Madonna's new video “Living for Love” debuted on Snapchat (?!?) yesterday, but we finally get to see it on YouTube in all its bull-baiting glory. Check it out. I'd say it's her best single video since “Hung Up.”
Here are 10 reasons it rules.
1. That unusual choreography with all of its masculine posturing and grappling. It's like if Madonna joined the man-slave brawl at the end of the “Express Yourself” video.
2. That matador costume is gorgeous. Madonna's idols Frida Kahlo and Marlene Dietrich would both covet it.
3. This is her Annie Lennox “Diva” moment. She's accepting the role of a veteran and playing on familiar imagery from her career (“Take a Bow,” specifically) without forfeiting any of her signature nerve, headmistress grandeur, or ingenuity. She's a raging stateswoman strutting on broken glass.
4. The song's hymn vibe is a perfect match for the studied, solemn movements of a matador.
5. She looks incredible. That body! She's like if Belinda Carlisle were an American Gladiator.
6. The sappiness and bullfighting theme give us reason to call her Earnest Hemingway. Just a thought.
7. She's titillating those shirtless dudes as they sweat and claw beneath her. This is like if the “Open Your Heart” video turned into a cage match.
8. The pulsating redness gives the video a carnal and tender feel.
9. The slow-motion rose pedals are like something out of most glamorous De Beers commercial ever.
10. Of course Madonna is slaying minotaurs. She's living mythology.