Madonna on Graham Norton: Kylie Jealousy, Lola Duet
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- Madonna appeared on a BBC Graham Norton special filmed at Koko in London — where she played her first UK gig in 1983 — to promote her upcoming album Confessions II, tracing her dance floor origins to 1970s Detroit club Menjo's and her first gay encounter with ballet teacher Christopher Flynn.
- Stuart Price, producer of both Confessions I and II, joined as the first special guest to discuss the album's Detroit techno and Chicago house influences, recorded at his Maida Vale studio over the past year.
- Kylie Minogue appeared as a surprise second guest; Madonna confessed jealousy because "she was so cute" and said her ex-husband had a crush on her, prompting Norton to declare he'd "died and gone to gay heaven."
- Madonna revealed she wrote a song for Confessions II about her late brother Christopher after sensing "it was close to the end," and said daughter Lola — her duet partner on the album — has been "very reticent to work with me" while "struggling with these feelings through adolescence."
- Madonna hinted at "something bigger in the summertime" beyond promo tours, telling Norton it "could be" in the UK before chiding him for always having "to know everything."
- The Guardian review calls the interview format stilted and "po-faced," noting a same-week Interview magazine sitdown with Mel Ottenberg delivered "infinitely more juicy" content than the BBC special.
Why it matters: Madonna's BBC sitdown is the opening salvo of her Confessions II promo push, and unlike decades of male interviewers who have focused on personality over music, Norton at least touched on the album's creative process and yielded rare personal disclosures about her late brother and daughter Lola — material the press cycle will mine through release.
