Music, Style & Culture

Madonna - Give Me All Your Luvin’ (Feat. M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj)

Baby chucking, a tendency to gyrate and M.I.A. in a cheerleader costume.

Baby chucking, a tendency to gyrate and M.I.A. in a cheerleader costume; the video for ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ has more talking points than anything on Madonna's previous, slightly desperate, 2008 ‘Hard Candy’ album. The song itself is what M.I.A. professes to be a “supersonic bionic uranium hit” and while we’re tempted to suggest that such a statement is a touch hyperbolic it’s also completely non-sensical, which is why the song is such a minor triumph. Derivative and boastful, Madonna seems less focused on controversy and more in tune with heralding a fine pop song. Some might have written the singer off from ever reaching this height again.

Minaj’s contribution is short-lived, bizarre and totally unnecessary. Some might see it as a crass, last-minute lumping in of a rap verse. But it represents a lack of being held back by parameters and if the rest of ‘MDNA’ is as unconcerned about limits and convention, we can expect a rejuvenation in Madonna’s career - one that allows us to see through pretentious art-film catastrophes and peculiar publicity stunts. ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ has every right to be written off as another lousy attempt to remain contemporary, but you can see this topping the charts and for that we should pay our dues.