Madonna to begin work on new album

Desperately seeking a new album ... Madonna will begin work on her 12th studio album in July, her manager confirmed.
Photograph: Matt Baron/BEI /Rex

Desperately seeking a new album ... Madonna will begin work on her 12th studio album in July, her manager confirmed. Photograph: Matt Baron/BEI /Rex Features

Madonna is set to begin recording a new album in July. Three years after the release of Hard Candy, after designing clothes with her daughter, collaborating with Glee, opening a gym chain and generally making loads and loads of cash, the Material Girl is plotting her 12th full-length album, with touring to follow.

For now, the details are scarce. In December, Madonna wrote on Facebook that she "officially" needed to "make new music". "I need to move," she wrote. "I need to sweat ... I'm on the lookout for the maddest, sickest, most badass people to collaborate with. I'm just saying." Yesterday, her manager made the official even more official: "Madonna goes into the recording studio next month to begin work on new album," Guy Oseary wrote on Twitter. "She has a good idea of which producers she will be working with ... [There are] lots of questions about what kind of music it will be ... stay tuned."

This is welcome news after comments early last year, when Madonna said she didn't have "the time or energy" for her music career. She has instead been busy with parenting, as well as directing her second feature film, a romance called WE. "I don't [even] have a record deal right now," she told Interview magazine. "I don't know how I'm going to get my music out the next time I make a record. I'm going to have to reinvent the wheel."

Madonna's first movie, 2008's Filth and Wisdom, garnered dismal reviews. But WE shows signs of being better: this week, the Weinstein Company announced that they will distribute the film, bringing it to theatres before the end of 2011. Once that promotion cycle is finished, the 52-year-old singer could even be ready to pick up where the Sticky & Sweet tour left off. "You guys know how this works," her manager wrote yesterday. "First comes the album and next comes the ..."