In May 2014 , photographer Mert Alas posted on his Instagram account that he was listening to a new Madonna album . '' Billboard '' clarified that she was still in the process of recording it in Los Angeles . They later posted a 50-second snippet of an instrumental which media claimed was from Madonna , but the sample was traced back to Dutch DJ Sander Kleinenberg and his song " We Are Superstars " . Oseary confirmed that Madonna looked forward to a 2015 release date for the album . However , on November 28 , 2014 , two songs titled " Rebel Heart " and " Wash All Over Me " were leaked onto the Internet ; the songs were taken down immediately , and Oseary tweeted asking for help finding the source of the leaks . On December 17 , 2014 , thirteen songs were leaked , as well as artwork suggesting the album was to be named '' Iconic '' . An aggravated Madonna clarified that the songs were demo versions from earlier recordings ; she described the leak as " artistic rape " . The singer was criticized for referring to the hack as " terrorism " , due to the then-recent Peshawar school massacre and the Sydney hostage crisis . Madonna said in a '' Billboard '' interview that after the leak she and her team tried to trace it to the source , but ultimately decided to release the finished songs . Referring to the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack , she was critical of the Internet and explained that the incident led to her securing her laptop and hard drives , and disabling the Wi-Fi . " I wanted to plan everything in advance . Release the single , shoot a video , start talking about my record . And you know , prepare for the release of the entire album and have everything set up just so ... But we sort of were left with no choice " , she added
Peshawar school massacre
2014 Peshawar school massacre
Rebel Heart