By Mike Sain't Louis ·
The Queen of Pop: my love letter to Madonna
Few artists have meant so much to so many boys who grew up feeling strange. The Queen of Pop is my tribute to Madonna, the undisputed queen, made from my corner of the universe and with no pretension of copying her.
That's the first thing I want to make clear: nobody here is trying to imitate anybody. Imitating Madonna would be absurd and, what's more, boring. What there is is devotion. That of someone who has spent their whole life looking at her the way you look at a lighthouse, and who one day decides to give the light back in their own way.
The song looks at her with cinema eyes. There's a retro aesthetic, there's queer art, there's an electronic nostalgia that sounds like an eighties and nineties dance floor seen from today. I like to think of it as a short film in which Planeta Gayfolk dresses up to welcome its queen.
From freedom to rebellion
I call it a love letter because that's what it is: from an independent artist to a giant artist, from freedom to rebellion. Madonna taught many of us that you could provoke, change your skin, anger half the world and keep dancing. That spirit is what I try to capture, with lots of humour and far fewer resources.
It has something of rebel pop from the margins, the kind made on your own and without asking permission. And I think she'd find that funny.
When to listen? With the volume high, unashamed, the way you used to listen to Madonna in your bedroom when nobody was looking. If you have a poster of her stashed in a drawer, get it out.
I dedicate it to everyone who ever rehearsed some voguing in front of the bathroom mirror.
And, of course, to her, still reinventing herself when others would already have retired. Long live the queen, and may nobody ever tell her how a pop diva should age.
If you come across it at a party, turn it up without asking.