Madonna Says People Calling Dance Music “Dead” Are Listening To The Wrong Songs

Dance music is clearly not fading away in 2026, at least not according to Madonna.

As anticipation continues building around her upcoming album Confessions II, the long awaited sequel to 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, the Queen of Pop shared a bold message Wednesday, May 20, on Instagram defending the energy of dance music. “If your dance floor feels dead,” she wrote, “maybe you’re playing the wrong music.”

The pop icon also shared several glamorous photos featuring herself in a fur lined jacket, glossy boots standing on a dance floor, bright pink gloves inside a dressing room, and more behind the scenes styled moments.

While Madonna’s post could have simply been a broad statement about dance music, many fans online immediately interpreted it as a possible shot directed at Charli xcx. On Charli’s new track “Rock Music,” she sings, “I think the dance floor is dead/ So now we’re making rock music.”

“OH THE CHARLI SHADE,” one commenter wrote beneath Madonna’s post, while others added reactions like “Bye bye CHARLI” and “This Charli shade omfg.”

Billboard has contacted Charli’s representatives for comment.

Charli’s comments on “Rock Music” arrive after a massive two year stretch fueled by the success of her 2024 album Brat, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and helped reshape how dance and club music exist within mainstream pop culture. However, while discussing her upcoming direction with British Vogue in April, Charli explained, “If I’d made another album that felt more dance leaning, it would have felt really hard, really sad … what’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be.”

Not every fan has embraced the stylistic shift, but Charli addressed the criticism directly in a series of posts shared on X Tuesday, May 19. “if you get me, you get me and if you don’t, you don’t. and thats ok <3” she wrote.

“i’m not trying to repel people away or convince people into liking me,” she continued. “i’m doing what i feel is truthful to me.”

Confessions II is scheduled for release on July 3. So far, Madonna has unveiled two songs from the project, “I Feel So Free” and “Bring Your Love” featuring Sabrina Carpenter, following the pair’s surprise duet performance at Coachella in April.