Madonna in a designer gown. Graham Norton quaffing a huge glass of white wine. What could be better? In a new interview airing on BBC One, Madonna spoke with Norton about everything from her daughter Lourdes to her grief over the death of her brother and her love of the dancefloor, ahead of the release of her hugely anticipated album, Confessions II.
The album is being billed as a sequel to Madonna’s Grammy-winning 2005 album, Confessions on a Dancefloor. Widely regarded as one of her best, Confessions produced hit singles such as “Hung Up” and “Jump” and tied in influences from Seventies disco, electropop and club music.
Madonna & Graham gleans a number of insights into the story of the album, along with a few additional revelations: not least a potential Kylie Minogue collaboration (with a surprise cameo from the pop star herself) and a very strong hint from Madonna that she’ll be headlining Glastonbury next year.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Madonna & Graham…
Madonna: your Glastonbury headliner in 2027?!
Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis has made no secret of the fact that she has always wanted Madonna to play Glastonbury. But rumours began swirling ahead of the 2024 event that she could finally headline, after Eavis heaped praise on the pop icon after seeing her perform at the O2 Arena in London. “I walked away and I was like, ‘I’ve got to post about this,’” she said. “I’ve posted about going to lots of gigs before, but I didn’t expect it to be quite such big news.”
However, The Independent reported later that talks with Madonna’s team broke down after Glastonbury organisers said they wouldn’t be able to pay costs for the huge setup involved in Madonna’s Celebration tour, which she wanted to bring to Worthy Farm. The situation was not dissimilar to the latest news of a planned biopic falling through, which Madonna blamed on studio Universal not giving her a big enough budget: “I’ve had a huge life,” she said, “so I needed a big budget.”
But, asked by Norton about whether she plans to tour this album, Madonna confirmed that she’d be doing promo tours, then, next summer, “something bigger…” Norton’s eyes went wide as he seemed to realise what she meant: “Oh! Oh, OK… That sounds really exciting and good and I think I know what you’re talking about. Is it in this country?”
“It could be,” Madonna teased. “Why do you have to know everything? I’ve told you a lot of interesting things, that’s what you get, and the rest you have to wait for.” She continued: “I heard this phrase a long time ago that the definition of being an adult is the ability to delay gratification.”
“Wow, I am not an adult,” Norton said, to laughter from Madonna.
Graham Norton was surprisingly nervous
He’s interviewed some of the biggest stars on the planet, from Hollywood icons to pop royalty (including Madonna herself) on his famous red sofa, but the chat show host seemed out of his comfort zone while filming with Madonna at Koko in London. “I’m always nervous meeting her,” he confessed. There was some fumbling of questions, and he tended to get flustered in moments where Madonna was simply being playful. But hey, she is the queen of pop!
In a brave moment, however, he not-so-subtly noted her slightly off pronunciation of the French designer Balmain, after she said she was wearing one of their dresses. Madonna got him back later when she over-pronounced his own designer outfit, Simone Rocha, but it seemed to go over his head. Yet she was on great form, poking fun at herself on occasion and reflecting on the earliest days of her career, when her biggest goal – the idea of “making it” – meant getting just one song played on the radio: “Then I could pay my rent,” she said.
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A surprise Kylie reunion… and confirming their collaboration?
After a conversation with Madonna and her producer Stuart Price, with whom she also worked on Confessions on a Dancefloor, Norton and Madonna decided to get a drink from the bar.
“What’s a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?” Madonna demanded.
“No, Kylie Minogue?!” Norton exclaimed as the woman at the bar turned out to be none other than the Australian pop star.
“It’s a moment,” Minogue said, reaching for Madonna and Norton’s hands.
Norton then took the opportunity to ask if the rumours were true, that Minogue would feature on Confessions II – something the “Padam Padam” singer had previously denied. This prompted a sly look between the two pop stars, before Minogue got the giggles.
“Why do you have to know everything – you’re very nosy,” Madonna said. “It’s my job to be mysterious.”
Madonna and Kylie famously joined one another onstage during Madonna’s Celebration tour, a moment that music fans had been waiting four decades for. Despite being pitted against one another by the press and the industry as rivals, the two stars have often praised one another but had never performed together live… until March 2024.
At the show, Minogue returned a gesture Madonna first made almost a quarter of a century earlier, when she wore a bedazzled “Kylie Minogue” tank top to perform at the MTV Europe Awards in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2000. Minogue wore a “Madonna” top while performing with the star in 2024.
“I don’t know what I did, probably tried to stop fainting,” Minogue said in the new BBC show, recalling the moment she’d heard about Madonna’s tank top.
“I was actually a little bit jealous of you,” Madonna confessed. “Because she was so cute. I think my ex-husband at the time had a crush on her, I was like, ‘I’ll never be as beautiful as Kylie!’”
Fans will have to wait until the 3 July release of Confessions II to learn whether the duo really have collaborated on an album for the first time.
Madonna reflecting on some of her most important relationships
Norton suggested that the songs on Confessions II might be “more personal” than fans expect. Madonna has said previously that much of the songwriting was inspired by the illnesses of her late brother, Christopher Ciccone, and stepmother Joan Ciccone, as well as family trauma.
“A lot was happening in my life at the time that I was writing with Stuart [Price] in the beginning,” she said. “I was deeply affected by the death of my brother Christopher, that was another song that just came… I actually came to the studio, and I spoke to my brother, who was in a lot of pain on the phone, and he was not in a good place, and I knew it was close to the end – and then I went upstairs and wrote a song. So it was all connected to what was going on in my life.”
It was “cathartic”, Madonna said, to write about something difficult or heartbreaking in her life: “It’s like an exorcism.”
She also spoke about working with her daughter, Lourdes, for the first time, explaining that Lourdes was the one who approached her: “She’s been very reticent to work with me… she doesn’t want to be perceived as my daughter taking advantage of her privilege.”
“She’s been very standoffish and working at her own pace, and I respect that deeply,” she continued. “She’s a great songwriter and she has a much better voice than I do.”
Lourdes recently released her own single, “T-Shirt”. She makes an appearance in Madonna’s Confessions II – The Film, calling “cut, bitch” at the very end.
“At the end of the day, she didn’t ask for this,” Madonna said of the scrutiny that comes with being her daughter.
“She had been through her adolescence struggling with those feelings for a long time, and she came to me, she said, ‘let’s write a song together, I think it will be a very healing experience. And you say exactly what you wanna say, and I’ll say exactly what I wanna say.’ And I was like, ‘You’re on.’”
‘Madonna & Graham’ is out now on iPlayer
