A rebel and icon, Madonna has spent more than four decades reinventing herself, pushing boundaries and challenging convention.

Now the Queen of Pop, who got her first tattoo at 62 and has drawn the Vatican's ire for mixing Christian symbolism with sexual imagery, is returning with her first studio album since 2019, titled "Confessions II."

The title echoes her 2005 dance-pop blockbuster "Confessions on a Dance Floor," which spawned hits including "Hung Up."

True to Madonna's style, the campaign ahead of the album's release on July 3 is already generating buzz.

In a promotional video, Madonna and her dancers fire lasers from their crotches, while supermodel Kate Moss and actor Benedict Cumberbatch make cameo appearances at a lavish party.

The album cover features the singer beneath a translucent purple veil, dressed in thigh-high stockings and high heels, while drawing heavily on religious imagery – a fitting motif for an album whose title evokes confession.

Born to a 'religious robot'

Religion and faith have long shaped Madonna's work. Born in 1958 into a devout Catholic family of Italian heritage, she has often described her strict upbringing as the force that drove her ambition.

She once referred to her father as a "religious robot" – something she says she never wanted to become.

Today, Madonna embraces a far more personal spirituality. In a recent podcast interview, she said she believes in the universe and credits guardian angels with helping her through the darkest moments of her life, including her arrival in New York at 17 with little money and no connections.

"The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don't know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time," she wrote in a 2013 essay for Harper's Bazaar.

'Like a Virgin' turned scandal into stardom

Her 1983 debut album "Madonna," featuring the hit song "Everybody," established her as a rising star. But it was her willingness to challenge religious conventions and traditional ideas about female sexuality that transformed her into a global icon.

At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" in a wedding dress while rolling across the stage in a performance that many considered shocking. For countless women, however, it became a defining moment of female sexual self-determination.

Throughout the conservative era of president Ronald Reagan, Madonna positioned herself in stark contrast to the traditional family values championed by the US administration and influential evangelical groups.

During the AIDS crisis, she became one of pop music's most outspoken advocates for awareness and compassion, repeatedly condemning the stigma faced by people living with HIV.

In the 1990s, her coffee-table book "Sex" was banned or censored in several countries, while simultaneously becoming an international bestseller.

The Vatican again condemned Madonna in the mid-2000s after she performed "Live to Tell" suspended from a giant cross while wearing a crown of thorns. Her response was characteristically defiant: she invited the pope to attend the concert.

Provocation as self-determination

For Madonna, provocation has never been merely a publicity tactic. It has also been an assertion of personal freedom.

Even getting her first tattoo, at around 62, became another statement of independence. That determination to control her own body has also shaped her response to years of scrutiny over her appearance.

After her dramatically altered look at the 2023 Grammy Awards fuelled fresh speculation about cosmetic procedures, Madonna largely ignored the criticism.

But in an Instagram post, she addressed what she said are signs of "a world that refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45."

She wrote that she has "never apologised for any of the creative choices I have made nor the way that I look or dress and I'm not going to start."

She added, "I have been degraded by the media since the beginning of my career but I understand that this is all a test and I am happy to do the trailblazing so that all the women behind me can have an easier time in the years to come."