Watch Madonna’s New ‘Dark Ballet’ Video Featuring Mykki Blanco
The new, Joan Of Arc-inspired track features on Madonna’s new album, ‘Madame X’ out on 14 June.
Madonna has unveiled her new video for ‘Dark Ballet.’ It’s the fifth and final preview that will be released from her forthcoming Madame X, which is due out on 14 June through Interscope/Maverick Records. The cinematic new clip stars Mykki Blanco, who portrays Joan of Arc and you can check it out below.
In the striking, Emmanuel Adjei-directed video, Blanco is seen bravely facing adversity from various religious figures and onlookers and dancing despite the impending, inescapable doom to come. The short clip flashes through a series of dark, religious visuals, showing a group of people dressed in black ropes, a person’s hands bound by rope and several close-ups of crucifixes. The Queen of Pop herself is shown with a black veil covering her face; as her eyes glance up to the camera, the teaser cuts to black showing only the title of the highly anticipated track.
Mykki Blanco mouths along to Madonna’s lyrics, “‘Cause your world is such a shame/’Cause your world’s obsessed with fame,” Madonna sings on the chorus. “‘Cause your world’s in so much pain/’Cause your world is/’Cause your world is up in flames.”
“She fought the English and she won, still the French were not happy,” Madonna says of the song’s lyrical and visual inspiration, Joan of Arc. “Still they judged her. They said she was a man, they said she was a lesbian, they said she was a witch, and, in the end, they burned her at the stake, and she feared nothing. I admire that.”
The ‘Dark Ballet’ clip closes with inspiring words from Mykki Blanco: “I have walked this earth, Black, Queer and HIV positive, but no transgression against me has been as powerful as the hope I hold within.”
‘Dark Ballet’ follows the previously released Madame X songs, ‘Future’ featuring Quavo, ‘Crave’ with Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee, ‘I Rise’ and the Maluma-featuring ‘Medellín.’
UK English
M.S.
June 8, 2019 at 2:19 am
Madonna (who is certainly no historian) claims Joan of Arc was accused of being a man and a lesbian, although if you read the transcript (which is available online) there weren’t any accusations of either of those things, nor did Joan describe herself as either of those things.
And the only “French” people who convicted her were members of a pro-English faction called the “Burgundians”. Historians have pointed out that English government records and eyewitness accounts show that the English government ran the trial, selected the judges and other members from their supporters, and manipulated the process to get a conviction.