 12th
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne – March 13th
Allphones Arena, Sydney – March 19th
Allphones Arena, Sydney – March 20th
Entertainment Centre, Brisbane – March 26th
Entertainment Centre, Brisbane – March 27th
On May 27 2015, Forbes magazine announced that Madonna topped the annual list of top-earning musicians and also claimed the No. 28 spot on their list of America’s richest self-made women.
Here’s what Forbes had to say:
The wealthiest musician on the list, Madonna has an estimated net worth of $520 million, with her main source being from music, clothing, and real estate One of the top pop divas of all time. Her tours have grossed an estimated $1.2 billion over the years, including $305 million from her 2012 MDNA tour. That helped her earn an estimated $125 million during the ensuing 12-month period during which Forbes calculated celebrity earnings, more than any other musician. Look for another bump when she goes on the road with her latest album, Rebel Heart, in August.
On April 23 2015, Tori Amos came to Madonna’s defense when questioned about the ageist undertones on social media – and by the media at large – in reaction to her “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2015 Brit Awards:
Madonna is an entertainer. There are very few people who could’ve gotten up off that floor. It wasn’t because of her that she fell, but it was because of her that the performance carried on. Some of the vilification comes from women as much as men. She’s making choices and she’s able to do things physically that a lot of people 25 years younger can’t; she got up and refused to allow that to shame her. I think people want her to be shamed into a role that they find acceptable for her age. It makes me sad that we can’t embrace Madonna and say, Wow, this is an artist who’s expressing herself in a certain way.”
— Tori Amos
Tori often incorporates one or two cover songs by other artists into her live shows, but there are only a handful of artists whom she has covered multiple songs, and Madonna is one of them. She has performed both Live To Tell and Like A Prayer at numerous concerts, with the most recent Madonna composition to join her live repertoire being Frozen, which made its debut in Amsterdam in 2014.
(Many thanks to YouTube user LittleQueenbee77 for the great live footage of this performance!)
On April 14 2015, USA Today published an article to clear up the controversy swirling around the Drake/Madonna kiss that took place at Coachella:
We all know the story at this point: Madonna showed up at Drake’s headlining performance at Coachella Sunday to perform a few songs, Drake ended up in a chair, and the rest is history.
Drake shared his thoughts on Instagram, claiming that he was totally into the kiss and that we’re all “[misinterpreting] his shock.”
Today In Madonna History 