Every time she releases a new album, journalists and social media commentary insist that Madonna is over. They are usually, eventually, proven wrong.

This debate has emerged again now Madonna is on the promotional circuit for her new album Confessions II. Despite the positive response to the music released so far, she is drawing controversy for her appearance and performances – surprise.

Madonna’s contribution to music was never simply the hit records. It was demonstrating that a woman at the centre of popular culture could have an audacity that matched any applauded (male) rockstar.

Now, just as it was back in the 1980s and early 1990s, that quality feels scarce in contemporary mainstream pop music. There are many more female artists in the 2020s, but there is no one as iconoclastic as Madonna, more than 40 years on from her debut.

This is not to say today’s female artists lack talent. Quite the opposite. Popular music is filled with extraordinary singers, writers and performers (see Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande et al). They are well-oiled, slick, inoffensive and easy to imagine the parental approval of teenage fans.

Madonna built her career by refusing precisely that approach.

From 1984’s Like A Virgin until the present day, she has made art that potentially jeopardised safe commercial success that became culturally significant because of its audacity.

Some........

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