Yahoo News Madonna says TV and phones are banned in her house - but her kids love the 'Gummy Bear' dance
Madonna has said she doesn’t allow her young children to watch TV or have mobile phones, but encourages dancing after dinner - including to viral hit The Gummy Bear Song.
The singer spoke to DJ Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 ahead of the release of her new album Madame X.
She said she raises her children in an “old fashioned” way and encourages conversation rather than screen time.
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Madonna has six children in total, with four of them adopted from African nation Malawi.
“The thing about dancing after dinner – it’s just a normal evening in my house,” said the 60-year-old pop icon.
She added: “I wish that Rocco [her biological son with Guy Ritchie] was young again because he used to do that too.
“We just always have music playing and there’s always dancing.
“I mean we watch movies at night on weekends but TV, no and phones, no.
“Music and dancing and talking to each other. Old fashioned.”
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Madonna urged Whiley to check out The Gummy Bear Song online when asked to name a “real favourite” song that her children love to dance to.
She also revealed the inspiration behind the title Madame X, which was a nickname given to her by Martha Graham at her School of Contemporary Dance during Madonna’s teenage years.
Graham gave her the name because she kept “changing the way you look, your identity” while at the institution, including some audacious style choices.
“At one point I took my leotard and ripped it from the top all the way down to my pubic bone,” Madonna said.
She added: “And then I took tiny little gold safety pins and safety pinned it all the way from my vagina to…my fanny? That's what you call it here in England.
“And so it looked like a zipper or a vertebrae – it was actually quite cool looking.”
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Madonna said she “came full circle” by choosing to give her album that name.
She said: “It came back to me while I was making this record and I just decided that because the music is so much about my travels around the world and my observation about what’s going on in the world, I decided that Madame X was the perfect name.”
Madame X is released on 14 June.
