Madonna stepped out of two secret doors in a billboard three stories above Broadway at 6:27 p.m. on Thursday, June 3, and performed for 15 minutes above a crowd of thousands in Times Square. The surprise set included two new singles from her album Confessions II as well as favorites from Confessions, with fans watching from the street below.
The performance was tied to the official public launch of The Square, a new venue located directly on Broadway and 47th Street. According to Billboard, the show was also part of a marketing partnership with Grindr to celebrate Pride Month.
The Square is built beneath the Hilton Tempo Hotel and spans 10 floors of spaces designed for brand experiences and live performances. Artists can perform both inside the building and on the small stage tucked inside the billboard facing the street. The venue is the result of a multi-billion-dollar investment, though Innovative Partnerships Group, which was involved in the venue's creation, did not provide an exact figure.
Jeff Marks, CEO of Innovative Partnerships Group, explained why Madonna was chosen to mark the official opening. "We thought she was the right person to talk across multiple generations of fans," Marks said. "You don't get someone better than her who can talk to anyone in the world."
Marks described the venue's core purpose as one built around the digital age. "It was built for curators, content creators, influencers to create cultural moments," he said. "The Square was built for a digital world."
While Madonna's show marked the official opening, The Square had already hosted a handful of artists in earlier test runs. Charli xcx performed there during her brat era as part of an H&M partnership. Shakira and Post Malone have also used the stage to promote albums in recent years. Marks said those earlier shows were not the full venue experience. With Madonna, The Square opened in its entirety.
Marks said the stage has already developed a reputation among artists for delivering results. "When an artist wants to do their album drop, they play here because you come on stage and it becomes global overnight," he said. "And what we've been told by each artist that tested The Square to date is that, when they did their next album drop, it was the most successful launch of all their albums."
Madonna's performance went viral on social media following the show, drawing global attention to both the album campaign and the new venue.
