News Archives

February 2011 News Archive

New York, NY - For Immediate Release – Madonna’s third Hard Candy Fitness Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, a beautifully designed 52,000 square foot space in the center of the city is projected to open in mid-2011, it was confirmed today by Mark Mastrov, Chairman of New Evolution Ventures (NeV). The announcement of this latest facility follows the recent opening of the Mexico City Hard Candy Fitness and confirmation of plans for a Hard Candy Fitness Center in Moscow.

The St. Petersburg location holds special meaning for Madonna. “St Petersburg, Russia was one of the most magical nights on my ‘Sticky & Sweet’ Tour and I’m thrilled that we’ve found the perfect location and ideal environment there for the next Hard Candy Fitness,” commented Madonna.

Both the Moscow and St. Petersburg location will be in partnership with Irina Razumova, founder of the well-known Russian chain Planet Fitness. “We are honored to collaborate with Madonna and her team in designing and developing a beautiful facility like no other in the world,” stated Razumova.

NeV’s Mastrov, his partner Jim Rowley, along with Madonna and Guy Oseary are also exploring options of building additional Hard Candy locations in Italy, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil, for facilities that will offer a unique member experience. Hard Candy Fitness Centers will include state of the art equipment, exclusive curriculum along with Mind Body Studio, The Great Wall, Sculpting, barre3, a Bike Studio, Capoeira, the newest trends in Yoga, a Juice Bar/Café and lavish locker rooms.

“The early success of the first Hard Candy Fitness Center in Mexico City - where Madonna taught a dance class to members at the opening - has inspired us all to create similar facilities and seek out local partnerships around the globe which embody Madonna’s workout philosophy. St. Petersburg and other locations of Hard Candy Fitness will be a place where members will enjoy their workout experience in a beautiful environment in each city,” commented Mastrov.

Due to tremendous interest and the many inquiries NeV has received from all over the world about Hard Candy Fitness Centers, fans have been asked to voice their choice for the next location by going to www.madonna.com/hardcandyfitness and vote on the interactive map for your dream location.

NEW YORK (AP) — Logistical problems and other concerns have led Madonna to abandon her plan to build a girls-only school in Malawi, but the new leader of her effort says the superstar instead plans many more schools with educational groups already working toward that goal.

"Basically, what we'd be doing is expanding the ability for a group of nonprofits to provide education to more kids," said Trevor Neilson in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

Neilson, a former executive with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, joins the Raising Malawi project as a partner of the Global Philanthropy Group, a leading international organization that works with organizations and governments around the globe.

He and several other experienced philanthropy experts became part of Raising Malawi's revamped team in November.

"Madonna increasingly began to have concerns about the effectiveness of the existing strategy and management team, and as a result has made sweeping changes in order to better serve more children in Malawi," he said.

The Kabbalah Centre, once a part of the project, is no longer involved, Neilson noted. Madonna has practiced Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, for years.

The bigger changes involve the scope of Madonna's educational plans in the impoverished African country. The superstar, who has adopted a boy and a girl from Malawi, had initially planned to build a school for girls, most of whom don't get the opportunity to go to school.

The school was to be on an approximately 117-acre plot of government land near the capital, Lilongwe. But soon after the location was announced, several local villagers claimed they owned the land and the government was forcing them off of it.

"Obviously, Raising Malawi didn't know anything about this, and was surprised, yet Raising Malawi paid those people over $130,000, which in Malawi is a lot of money," Neilson said.

Even after that, however, he said, Raising Malawi never got title to the land. In addition, Neilson said the school was being built in an area where there were not many children, and too much effort was being paid to the design of the building.

"Madonna was shocked to find out how much time and money had been spent on architecture," he said, though declining to give an exact estimate, simply saying, "too much!"

Instead of creating a Raising Malawi school, the new plan is to use Raising Malawi's resources to partner with other NGOs, or non-governmental organizations, already working to provide a better education in Malawi.

"Working in consultation with a series of non-profits and education efforts, we're looking at a new strategy that builds more schools, but embeds them in communities of Malawi where the students are," he said.

"Basically what we'd be doing is expanding the ability for a group of non-profits to provide education to more kids," he added.

Neilson said Raising Malawi has contacted its key donors and informed them of the change in strategy: "All of the major donors we've talked to are really excited about the strategy."

Neilson also added that contrary to reports, the charity is still working very closely with the government, and that Madonna called the president's office and explained her new plans.

New schools could be built by the end of this year, and the educational efforts, while geared toward girls, will not exclude boys, he said.

"The need is so broad that you don't want to come into a community and say, 'Sorry boys, you can't go to school,'" he said.

Neilson said Madonna would go to the region "soon" and stressed that she was still fiercely committed to the country: He said Raising Malawi has dispersed $13 million toward charitable efforts over the last few years.

"She's very frustrated that the project has not moved faster and has not reached children with these services in a faster way," he said. "Ultimately, that's all that matters, is that children go to school."

He said Madonna has also denounced Malawi's anti-gay measures, but said she would still work with the country to help the children. "I don't think that that is core to this project in any way."

Madonna fans! First of all, we would like to thank you all for taking part into the Madonna Picture Project. Thanks to your help, we've collected more than 3,200 pictures over the past months and the official Flickr gallery looks fantastic!

As announced earlier, the related contest is now over, but we have yet to announce our last winner... Congratulations to Gabriella.M from Italy, who has just won a signed Madonna surprise, which will hit her mailbox very soon!

Thank you again for all of your submissions and make sure to visit the Flickr gallery now for the latest additions!
David Guetta’s remix of “Revolver” was named “Best Remixed Recording” during the 53th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, which was held in Los Angeles last night.

Congratulations to him!



Want to learn more about Madonna’s love for St Petersburg? Check Madonna.com soon!

David Guetta’s remix of “Revolver” is nominated for a Grammy Award in the ‘Best Remixed Recording’ category.

The 53th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on February 13th. Make sure to watch!