Madonna Covers Elliott Smith at ‘Secretproject’ Premiere
Madonna performed a cover of Elliott Smith’s “Between the Bars” last night after she was dramatically dragged onstage, shackled, as part of the premiere of her secretprojectrevolution short film in New York. A hooded dancer moved in silhouette behind Madonna before unlocking the handcuffs, and continued to move in circles around her before lifting her up.
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The singer launched secretprojectrevolution online at midnight. The 17-minute movie, available free through Bittorrent, opens with a quotation from Jean-Luc Godard: “All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.”
The strange film features Gothic imagery underscored with a sense of nihilism including a gun-toting Madonna and eerie interpretation of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” The release marks the beginning of her new Art for Freedom Initiative in conjunction with Vice Media.
“My goal is to show by the example of secretprojectrevolution my creative commitment to inspire change in the world through artistic expression,” Madonna said in a statement. “I hope my film and other submissions to Art for Freedom will be a call to action and give people a place to voice their own creative expression to help fight oppression, intolerance and complacency.”