Do you see turning 50 as a milestone?

No, but everybody else keeps mentioning it. I see it as another excuse to have a birthday party! 

Turning 50 is a landmark for a lady. 

Wait a minute. Stop right there. It is a landmark for a lady?

For everybody. 

Good. 

So how do you feel about it?

It’s not a bad word. You can say it.

What kind of a mother are you?

I would fall into the category of the disciplinarian. I make my children tidy up their bedrooms. I don’t like them to play video games or watch television. I make sure they do their homework. So yeah, I am the disciplinarian.

Lourdes seems to have a specific sense of style.

I will just say that my daughter has a very strong opinion about clothes and fashion. She has incredible taste, actually. She’s very self-possessed and she has a strong personality, so that will be a challenge for me but it will also serve her well when she gets older.

Does Lourdes want to be a musician as well, and if so will you approve of it?

She says she would like to be an actress.

Do you like that idea?

I don’t mind. 

You were recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How do you feel about that? How did it come about that Justin (Timberlake) was the one inducting you?

When I first heard about it, I felt ambivalent. Is that where they put musical dinosaurs? You know what I mean? I did not really know what to think of it. But then lots of people explained to me that it is an acknowledgement of singers and songwriters who have made a contribution in the world of music for 25 years, so eventually I came around to the idea that it was flattering. It was Justin who offered and kind of surprised me and said he wanted to be the one to induct me. So I said OK.

How hard is it to express yourself in your lyrics without giving away too much of your own privacy?

I don’t think it is hard. I think that most people, whether they write fiction, non-fiction, pop songs, screenplays or whatever, even if they are writing about somebody else completely, there is always going to be an element of that person in that story. Most of the things I have done end up being somewhat autobiographical, a tiny bit autobiographical or completely autobiographical. It is very hard for me to discern that when I’m writing. But I think that there is a clever way to tell a story and put your heart into it and your experiences without being obvious about the specifics. 

How have your views on music and your work changed?

We will be here for six hours, if you want to hear how my views on life have changed over the last 30 years! How have my views on music changed . . . ?

Yes — in your twenties, you were trying to make it and make those hits . . . 

I’m still trying to make those hits. But everybody wants to make music that people want to listen to, that people want to hear on the radio or play on the radio. I never, ever made a record where I did not care whether people heard it or not. I think that as I have evolved as a human being, my music has reflected that. I probably wrote about simple, straightforward ‘let’s just have a good time’ songs when I first started out. Then as I evolved and changed as a human being, my music has been a reflection of that. That does not mean that I can’t get up and write a song about getting up and dancing and feeling good. I think that my songs have more a sense of irony in them or contradiction in them than they used to. I’d like to believe that they are more complex, so I just think that my music is a reflection of how I have changed and grown and my experience of the world and other human beings. 

In the song Incredible, you sing that everything is beautiful but something is missing. After the big success of your dancefloor album, do you still feel that everything is beautiful but something is missing?

That is not a song about my career, it’s a song about relationships. It’s not necessarily about me but it is about the idea that often we take people for granted and we lose our sense of appreciation for them and then something goes wrong and all you can think about is how you want to get it back to the way that it was. So sometimes you almost have to lose something before you can appreciate it, or someone. That’s what the song is about.

What’s the secret about staying on top of your game, physically and mentally?

The secret? I think a big part of it is the recognition that I am not the owner of my talent. I’m just the manager of it. I know that I have been blessed with many gifts and I think that as soon as you think that you own what you have, it will go away. The other part of it is that I have a great sense of curiosity about the world and I am always trying to learn new things and put myself in a position where I am working with people who know more than I do. So if I constantly put myself in a position where I am learning something, then I have something new to express. I think that if I manage my talents well, they will always be there for me.

Is there any secret about your physical fitness? 

Yes, I’m drinking the magic potion! Seriously, I love to dance. I love to feel physically strong. In fact, I feel stronger now than I did, say, maybe 20 years ago. I think that if your mind is strong, your body will be strong.

How long will you continue making music?

I haven’t the slightest idea. Everyone wants to know the numbers — till I am 60, I think.

When you look at how women in the spotlight in their 20s are treated now, and how every nuance of their lives is scrutinised, when you think about the escapades of your younger days, what goes through your mind? If mobile phones and YouTube had been around then, would you have been up to as much?

I really was not getting up to much. I don’t think I was as naughty as I could have been.

But there were no people in a club filming you, as people have to deal with now.

That’s true and I’m glad that I did not have to experience that. Though I didn’t really do that much that was interesting.

Do you feel for the people in the spotlight?

Yes, I feel for them but I think we’re all responsible for it as well. We are hungrily devouring the information, so as long as there are people out there to buy the magazines and to go on the Internet, and as long as there is an audience for it, then there is going to be a supply. Everybody is sort of responsible for it. And because of the Internet, people have to do more and more and more to get attention to sell their product, so now they have no limits and no boundaries. It’s a kind of madness.

When you listen to a song such as Like a Virgin, what do you hear? And when you see the video, who is the young Madonna that you see?

When I hear the song Like a Virgin, I think that it’s kind of a statement about the sounds of the music that everybody was making in the early ’80s. There’s a kind of simplicity about it. There’s an innocence about it and when I look at the video, I also see a girl who is innocent, wide-eyed and really excited about life and the beginning of her career.

What would you still like to achieve?

Well, I’d like to become a better human being. I would like to learn more than I already know. I would like to be a better parent. I still have my children to raise, that’s a big responsibility and I’m not done with that. I would like to direct more films and write them. I have only directed one, so to me that’s the beginning of that career. I want to make more records because I love music.

By Andy Cocker/Planet Syndication.