Madonna And Kanye West See Huge iTunes Sales Increases
Madonna and Kanye West didn’t exactly light the world on fire with their latest singles when initially released. It’s important to note that Madonna’s Rebel Heart single “Living for Love” hadn’t been officially promoted as a single until last week, when Madonna made the music video for the song available. However, Kanye West’s duet with Paul McCartney, “Only One,” wasn’t initially clicking with people. Fortunately, Kanye West (who produces some of Madonna’s Rebel Heart by the way), gave a stellar Grammy performance that has pushed “Only One” to No. 20 on iTunes.
Madonna needed even more to prove than Kanye this evening after several songs were leaked months before her Rebel Heart release date. As Hardeep Phull of the New York Post notes, Madonna proved to everyone at the Grammy Awards why she’s still the Queen of Pop.
“The 56-year-old dispatched with the shock tactics for once, choosing instead to lead a vibrant, Matador-themed production, complete with dancers wearing bullhorns. The gospel-influenced dance track also happens to be her best in years, a fact that was reflected in the way the buttoned-up music industry crowd inside the Staples Center danced with something approaching pleasure.”
Within hours of Madonna performing Rebel Heart’s first single, “Living for Love” went from nowhere to No. 39 on iTunes. Even better, the pre-order of Rebel Heart went from nowhere to No. 29 on iTunes. Both Madonna’s single and album should rise even higher as the day goes on. “Living for Love” was thought to be dead, but it is now back on life support. Madonna recently spoke to Billboard about “Living for Love” and the rumor it had 20 incarnations.
“20 might be a little too high. But definitely more than 10. A lot of different versions. We knew we wanted to make a dance record. But you know, there’s so many different levels of dance music and even different categories of house music. So, it was really like, what’s the bass line gonna sound like? Is it gonna be really stripped down and sparse, or is it going to be loaded up?”
Madonna is getting ready to start preparations for her world tour in support of Rebel Heart. She is going to play arenas instead of stadiums. She is also scheduled to play Australia for the first time in 22 years. Kanye West, who has produced Rebel Heart tracks “Holy Water,” “Illuminati,” and “Wash All Over Me,” will also tour around the same time Madonna does on a joint gig with Rihanna. Thanks to Madonna and Kanye West, 2015 is going to be a great year for music.
[Photo Credit: YouTube Screen Capture]
