While the media spent their weekends contemplating the “are they or aren’t they?” face nuzzles of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper during their Oscars performance on Sunday, an entirely different celebrity pairing stirred curiosity over the weekend. Maluma and Madonna, it appears, are logging studio time together.
The pair teased a possible collaboration in a series of Instagram posts, first from the Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy and then from the “Like a Virgin” doyenne, who captioned her version “Cooking up some Fuego over here.”
The jury’s out on what this will mean, sonically speaking. Maluma announced the impending arrival of his album 11:11 earlier this month. Will it include a Spanish-language verse on a bubblegum-defiant “Bitch I’m Madonna” dance mélange? Or — and perhaps this is the more likely scenario — is the Material Girl looking to capitalize on the current vogue of Latinx music by dropping some easy-listening reggaeton?
The pairing seems to be the latest chapter in Maluma’s quest to hit the absolute center of pop culture. Last week, he posted a shot mugging with Will.i.am and Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, captioning the image with “They know what time it is.”
Regardless of the auditory vibes they’re working on, “Maduma” seems to have in common a love of New Age musings. From Maluma’s IG album announcement:
“11:11 is a direct signal from our guides, angels and teachers to establish a moment of connection, synchronicity and awareness with ourselves, with the whole, it is a wake-up call, it is a door to meditate, to listen to our intuition, to look in our interior, time to stop and feel the subtle energies of the universe, is a call from our essence, a reminder of our true purpose on earth, is a call to trust.”
One thing’s for sure: keep your eyes peeled for this, the first WTF collab of 2019.