( CM ) - MADONNA swapped New York for London, because the Big Apple has lost its status as the world's cultural capital. The Michigan native moved to New York as a 19-year-old in 1977 and lived in the city for much of her career, only relocating to London in 1997 after falling in love with British film director Guy Ritchie, who she wed three years later (00). Now Madonna has revealed she turned her back on Manhattan because the city is no longer the vibrant centre of the arts it once was. She tells Vanity Fair magazine, " New York City is not the same place it used to be. It still has great energy. I still put my finger in the socket. "But it doesn't feel alive, crackling with that synergy between the art world and music world and fashion world that was happening in the '80s."