Make room on the coffee table for a new tome on Madonna’s full and massive discography
Unless you’ve been hiding under a (very large and heavy) rock recently, you’d have come across a heck of a lot of Madonna posts online these past few weeks. The artist’s latest album Confessions II has been promoted left, right and centre and seen her gracing the top of the charts in just about everywhere around the globe.
But what about the backstory of each track – and the stories behind all of the artist’s other hits? If you care to dive deep, you’ll be happy to know a book is soon to be released titled Madonna: All The Songs – The Story Behind Every Track, by French author and muso, Benoît Clerc.
The massive tome is due to be released in October 2026 and looks like it could be one of the most substantial Madonna reference books yet published.
Published by Octopus Publishing Group, the 624-page hardback takes the same approach Clerc has used in his previous All The Songs books on artists including David Bowie, Queen, Prince, and ABBA. Each of these has concentrated on the music and lyrics of the artists’ ouvres – as opposed to serving as conventional biographies – and so too will the book about Madonna’s output.
All the obvious (landmark) songs will be in there – such as “Like a Virgin”, “Material Girl”, “Vogue”, “Ray of Light”, “Music”, and “Hung Up”, while Clerc will also go into considerable depth with songs that weren’t singles, too. Album tracks, B-sides and rarities that perhaps even the most ardent fans haven’t read much about. Plus there are some beautiful portraits of the artist that not even this writer and avid fan has seen.
The book will examine the inspiration behind individual songs; the writing and recording processes; the musicians and producers involved; and of course Madonna’s input to each track. The intention is to put each song into its wider creative and historical context rather than simply recounting Madonna’s life. For example, the reader will be able to jump from a huge cultural moment such as Like a Prayer or Vogue to lesser-known fan favourites like, say, “Supernatural” and “Ain’t No Big Deal” from eariler recording sessions, or “Cyber-Raga” and “Time Stood Still” from latter albums.
The ‘All The Songs’ series has a reputation for being extremely detailed, so you can expect this one to be sitting on coffee table, ready for regular referencing, for months and months to come.
‘Madonna: All The Songs – The Story Behind Every Track’ will run to 624 pages and will be published in lavishly designed, large-format hardback. Look for it with the Material Girl still on the cover, RRP $115.00, with an ebook also being made available, RRP $69.00, through Hachette from October 13, 2026.
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