Madonna lined up for ‘incredible’ surprise London Pride appearance where she’ll ’cause absolute pandemonium’
MADONNA is being lined up to make a superstar appearance at London Pride on Saturday.
She has long been a celebrated figure in the LGBTQ+ community, and kicked off Pride Month with a surprise showing in New York last month.
London Pride, which is expecting 1.8million people, will take place at locations across the centre of the capital, with acts including Beth Ditto and MNEK booked to play the main stage in Trafalgar Square.
And my music moles have told me that is where they are expecting Madge to pop up.
My insider explained: “Madonna is a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and has been a very vocal campaigner for decades.
“Pride means so much to her and the London event happens the day after Confessions II is released.
“Organisers are playing it by ear in case of any last-minute changes but as it stands, Madonna is primed to come out on the main stage.
“She isn’t going to be performing like she did in New York. It’s more her coming out, speaking to the crowd and then heading off.
“They’re expecting absolute pandemonium if they pull it off.
“But it would be incredible for everyone going to the Pride event in London.”
Madge’s surprise 20-minute set in the Big Apple just weeks ago went down a storm with the crowds, who watched her sing Get Together live for the first time in two decades.
And fans don’t have long to wait until they can hear Confessions II, her latest album with producer Stuart Price.
Madonna has signed a huge new deal with TikTok, with the app streaming tracks from the record live tomorrow night from her VIP album launch party.
The hour-long broadcast will also see Madonna being interviewed about the making of the record, as well as playing a handful of her favourite songs from Confessions II.
It’s a big move for Madonna, after she revealed this week that she can’t stand social media, branding it “mesmerising and also soul-destroying”.
She told Vogue Italia: “Algorithms and artificial intelligence are the opposite of taking risks and to me that is the opposite of making art.”
Anything for us fans eh, Madge?
NICOLE’S PUSSYHAT DOLL
NICOLE SCHERZINGER is brimming with happiness in this sunhat as she celebrates her 48th birthday.
The Pussycat Dolls singer posed for a selfie at the beach on Monday.
Nicole is with her British fiancé Thom Evans in Hawaii, where she was born.
She said: “Last day at this age and she was feeling cute at sunset, back home at her fave beach.”
Nicole will begin rehearsals later this summer for the Pussycat Dolls reunion tour. UK arena shows start on September 29 in Birmingham.
BAD BUNNY COURTS OLD FLAME AT WIMBLEDON
BAD BUNNY has hopped back into his ex’s good books.
He has rekindled his romance with jewellery designer Gabriela Berlingeri, who was with him before fame arrived.
The Puerto Rican rapper played to more than 100,000 fans during two sell-out shows at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the weekend.
There in support was Gabriela, who has quietly been accompanying him on tour.
She was also by his side at Wimbledon on Monday.
They met in 2017 and dated until 2022. She even appeared as a bride in the video to his 2022 single Titi Me Pregunto.
But he later got together with Kendall Jenner and they dated for 18 months.
Bad Bunny has had quite the glow-up in the past few years and he’s become one of the most-streamed acts in the world.
I’m sure Gabriela will now be the envy of millions.
BRITISH girl group Flo have found a superfan in K-Pop sensation Taemin.
Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renee Downer met Taemin backstage at BST Hyde Park where they played on Sunday, after he requested an audience with them.
A source said: “Taemin absolutely loves FLO and thinks they’re brilliant. They talked about working on a collaboration together, which made Taemin’s day.
“They were laughing and joking around for ages before the girls offered to teach him the dance routine to their song, Leak It.”
LILY’S SITTING PRETTY
SULTRY Lily Allen actually has plenty to smile about despite her very public divorce from Stranger Things actor David Harbour.
The singer and actress wore satin lingerie and tiny black shorts when she brought her West End Girl tour to London’s O2 Arena at the weekend – and will return to the capital next week for a third gig at the venue.
Despite looking moody while sitting in a chair on stage, Lily found her smile again as she clutched a bouquet of flowers.
Lily has spent much of the year on the road and was back on stage in Dublin last night.
After a summer of festivals, she will fly to North America in September to play arenas there.
It’s clear Lily is chuffed with the show she has created, which sees her perform her West End Girl album in full.
She wrote on X: “Everyone on this tour is really working very hard to give people the best show we possibly can, and I’m extremely proud of it.”
SAM: I’M HOOKED ON FISH
SAM SMITH has revealed a yearning to be a fishmonger.
The Promises singer told the Dish from Waitrose podcast: “I’m still gutted I’m not a fishmonger. Honestly, I’m not just saying this.
“I was lucky as a kid. We used to go to Waitrose a lot – and the fish section, I just loved. I just like to handle fish. I don’t know, it felt very calming.”
Earlier this year I told that Sam had launched a TikTok account called Sam Served, which documents favourite meals.
And it’s all part of a ploy to get closer to the fish counter.
Sam said: “I was in San Francisco on tour and I was bored, so,I filmed myself eating and it’s just reignited the fishmonger in me.”
I’VE got a sneaky suspicion there may soon be a song featuring pop girls Zara Larsson and Jade Thirlwall.
The pair secretly had a studio session in Paris last week, after the Solidays Festival, where they were both set to perform, was cancelled due to bad weather. I have high hopes for whatever it is they come up with.
BOWIE TREASURE ON TOUR
DAVID BOWIE fans are in for a treat as the V&A Museum has announced today that his incredible archive of outfits, handwritten lyrics and photographs are going on tour for the first time.
David Bowie: On Tour opens at V&A Dundee in November, before heading to Blackpool, County Durham, Hull and Bristol, with more locations to follow.
The collection on Bowie features never-before-seen items including Polaroids for his make-up and costume fittings, a Ziggy Stardust-era acoustic guitar, unreleased projects, lyrics, performance notes and costumes from the singer’s final albums The Next Day and Blackstar.
WILL’S BRIEFS ENCOUNTER
SEEING Will Ferrell playing golf in his underpants wasn’t on my wish list.
But Kim Kardashian signed the actor to model her Skims men’s undies – and it has certainly got us all talking.
Will appears in blue briefs for the new ad campaign, though he was in character as golfer Lonnie Hawkins from his new Netflix comedy series, The Hawk, out July 16.
Kim said of Will: “His body says retired, his Skims say one more round. Built for men who still know they’ve got it.”
If you say so, Kim.
SHAGGY IS THE RIO DEAL
THEY say never meet your heroes, but Shaggy has spent a lifetime doing exactly that.
He has no shortage of famous fans and everyone from Nelson Mandela to Michael Jackson has sung his praises.
In a chat with showbiz reporter Freya Fraser at Rock In Rio Lisboa festival in Portugal, he said of meeting the former South African president: “We were at an award show in South Africa and we’re at the same table.
“He just kind of says, ‘You’re doing really great stuff’.
“We had a great conversation. I’ve met a lot of other people. Michael Jackson was also a super-big Shaggy fan.
“That’s documented on YouTube, everybody sees that. I have actually performed twice for Pope Francis. Queen Elizabeth, we performed for her Jubilee. I met all my heroes, to be honest with you.”
Shaggy is not modest when it comes to his achievements, and he is pretty flashy with his lifestyle too, even if he reckons he isn’t.
He said: “I’m a very practical person, so I’m not buying cars I don’t drive because I’m always on tour. I never drive anywhere, somebody’s always driving me around.
“I’m not buying homes I don’t live in. I have two homes. I’m not buying five of them, you know, I’ll rent them when I need them.”
But he is humble when it comes to his career, which has seen 16 Top 40 hits including four No1s.
He said: “I’m not a genius, God gave me those. If I wrote them, I’d be writing one every week.”
CAUGHT LIVE
Central Cee @ Rock In Rio Lisboa
★★★★☆
CENTRAL CEE ticked Lisbon off his bucket list as he took over the World Stage at Rock In Rio Lisboa before headliner 21 Savage.
On what was the most rap-focused line-up in the festival’s 22-year history, the Londoner tore through a mammoth 21-track set, including Loading, Doja, and Band4Band.
Cench proved he is an international star as thousands of Portuguese fans rapped every word back to him.
The atmosphere could not have been more different from the night before, when Sir Rod Stewart, Cyndi Lauper and Joss Stone had fans swaying along to their anthems.
Staying true to his nonchalant persona, Central Cee – real name Oakley Neil Caesar-Su – asked: “We’re not in a rush, are we?”
And as he worked the crowd and whizzed through high-profile collaborations such as Did It First with Ice Spice and Dave’s Sprinter, I was getting treated like an A-lister.
Rock In Rio Lisboa pulled out all the stops for its guests, with one of the biggest hospitality areas I have ever seen.
The UK may have provided a lot of the talent on this occasion, but we could learn a thing or two from Portugal’s festival scene.
FREYA FRASER