Madonna in secret bid to line up superstar singer for comeback appearance on new album 23 years after last collaboration
MADONNA has called in the big guns for her new album – reaching out to Britney Spears for a potential collaboration.
I can reveal the Queen of Pop tried to connect with the Circus singer in December and January with hopes of a joint writing or studio session.
Madge has been busy working on the follow-up to 2019 album Madame X, which is expected to be released this year.
However, Britney has so far refused to engage with the Like A Virgin singer, who was one of the few guests at her wedding to model Sam Asghari in 2022.
A collaboration between the two superstars would be huge for the pop universe — 23 years after they scored a No2 hit with Me Against The Music.
That year, 2003, they also made global headlines when they kissed on stage at the MTV VMAs.
A source close to the younger star said: “Madonna believes Britney is not just a brilliant artist, but a lovely person.
“They had a great time in the past working together and had touched on working together again.
“Madonna felt that Britney could bring something to her new album or perhaps join for a writing idea.
“She feels a connection to Britney and has been a vocal supporter of her, despite all the concern about her welfare in the last couple of years.
“Madonna is one of the few people on the planet to understand the stresses and troubles of being one of the most famous people in the world.”
Britney has said she is unsure if she will ever return to music, although she did have a No3 hit in 2022, duetting with Elton John on Hold Me Closer, following the end of her 13-year conservatorship.
Meanwhile, Madonna has also been busy with acting.
Last month she shot a cameo in Venice for the Apple TV series The Studio, in which she will play herself in a storyline inspired by the making of her scrapped biopic.
It will show Julia Garner — who was cast as Madonna in the real film before it was binned — winning a gruelling audition, then heading to the Venice Film Festival for its debut.
It sounds like quite the farce, but I’m glad Madonna can still laugh at herself after all these years.
KAROL COMES OUT TO PLAY
COLOMBIAN beauty Karol G has Playboy covered . . . even if she isn’t.
The singer went topless on the cover of the mag and posed without a bra in a revealing crop top in another shot, as she gears up to headline Coachella festival in California this weekend.
She joins Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter who also top the bill at the three-day desert bash.
And although she is used to massive crowds, she was unsure about stripping off for Playboy, asking her Modern Family actress pal Sofia Vergara for advice.
When Karol told her she wouldn’t do it if Sofia didn’t think it was a good idea, she says the TV star replied: “With that body? When you get to this age, you tell yourself, ‘F***, why didn’t I pose that one time?“
Karol, take it from me – you look amazing.
ROB COMES UP ROSES FOR BLUE
ONE was in the biggest British boy band of the Nineties, and the other followed suit among the pop heart-throbs of the Noughties.
Now Take That’s Robbie Williams has thrown his support behind Blue by writing their new single. They will drop the track, called Flowers, tomorrow following the release of their No2 album Reflections in January.
Antony Costa, who is in the group with Simon Webbe, Duncan James and Lee Ryan, said: “Having an icon like Robbie write a track for Blue was an honour.
“Robbie reached out to me a while back and said, ‘I’ve got a song for Blue’. We only got to record it recently and thought it would be perfect to release for our 25th anniversary tour.
“It’s already sounding amazing in rehearsals with the live band – we can’t wait for you all to hear Flowers.”
Blue have already kicked off their massive tour and will spend the rest of April playing shows UK-wide, with more gigs across the country as well as Europe throughout the summer.
Robbie has plenty of shows lined up this summer, too, but I won’t be surprised if he pops up at one of Antony and the boys’ concerts.
ARIANA GRANDE has confirmed she is back in the studio – a month after I revealed she was secretly working on new music.
She previously insisted she had no plans to release her eighth album this year, saying she is far too busy with her Eternal Sunshine tour kicking off in June.
However, last night she posted images on Instagram of her clearly making music, tagging her long-time co-writer and co-producer Ilya Salmanzadeh.
She released her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine, in 2024.
BLOW FOR CREDIT CARDI
NOTHING could get Cardi B down as she arrived for an after-party in Philadelphia in this revealing dress.
The rapper has had a tough week, as her ex-husband Offset was shot and she became the victim of credit card fraud.
But she still had a smile on her face with this violet outfit and her colourful hair, despite saying on Instagram that she wanted to have the person responsible for nicking her money “beat the f*** up”.
Cardi claimed almost £45k was spent on her AmEx card in an Apple shop and fancy American department store Saks. Whoever did that messed with the wrong woman.
A SUPER SHOT FOR MARISA
BRIT stars Marisa Abela and Ella Purnell are battling against US actress Adria Arjona to land a key role in the Superman sequel Man Of Tomorrow.
US website Deadline reported last night that the actresses have been testing for the role of Maxima – the warrior queen from the planet Almerac.
The character lands on Earth and swiftly sets her sights on Superman, who is once again being played by David Corenswet.
It will be a coveted role and landing it would be a coup for any of the leading ladies.
THE STROKES are celebrating 25 years since their debut by returning with their seventh album, Reality Awaits.
It will be out on June 26 and they have already released the first taste with new track Going Shopping.
Their album was recorded in Costa Rica and is their first music since 2020’s The New Abnormal.
JACKO KO ON ABUSE MENTION
THE upcoming Michael Jackson biopic has been forced to erase scenes featuring allegations of child abuse.
The film will finally hit cinemas a fortnight tomorrow – a full year after its original release date.
And now the cause of the long delay has been revealed.
According to a clause in a settlement with one of his accusers, Jordan Chandler – the boy whose accusations were at the centre of Jackson’s first sex probe in the Nineties – any depiction or mention of him in an official Jackson film is banned, so producers had to go back to the drawing board.
According to Variety mag, the final third of the film needed to be reshot, resulting in 22 days of extra work last June.
This is estimated to have cost the late singer’s estate around $10-15million.
Jackson’s nephew Jaafar will play him on screen, but the Billie Jean star’s sister Janet is not in the film. I’m sure it’ll still be a box office smash.
SABRINA CARPENTER says she can separate her feelings from her songs when she’s performing – handy, given she has so many hits about failed relationships.
She told Perfect mag: “When I’m on stage, there’s a button. I think it’s been this way ever since I was young.
“I started touring when I was 16, and I’ve always felt there’s a button that turns on when you’re performing. And when you’re singing these songs, in that moment, it really becomes a show.
“I am a human being. I’m a 26-year- old girl. I’m hormonal. I’m emotional. I’m dealing with a lot of stuff.
“For me, it really just has been compartmentalising the moments where I feel like the show must go on and moments where I allow myself to be a little all over the place.”
MORE than a quarter of a century after they burst on to our screens as one of America’s most dysfunctional and chaotic families, the Malcolm In The Middle clan are back.
FRANKIE MUNIZ, who starred as Malcolm, posed alongside his on-screen parents, played by Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek, for the premiere of the four-episode sequel Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, which debuts on Disney+ tomorrow.
Also back as Malcolm’s older brothers Francis and Reese are Christopher Masterson and Justin Berfield.
But Erik Per Sullivan, who played their younger sibling Dewey, decided not to return as he is busy studying Victorian literature at Harvard University.