Madonna appears to take aim at a well-known former partner on her long-awaited new album.
The pop icon’s 15th studio record, Confessions II, is due out on Friday, July 3, 2026. The 16-track release is a sequel to her 2005 dance classic Confessions on a Dance Floor and marks her first full-length album since 2019’s Madame X. It also includes a featured appearance from Sabrina Carpenter.
Madonna has never been shy about drawing from her personal life in her music, especially when it comes to romance, heartbreak and the fallout from fame.
According to the Mirror, one of the new songs seems to point directly to her past marriage to Sean Penn.
Madonna and the actor split in 1989, and the lyrics suggest she believed he struggled with the scale of her celebrity during their relationship.
The track also appears to allude to Penn’s 1987 reckless driving conviction.
“Love is the strangest thing. Just when you think you’ve finally let go, it comes back to you,” the lyrics went in ‘Bizarre’.
“Movie star, deep blue eyes. In Hollywood, we’re a perfect prize. He drove way too fast, Shelby Cobra wasn’t meant to last.”
She continued: “Roll out the carpet for us, but you don’t share it.
“All ’cause you’re threatened by me, you won’t admit it. The little things that you do don’t make me want you. Who knew love could be so bizarre?”
The song then seems to revisit unresolved feelings from the relationship.
Seemingly reflecting on the relationship, Madonna continued: “I know I left you behind and you resent me. A thousand reasons why you could never have me.
“The thought of being with you is so indecent. I guess you’ll never know my dirty little secret.”
Confessions II was announced in April 2026 as a reunion with producer Stuart Price, who helped shape the original album. Madonna has described the project as a return to the dance floor, and she has already previewed new material with tracks such as “I Feel So Free” and “Bring Your Love,” her collaboration with Carpenter.
The album arrives after a difficult period for the Like a Prayer star, who was hospitalized in 2023 with what her manager described as a serious bacterial infection.
The situation was reportedly so severe that someone close to the singer said her family was preparing for the worst.
Madonna later spoke publicly about the frightening health emergency and how close she came to dying.
“I want to say it was a crazy year for me as well. And I didn’t think I was gonna make it. Neither did my doctors. That’s why I woke up with all of my children sitting around me,” the singer told the crowd during a gig.
“I forgot five days of my life… or my death, I don’t really know where I was.
“But the angels were protecting me and my children were there. And my children always save me, every time.”
Since then, Madonna has spoken more openly about spirituality, recovery and resilience, themes that now appear to run through her new music as she prepares to return to the club-heavy sound that made Confessions on a Dance Floor such a major hit.