Are we seeing a softer Madonna?

It has been a while since I have penned a Madonna entry so just for today please indulge me.

The Queen of Pop is still on the road with her MDNA tour, currently doing the rounds of the United States.

The show is incredibly violent, dark, political and at times down-right scary.

However, it seems the first lady of pop has started t reveal a much softer side of herself when she is not toting guns and splattering blood over the walls when on stage.

In some of her recent interviews she has been warm, funny, witty and for the first time doesn’t appear to be taking herself too seriously.

It is true, over the past 20 years certainly, we are seeing a much warmer, Madonna - “we” being the adoring and loyal fans who follow her every move.

It is almost as if in the past three decades she has risen so far to the top that she really has no need anymore to sneer and pout her way through interviews like she the biggest star in the world - because the whole world already knows she is.

I refer to her appearance on the Ellen show last  week - Madonna and Ellen Degeneres have a well-documented friendship do that would have definitely added to the friendly nature of the programme.

Had this been a mid-tour interview 20 years ago - you would have seen the tension between Madonna and the interviewer.

She has made it clear that she hates giving them while she is on tour, mainly because her schedule is so tight.

But read any of her biographies, and you will see in all of them that she hates doing interviews full-stop.

Apparently she gets very nervous when on camera but not performing on a massive stage, she is also very guarded about intrusion into her personal life.

In 1980s, 90s interviews I would always feel sorry for the interviewer, who she inevitably gave a really hard time to - Terry Wogan, 1991 Cannes, Jonathan Ross, 1992, just after the release of the Sex book.

These presenters would often give interviews themselves after the meeting about what it was like to be in the presence of Madonna, they would always remark on how she was like nobody they had ever met before.

When they were led to her, through her hoards of minders and assistants, finally into the presence of this tiny, perfectly-lit woman sitting on a couch, apart from the nerves, they all reported was an impending feeling of doom, this is someone very very big.

That seems to have gone now, and you get to see a snippet of the real woman, the face behind Madonna the artist, actress performer, director, entertainer. Just a small glimpse, but a glimpse nonetheless.

The Ellen interview is lovely, if you are a Madonna fan. If not look away, this is for one day only I promise.

Dressed in her stage costume (for a laugh) she giggles as a similar construction is strapped onto the host.

She then shows Ellen how to do a few Vogue moves before dunking her son Rocco in water to raise money for breast cancer research.

It is one of the most “human” interviews I have seen with Madonna, and believe me, over the past 25 years, I have seen a few.

So, I though I would share a few clips - there are some very funny moments, and as I said, if you love Madonna, they are pure gold.