Madonna And Sabrina Carpenter’s Bring Your Love Makes Radio 1 A-List

Madonna’s latest single has pushed her back onto Radio 1’s A-list for the first time in almost two decades.

On Thursday night, the Queen of Pop released her new bop Bring Your Love as the lead single from her upcoming album Confessions II.

Produced by former collaborator Stuart Price, the house-inspired tune features vocals from Sabrina Carpenter, and was first unveiled live when the two pop stars shared the stage at Coachella last month.

Earlier this week, The Sun claimed that its youth-oriented station Radio 1 would be pushing Madonna and Sabrina’s duet on their A-list – meaning it would receive the heaviest rotation on the channel – which would be the Like A Prayer’s first time on there in 18 years.

Radio 1 then unveiled its A-list for the coming week on Friday morning, with Madonna’s new song nestled among new offerings from the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, Zara Larsson and PinkPantheress, BTS and Sombr.

Prior to this, Madonna’s music had sparked an ageism row when Radio 1 refused to play her music.

“I thought it was so discriminatory and unfair,” she told The Sun in 2015. “Shouldn’t it be to do with whether you wrote a good, catchy pop song?

“We’ve made so many advances in other areas – civil rights, gay rights – but ageism is still an area that’s taboo and not talked about and dealt with.”

She added: “I’m so stupid. I didn’t know it was anything to do with my age. I just do my work.”

The BBC insisted at the time: “Radio 1 does not ever ban artists. Tracks are chosen on musical merit and their relevance to our young audience on a case-by-case basis and while around 40 per cent of the country’s 15- to 29-year-olds tune in to Radio 1 each week, an artist’s age is never a factor.”

Madonna claimed later that year: “Radio is ageist. If you’re not in your 20s they won’t play you on the radio. It’s bullshit – but that’s the way it is.

“It is disappointing. We live in an ageist society. I’ve tried my hardest to do whatever I can to change peoples’ perception of women, of age, of what is possible and why should any of us limit ourselves in any way, shape or form regardless of our sex, our sexual preference, our age, our religious beliefs, our race etc.

“So for me it’s shocking in this day and age where we’re now accepting gay marriages that we still treat women in a very sexist way. That’s one frontier that has not been conquered. Because if I was a man, things would be different…”

A similar debate emerged just a few years ago, when Radio 1 declined to playlist Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam – until it became a top 10 hit.