From Apparent Beef to a Paris Photo Op: Madonna and Charli XCX Join Forces on 'Danceteria Afterhours'

In a white studio, Madonna—wearing a red hoodie printed with her own '80s photos—dances while asking the camera, "You wanna talk about Madonna and Charli?" She then repeats both their names before picking up a line from the original "Danceteria": "Everyone here is a work of art." Charli XCX trades verses with her, with the caption reading: "Let's take it to the East side baby……"

This is the teaser clip Madonna dropped for her new collab track "Danceteria Afterhours," pulled from "Danceteria" off her recently released album *Confessions II*, now reimagined with Charli XCX, who broke through with "Music, Fashion, Film." Madonna has confirmed the track drops September 24 (next Thursday).

This collab comes right on the heels of Madonna's "Love Sensation (Afterhours Mix)" with Kylie Minogue. With both announcements dropping back-to-back, some fans are speculating that *Confessions II* might get a full remix album featuring multiple guest artists—similar to Charli's own *Brat* remix project. That said, this is still just fan speculation, with neither camp confirming anything.

Last week, Madonna posted a TikTok of herself in a taxi, captioned "Thinking about Charli……" Charli replied in the comments: "Wait... I got something I wanna talk about……"—a hint at what turned out to be "Danceteria."

The road to this collab has had its twists. This summer, when Charli was interviewed by Nick Grimshaw on BBC Radio 6 Music and asked whether she'd already worked on a new track with Madonna, she denied it, only revealing: "We've met before, but I'm not sure she'd remember—we got added to the same group chat a few weeks ago, which is wild in itself." Even earlier, Madonna had quoted a line from Charli's single "Rock Music"—"the dancefloor is dead"—posting on social media that "if your dancefloor feels dead, maybe you're just playing the wrong songs," which some read as a jab. But rumors of beef fizzled out after the two were spotted together in Paris. Looking back on that Paris trip, Charli said they "ended up throwing two parties out of nowhere," describing Madonna as "genuinely so cool, and really interested in talking seriously about the music she makes, how and why she creates—being around her was really inspiring for me."

Charli also admitted she wasn't a Madonna fan growing up, only getting into her later: "It was when I got interested in music as an art form that my real Madonna phase kicked in." She said the first Madonna song that made her fall in love was "Hollywood."

Charli is currently on the North American leg of her "Music, Fashion, Film" tour, with a stop in Philadelphia on September 11, where she performed "Stay Away" from her 2013 debut album *True Romance*. She'll head to the UK and Europe before February next year, with two shows lined up at London's O2 Arena. As for Madonna, she's set to take the stage at the MTV VMAs next week—her first live performance at the awards show in 23 years. She also leads this year's nominations with 11 nods, including a Video of the Year nomination for *Confessions II – The Film*.