YouTube Screenshot
It’s impossible to make a list of musical provocateurs without Madonna immediately springing to mind. The pop star was burning crosses long before Demi Lovato was laying atop them on their album cover. She was famous for being Italian before Lady Gaga could ever utter the words “I’m Italian” in every interview. She paved the way for Addison Rae, which is a lovely rhyme but also a true fact—there would be no TikTok dance crazes if Madonna didn’t help make choreography an essential part of pop stardom.
But recent years have seen Madonna more reclusive. After the release of her last album, Madame X, in 2019, the icon faded back behind our screens during the pandemic, becoming as famous for her constant Instagram shapeshifting as she was for her decades of chart-topping hits.
One could consider this part of Madonna’s landscape of career transformations—after traversing nearly every musical genre over four decades, maybe the only way to keep us guessing was to be an alien one day and part of a movie theater janitorial staff the next. If you wanted to see Madonna unfiltered, both literally and figuratively, you’d have to catch a late-night, hour-long Instagram Live with Diablo Cody.