Madonna has always been one of pop’s most colorful figures, which is something that’s quite evident with the cover art for MDNA, her upcoming 12th studio LP (out March 26). Here the prolific Material Girl is shown through the prism of what looks like a multi-hued gem. With her blonde locks pulled back and head slightly tilted to the side, there’s almost a hint of the cover of Madge’s classic 1986 LP True Blue.
In looking back on Madonna’s album covers since the turn of the millennium, the singer has worn quite a few coats — something we’ve come to expect.
With 2000’s Music, a denim-and-cowboy-hat-clad M posed in front of a vintage car. Here she was Americana incarnate, a persona she’d turn on its head with politically-tinged 2003 release American Life. Madge got a spanking by US radio (read: she was virtually banned on the airwaves) for her so-called anti-American sentiments on the album, so Confessions On A Dancefloor found her heading straight to the disco in 2005 — a return to her roots, if you will. Appropriately, the cover art had Her Madgesty on her knees, bathing in the strobes and glitterball shimmer.
And then there was 2008’s Hard Candy, the cover of which depicted the sticky and sweet singer looking, let’s face it, rather hard herself in her leather boxing dominatrix gear amidst some questionable Photoshop work.
MDNA seems to symbolize exactly how we’ve collectively viewed pop’s reigning queen since she came roaring into our consciousness nearly 30 years ago — from many angles. We’ve dissected her to death and probably projected our own persona onto her at times.
Yes, she may have bounced and writhed through different shades of the color spectrum over the decades. But in the end, one thing remains crystal clear: she always is and always will be uniquely Madonna.