Madonna hit with second major leak as 14 songs surface

Madonna can’t catch a break.

Just days after the pop diva released a suite of songs in response to a massive leak of tracks from her forthcoming album, “Rebel Heart,” she has been hit again.

A new leak, containing 14 tracks in total, surfaced online late Tuesday. As it now stands, nearly 30 unauthorized songs are floating on the Internet -- many of which are more polished than rough demos.

Among the track titles are “Beautiful Scars,” “Tragic Girl,” “Freedom,” “Iconic,” “Nothing Lasts Forever” and “Veni Vidi Vici,” and the set opens with “Back That Up (Do It),” a collaboration with Pharrell Williams.

“Real rebels think for themselves! Real rebels respect art! Real rebels are rebels in their #rebelheart,” Madonna wrote on her Instagram after the songs hit the Internet.

Premature leaks have long been problematic for artists, but a leak of this magnitude and from an artist of Madonna’s caliber is incomprehensible.

In an interview with Billboard after last week’s substantial leak, the singer said her operations were solid.

“We don’t put things up on servers anymore. Everything we work on, if we work on computers, we’re not on WiFi, we’re not on the Internet, we don’t work in a way where anybody can access the information,” she said. “Hard drives of music are hand-carried to people. We don’t leave music laying around.”

Last week more than a dozen tracks from her album -- which she hadn’t yet announced details of -- were leaked online in an incident that the singer called “a form of terrorism.” Unfinished versions of the album’s lead single, “Living for Love,” and its title track were part of the stolen music.

To counter the leak, Madonna rolled out album details along with an EP’s worth of new music available for purchase or streaming (the songs were instant grats for those who pre-ordered the disc).

Among the songs released are “Living for Love,” “Devil Pray,” “Ghosttown,” “Unapologetic Bitch,” “Illuminati” and “Bitch I’m Madonna,” which features Nicki Minaj. Additional music from the album will be released on Feb. 9.

Immediately after releasing new music, the album’s pre-sale went to No. 1 in more than 40 countries on iTunes charts. A number of the album’s tracks hit No. 1 in various countries.

In a statement, Madonna said her original plan was to issue lead single “Living for Love” on Valentine’s Day, with the album arriving in spring. Due to the leak, she wanted fans to have the finished versions of the music.

“I would prefer my fans to hear completed versions of some of the songs instead of the incomplete tracks that are circulating,” she said in a statement.

“Rebel Heart” will be released March 10.

Twitter: @gerrickkennedy