Madonna Teases “Confessions II” Album with Wild Short Film Featuring Cameos from Julia Garner, Kate Moss and Daughter Lourdes

The Queen of Pop appeared at the Tribeca Festival and debuted the clip at N.Y.C.'s Beacon Theatre ahead of a lively conversation with Anderson Cooper

NEED TO KNOW

• Madonna premiered a wild and NSFW short film teasing her upcoming album Confessions II at the Tribeca Festival on Friday, June 5
• The 10-minute clip features cameos from Julia Garner, Sabrina Carpenter, Kate Moss and Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes Leon, among others
• After the premiere, Madonna spoke with moderator Anderson Cooper about her career longevity, motherhood and her Times Square Pride Month performance that drew 50,000 fans

The Queen of Pop remains the ultimate provocateur.

A day after Madonna gave a surprise concert in N.Y.C.'s Times Square, the “Like a Prayer” singer appeared at the Tribeca Festival on Friday, June 5, to tease her upcoming Confessions II album with a wild short film following her on “a transcendent journey that catapults the viewer through a f–ked-up night out,” according to an official release.

The clip, directed by David Tori and Solomon Chase, a duo known as TORSO, features snippets of the first six tracks of the album, including previously released songs "I Feel So Free" and "Bring Your Love," as well as "Good for the Soul," "One Step Away," "Danceteria," and "Read My Lips."

The film shows Madonna, 67, in various scenarios: First, she's sitting in an apartment in her lingerie when helmet-clad women carrying video cameras break down the door and burst in. Then Madonna is in a field, navigating a web of lasers, which are beamed from the crotches of dozens of women.

There's also a minor car crash, a sweaty dance party in a club — featuring cameos from Julia Garner, who was set to play Madonna in a now-shelved biopic, and Madonna's "Bring Your Love" collaborator Sabrina Carpenter — and another dance party in a dance club bathroom.

The Golden Globe winner checks out men standing at urinals, has an intimate moment in a bathroom stall with another man, bumps into Odessa A'zion (spilling a drink) and then dances with longtime friend Debi Mazar, as well as Benedict Cumberbatch and Kate Moss, among others. The sequence is a nod to her early days in New York City, when Madonna was a fixture at Danceteria, a now-shuttered club.

Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon also appears late in the film — which also has Easter eggs referencing the 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan and the 1992 music video for "Deeper and Deeper" — and ends the action by looking at the camera and saying, "Cut, bitch."

After the 10-minute movie was shown to the wildly receptive crowd, Madonna and the directors sat down with Anderson Cooper at the Beacon Theatre for a conversation about the album — a highly anticipated follow-up to her 2005 smash Confessions on a Dance Floor — Madonna's career and her connection to the gay community. (Cooper filled in for Jimmy Fallon, who was originally supposed to moderate the event.)

"Motherf—rs, Madonna is here tonight!" Cooper, 59, said by way of introducing Madonna, who wore sunglasses, a white coat and a sparkly minidress on stage.

Madonna explained that manager Guy Oseary inspired her to make a short movie, which was a good fit. "I like the idea of film because I'm a cinephile," she said. Videos, she implied, were a thing of the past, joking: "It was good when it was just MTV and me. Those days are over."

During the conversation, Madonna and her directors revealed they worked on the project for six months, and at one point they shot 15 cameos in the span of four hours.

During the roughly half-hour discussion, Madonna also discussed her Times Square performance (which attracted 50,000 fans) the day prior, her longevity in the business ("I find myself awkwardly discussing my peers, who are all dead," she said at one point) and motherhood. The mother of six said she takes pride that her kids are creative, adding that she's "so happy they're not accountants."

Madonna also revealed she and Lourdes co-wrote "The Test," a song on Confessions II. She called the collaboration a "healing moment."

Asked what she wanted the audience to leave with, Madonna shared her parting thoughts (before heading out to the Hamptons, she said, to see her 95-year-old father Silvio Ciccone): "Take risks, be curious, be observant, and put your f—ing phones down and connect.”

Madonna previously appeared at the festival in 2008, when she promoted the documentary I Am Because We Are, which she executive-produced about Malawi's orphans amid the country's AIDS crisis.

In a statement ahead of Madonna's appearance, Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal welcomed her back. “Madonna has spent decades proving that reinvention is its own art form. 'Confessions II' feels immersive, provocative, and completely of the moment, while still channeling the kind of nightlife mythology only she could create,” she said.

At her Times Square concert a day prior, Madonna wished the thousands assembled a happy Pride Month and performed six songs: “I Feel So Free,” “Bring Your Love,” and “Love Sensation,” from Confessions II, as well as “I Love New York” and “Hung Up” from Confessions on a Dance Floor.

Confessions II is Madonna's first studio album since 2019's Madame X. It is available July 3, and the Confessions II film will stream on YouTube on June 8.

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