In December 2011, Oseary and
Live Nation Entertainment announced that they had developed a long-term plan for Madonna through which she was booked for a three-album contract with
Interscope Records. It was the beginning of the
360 deal which the singer had signed with Live Nation in 2007, including "new studio albums, touring, merchandising, fan club/website, DVD's, music-related television and film projects and associated sponsorship agreements".
MDNAs released date was confirmed as March 23, 2012 in Australia and Germany, and March 26 in rest of the other markets including United States. It was Madonna's third studio album to bear the
Parental Advisory label after
Erotica (1992) and
American Life (2003), due to the
profanity used in tracks such as "
Gang Bang". In a 2011 year-end readers poll by
Billboard, it was voted as the most anticipated album of 2012. An edited version of the standard edition of the album was made widely available, which completely omits the track "Gang Bang". An edited version of the deluxe edition was also released, which included an additional remix of "Give Me All Your Luvin'". The edited version of the deluxe edition was exclusively available at
Wal-Mart stores in the US. In January 2026, Madonna added an acoustic version of "Love Spent" to the digital deluxe version of the album.
Super Bowl The promotional activities for
MDNA began with Madonna performing at the
Super Bowl XLVI halftime show on February 5, 2012, at
Lucas Oil Stadium in
Indianapolis, Indiana. The performance featured 17 dancers, 20 dancing dolls, a 200-member church choir, and a drum line consisting of 100 percussionists. Total 36 image projectors were used for the lighting and visuals. She performed "Give Me All Your Luvin'" with Minaj and M.I.A. on the show, along with her past hits—"
Vogue", "
Music" and "
Like a Prayer". Once the show concluded, a group of 250 volunteers dismantled the stage in six minutes. The show was a success, setting a Super Bowl halftime-show record of 114 million viewers (higher than the viewership of the game itself). Keith Caulfield from
Billboard reported a 17-fold sales increase for Madonna's back catalog and strong pre-order sales for
MDNA (about 50,000 copies ordered at the
iTunes Store). However the performance faced criticism when M.I.A. had extended her
middle finger to the camera near the end of her verse during "Give Me All Your Luvin, in place of the word "shit". The rapper was penalized, and the NFL apologized for their inability to
blur out the image during transmission.
Singles " during
the MDNA Tour, which went on to become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time.|alt=Backshot of Madonna dancing dressed in a white uniform. Several dancers dressed as a marching band are suspended on mid-air. "
Give Me All Your Luvin'" was released as the first single from the album on February 3, 2012. Sal Cinquemani from
Slant Magazine complimented the "catchy" melodies, but declared the composition inferior to Madonna's previous singles. Other reviewers like Alexis Petridis from
The Guardian considered the track to be a weak lead single, and Joey Guerra from
Houston Chronicle wrote that it was not a proper representation of the album. The song reached the top of the charts in Canada, Finland, Hungary and Venezuela. It became Madonna's 38th top-ten hit on the
Billboard Hot 100, extending her record as the artist with most top-ten singles in the chart's history. The album's second single, "
Girl Gone Wild", was released for digital download on March 2, 2012. The black-and-white music video for the song was directed by fashion photographers
Mert and Marcus. "Girl Gone Wild" debuted at number six on the
Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart with 22,000 downloads sold. It reached the top of the Dance Club Songs chart, giving Madonna a record 73rd week atop the ranking. "
Masterpiece" was officially sent to radio stations in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2012. The song performed the best in Russia, where it topped the
Russian Music Charts for the week of December 2, 2012. "
Turn Up the Radio" was released as the fourth and final single from the album, on June 29, 2012, in Italy. It became the third single from
MDNA to top the US dance charts. In Brazil, "
Superstar" was released on December 3, 2012, as a
promotional single, in the form of a special edition CD with Brazilian newspaper
Folha de S. Paulo. The accompanying cover art was created by Brazilian graffiti artist Simone Sapienza, who won a contest sponsored by
Johnnie Walker's Keep Walking Project in Brazil; she was chosen by Madonna from ten finalists.
Media Following her performance at the Super Bowl, the album received limited promotion from Madonna, with Oseary citing the MDNA Tour rehearsals as the reason. Orbit expressed his displeasure about the promotion scarcity recalling that they had little time for recording
MDNA since Madonna's schedule was full of other commitments, such as "
perfume launch and
teen fashion contests". He also blamed the "rush marketing" and the timing of the record's release as reasons for not promoting. Madonna instead used social media to promote
MDNA, by posting minute-long snippets of several album tracks, behind-the-scenes pictures of tour rehearsals, and online polls asking her fans regarding tour set list. On March 24 she participated in a
livestream chat on Facebook, which was hosted by
Jimmy Fallon. To boost the album streams Madonna partnered with
Spotify, and launched an opportunity for its listeners to win two tickets for the MDNA Tour. For eligibility, users had to stream the album thrice on Spotify within two weeks of release. She later made a brief appearance on
Ultra Music Festival in Miami a few days later, where she introduced Swedish DJ
Avicii who played his remix of "Girl Gone Wild". At one point the singer asked the audience, "How many people in this crowd have seen Molly?" The statement was met with negative reception, with producer
Deadmau5 condemning her use of the word molly, which is a slang for MDMA. Madonna responded on Twitter by posting a 1989 picture of herself, wearing
Minnie Mouse ears, and a comment: "From one mouse to another. I don't support drug use and I never have. I was referring to the song called '
Have You Seen Molly' written by my friend
Cedric Gervais who I almost worked with on [
MDNA]."
Tour with a performance of "
Girl Gone Wild",
MDNAs second single. Following the Super Bowl performance, Madonna announced
the MDNA Tour which started in May 2012 at
Tel Aviv, Israel and ended in South America in December 2012. The tour played in different venues like stadiums and arenas, as well as outdoor locations like the
Plains of Abraham in Quebec. After visiting 26 markets in Europe, the tour returned to North America, where it remained until
Thanksgiving 2012, and then moved South America. Like her previous few tours, Madonna canceled plans of visiting Australia and apologized for it. The tour was described by the singer as "a journey of a soul from darkness to light". It was divided into four sections:
Transgression,
Prophecy,
Masculine/Feminine and
Redemption. The triangle-shaped stage consisted of two walkways for Madonna to wade into the crowd and an enclosed area where fans could get closer. Designers working on the tour's wardrobe included
Jean Paul Gaultier,
Arianne Phillips and
Givenchy's
Riccardo Tisci. The tour portrayed controversial subjects such as violence, firearms, human rights, nudity, and politics. During one sequence the face of French far right politician
Marine Le Pen appeared on the screen with a
swastika on her forehead. Other segments showed the singer attacking dancers with fake guns, blood spattering on the backdrop screens,
mooning, and briefly exposing her breasts to the audience. Despite the controversies, the MDNA Tour received positive reviews and became the highest-grossing tour of 2012 and was at that time the tenth
highest-grossing tour of all time, grossing $305.1 million in ticket sales from 88 sold-out shows, watched by an audience of 2.21 million. The Miami shows on November 19–20, 2012 were recorded and released as
a live album. == Critical reception ==