Showbiz411

And that’s it. Madonna’s “MDNA” is gone from the top 50 of any charts as of this week. Hitsdailydouble.com has dropped it out of its top 50. Amazon.com has the physical CD at number 63. All versions of the downloadable album are gone from view. iTunes has it around number 250. Apparently, very few people downloaded the album at all. Madonna, though she likes a youthful outlook, belongs to the class of artists who are not big on the digital side. “MDNA” is now officially gone, three weeks before Madonna begins her international tour in Israel. The only way to have saved “MDNA” would have been to reissue it with something new. But Madonna wouldn’t have much time to rehearse her show and cut new tracks. The tour will go on without a promotional tool or a song on the radio. It’s not the best way to do things, but if Madge features a lot of hits in the show, she’ll be alright. If the tour set list is heavy with songs from “MDNA,” it may be a problem. At least Guy Richie doesn’t have to worry that too many people heard the nasty things Madonna sang about him. As for the tour, Madonna’s website indicates lots of tickets still for sale. But there are many sold out dates, and comments of great enthusiasm from her core fans. If only they’d bought the album. PS amazon is still selling versions of it for five bucks.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.