Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna is the first extended play (EP) by the cast of the musical television series Glee. It contains eight songs from the season one Glee episode, "The Power of Madonna", which was a tribute episode dedicated to American recording artist Madonna. She had sold the rights to her entire catalogue of music to Glee in 2009, and producers of the show developed the episode called "The Power of Madonna"; the show featured a number of cover versions of Madonna's songs by the cast. The accompanying EP released with the airing of the show was called Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna. 　　After its release, the EP received generally positive reviews from the critics, who frequently cited the cover version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" as a stand-out track from the album. The EP debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with 98,000 copies in the first week in the United States, the highest debut for a Glee soundtrack. It also reached the top of the chart in Canada, and the top ten in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The release of the EP saw an increase in the catalogue sales of Madonna's albums too. All songs from The Power of Madonna were released as singles with the exception of "Burning Up". "Like a Prayer" charted highest in all regions, reaching number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and selling 87,000 digital downloads there. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 　　By Andrew Leahey 　　After taking a quick break in December 2009, Glee returned to the air four months later with a new character (played by Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele’s co-star in Spring Awakening) and a new soundtrack. The Power of Madonna features seven of the Material Girl’s tunes, all of them taken from the same episode. It’s a short release, but it also holds its ground against the two albums that preceded it, namely because the material is so compatible with the show itself. Madonna’s music has always thrived on drama, and it lends itself well to Glee’s theater-pop approach, which tends to bring out the cheese in even the most serious of songs. There’s nothing serious about “Vogue” and “Like a Virgin,” though, and the cast tackles both tunes with a mixture of camp and confidence. Chalk it up to increased experience or improved song selection, but everyone simply sounds better on these songs -- particularly Cory Monteith, who relies less on Auto-Tune and more on his gauzy tenor vocals during “Borderline/Open Your Heart.” Elsewhere, Jane Lynch and Jayma Mays both make their vocal debuts, and the boys (minus Matthew Morrison) team up for a harmonized, *NSync-ish version of “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” a premise that may sound dreadful on paper but actually works quite well on the record. At times, Glee still feels like a showcase for Lea Michele’s vocals, and she sings lead on half of these songs. But Michele is no longer the only heavy hitter on the show, and The Power of Madonna allows more singers to step up to the plate.