Madonna.com can confirm that Madonna is back in the studio today to record new music. Can't say what it is for just yet, but stay tuned to Madonna.com for more info.Madonna.com can confirm that Madonna is back in the studio today to record new music. Can't say what it is for just yet, but stay tuned to Madonna.com for more info.

Rolling Stone magazine have just launched their annual Reader's Poll of the year.
You can vote for Madonna in the following categories, Best Female Performer, Best Tour, Best Dressed and you can even add Madonna's name to the Artist Of The Year category.

So what are you waiting for? Get voting here!

Pusher Media has published on their website the Re - Invention video backdrop for Vogue - the video features footage on all four screens featured on the stage and also some footage of a dress rehearsal of the Vogue performance on 10 May 2004.

Miss Jones VFX adds Madonna to it's list of celebrity divas who demand - and get - the best in concert visuals. The 'Reinvention 2004' tour featured work by PUSHER director Stefan Smith and 3D elements from Joe Kosinski of KDLAB.

NPR broadcast a Madonna radio interview this afternoon in the US on Fresh Air With WHYY, you can still listen to the interview here.

After a chart - topping and occasionally controversial music career, she s now turning out children s books publishing four in just over a year. The newest is The Adventures of Abdi. The others are The English Roses, Mr. Peabody's Apples and Yakov and the Seven Thieves. Her fifth, Lotsa de Casha, is due out in April 2005

Selfridges have contacted madonnalicious so that we can give to give our visitors the schedule for tomorrow's (11 November) book - signing event at their Oxford Street store. Here is the following information given to madonnalicious - please remember that all the following plans can be subject to change if Selfridge's marketing/security decide:

Books will be pre - signed by Madonna, and be given out to customers as they come to meet her at the signing table.

Customers will need to pay for the book first, and can join the queue on presentation of a valid receipt; both from 1.00pm only.

No other merchandise will be signed, and photos cannot be taken with Madonna.

A reading for 30 children by Madonna will take place before the personal appearance.

A press photocall will take place at the signing table.

There are, it seems, some gigs so big that even royalty Can't land them. Yesterday afternoon, in an honour not even afforded the Queen's Speech, all five terrestrial TV channels and more than 20 cable and satellite stations simultaneously broadcast the new Band Aid 20 charity single.
Millions of viewers tuned in at 5.55pm to see the video, which mixes footage of the famine in Africa with images of pop stars weeping as they struggle to comprehend the enormity of the situation.
'It is something completely unprecedented,' said a Band Aid spokeswoman. 'I have never known even a royal occasion to be shown on all channels like that.'
'What we have got to make sure is that as many people as possible buy the single and I Can't think of a better way of doing that.'
The video was introduced by Madonna, who performed at the original Band Aid concert but did not take part in the recording of the new song.
Over images of starving children, she said: 'Once again, here we are 20 years later. More people die of hunger in Africa than war and Aids put together. In a world of plenty, it is hard to imagine that most African children will go to bed tonight hungry. Bob Geldof and his friends are here to remind you that we can never forget. Not ever. Feed the world.'

There are reports from various UK news sources that between 14 and 20 million viewers watched the broadcast. To download the single visit
www.bandaid20.com

Late Beatle John Lennon has been voted the Greatest Music Star Of All Time by a British music magazine. Lennon beat legends Elvis Presley, Madonna and Bob Marley in the poll by Q Magazine. Photographs of the top 100 stars will be featured in an exhibition at London's Proud Gallery from 3 December 2004.

The top ten are as follows:
1: John Lennon
2: Elvis Presley
3: David Bowie
4: Keith Richards
5: Kurt Cobain
6: Madonna
7: Bono
8: Bob Marley
9: Joe Strummer
10: Bob Dylan

Michael Colombier, the composer who composed the beautiful string arrangements for Madonna on Die Another Day, Don't Tell Me and Easy Ride as well as composing the soundtrack for Swept Away has died:

French composer Michel Colombier died yesterday after a six month battle with cancer. He was 65. Colombier was one of the most prolific and versatile French musicians of his generation. Besides his career as a film composer, scoring over 100 feature, cable and television films since the early 1960's, Colombier was a prolific song writer and arranger who worked with artists such as Madonna, Prince, The Beach Boys, Paul Anka, Barbra Streisand and Earth Wind and Fire.
As a film composer, Michel Colombier scored a lot of French and American films, including The Golden Child, Ruthless People, New Jack City, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and The Money Pit. His background in jazz was evident in the majority of his film scores, and his ability to compose original score music that merged seamlessly with pop songs made him the perfect composer for 1980's films with song - heavy soundtracks, including White Nights, Against All Odds and Purple Rain (which won a Grammy Award as well as an Academy Award for Best Song Score).

Madonna has lent her support to the new version of the Band Aid single Do They Know it's Christmas? by recording an introduction to accompany the video premiere on UK TV.
Although Madonna did not take part in the new recording, it is understood that Sir Bob Geldof telephoned Madonna on Thursday as she made her way to the UK Music Hall of Fame ceremony to ask her to record an introduction to the video, Madonna is said to have agreed immediately.
The video will premiere simultaneously on all five UK TV channels at 5.55pm on Thursday 18 November.

Madonna's full introduction:
'Twenty years ago I performed at Live Aid,' she will tell viewers. 'You saw me and my generation demanding a change.'
'Once again, here we are 20 years later and more people die of hunger in Africa than war and Aids put together.'
'In a world of plenty, it is hard to imagine that there are African children going to bed tonight hungry.'
'Bob Geldof and his friends are here to remind you that none of us can forget. Not ever. Feed the world. I am honoured to introduce Band Aid 20.

Here's the interesting story about how guitarist Monte Pittman met Madonna, taught her to play guitar and went on tour with her:

In 1999, Monte Pittman bid a fond farewell to his rural hometown of Longview, Texas, and headed west to Los Angeles in search of the big time. But like so many other musicians who have done the same, Monte found himself in other situations.
'I got a job working at a music store selling guitars and sweeping floors," he tells us. But as fate would have it, that dues-paying gig opened a door that would change Monte's life. "People would come into the store looking for guitar teachers," he explains, 'so the thought occurred to me, I could just teach. I could be my own boss. And that's exactly what he did. "I quit cold, put out my card, and started looking for students."
One day a man called the music store inquiring about guitar lessons, and Monte's name was passed along. That customer was none other than Guy Ritchie, film director extraordinaire and soon-to-be husband of Madonna. "Guy was my third student," Monte recalls. "That was before Snatch came out, and I didn't know who he was. It turns out he and Madonna were dating. He had just had some surgery done on his knee, I believe, so he was off his feet and she got him a guitar. He started taking lessons, and he got pretty good at it."
'I remember the day Music (Madonna's CD) came out, and I taught him a few things from it. I thought it would be cool for him to play them for her."
When Guy returned the favor and bought Madonna a guitar, she started taking lessons from Monte as well. "It was the same thing as Guy - she learned everything I gave her," says Monte. 'she took it seriously, and worked really hard at it. She learned so much so quickly. That's one thing about Madonna - her drive is incredible."
A month after Madonna started playing guitar, she got called to perform on David Letterman. 'she invited me to come play with her, and I thought she was pulling my leg at first," Monte laughs, "but she was serious.' That gig went well, and it led to a slot on Madonna's Drowned World tour, which carried Monte through to the current Reinvention tour.