The wait is finally over. Madonna has unveiled the cover artwork and multiple editions of Confessions II, confirming a global release date of July 3, 2026 via Warner Records. Pre-orders are live now at shop.madonna.com, with vinyl, CD and cassette formats all available.
The cover photoshoot was lensed by Rafael Pavarotti, with creative direction by IB Kamara. Multiple edition artworks have been revealed alongside the announcement.
Confessions II is Madonna’s first full-length album in seven years, and it marks a reunion with Stuart Price — the English DJ, producer and electronic musician who made the original Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) one of the most celebrated dance records of the 2000s, debuting at #1 in over 40 countries and spawning hits including “Hung Up”, “Sorry” and “Jump”. The two had reconnected in 2023 when Price served as musical director for the Celebration Tour, and in 2024 Madonna confirmed they were working on new music together. Now it’s here.
To mark the announcement, London and Paris have been covered in campaign posters. East London has been particularly saturated, with Brick Lane and the surrounding area among the most visible locations.
The Team Behind the Cover
The visual world of Confessions II is in exceptionally well-chosen hands — and for fans paying close attention, several of these names will already feel familiar.
The cover photoshoot was lensed by Rafael Pavarotti, an Afro-Indigenous Brazilian photographer born in the Amazon rainforest in 1993, now one of the most distinctive voices in international fashion photography. His work has appeared in British Vogue, Vogue Paris and i-D, and in campaigns for Dior, Dries Van Noten, Matches and Browns. Remarkably, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is presenting a major solo exhibition of his work from October 2026 — meaning the Madonna album and the retrospective land in the same season.
Creative direction is by IB Kamara — Creative Director of Off-White and Editor-in-Chief of Dazed — working alongside his longtime collaborator Gareth Wrighton, Art Director of Dazed and a British fashion designer known for one-off handmade garments inspired by virtuality. Kamara and Wrighton have been inseparable creatively since meeting at Central Saint Martins, and it is the same trio of Kamara, Wrighton and Pavarotti that produced the iconic Rihanna cover of Dazed in 2021. This is not a team assembled for the occasion — it is a nucleus that has been building its visual language for years. Even the styling assistants are part of this world: Andra-Amelia Buhai is Fashion Editor at Dazed, alongside Sasha Harris and Joe Lokko.
Styling is by IB Kamara, with Rita Melssen as co-stylist and creative consultant — Madonna’s closest creative collaborator of recent years. Melssen started working with Madonna during the build-up to the Madame X Tour, and the two got to know each other deeply when the pandemic hit and they quarantined together. She went on to co-design the costumes for the Celebration Tour, and her presence here — in two separate capacities — reflects how central she has become to Madonna’s creative process.
Also integral to the shoot is Ricardo Gomes, listed as Talent Creative Consultant. The Portuguese director is far more than a consultant — he has been Madonna’s go-to photographer and all-around creative confidant for several years, describing himself as “her eyes in the audience”, having documented every show of the Celebration Tour, directed stage videos and provided real-time creative feedback. His presence on this project is a further sign of how tightly Madonna is controlling the visual world around this album.
On hair, Eugene Souleiman needs little introduction. Described as “one of fashion’s most prolific hair stylists”, he has worked with Prada, Alexander McQueen, Maison Margiela, Yohji Yamamoto, Celine and Chanel across a career spanning over four decades.
For nails, Naomi Yasuda — a Japanese-born, New York-based nail artist — is another long-standing member of Madonna’s inner circle. Yasuda has been doing Madonna’s nails for over a decade, with the first collaboration dating back to Madonna’s iconic Super Bowl halftime performance.
Finally, the album artwork graphics are by Special Offer Inc — the New York-based creative studio that most recently designed the visual identity for Charli XCX’s Brat, turning graphic design into a global cultural conversation piece in the summer of 2024.
The Manifesto
In the press release, Madonna and Price shared the creative framework that guided the making of the album:
“We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect — with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It’s about pushing your limits and connecting to a community of like-minded people. Sound, light, and vibration / Reshape our perceptions / Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it. Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.”
A First Taste of the Music
Madonna has shared a minute-long preview of “I Feel So Free”, the opening track of Confessions II. The track features the spoken lines “Oh, by the way, it all started like this” from “French Kiss” by Lil Louis & The World (1989) — widely regarded as one of the foundational texts of house music, ranked #4 in Time Out’s “The 20 Best House Tracks Ever” and featured in Rolling Stone’s “20 Best Chicago House Records”. It’s a deliberate statement of lineage — a declaration of where this album is rooted.
The spoken word intro of the teaser also feels like a direct callback to the iconic V Magazine “Madonna Forever” shoot with Steven Klein (2021).
The lead single has not yet been announced.
Madonna also shared a lyric preview from a track called “One Step Away”: “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: a ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”
Credits
- Creative Direction: Raw Materials by IB Kamara
- Art Director: Gareth Wrighton
- Photographer: Rafael Pavarotti
- Styling: IB Kamara
- Co-Styling: Rita Melssen
- Creative Consultant: Rita Melssen
- Set Design: Mary Howard
- Hair: Eugene Souleiman
- Make Up: Marcelo Gutierrez
- Nails: Naomi Yasuda
- Talent Creative Consultant: Ricardo Gomes
- Album Artwork Graphics: Special Offer Inc
- Production: Ragi Dholakia Productions
- Styling Assistants: Sasha Harris, Joe Lokko, Andra-Amelia Buhai