Popular

Single

Artist: The Weeknd, Playboi Carti and Madonna
Digital release: 2 June 2023
Project connection: Originally linked to The Idol soundtrack
Label: XO / Republic
Chart note: The single returned Madonna to the UK Top 10, becoming her highest-peaking UK single since Celebrationin 2009.

Popular brought Madonna into The Weeknd’s shadowy pop universe alongside Playboi Carti, connecting her voice to a sleek meditation on fame, image and appetite. Unlike the remix-era tracks built directly from her catalogue, this was a new collaboration, but its themes felt sharply Madonna-adjacent: celebrity as theatre, glamour as performance, and desire as currency.

For MLVC, Popular belongs in the 2020s collaborations lane. It is not an archive remix, but it does extend Madonna’s presence into another artist’s pop mythology. The song works because Madonna does not need to dominate it; her voice arrives like a mirror in a dark room, reflecting the machinery of fame back at itself.