Madonna: Super Bowl Plans, New Single?

Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage

Say one thing for the Material Girl: she never lacks for material. It appears that Madonna has agreed to be the next halftime act at the Super Bowl, which will take place on February 5th in Indianapolis. According to reports, Madonna will perform several songs, including the first single from her 12th studio album, which is due in spring. Nicki Minaj and MIA, who guest on the song– apparently titled "Give Me All Your Love" – will reportedly perform with the headlining superstar.

Madonna is said to be working with old friend William Orbit, who produced her 1998 album Ray of Light, on the new album, which as yet has no official title. In addition to the recording studio, she's been busy in boardrooms and on the red carpet, too. Madonna appeared recently at the BFI London Film Festival, which hosted a premiere of her new film, W.E., her second as a director. The movie tells the story of a woman inspired by Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee whose affair and marriage with Prince Edward, the Duke of Windsor, resulted in his abdication of the throne. The singer was booed at the premiere, where she said she identified with Simpson for being "misunderstood on a global scale."

One of the lighter moments in the controversy magnet's career came in September, when an offhand remark about her distaste for hydrangeas led to a public outcry. The singer responded with a tongue-in-cheek video in which she begged for forgiveness.

If she has faced some criticism of late, the business of Madonna has been booming. Last year in Mexico City she opened the first in a proposed chain of upscale health clubs called Hard Candy Fitness. More recently, she launched Material Girl, a clothing line inspired by the singer's daughter, Lourdes, in conjunction with Macy's.

Not that it's all been hassle-free. A California company has been suing to keep Madonna from using the Material Girl name. Meanwhile, in March she was sued for wrongful termination by several former members of her Raising Malawi charity after plans to open a school in the African nation went awry.

However thinly she may spread herself, for Madonna it always comes back to one thing. While she has yet to speak in detail about her new album, her manager, Guy Oseary, has posted about it on Twitter. "The music is so goooooooood," he tweeted last month. 

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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