SAN DIEGO–When the singer Madonna, who is a disciple of the Kabbalah Center, decided that she wanted a Hebrew name, I found it ironic that she chose “Esther.” Esther is not a Hebrew name. Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther in the Bible, informs us that Esther’s Hebrew name was Hadassah, which means “myrtle.” Esther was her Persian name and is derived from the goddess Ishtar. So Madonna choose a Hebrew name which is really a Persian name which means “Ishtar, the pagan goddess.”
But one can hardly blame Madonna because the truth is that Esther is commonly used as a “Hebrew” or “Jewish” name. In fact there are many Hebrew names which were adopted from other cultures and languages, including Mordechai, Alexander, and Moses (an Egyptian name.) The adoption of such names into Jewish culture indicates that Judaism has always been open to outside cultural influences, sometimes to a greater and sometimes to a lesser degree.
But the division between Jewish and non-Jewish is permeable in both directions. Especially in the United States we find many influences of Jews and Jewish tradition on American culture.
One example: I stopped at a local coffee cart this week and prominently displayed on the pastry shelf was a jar filled with hamantaschen and labeled as such. Yiddishisms have crept into the American vocabulary (kosher, shmooze, shlep, etc.), and bagels and lox have become as American as hot dogs and apple pie.
When Haman approached the king and asked permission to kill the Jews, one of his arguments was: “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people, and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them.” (Esther 3:8) That is, Haman’s strongest argument against the Jews of Persia was that they were different.
That argument would be difficult to make in America for while we Jews still are a unique cultural and religious slice of the American population, we certainly fit in. Not only have we wholeheartedly bought into the American dream and American culture, many aspects of Jewish culture have become American as well.
The positive of this is diminished anti-Semitism and widespread acceptance of Jews by most Americans. The downside is our concern that one day the barrier between Jew and non-Jew will become so permeable that the former will simply osmose into the latter. Such is the challenge to Jews and Judaism in an open and tolerant society.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue
5 – Britney Spears – $38,885,267
6 – P!nk – $36,347,658
8 – Coldplay – $27,326,562
13 – Beyonce – $23,658,131
14 – Elton John – $22,141,315
20 – Michael Jackson – $17,301,639
22 – Depeche Mode – $16,038,102
26 – Celine Dion – $14,326,129
29 – Tina Turner – $13,169,806
35 – Cher – $11,421,553
Billboard’s Top Music Money-Makers 2009
40. Bette Midler
$9,421,947
Bette Midler has long been a successful touring artist, but her 90-date sitdown at Las Vegas’ Colosseum at Caesars Palace accounted for all her box-office revenue in 2009, as well as the overwhelming bulk of her income for the year. Even so, she did better than many artists with her digital tracks, presumably with lots of “Wind Beneath My Wings” downloads.
39. Leonard Cohen
$9,511,958
Leonard Cohen played his first U.S. concert in 15 years in February 2009. The show kicked off a successful year on the road that earned him $9.2 million in box-office share, dwarfing his $236,200 in CD royalties and $34,748 in digital album royalties.list divider
38. Bob Dylan
$9,610,011
He may be one of America’s most prolific songwriters and recording artists, but Bob Dylan is raking it in these days with his 20-plus-year Never Ending Tour. His box-office share in 2009 was $7.4 million, compared with $1.5 million in CD royalties, $154,592 in digital album royalties, $121,955 in digital track royalties and $350,514 in songwriter mechanical royalties.
37. Phish
$9,998,242
The jam band reunited in 2009, and while new album “Joy” didn’t exactly fly off the shelves, it did provide new material to play on a sold-out tour that included a high-grossing two-night stand at Bonnaroo and the band’s own Halloween Phish-fest in Indio, Calif.
36. Andrea Bocelli
$10,711,746
A touring favorite who earned $6.1 million on the road last year, classical crossover star Andrea Bocelli also banked $4.4 million in CD royalties and $121,100 in digital album royalties.
35. Cher
$11,421,553
Cher hasn’t released a studio album since 2002’s “Living Proof,” but she’s been a live blockbuster ever since. The singer took Celine Dion’s place at Caesars Palace in 2008, and her successful Cher at the Colosseum residency earned her $11.2 million.
34. Kiss
$11,833,930
Kiss spent 2009 on the road promoting its highest-charting album, the Walmart exclusive “Sonic Boom,” which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold 238,000 copies. The new set helped Kiss earn $10.6 million in touring revenue and $879,000 in album sales.
33. Toby Keith
$11,941,345
Stateside fans weren’t the only ones treated to Toby Keith’s Ford-sponsored tour in 2009–the artist also played his first European trek in support of his latest album, “American Ride,” which sold 295,000 copies and debuted at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart. Touring revenue totaled slightly more than $10 million.
32. Green Day
$12,152,004
Green Day had two major highlights in 2009: the release of its second No. 1 album, “21st Century Breakdown,” and a sellout run in Berkeley, Calif., of the musical stage show adaptation of 2004 set “American Idiot.” All of the buzz helped the band earn nearly $1.9 million in album sales and pull in $8.8 million from touring arenas.
31. Paul McCartney
$12,203,170
Although his Beatles take isn’t factored into his Money Makers earnings, Paul McCartney did just fine on his own last year, making most of his money ($11.4 million) from playing arenas, stadiums and a headlining slot at Coachella. His latest release, “Good Evening New York City,” sold 234,000 copies, contributing to the $609,000 he earned from album sales.
30. Lil Wayne
$12,866,174
The soon-to-be-incarcerated rap star will be missed by fans and promoters. In 2009 he had the highest-grossing hip-hop tour of the year — and the most lucrative rap trek that Billboard has ever tracked, raking in $10.4 million.
29. Tina Turner
$13,169,806
The 71-year-old artist is still going strong, as evidenced by her Farewell European tour, which earned her $13 million. Turner also scored $116,700 in CD sales.
28. Keith Urban
$14,075,581
Keith Urban scored his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last April with his 2009 album, “Defying Gravity.” The set sold 723,000 copies and helped him earn $1.4 million in CD sales. The artist’s Escape Together world tour, which visited arenas in the United States, earned nearly $12 million.
27. Brad Paisley
$14,299,322
Established as a hitmaker and an album seller, Brad Paisley has consistently been improving his clout at the box office in the past several years. He’s now an arena-level headliner, but Paisley’s popularity is due to his songs. Country music isn’t especially known for its strength at digital, but Paisley enjoyed close to 3 million track downloads.list divider
26. Celine Dion
$14,326,129
Last year, Celine Dion’s take came almost entirely from 23 North America dates on her Taking Chances tour. This is her third year in a row on the Money Makers list; she came in at No. 5 last time, thanks to her residency at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum in Las Vegas and her worldwide touring.
25. Kings Of Leon
$14,421,763
In 2009, Kings of Leon finally broke through in America, selling more than 1.2 million units. KOL also taps into a digital-friendly audience, racking up more than 500,000 album sales and more than 5 million tracks in the format. And it’s all about the upside with this band, as it continues to grow as a headliner, netting $9.9 million from touring.list divider
24. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
$14,606,313
Steady sales of its holiday-themed albums during Christmastime aren’t the only thing Trans-Siberian Orchestra relies on each year: The band consistently sells out arenas during the nine-week winter season with its over-the-top laser- and light-filled concerts. Last year, the Paul O’Neill-led group sold 815,000 albums and earned nearly $13 million in touring revenue. list divider
23. Billy Joel
$15,721,607
Though he hasn’t released an album of new material since “River of Dreams” in 1993, Billy Joel’s catalog performed well on all fronts. But on the Joel spreadsheet, that’s a drop in the bucket; the resonance of his songs, consistent road work and reputation as a top-shelf live performer during the past four decades continue to serve him best.list divider
22. Depeche Mode
$16,035,102
While Depeche Mode’s Tour of the Universe trek was briefly put on hold when frontman Dave Gahan fell ill, the group still took in $15.4 million for the world tour, according to Boxscore. The band’s album”Sounds of the Universe” earned $300,000 in CD royalties.
21. Taylor Swift
$17,204,646
At an age when many of her peers are working for minimum wage, Taylor Swift is in the big leagues of earners. Her financial package is well-rounded, and she’s one of the few on this list whose income wasn’t driven mostly by touring — her touring revenue accounted for less than half of her Money Makers total, and her CD royalties were topped only by Michael Jackson.
20. Michael Jackson
$17,301,639
Michael Jackson was the No. 1 earner in CD and ringtone royalties in 2009, with physical album sales pulling in $13.2 million and ringtones totaling $255,000. In addition, “This Is It” became the top-grossing concert film of all time, earning $72 million at the box office, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.list divider
19. Rascal Flatts
$17,996,964
It’s a safe bet that exposure through sponsorships from Hershey’s and JCPenney helped Rascal Flatts sell tickets to its 2009 summer amphitheater tour. Overall, the trio pulled in $14.3 million from 55 concerts that were reported to Boxscore. Indeed, the total gross was enough to land Rascal Flatts at No. 22 on Billboard’s 2009 tally of the top 25 highest-grossing tours. The band’s 2009 album, “Unstoppable,” was also a contributing factor to its success, with 1.1 million copies sold.
18. Andre Rieu
$19,468,768
The Dutch violinist and PBS pledge-drive mainstay sold only 59,000 albums but was No. 6 on Billboard’s list of top tours last year; his 30th-anniversary trek earned him more than $19 million and brought in nearly 500,000 people to 94 shows in Europe, Japan, North America, Australia and New Zealand in 2009. Rieu has logged 22 releases on Billboard’s Top Traditional Classical Albums chart, with three of them in the top 10 last year.list divider
17. Dave Matthews Band
$20,046,148
No act has sold more tickets in this millennium than Dave Matthews Band, and in 2009 the group also received some serious juice from one of its best-selling albums, “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King.” The strength of the record’s performance boosted DMB back into the company of elite earners. The band’s 800,000 Nielsen SoundScan units dwarf the band’s 14,788 digital album sales, but it did enjoy more than 2 million track downloads.
16. Il Divo
$20,909,735
The Armani-clad popera quartet lands at No. 16 this year thanks to a global tour promoted by Live Nation. Il Divo’s 118 dates in 2009 put $20 million in their suit pockets, with an estimated value of nearly $21 million for the band. That comprises nearly all of Il Divo’s take; the act’s next-largest source of revenue ($809,300) was physical sales of its albums, nearly half of which came from its late-2008 release “The Promise.”
15. Miley Cyrus
$21,285,996
Miley Cyrus is No. 4 on the 2010 Money Makers list in terms of CD royalties with more than $4.3 million; her one new release during the year was the Walmart-exclusive EP “The Time of Our Lives.” Cyrus’ Wonder World tour earned her slightly more than $15 million, according to Boxscore. Not included in this tally, but still of note: Her feature-film debut, “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” grossed $79.5 million at the box office, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
14. Elton John
$22,141,315
As half of the most successful co-headlining tour in history with Billy Joel, as well as being very active on his own, Elton John again struck box-office gold in 2009. Even without an album of new material, John still moved a quarter of a million physical units in the United States.list divider
13. Beyonce
$23,658,131
The millions of YouTube views for the “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” video could mean only one thing: Beyoncé continued to reap rewards for her triple-threat artistry in 2009. The singer earned $2.3 million in CD royalties for her latest album, “I Am… Sasha Fierce,” a total rivaled only by Nickelback in the top 15 of the Money Makers list. The set was just as well-received from a critical perspective–it won six 2010 Grammy Awards, the most ever for a female artist.
12. Nickelback
$23,674,124
Nonstop touring and continued radio play were two of the factors that contributed to Nickelback’s 2009 success. The band sold 1.9 million albums, the majority of which came from its most recent release, 2008’s “Dark Horse,” which sold 1.4 million copies. And fans didn’t stop seeing Nickelback in concert, either. During the year, the group played 73 amphitheater and arena shows that earned it $18.3 million and drew more than 1 million people.
11. Fleetwood Mac
$24,751,540
The baby boomer idols land on the list for the first time thanks to the group’s $24 million take from its Unleashed tour, its first in five years. The trek grossed $71.2 million from 65 shows reported to Boxscore and landed at No. 14 on Billboard’s top tours list last year. Fleetwood Mac earned less than $700,000 in the United States from its album sales, with its 1988 “Greatest Hits” moving 135,000 copies — about half its U.S. album total for the period.
10. Metallica
$25,564,234
Metallica had at least two things to celebrate in 2009: its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the release of “Guitar Hero: Metallica.” Along with touring revenue — the band pulled in $22.8 million from 55 arena shows reported to Boxscore that drew more than 968,000 fans — Metallica sold 694,000 albums in 2009. The majority of those sales came from its Rick Rubin-produced 2008 release, “Death Magnetic” (297,000). Album sales revenue totaled $1.6 million. And most of Metallica’s track download earnings came from its 1991 hit “Enter Sandman,” which sold 450,000.
9. Kenny Chesney
$26,581,141
As one of the elite touring artists in the world, Kenny Chesney has sold more than 1 million tickets for seven consecutive years. In country music, the big ticket sellers also sit atop radio and retail charts, and Chesney is no exception, with physical album sales in the United States running roughly the same as tickets sold. His digital track numbers are also among the highest on this list, and the country star rang up more than half a million ringtones in 2009.list divider
8. Coldplay
$27,326,562
Coldplay didn’t let a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by guitarist Joe Satriani dampen its spirits last year. Despite the legal turmoil (the two parties settled in September and the allegations were dismissed), the band earned $24.7 million touring behind its 2008 album, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” which sold 495,000 copies in 2009. Overall, the group sold 852,000 albums in 2009, bringing in $1 million in revenue. list divider
7. Jonas Brothers
$33,596,576
The Jonas Brothers released their fourth studio album,”Lines, Vines and Trying Times” (Hollywood) June 15, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and setting up the boy band for another fruitful year of album sales and touring. The act racked up almost $1.3 million in CD royalties. The band’s world tour netted them $31.4 million and won the group the Eventful Fans’ Choice Award at the 2009 Billboard Touring Awards.list divider
6. Pink
$36,347,658
Even before she lofted herself onto a trapeze at the MTV Video Music Awards, Pink was already having the best year of her career. She officially shook her underdog status in 2008 with the release of “Funhouse,” but 2009 vaulted her to new heights thanks in part to an international arena tour, which netted her $35 million. Moreover, Pink’s show-stopping 2010 Grammy Awards performance of “Glitter in the Air” — and the track’s subsequent 1,143% digital sales increase — means that her funhouse is still open for business.list divider
5. Britney Spears
$38,885,267
It seemed unlikely that Britney Spears could ever recover professionally from a series of bizarre events that led up to her 2008 “Circus” CD. But the album bowed atop the Billboard 200 in December of that year, and the pop star’s success continued into 2009 with an arena tour that earned her $36.4 million and album sales that totaled 763,000 copies. Digitally, Spears sold 7.5 million downloads; the largest seller was the racy Max Martin-produced single, “3,” which moved 1.6 million downloads.
4. AC/DC
$43,650,466
Although the overwhelming majority of AC/DC’s 2009 earnings came from touring international arenas and stadiums (it pulled in $41.4 million from concerts and ranked No. 4 on Billboard’s 2009 tally of the top 25 highest-grossing tours), the Australian rockers also experienced consistent album sales from their catalog. Indeed, the group’s highest-selling album was its 2008 Walmart exclusive, “Black Ice,” which shifted 227,000 copies. But coming in at a close second was the classic “Back in Black,” with 215,000 copies. In total, the group sold 1.1 million albums in 2009.
3. Madonna
$47,237,774
Like U2, Madonna toured for the first time under a long-term multirights Live Nation deal (hers valued at $120 million), and also like U2 it’s a performance-based pact. Madonna delivered: Her Sticky & Sweet tour tacked on a “victory lap” run of international stadium dates that solidified the trek as the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist. Madonna’s CD sales were well off the pace of her peak hitmaking years, but still more than respectable at physical and digital. Because her songs come from a wide range of writers, the publishing pie is pretty well-sliced. But her branding, licensing and merch efforts are among the most diversified and lucrative in the music business.
2. Bruce Springsteen
$57,619,037
With a new studio album, a Walmart-exclusive hits compilation and a relentless touring schedule, Bruce Springsteen was at the top of his revenue-generating game in 2009. Springsteen’s profile has never been higher, with added-value exposure from the Super Bowl halftime show, Kennedy Center Honors and even a run-in with Ticketmaster all keeping the Boss in the public eye. Springsteen was also a force at retail and on the digital sales front, with more than 2 million tracks downloaded. And since he writes all his own songs, publishing revenue stays at Camp Bruce. Remarkably, Springsteen Inc. is peaking more than 35 years after his debut album.
1. U2
$108,601,283
Midway through what is destined to be the highest-grossing tour in history, U2 remains the biggest band in the world. Its 360° tour is the group’s first under a 12-year multirights deal with Live Nation that includes worldwide touring, merchandising and the band’s lucrative U2.com Web site, a digital distribution gold mine for all things U2. The act’s current global stadium tour is the most expensive ever mounted — the daily nut is said to be $750,000 — but those costs are well offset by the highest capacities ever from the band’s 360-degree configuration. By even the most conservative estimates, U2 was far and away the top revenue generator in music last year.
Madonna’s boyfriend, model Jesus Luz, has signed a contract with the artist’s former record label, Warner Bros., according to a UK report.
The 23-year-old Brazilian has recently started to show the talent of DJ at a series of exclusive parties and now Luz begins his career as a pop star after signing an agreement to launch two singles with Warner Bros., the label that Madonna has left last year.
The first song of Luz, “We Came From Light” will be released in May 2010. Furthermore, Madonna ensure that her beloved toy will be successful in convincing the music industry convincing herr collaborator Victor Calderone to remix Jesus’ songs.
Madonna’s foregrounding of sexuality falls into the category of third-wave feminism, with its edgy, in-your-face tactics. This type of feminism glorifies rebellion, whether it is directed at the patriarchal status quo or at second wave feminism’s monolithic critique of gender, tendency toward “victim politics,” and suspicion of non-normative sexuality.
Within Judith Peraino’s proposed Garland-Ethridge-Madonna matrix of queer iconicity, Madge’s 2000 hit What it Feels Like for a Girl neatly articulates what de Courtivron refers to as “the wish to be a woman.” Anxiety accompanying such a wish drives much of Peraino’s analysis, yet she critiques the recording What it Feels Like for a Girl as an invocation of an opposite desire, noting how “the lyrics describe…an inner wish for masculine power disguised by an outer mask of womanliness that serves to avert retribution.” Yet the spoken intro to the song, daintily intoned in Madonna’s faux British accent (this, I think, was the start of her British phase), is a direct address presumably not to her female fans but her male (queer?) listeners:
For a boy to look like a girl is degrading
‘Cause you think being a girl is degrading
But secretly you’d love to know what it’s like, wouldn’t you?
Wish to be a woman, indeed! Peraino celebrates Madonna’s acknowledgement of a polysexual fanbase, but in the music video version of What it Feels Like for a Girl, directed by her husband Guy Ritchie, the subjects to whom she addresses the song are perhaps most easily identified as heterosexual, even machismo males (an interpretation complicated by her concert version of the song, featuring backup dancers Peraino describes as “salsa dancing soft-butch women.”).
For Peraino, the chief difference between the recorded and video versions of What it Feels Like for a Girl is gendered. The former she deems hyper feminized while the latter, with its dance beat and violent imagery, masculinized. Peraino’s description of the video is great, and thorough. She reads Madonna as “a leather-clad female Robin Hood with tattoos and bruises, guns and Camaros. An elderly woman, whom she ‘liberated’ from an old folks home, rides as a catatonic ’shot gun’ while Madonna commits gratuitous acts of violent mischief against men.”
I want to offer an alternative reading, one that critiques Madonna’s Judy Garland lineage as much as it perpetuates it. Let’s say the song is addressed to the old lady.
To be sure, What it Feels Like for a Girl is a violent video, so much so that MTV banned it from the airways. Madonna rams her car into men whose only crime is grinning at her, she tasers a man from behind and steals his cash, hijacks a man’s a car and then lights him on fire. And she buys the old lady a slurpy. When the shock of the first crash knocks the woman’s glasses down her nose, Madonna pushes them back up again.
What does she want the old lady to see?
If Peraino is correct that third wave feminists rebel against the second wave’s “tendency toward ‘victim politics,’” then it’s not simply Madonna’s use of sex that places her squarely in the third wave: the video What if Feels Like for a Girl aggressively rejects female victimhood, belying the unthreatening femininity which the lyrics prescribe.
But I don’t think the song is meant to chastise second wavers. Perhaps Peraino is right about Madonna’s desire to “liberate” the old lady, but I’m not sure she’s liberating her from the nursing room so much as from her beliefs about, yes, what it feels like for a girl in this world. The three words which, in the chorus, follow the titular phrase, are telling. This world, our world, is different from the world in which the old lady spent her girlhood, thanks in part to the hard work of second wave feminists, themselves probably at least a generation younger than the old woman in the video.
Judy Garland, perhaps a contemporary of the Madonna’s shot gun passenger, is beloved for what Peraino calls her “tragic queerness” but also for her resilience, especially in her “resistance to predictable repetitions of behavior.” Generations later, Madonna is likewise iconic in her ability to reinvent her public image, yet her reinvention is unburdened by a pretense of feminine feebleness. She’s aware of the precedent, as the lyrics to What it Feels Like for a Girl assure us, but the video makes it clear that she’s not beholden it. She comes out swinging from the start, and takes the old lady along for the ride.
*G1 *2 Hard Rihanna Featuring Jeezy SRP/Def Jam / IDJMG
*2 *7 The Power Of Music Kristine W Fly Again
*3 *8 Acapella Kelis will.i.am / 4 4 Revolver Madonna Featuring Lil Wayne Warner Bros.
5 *G1 Telephone Lady Gaga Featuring Beyonce Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree / Interscope
*6 *10 Fancy Free Sun JH
*7 *13 Feel It Three 6 Mafia Vs. Tiesto With Sean Kingston & Flo Rida Hypnotize Minds/Columbia / Sony Music
*8 *15 For Your Entertainment Adam Lambert 19/RCA / RMG
9 11 Why Don’t You Love Me Beyonce Music World / Columbia
10 3 On The Floor (Oh Baby Please) Kaylah Marin Epiphany
11 9 Russian Roulette Rihanna SRP/Def Jam / IDJMG
12 5 You Are Tony Moran Featuring Frenchie Davis Dance Music Productions
*13 *P21 Louboutins Jennifer Lopez Epic / Columbia
14 6 Bodies Robbie Williams Astralwerks / Capitol
*15 *22 Naturally Selena Gomez & The Scene Hollywood
*16 *19 Feelin’ Like A Superstar Barbara Tucker B Star
17 16 Dirty Desire Utada Island / IDJMG
*18 *26 Give Me Something Ono Mind Train / Twisted
*19 *24 Morning After Dark Timbaland Featuring Nelly Furtado & SoShy Mosley/Blackground /
20 12 Wonderful Billie Myers FruitLoop
*21 *23 Automatik Livvi Franc Jive / JLG
22 17 Rain Anjulie Monster/Hear / CMG
*23 *32 F**k The Industry Solange Music World
24 18 TiK ToK Ke$ha Kemosabe/RCA / RMG
25 25 It’s Over DJ Scott Mann Featuring Amuka DJ SM
*26 *31 Heartbreak On Vinyl Blake Lewis Tommy Boy
*27 *30 Party Round The World Jason Dottley & Debby Holiday JD3
28 29 Party Time (Get Up, Get Down) Freedom Williams Loverush / Sea To Sun
29 28 Keeping Score Hannah Snowdog
30 27 Hey Hey Dennis Ferrer Objektivity
*31 *37 Sex Slave Melleefresh vs. deadmau5 Play
*32 *38 Strange Condition Morgan Page Nettwerk
*33 *39 Suddenly BT Nettwerk
*P34 *N48 (Power pick) Rocket Goldfrapp Mute
35 33 Electricity Brian Anthony Sogni
*36 *N49 Sweet Disposition The Temper Trap Columbia
*37 *42 Get Up Kimberly Davis D1
*38 *O45 Better Than Her Matisse Jive / JLG
39 43 Together Barbara Sheree Continuous Cool
*O40 (New) (Hot Shot Debut) Drummer Boy Debi Nova Surco / Decca
41 41 I Wanna Be Your Baby Henri Dauman
42 40 Bad Romance Lady Gaga Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree / Interscope
*N43 (New) (Debut) Overload Carmen Perez Dauman
44 20 Come Back Clean The Crystal Method Featuring Emily Haines Tiny e
45 14 Did It Again (Lo Hecho Esta Hecho) Shakira Epic
*N46 (New) (Debut) Pyramid Charice Reprise
*N47 (New) (Debut) Break Your Heart Taio Cruz Featuring Ludacris Mercury / IDJMG
*N48 (New) (Debut) Energetic BoA SM
49 34 One Love David Guetta Featuring Estelle Gum/Astralwerks /Capitol
*50 *N50 Slow Poison The Bravery Island / IDJMG
Breakouts for Hot Dance Club Play
1 Halfway Gone Lifehouse Geffen / Interscope
2 Take Control Julissa Veloz Carrillo
3 Sunrise Irene Nelson NTMG/Bungalo / Universal
4 Freeze Bimbo Jones Not Listed
5 Imma Be The Black Eyed Peas Interscope
Yes she is really hot!!! We really love you: madonna
Click to watch full lenght s_e_x t_a_p_e …
How can I get my hair is quite wavy like Madonna in her video 4 Minutes? I like her hair looks like Madonna in her video of 4 minutes and I wondered how I could get a similar appearance. Thank you!
Tonight, I spoke with a friend who has a struggle that I share and that you share. Together, we struggle for freedom, for we are chained by shadows. These shadows are the desires and ambitions of our hearts. They are not realities, but rather, unquenched cravings for fulfillment that is founded on false hopes. They are the idols of our making.
My idol is success. To describe the feeling, I will turn to two quotes: one from Madonna, one from Chariots of Fire.
Madonna: My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I still have to prove that I’m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.
Chariots of Fire: “Contentment! I’m twenty-four and I’ve never known it. I’m forever in pursuit and I don’t even know what it is I’m chasing. …I’ll raise my eyes and look down that corridor, four feet wide, with ten lonely seconds to justify my whole existence… but will I?”
I pulled both of these quotes from Tim Keller’s book, Counterfeit Gods. In it, he makes a bold statement that my experience confesses to be true: “More than other idols, personal success and achievement lead to a sense that we ourselves are god, that our security and value rest in our own wisdom, strength, and performance. To be the very best at what you do, to be at the top of the heap, means no one is like you. You are supreme.”
I’ve seen this in myself, without a doubt. I do not only want to have value for these things, but I want to have the power to save. I see the world in shambles, and sometimes I feel as if I can not trust God. When I stop trusting God, my understanding of my role in His redemptive plan spirals into a one-man quest to take control. “The world’s problems are in my hands, It’s my job, My task, Mine, Mine Alone, My Precious.”
This carnal urge results in my endless thirst for achievement that will not be satisfied with anything less than establishing peace on earth and goodwill among men. If I do not find my contentment now, I will never have it. Even if I succeeded in achieving more for the sake of the gospel and human rights than anyone in 100 years, I would not be content. Instead, I would mourn like Oskar Schindler at what I failed to do, what I failed to give.
Contentment is the anti-venom, and it comes through freedom offered only by the forgiveness of and submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Then I see, God does love me, and He is well pleased with me, shortcomings and all. The love of God compels love for God, which leads to healing.
As my love for Jesus exceeds my love for my self, I begin looking for validation and fulfillment in His Success – His Lordship – rather than my own. I find joy in being the Nolan that God loves, rather than the false Nolan my idolatry longs for. I know that I am Somebody. When this happens, I am set free from the shadows I was chained to, and I awake in the dawn of contentment.
Fab news for Gleeks around the world jonesing for the new season of GLEE to start on April 13th: Entertainment Tonight teased us with a sneak peak at the all Madonna episode of GLEE.
via poptalkers.com
Rumors are criss-crossing the blogosphere about which songs from Madonna’s 25-year career will be featured on GLEE, the hit Fox show and winner of Best Comedy or Musical Series at the Golden Globes. The preview clip reveals the first official GLEE version one of Madonna’s hits: “Express Yourself” sung by Michele Lea, who plays the beleaguered Rachel. Dianna Agron, who plays former head Cherrio Quinn Fabray, is reportedly singing “Papa Don’t Preach” while Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester takes on “Vogue.”
“It’s got like 10 numbers in it, and the production value is very big,” revealed creator Ryan Murphy about the upcoming episode. “We adore her and worship her, so when I’m directing, I’m always like, ‘Do it for Madonna.’”
What will Madonna’s reaction be if our Gleeks fail to impress with their tribute? This is how Sue sees it: “Somewhere in the English countryside in a stately manor home, Madonna is weeping.”
In this new series we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer for a month as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we’re following Lauren from University of Michigan. She’s going sober for the month of February and will be sharing her ups (like feeling great last weekend!) and downs with us each Saturday.
It’s official: I’ve been 100% sober for a full two weeks! (I’ve even opted out of using mouthwash!) While that may not be such a big deal to some people out there (ahem, mean commenters, ahem), I am really, really proud of myself. Especially after the week I’ve had.
My first week of this challenge was pretty easy, breeezy Cover Girl. The weekdays flew by and then I was back at my parents’ house, where the temptation to drink was pretty minimal. But since then, I’ve survived a steakhouse dinner without wine, a Super Bowl party without beer, and two very serious nights at the bar without shots, shots, shots, shots shots.
On Thursday night I hit a low key bar with a few friends. They sipped on some beers and I sipped on some Diet Cokes. We were all having a great time – talking, catching up, giving guys the eyes across the bar. I really didn’t miss drinking at all, especially when I only spent $3 the entire night (unlike beer and vodka, Diet Coke has free refills at the bar!). But it wasn’t totally smooth sailing; LMFAO came on the jukebox towards the end of the evening, which, as we all know, makes you want to drink. Or chug. I was starting to cave. I was having a hard time remembering why I was doing all this. Seriously, Had Ke$ha or Miley come on next, I probably would have had to run out of the bar screaming. Instead, I took a little sniff of my friends’ SoCo Lime shots, grimaced, and instantly felt better about my decision.
I woke up on Friday and felt great. Not only did I hang out with friends and have a great time, but I didn’t feel like total hell. And I was really proud and happy to know that I can indeed stay in the social scene, even if I’m sober. That knowledge made me feel good and took away my nerves for last night’s adventures.
Because while Thursday was a test, Friday night out with my crew is akin to a Bob and Jillian Last Chance Workout. Minus the sweat and the puking. OK, maybe just minus the sweat. These kids take their partying really seriously and know they can always count on me to do the same. They are the reason that I hadn’t made it home before 5am ONCE during the month of January. They are the reason I often do nothing of substance from Friday to Monday. They’ve perfected the art of peer pressure (by throwing a little Jewish guilt into the mix) and I didn’t know how they’d handle Sober February. Plus, how much fun could I have if they were wasted/dancing on tables/punching me (which the guys like to do when they’ve had a few…)?
But I wanted to hang out with them and I really wanted to see if I could handle it sober. So I went. We met up for dinner at 6:30… and I didn’t come home until 3 a.m. And I did it all without a lick of alcohol (even though my girl friend did offer to let me “suck her ice” out of her vodka soda… every time she had one). I drank water, I danced, I joked… I even took a shot. Of Diet Coke. Which my friend got for me so I didn’t feel left out when everyone else was throwing them back.
It was a seriously great time! I was shocked. I mean, I thought I would have fun hanging out with everyone, but I never thought I would have had as great a time as I did. I never even got annoyed by the drunk people around me; instead, I kinda enjoyed looking at the drunk world through sober colored lenses. And, seriously, Erotic Photo Hunt is SO MUCH easier when you’re not seeing double.
The best part of my night, though, was coming home, stripping off my skinny jeans (which are definitely feeling looser already!), and being able to close my eyes and go to sleep without the room spinning. Well, that and the late night pizza slice I picked up that I was able to actually taste, savor and enjoy. Mmmm mmm gooooood.
Madonna will make an appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s new reality series, The Marriage Ref. Hmmm…guess this means she has officially run out of interesting things to do. — People
Because nothing says “we are so not breaking up despite what all those meanie tabloids report” then the gift of an olive tree, which is what Angie is giving Bradley for Valentine’s Day this year. — US
It looks like the vampire trend won’t be going away any time soon. — EW
After the incredibly successful ad campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Madonna is back for one of the most buzzed about stories of the year in the fashion industry. Looking like we would never imagined her… in her role as housewife: with her laundry, relaxing after sweeping an indoor patio and sitting near the bed.
Like we saw in the fashion show back in september, the italian duo went back to their roots, not only bringing sexy back – the essence of the brand – but doing something very personal by taking the sicilian tradition as their inspiration for this beautiful collection. Full of sheering, laces, corsets, crafty details and elements that felt very traditional and religious but with that modern twist that somehow was very edgy with sexy and tight silhouettes. We love Dolce & Gabbana, and this collection made that “why?” very clear… Just beautiful, sexy and luxurious, very luxurious. Steven Klein was responsible for the photography. See the entire fashion show and the fashion review: Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2010.
SAN DIEGO–When the singer Madonna, who is a disciple of the Kabbalah Center, decided that she wanted a Hebrew name, I found it ironic that she chose “Esther.” Esther is not a Hebrew name. Megillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther in the Bible, informs us that Esther’s Hebrew name was Hadassah, which means “myrtle.” Esther was her Persian name and is derived from the goddess Ishtar. So Madonna choose a Hebrew name which is really a Persian name which means “Ishtar, the pagan goddess.”
Madonna’s boyfriend, model Jesus Luz, has signed a contract with the artist’s former record label, Warner Bros., according to a UK report.
In this new series we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer for a month as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we’re following Lauren from University of Michigan. She’s going sober for the month of February and will be sharing her ups (like feeling great last weekend!) and downs with us each Saturday.
Britain’s bad boy genius has died.
