Madonna to be in Timberlands new album and more movies

madonna A string of superstars have been enlisted to collaborate with super-producer Timbaland on his forthcoming album ‘Shock Value 2’. Madonna, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna and T-Pain will all collaborate with Timba on the release, which he likens to a ‘Now [That's What I Call Music!]’ compilation. According to MTV.com, Timbaland said "That's my goal for this-- not [to showcase] me as an artist. Of course I'll do my little part, introduce some people. It gives me room to go tour across the world. People request me. I put on a show. I put on a musical show." Timbaland worked with Madonna on her current ‘Hard Candy’ album and according to Pitchfork, the sought-after producer is set to produce Chris Cornell’s new solo album, and is lined-up to work on Jay-Z’s new record.

IT SEEMS to be happening to everyone at the moment: Prince, Michael Jackson, Sharon Stone and Paddington Bear are all turning 50 this year, with Madonna also blowing out her birthday cake candles next month. Indeed, the Material Girl appears to be making the most of breaching that not so fashionable threshold of 50 by kicking off a world tour. But then, the birthday celebrations already appear to have been under way for the Michigan-born Queen of Pop, who started out life as Louise Veronica Ciccone with early ambitions to be a dancer and to find the fastest exit out of smalltown America. This year she parted company with her record company, Warner Brothers, to sign a ground-breaking deal with concert promoters Live Nation, her latest album, Hard Candy, hit the number one spot in 37 countries and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Now based in London, Madonna also produced a documentary about the plight of Aids orphans in Malawi as well as making her debut as a film director with the premiere of her movie Fifth and Wisdom at the Berlin Film Festival. Madonna might not appear in Fifth and Wisdom, but the film’s story about the dreams of ordinary people to find a way out of the drudgery of daily life appears to draw on her own struggle to reach the big time in the entertainment business. But despite her success, Madonna still struggles with trying to discover the difference between “right and wrong and not to be tricked by illusions”. After arriving in New York in the late 1970s with just R250 (35) in her pocket, Madonna battled her way to the top of one of the world’s toughest games. As a pop icon with worldwide record sales totalling more than 200million, the singer would appear to have achieved her dream .

But her role as a movie actor has not been quite as consistent and it seemed her hopes of branching into film had run out of steam after a couple of flops . Despite the popularity of 1980’s Desperate Seeking Susan, in which Madonna starred, and winning a Golden Globe for her role in Evita, her movie days appeared to come to end in 2002 after Swept Away. Directed by her husband Guy Ritchie, Swept Away was almost laughed away by film critics. Throughout her career, Madonna has appeared remarkably adept at reinventing herself. For the moment, filmmaking is what she is interested in pursuing. “I love documentaries. I would like to make more, specifically focusing on children in other parts of the world.”

She was speaking after her documentary I Am Because We Are was shown at t he Cannes Film Festival in May. The film came in the wake of the 2006 controversy Madonna found herself in after adopting a boy from Malawi. Some of Madonna’s recent publicity has not been all welcome, including fresh rumours that her marriage was in trouble after she was romantically linked to baseball star Alex Rodriquez . But few should have any doubts that she is likely to be still on the road, pumping put new albums and seeking out career directions when she hits sixty.