It’s 2026 and music has reached a tipping point.

On one hand we have AI music, which basically is not music, unless you are used to enjoy fake things in life. On the other hand we have all those influencers-wannabe-Insta-TikTok  musicians that release whatever the industry wants them too. In one phrase: everything sounds the same nowadays. Even from some superstars that sell stadiums like crazy, they have nothing to say, they don’t move people with their music, the excitement is gone, we just live in FOMO (fear of missing out) era.

And then, there’s Madonna. The queen of Pop decides to release the second leg of Confessions, 20 years after. With Stuart Price as a producer, when this was first announced, my mind clicked. I definitely wanted to listen to this album. Yes because it’s Madonna, yes because it’s Stuart Price, yes because I’m a fan since the early days, yes because I’m on the radio business and I’d really like to promote M once more for younger and older audiences.

Since the beginning of the year, when Madonna released “La Bambola” for D&G , I wasn’t sure what we should expect. Loved the cover and I know it’s all business after all. I’m not going to analyse it more, of how the teasing became an obsession those first six months of 2026. After “I Feel So Free” with Arca on production and Lil Louis sample, she appeared on Coachella, and what followed has never been done before in marketing of an artist. Her team delivered something that we have never seen, witnessed, till now, in the music industry. Madonna is everywhere. Every week on the news with a different story.

And we are now on July 3rd. Woke up with a notification on Spotify, that the “Confessions II” album is available. Played it. Wasn’t sure at the first listen what was happening within me. Amazed! And thoughtful, what am I listening to? I needed a second listen, more careful. I mean, since the 80’s I’ve listened to all her albums thoroughly. What was going on so many albums later? The second listen happened after hours. And the next morning, afternoon and evening. And throughout Sunday. On Monday I bought the double vinyl with the 16 tracks.

The album is a masterpiece.

It’s electronic, euphoric, sentimental, time travel, it’s like a capsule that once you get in, you will not come out of it, only after an hour and minutes later when it finishes. But you definitely wanna get in that capsule again. To re-live it. The lyrics are unmistakable, they contain phrases and moments from her whole career. At the end of “Danceteria” I’m screaming out loud the lyrics of “Music”. The single is “Vogue” combined with others, ends like Music and M is rap whispering again and she’s ordering us to get on the dancefloor again. Yes ma’am. And Kevin Saunderson brings all those “Good Life” vibes that we always loved. Erik Satie’s “Gnossienne No.1” sample on “Betrayal” makes it sound like a missing piece from the Erotica album. “Love Sensation” is a disco house anthem with this continuous sample stuck in my mind. On “My sins are my saviour” with a feature from Stromae, when I recognise the Army of Lovers sample, my eyes open wide. “The Test” with her daughter Lola (the “Little Star” references are all over it) and “Fragile” , written about her dead-now brother, bring teary eyes. And then it’s “Bizarre” , with Martin Garrix!!! Is this about Sean Penn? Did they almost put a sample of “Sunglasses at night” on it? Why do I love this tune so much and on each listen much better? Now that I listened to the album as a whole “I feel so free” makes so much sense! So is “Good for the soul” and “One step away” that follow. Everything begins with consciousness. Ready? They remind me the Ray of Light era. On “School” the phrase “I’d rather be your lover” that is repeated (and it’s one of my favourites from “Bedtime Stories”) is to the point. So dark! So much erotic vibe on that tune! The vocal experimentation! “Read my lips” is almost a Madame X tune. One thing is sure, “L.E.S. Girl” (that remind me of her Ray of Light and American Life slow tunes) is the perfect ending of the album. You listen closely, then album ends and you wanna give Madonna a huge hug for letting you be for a while in her universe.

The album is out. Confessions II is here.

I saw on an interview she gave last month, that Universal pictures dropped her movie because she needed a lot of money to make it and because she wanted it to be real. I got the feeling that this album was made because of that drop and in such way that she kinda said to everybody in the industry “Fuck Off, I’m Madonna and I’m gonna do it my way, I’m gonna show you what I’m capable of, in case everybody’s forgotten about it”. Something like this! After all, she invented this whole scene, she took the underground music and brought it to Pop stardom since the beggining, that was the thing. I’ve been there, I’ve been listening, reading, watching, dancing, following every step. Real, brave, exceptional, always making art for people to discuss. It was always about dancing, she’s a dancer! That’s how it started and that is how it keeps going after all those years. People don’t realise many things about Madonna. And in a recent chat I had with someone from the industry, he told me “Who cares what she does, there are others that the audience care more at this point of time”. That man is gay. I told him “man, if it wasn’t for Madonna you wouldn’t be here today doing what you do. Do you even realise that?”

At this point in time Madonna delivers the perfect electronic dance album. It’s not exactly Pop, she makes it to be as it. It’s experimental, full of vocal orchestration, it’s art in many different musical ways, with hooks and lyrics that are stuck in your head to sing along. Stuart Price, after listening to the vinyl, made an exceptional choice of samples while making this album. The mastering is awesome! It is a music journey. It’s what music should sound like in 2026, I’m so bored of all those called singers that just have a guitar, play along a riff and just sing about their boring lives, while they grew up some years ago, most of them having lives that they didn’t miss anything. It’s a boring era, we need to get out of it. We live in an era that everything’s been done, there’s nothing new here. So the artistry really matters. What matters most is to live your life and not spend it in front of a fucking screen, don’t live for the screen. Live for you. Listen to Madonna. She’s got some real stories. And above all… she’s Madonna.