It is not very often that I post about celebrity gossip, but the announcement of Madonna’s divorce to Guy Ritchie resonates with the kind of importance and interest that makes it difficult not to mention. As regular readers of this blog know, I have been a fan of Madonna since 1991, a staggering seventeen years. That’s a long time – some friendships don’t even last that long. When you follow someone’s career because you love their music, then ultimately you can’t help being aware of their private life as well, especially when it as well documented as Madonna’s. This woman can’t even sneeze in public without rife speculation. She of course hasn’t exactly helped the boundary of personal and public, the former often informing her public image and the work she presents to the world – intimate portraits such as the films In Bed With Madonna (1991) and I’m Going to Tell You A Secret (2004), albums Like A Prayer (1989), Ray of Light (1997) and American Life (2003), as well as the controversial book Sex (1992). Life has often been art, and vice versa, to the point where people know more about her than they may do their own siblings or parents.
It is sad when any relationship ends, but most Madonna fans are not exactly grief-stricken about the news of the divorce. The response to the rather dour, macho Ritchie has often been lukewarm, especially considering some of the not very nice things that have recently reported about him in regards to his alleged homophobia. Though, one can never know the intimate goings-on of any relationship, and indeed it has always been quite clear that there has been a lot of love, respect and affection between the two. It is just a shame that they could not work out their differences to save the marriage. I guess I have always believed that a marriage, even when it feels like it can never be salvaged, should always be fought for, no matter what. Every avenue must be exhausted to reconcile differences before divorce is even spoken about, but one does get the sense that this was the case for both Madonna and Ritchie. I guess if you just don’t love someone anymore, then you must move forward without him or her.
What does this mean for Madonna? Will her career take a new direction? Will this be the close of Madonna’s electronica phase of music that is marked by the Ray of Light (1997) album and potentially ends with Hard Candy (2008)? One thing to note is that Madonna always produces her best work after a huge upheaval in her personal life – Like A Prayer (1989), her most autobiographical album, was born out of her first divorce to husband Sean Penn, and her equally autobiographical album Ray of Light (1997) was a response to the life changing event of giving birth to her first born, Lourdes. Will this latest personal upheaval mean a return to the less-beats driven, ‘trend’ heavy music she has produced on her last two albums with something more low-key and personal – a proper Madonna album? One can only hope. It is not without irony that I noticed that Madonna’s next single and third from Hard candy, to be released in November, is Miles Away – a song largely about her tumultuous relationship with Ritchie, and how they only seemed to be able to love each other when apart. Prophetic, huh?
Click here for the Guardian's rather amusing take on the divorce.
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