Madonna has released the fifth and final track from her upcoming fourteenth studio album, Madame X. The track is “Dark Ballet.” It was originally performed as “Beautiful Game” at last year’s Met Gala. It samples Tchaikovsky’s Nutracker, with heavily auto-tuned vocals over it, it has a dubstep beat, and yeah, it’s as weird as it sounds.
Directed by Emmanuel Adjei, the bleak, sumptuous and violent video stars queer rapper Mykki Blanco as a persecuted and executed Joan of Arc.
Filmed in Madonna’s new home of Portugal, the video is pretty stunning. That we can all agree on.
As for the song: It’s fleetingly brilliant. Also, it’s not great, and I wish the lyrics were more stronger and more memorable. I have a feeling most of what I’ve just said about this song is what we’ll be saying about Madame X when it is released in less than one week. Trust me: I want to love it.
The ballet mindf**** stuff in “Dark Ballet” really works. I really do like the “cuz your world’s is such a shame/cuz cuz your world’s in so much pain/cuz your world’s obsessed with fame” line. I’d be lying if I said I was crazy about this song, though. And I adore Madonna.
Just before the weekend broke, Madge made headlines by saying she was more than a little disappointed in a New York Times profile of her. She said she felt “raped” by it.
Are you still stoked for Madame X? Let us know in the comments. Watch the video for Dark Ballet below.
