For now, as Rolling Stone assures, the title is unknown, but it will be dance music and a kind of continuation of Confessions on the Dance Floor (2004).
The queen of pop is not letting her guard down. During this creative process and her recent public appearances, including her outrageous looks on the streets of Paris, she has been accompanied by her boyfriend, Akeem Morris, the 29-year-old Jamaican footballer who has become a forward for Oyster Bay United club.
Throughout her long career, Madonna has had a myriad of relationships, but apart from her husbands, Sean Penn (65) and Guy Ritchie (57), there is one name that stands out above all, former top model Tony Ward (62). Together they starred in the music video Justify My Love (1990), which marks its 35th anniversary.
At that time, Madonna was making a big impact, and although the Californian model was not a fan of her music, he wanted to meet her at all costs. By chance, their first encounter took place at the restaurant where, before becoming a model, he worked as a waiter in Los Angeles, but nothing happened.
When Tony started his modeling career in 1983 with a bang as the face of Cavalli, Calvin Klein, or Dolce & Gabbana, and being photographed by the best like Herb Ritts, Steven Meisel, or Bruce Weber, he put even more emphasis on getting to know the pop diva in depth. Undoubtedly, he was one of the first male supermodels.
For years he tried unsuccessfully to convince Ritts, until he finally hired him for the music video of the song Cherish, directed by the photographer and belonging to the album Like a Prayer (1989). However, his dream did not come true as Madonna and he filmed on different days. A few months later, he could meet her at Ritts' birthday party and they hit it off. At first, Madonna thought he was gay.
Ward had something very special that made him charismatic. As described by Josep Sandoval in La Vanguardia when he walked for Desigual in Barcelona in 2015, the young man had a "remarkable nose, slanted eyes, small and a strong jaw, if it hadn't been for his body, which he worked hard to overcome the rest, no one would have noticed him. He wasn't tall either, in fact, he was always the shortest on the catwalk, but he had a force in his step, a confidence in his movements that seduced everyone, including the queen of pop."
Despite their romance being short-lived, Tony and Madonna were one of the most photographed couples that still lingers in the diva's love history. They were dating from around mid-1990 until April 1991, when People magazine revealed they had broken up.
The reason for the separation was surreal as the tabloid press had discovered that Tony had gotten married on August 21, 1990, to Amalia Papadimos, a Greco-Australian photographer. Far from being angry, the pop star included her ex in her controversial book Sex, published in 1992.
In an interview with El País in 2015, the model revealed an interesting fact about his relationship with the singer: "The best part of being together was that we could talk for hours. I was her boyfriend at a time when she was out of control. I think the only time she really was, and she was very fun. She's a great woman, especially in her mind."
Tony has always been willing to take risks. He didn't mind appearing in gay erotic magazines, posing nude for certain jobs, and even enhancing his sexual ambiguity. Some of his images even ended up being censored.
After divorcing, he married Shinobu Sato in 2000, with whom he had three daughters, Tora, Lilli, and Ruby, and from whom he is also separated. Also in that same interview with El País, he said: "I have three children with my ex-wife who are in Los Angeles and another, Aurelius, with my new partner. Before coming to Europe, I sold everything: my car, my house... I have broken ties, and I admit, it is very painful." It seems that the mother of his latest offspring is Angela Bruce.
Before leaving the catwalks and the tedious photo sessions, Tony Ward sought refuge in painting, which he still considers a good way to express himself.