Three Hollywood bigwigs drop new songs

Taylor Swift, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen release singles within a span of 24 hours


Entertainment Desk April 26, 2019
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It seems as though some of Hollywood’s biggest music maestros coordinated their 2019 song releases. Thursday evening witnessed Taylor Swift, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen dropping their singles one after another, but all within a span of 24 hours.

Grammy-winning Swift unveiled a cheerful pop duet called “ME!” along with a colorful video filled with pastel-drenched images of butterflies, rainbows and a young couple in love. Featuring the lead vocalist of Panic! at the Disco, Brendon Urie, the clip begins with him and Swift engrossed in a heated discussion in French. The video turns upbeat as the music starts. “I promise that you’ll never find another like me,” Swift sings. “I’m the only one of me. Baby that’s the fun of me.” The Bad Blood crooner had been teasing an announcement for days on social media with pastel images that turned out to be scenes from the new video.

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ME! is a song about embracing your individuality and really celebrating it and owning it,” Swift said hours before the release of the single, reported Variety. “With a pop song, we have the ability to get a melody stuck in people’s heads and I just want it to be one that makes them feel better about themselves,” she added. The latest track and video provides a stark contrast to the 29-year-old’s last album Reputation (2017), which included songs such as Look What You Made Me Do, taking a dig at people who have attacked her personally and professionally.

Medellin, the first single from Madonna’s upcoming album Madame X, suggests that she still knows how to deliver. A collaboration with Colombian singer Maluma, the songs slinks its way through a series of persuasive hooks without threatening to boil over. It elaborates on the album’s themes, which she previous aired in a series of Instagram clips and also hints at several Madonna videos from the past. One spots references to Like a Prayer, Human Nature and Don’t Tell Me, as well as her Blonde Ambition phase.

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Springsteen didn’t officially drop his new single, Hello Sunshine, until Thursday midnight and released an accompanying lyric video as well. While it’s great as far as the lyrics go, of course what really matters here is the song, which is a change of pace for the singer and a style of music he hasn’t really explored before. The pop star does not appear in his video for Hello Sunshine, which only shows a car with New Jersey license plates driving on a deserted desert road. Last week, Springsteen told Rolling Stone that he would be releasing a new album, Western Stars on June 14 — his first full-length album since 2012. “This record is a return to my solo recordings featuring character driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements,” Springsteen told the music magazine in a statement. “It’s a jewel box of a record.”

This will also be Springsteen’s first release since 2014’s High Hopes, and signals a change of pace for the Jersey legend. Drawing inspiration from the acid-tinged pop that echoed throughout Laurel Canyon, this album still takes on themes he’s best known for. Track titles like Somewhere North of Nashville and Tucson Train indicate a still very fervent infatuation with an Americana aesthetic, but with more cinematic and luscious instrumentals.

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