Madonna surprised fans at Tribeca Festival with a visual project mixing music video and album, featuring Sabrina Carpenter, Feid, and more. She also performed in Times Square for 50,000 fans, reflecting on her journey from 1978.

The $30 million toe in the water

The event, held at the Beacon Theatre, featured a candid conversation with Anderson Cooper, who substituted for a last-minute dropout Jimmy Fallon. Alongside directors David Toro and Solomon Chase, whom Madonna playfully called from another planet, the Queen of Pop delved into her early days in New York City and the creative process behind the project.

The film, which clocks in at over 30 minutes, is a wild ride through surreal imagery: paparazzi SWAT teams, forest people with green lasers shooting from their lower orifices (Madonna quipped she wanted to try it but apparently it gets quite hot), a car crash, aerial flips over a dancefloor, and plenty of steamy hookups in a public restroom while Benedict Cumberbatch dances outside the stalls.

Why 4,000 unsold units became the prize

The visual project boasts an impressive roster of appearanes. Sabrina Carpenter crawls and writhes across the dancefloor with Madonna during their collaboration Bring Your Love. Colombian singer Feid joins on Read My Lips.. Debi Mazar swings by Danceteria, a nod to their shared past at the iconic now-defunct NYC club, where they would make out to attract boys and get the DJ to play Madonnas cassette.

Arca contributes additional production on I Feel So Free, while Honey Dijon produced a track. genre-pushing British artist Shygirl and actress Julie Garner, who bears a striking resemblance to Madonna circa 1987, also appear. Lourdes Leon, Madonnas daughter, delivers the films final line: Cut, b-tch.

An echo of Sydney's 2024 institutional buy-up

Madonna also reflected on her suprrise performance the previous evening in Times Square, where she played for 50,000 fans at The Square pop-up venue. she told Cooper it felt like a beautiful full-circle moment, recalling her arrival in New York City in 1978 with just 35 dollars and a head full of ambition, heading straight to Times Square.

However, she admitted to nerves when she swung her leg over the Plexiglas barrier separating the stage from the traffic several stories below. When I went to put my leg over the barrier I was like, I dont know if I love my fans that much, she mused with a smirk.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

Four unreleased tracks featured in the film remain unconfirmed for release. Madonna revealed the project took about a month to film, while the album itself was the product of a year and a half of work with producer Stuart Price, created while she waited for a long-gestating Netflix miniseries about her life to materialize.

Only two songs from the project, I Feel So Free and the Carpenter collab Bring Your Love, have been officially released .