Confessions II (also referred to as Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II) is the fifteenth studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on July 3, 2026, through Warner Records. Conceived as a sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), the album was inspired by familial and professional challenges, in addition to the sociopolitical state of the world, which led Madonna to record an upbeat album as a distraction. She wrote and produced all the material with Stuart Price, her main collaborator on the original album. Madonna also worked with Andrew Watt, Cirkut, Tainy, Martin Garrix, and Mirwais. Confessions II features guest appearances by Sabrina Carpenter, Feid, Stromae, and Madonna's eldest daughter Lola Leon.
Mainly an EDM record, it explores a variety of dance and electronic music subgenres, including house, dance-pop, disco, and downtempo. Like Confessions on a Dance Floor, it is structured like a continuous DJ mix and includes several samples and interpolations. Its main themes are freedom, escapism, self-realization, grief, and spirituality. Additionally, it includes memories of Madonna's early life and troubled family relationships. Partially a visual album, it was accompanied by a short musical film, Confessions II. The album has spawned three singles: "Bring Your Love", "Love Sensation", and "Danceteria," while "I Feel So Free" was released as a promotional single. Additionally, a remix of "Love Sensation" with Kylie Minogue and a remix of "Danceteria" with Charli XCX were released. Madonna promoted the album through several promotional campaigns, live performances, and a series of club appearances with Price called Club Confessions.
Confessions II received universal acclaim upon its release, with multiple critics calling it Madonna's best album since Confessions on a Dance Floor. Particular praise was aimed at the eclectic production, Madonna's introspective lyricism and her vocals. The album charted at number one in 17 countries, and has been certified gold in Canada, Italy, Spain and in the United Kingdom. It won Best Album at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards.
Background and development
In 2005, Madonna released the studio album Confessions on a Dance Floor, recorded mainly with Stuart Price in his London flat. It was a dance-pop album with disco influences, recorded in a non-stop mix. Before its release, Price secretly tested the tracks they were creating by slipping instrumental dubs into his DJ sets. During its promotion, Madonna played a series of intimate performances in nightclubs. The album met with critical acclaim and won Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
After finishing promotion of Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna did not speak with Price for about 15 years. In 2023, she hired him as a musical director for the Celebration Tour, her retrospective concert series. After finishing the tour, she resumed working on her biographical film, which was ultimately scrapped by Universal Pictures due to budget constraints. Afterwards, Netflix reached out to her about creating a television series based on her life, but its development got longer while she was trying to find a proper showrunner. She decided to make a dance album as a distraction from waiting for both projects to materialize. Feeling that "the world is in a very dark place and people need to dance", she reached out to Price to record a sequel of Confessions on a Dance Floor. Previously, she wanted to record an album with other producers and "have other experiences", but their collaborative work on the Celebration Tour made them remember "how much we loved working with each other, how aligned we are not only sonically but also intellectually and emotionally".
In September 2024, Madonna announced on her Instagram account that she was working on new music with Price. The following February, she confirmed that her new music was a follow-up to Confessions on a Dance Floor and teased its release in 2025. She continued to document the recording sessions on social media, posting pictures in the studio with Price throughout 2025. In September 2025, she announced a reunion with her original record label of over 25 years, Warner Records, with the album slated for release in 2026. In the same month, she revealed the titles of two songs from the album: "Fragile" and "Forgive Yourself", in a podcast interview on an episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Additionally, in advance of the sequel album, she released a twentieth anniversary edition of Confessions on a Dance Floor on streaming and digital retailers in November 2025.
Writing and recording Madonna moved from New York City to London, where she started working with Price in his studio in Maida Vale. While the re-release of Confessions on a Dance Floor was planned, they thought the new album has "got to be as good as or better than this". She described the creative process as "medicine for my soul" and said that songwriting allows for full artistic freedom without having to "ask anyone for their permission". The album was inspired by the illnesses of her brother, Christopher Ciccone, and stepmother, Joan Ciccone, both of whom died in 2024. She started working on the album by writing songs about family trauma. She wrote "Fragile" right after a phone conversation with Christopher, calling the experience "cathartic" and "like an exorcism". Her daughter, Lourdes Leon, approached her to create a song together, which became their first music collaboration. They co-wrote "The Test", with Madonna describing it as a "healing moment" between them, which "solidified the idea that now is the time to make" the album. She approached Sabrina Carpenter over an Instagram direct message to record a collaboration for the album, which ended up being "Bring Your Love". She also collaborated with Dutch DJ and music producer Martin Garrix on "Bizarre". Belgian musician Stromae provided guest vocals on "My Sins Are My Savior".
The album was recorded for about a year and a half. Madonna revealed that she recorded eight additional songs that did not make it onto the album, including "What Will Save Me" with Price and Arca, but added that she hopes to release the extra songs in the future.
Composition
Confessions II is primarily a blend of EDM, house, dance-pop, synth-pop and disco, but also features more downtempo songs. Nick Levine of NME described it as Madonna's "most full-on dance record". Rolling Stone Rob Sheffield felt it was "drawing from all over the history of dance music", while Jeff Nelson from People called it an "aural odyssey that celebrates dance music's history", exploring its sub-genres. Pitchfork Shaad D'Souza opined that Madonna incorporates the genres that she "has never touched", like acid house, French house and 2-step garage, calling it the "variegated, blended vision of vintage club music". According to Alexis Petridis of The Guardian, the downtempo songs reference the work of Mo' Wax label due to "breakbeats, misty atmospherics, crackling vinyl [and] muted orchestrations". Madonna and Price pointed to Detroit techno and Chicago house as their inspirations for the record. It was released as a non-stop mix in the style of DJ mix, echoing Confessions on a Dance Floor. Price revealed the mixing was done "against the grain of what is expected" in the era of music streaming services, where "your song can be for two and a half minutes and then it must stop".
Madonna described that many of the songs on the album were "confessional", but she "curated the record based on how much it made me move". According to her, its main themes are consciousness and freedom, which she explained: "Dance floors are a ritualistic space where you are free in your body and mind, you let go of anxiety and hopefully it elevates you to a higher level of consciousness." Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine interpreted the album as the place where "two lineages – the dark id and the transcendent omniscience – finally brush skin on the dance floor". He compared the "reset-and-rebirth drive" to Madonna's 1998 album Ray of Light, adding that she "actually seems relieved" about its discoveries. The Irish Times Ed Power described the album as the reassessment of Madonna's belief that "the dance floor is a place both of bliss and escapism and of emotional growth and self-realisation". The Independent Roisin O'Connor pointed out "catharsis, release, and the freedom that comes with that" as the album's main themes. Katie Bain from Billboard interpreted the album as a focus on "the club as church and dancing as spiritual work", while Variety Steven J. Horowitz called it a celebration of "the thrill of the dance floor while embracing its mystique". Paolo Ragusa of Consequence felt it was an attempt to revive the "self-reflexive vibrance" of Confessions on a Dance Floor, centered on "the dance floor as a space for transcendence and spiritual awakening". The Wall Street Journal Mark Richardson felt it presented "music as a religious calling more than a form of entertainment." The album features multiple spoken word passages. Richardson described them as "brief ambient interludes, during which Madonna often offers spiritual incantations about the healing power of music".
Sheffield opined that the album's three first songs are "a 12-minute suite where [Madonna] rides the electro-throb beat while pondering the inner neediness that drives her to the floor". Similarly, Power felt the album opens with "what is essentially a 20-minute suite of tracks built around a looping barrage of house beats" and subsequently goes into a "melancholic worldview, caught in the relentless tractor beam of Madonna's nostalgia". Henderson described its first half as communion and its second half as reckoning, driven by the "crisis of conscience". D'Souza felt that the album's first two thirds is "fixated on love and its healing powers", while the final five songs are "fixated on death and inherited trauma". Horowitz opined that in the last songs Madonna "faces the comedown after the ecstasy and grapples with the heaviness of reality".
Songs
"I Feel So Free" is a deep house and post-disco song, on which Madonna is "half-singing, half-whispering". Billboard Joe Lynch pointed out its "sensual whisper atop an arpeggiated volley of retro synths and soothing soundscapes." The lyrics refer to the dance floor and creating "a new persona", with Madonna proclaiming "that the only place she can truly be herself is in the anonymity of a crowded disco." She described the song as a "little confessional moment", inspired by the difficulty of trusting people and understanding her place in the world. It samples the acid house song "French Kiss" (1989) by Lil Louis, and received comparisons to Madonna's 2005 song "Future Lovers" and the work of Donna Summer. "Good for the Soul" is an electronica, UK garage and trance song with strings, beginning with Madonna speaking "Everything begins with consciousness". Lynch interpretated it as a "message of dance music's power to succor the soul", referring to Madonna's near-death experience in 2023, while Evelyn McDonnell from The New York Times felt it was an explanation of the "cosmology of a rave". "One Step Away" is an EDM and trance song featuring strings, percussion, piano, synths, and chord that has funk influences. According to Billboard, it begins with the manifesto about dance music and dancefloor as a "ritualistic space where movement replaces language". Critics compared it to the work of Mondo Grosso and Mr. Fingers, as well as Madonna's "2000s electronic heyday".