Confessing mistake

I’ll be honest: when Madonna showed up at Coachella during Sabrina Carpenter’s set earlier this year to debut their new single, I was somewhat underwhelmed. Some dance tune that felt half-baked and a little outdated. After all, Beyoncé did it in 2022, Charli did it — quite brilliantly — in 2024… done and done. If anything, the style of the day is K-pop. So why on earth would veteran superstar trendsetter Madonna do it in 2026, except by mistake?

Turns out I was mistaken.

First off, electro-pop is not going anywhere. Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande’s recent offerings (both by the same producer) are very much representative of that. I don’t mean Swift’s latest Toy Story hit, which is notably more folky, but last year’s juggernaut of an album, The Life of a Showgirl. And granted, electro-pop is not exactly electro-house either. But, if the likes of Diplo, Snake, Guetta (2 French guys, interestingly) or Skrillex are anything to go by, electro-infused music is very much around.

Also, the aforementioned K-pop trend is now so all-encompassing that KPop Demon Hunters received a Grammy — and Diplo produced half of BTS’s comeback album. Talk about full circles. As it happens, K-pop as a genre is the perfect example of how contemporary pop (as in popular) music effectively blends in with electronica.

All of this to say that Madonna’s current offering, Confessions II, is perhaps less of an anomaly than a smart artistic choice. One that works at that. Listening to not just one song but the full album as it unfolds, you get what the singer is trying to do here: set a mood, one that is fairly light and upbeat. Complete with a few interesting moments: a duet with Martin Garrix (yet another massive DJ), another one with French-speaking great Stromae, the beautifully subtle “Fragile”… All in all, this collection of songs comes out as a party starter (at the very least a conversation starter). Something we arguably don’t get enough of in this day and age.

The album already reached the top of the UK charts. It could very well replicate that feat next week in the US. In any event, 67-year-old Madonna (!) somehow succeeded in achieving the near-impossible: releasing yet another LP after yet another quiet phase that connects.

All hail the queen of (electro-)pop.