Happy Monday! 

While most people were out celebrating their Fourth of July weekends, Stan Twitter was busy. As expected, Swifties were busy tracking the not-so-secretive union between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden on July 3. But in a rather surprising turn of events, Madonna and Beyoncé also dominated the conversation in online pop fandom spaces as well. 

While it might sound strange, I actually find this excess of Main Pop Girl energy to be refreshing. I’ve talked quite a bit about “khias”—or middle-tier stars—here. This class of pop star has dominated the cultural conversation for the past three years or so. It’s kind of fun to see the big divas steal the spotlight back! Below are only things that the absolute top HBICs can do, ya know?

What else could be said for what is arguably the biggest wedding of the 21st century? For weeks, speculation was brewing over what Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding would look like. With each new report, it was as if we knew so much and yet nothing at all. 

Now, the details of the wedding—including the guest list, the set-up, the food, the performances, and the favors—are officially out. Of course, once it was confirmed that Taylor would indeed hold her wedding at Madison Square Garden on Fourth of July weekend, discourse abounded. 

Between Swifties posting minute-by-minute updates as they came in and antis who bemoaned the pop star’s taste (or lack thereof), there was plenty of conversation around this wedding online. And with virality comes opportunists looking to cash in on the outsized attention toward these nuptials, leading to some dubious claims and AI-generated photos. 

Here’s what we do know about the wedding, generally speaking: 

As for any official photos, none have been released yet, although guests have gradually shared pics of themselves enjoying the party. Say what you want about the woman, but one thing is for sure: No one else could do a wedding like this. Thank you Taylor for always giving us something to talk about!

Speaking of something to talk about, this new Madonna album, y’all… I’m surprisingly loving it. And apparently, so are a lot of people.

I’m not historically a Madonna fan. But like almost everyone in the world, I know and love her hits. I think “Like A Prayer” is one of the greatest songs ever. But generally speaking, she’s never really connected with me. Perhaps it’s blasphemous pop fan behavior, but I’ll blame it on my youth. 

Regardless of my interest in her catalogue in the past, I have a deep appreciation for her legacy and impact on the pop world. She is the queen of reinvention and has served as the blueprint for all of the pop stars that have come after her. No one has done eras like Madonna. She is a true risk taker and transformative force. And she’s mother for a reason—she literally invented the quintessential motherhood album on 1998’s Ray of Light. I highly recommend listening to the Pop Pantheon mini-series about her career and why she’s the model for everyone that has come after her. 

Even knowing this, I wasn’t really expecting to feel so moved by Confessions II. I find it to be a great dance record that also happens to be a meditation on her life and legacy. I love that it’s a continuous mix and that it grapples with what she has created over her 43-year career. And I think there’s no better person to continue the hot trend of great dance albums this decade. 

But beyond the way that Madonna plays with her own mythology on the album, she is showing that you can creatively explore and push yourself at any age. There’s always time to change and improve on our craft. The triumph of this album, plus her recent comments on art in our modern world, is the gentle nudge that many of us need to simply keep moving forward. 

And as if this weekend couldn’t get more exciting, we got a new Beyoncé single. But this newly released track, “Morning Dew (Donk)” is actually an old cut from the vault. In fact, the scrapped track, which was rumored to be made for her self-titled 2013 album, leaked a few years back and went viral on TikTok. 

But now, fans can hear the song in full on streaming. And its release marks the beginning of the countdown to the 20th anniversary of her second solo album BDay. “Donk” was released on July 4, which is 60 days before the album’s anniversary reissue.

But, as the eagle-eyed BeyHive pointed out, she released a self-titled cut in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of BDay using the visual language she’s been employing during her ongoing trilogy run, in which fans are still awaiting the elusive act III. What could it all mean? 

Hopefully, it means we get that rock album ASAP. I think it would be fitting to use BDay to roll out act III, especially because you can hear Tina Turner’s influence on that sophomore album. I’ve done a lot of incorrect guesswork on the dates for act III, so I won’t even attempt to propose release dates. But Beyoncé surely has something planned soon, right?

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. The Main Pop Girls are successful for a reason! Here are eight reasons!

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.