STRONGER

FAITH

ON AND ON

“Give It 2 Me” is a song by Madonna, featured on her 11th studio album Hard Candy. It was released on June 4, 2008 by Warner Bros. Records as the second single from the album. The song was written by Madonna as an anthemic, self-manifesto song which, although it appears to be about dance and sex, is a reference to Madonna’s career spanning three decades in the music industry. Musically, “Give It 2 Me” is an upbeat dance song, featuring instrumentation from West African percussion and cowbells. Backing vocals are provided by Pharrell Williams.

“Give It 2 Me” received positive reviews from contemporary critics. The song became Madonna’s 39th number-one single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, and reached a peak of 57 only, due to limited radio play. The song topped the music charts in Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain, while it attained top-ten positions on the charts of many other nations.

The music video featured Madonna recreating her look from the Elle magazine May covergirl photo shoot, and was directed by photographer Tom Munro. Williams had a guest appearance in the video. It received positive response for her retro-inspired look. Madonna performed “Give It 2 Me” on both the promotional tour for Hard Candy, and the 2008–09 Sticky & Sweet Tour, where she performed it as the final song of the concert. “Give It 2 Me” received a Grammy nomination in 2009 in the Best Dance Recording category.

SMILE

CHERISH

Madonna recorded a cover version of “I Want You” with British trip-hop group Massive Attack for her ballads compilation album Something to Remember and the Marvin Gaye tribute album Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye in 1995. It was released as a promotional single in 1995.

After the release of her successful single “Take a Bow”, Madonna was approached by Earle Sebastian about a cover of this song for a tribute album. She originally turned down the offer because of her vocal training for Evita but later decided to release a compilation album to hold fans over while she was working on Evita. When Warner Bros. asked for three new tracks, Madonna accepted the proposal of Massive Attack.

Originally, “I Want You” was slated to become the first single from the compilation album, Something to Remember. The song was released as a promotional single in September 1995 and a music video was shot and released to many media outlets. Many problems arose internally, which resulted in “You’ll See” being quickly released as a single instead. The video received heavy airplay on both MTV and VH1. Along with medium radio airplay, many fans speculated as to why the song was never released as an official single. Neither Massive Attack nor Madonna have commented on this matter.

The song appears on the album in two versions: the original album version and an orchestral version. Dance remixes by Junior Vasquez and Warren Rigg have also surfaced and are available on the internet, as well as various mixes of the orchestral and original versions.

“I Want You” was shot on August 5 and 6, 1995 at Empire Stages in Long Island City, New York and directed by Earle Sebastian. Directed by Earle Sebastian, produced by Joel Hinman, edited by Bruce Ashley, the video was inspired by and pays hommage to A Telephone Call, a short story written by American writer, Dorothy Parker. The video was promoted to VH1 and MTV. MTV Europe did and still does air the video, especially in the late-night show “Chill Out Zone”. “I Want You” received a nomination for “MTV Amour” at the MTV Europe Music Awards 1996, but lost to The Fugees’s “Killing Me Softly”. Julian Hirsh did several mixes of the track, while rare promos featuring nearly a dozen slightly altered versions of the original song exist. The video was also the only case in Madonna’s career where a non-released single was given the full video treatment. The video was commercially released in 2009 on Celebration: The Video Collection.

DIVA

GLITTER LUST

SKY FITS HEAVEN

Ray of Light is the seventh studio album by Madonna, released on March 3, 1998. After giving birth to her daughter Lourdes, Madonna started working on her new album with producers Babyface, Patrick Leonard and English producer William Orbit. Following failed sessions with Babyface and Leonard, Madonna pursued a new musical direction with Orbit. The recording took place over four months, and experienced problems with the hardware Pro Tools arrangement by Orbit, which would break down, and recording would have to be delayed until they could be repaired, as well as the absence of live bands.

Musically, the album is a pop and dance record, yet, it incorporates strong elements of electronic music within its composition, making it a departure from her previous work. Additionally, it incorporates several genres and subgenres, including techno, trip hop, drum and bass, ambient, rock and classical music. Vocally, the album saw Madonna sing using greater breadth and a fuller tone. Oriental themes are also present on the album, as a result from her conversion to Kabbalah, her study of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as her daily practice of Yoga; songs like “Sky Fits Heaven” and “Shanti/Ashtangi” are examples from these activities.

Upon release, the album received acclaim and was lauded by contemporary critics as a masterpiece. Reviewers commended the singer’s new musical direction, calling it her “most adventurous” record, as well as its mature, restrained nature; the singer’s vocals were also praised. Ray of Light won four Grammy Awards from a total of six nominations. Commercially, the album also was a success, peaking at number one in fourteen countries. On the US Billboard 200, the album debuted and peaked at number two. With estimated sales of 20 million copies worldwide, Ray of Light remains one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Five singles were released from the album, including global top-five hits “Frozen” and “Ray of Light”. In order to support Ray of Light and her following album, Madonna embarked on the Drowned World Tour in 2001. Critics and scholars have noted the album’s influence on popular music, especially how it helped bring electronic music into mainstream pop culture. They also noted the way in which Madonna was able to re-invent herself and remain fresh and contemporary amidst the more teen pop-based music of the period. In such a way, the album has been included in many critic lists and polls, including Rolling Stone magazine’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

The video received a total of eight MTV Video Music Awards nominations, becoming Madonna’s second most-nominated video at the award show, after “Vogue” in 1990. It won five awards for Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Choreography, becoming her most-winning song at the show.

SEARCHING

HOT FUDGE

MISS JANET

“Love Will Never Do (Without You)” is the seventh single from Janet Jackson’s fourth studio album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week. The song became Jackson’s fifth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, the final of seven top five singles from the album, making her the only artist to achieve seven top five singles from one album. The success of “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” also helped the album to become the only in history to produce number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in three separate calendar years, those being “Miss You Much” in 1989, “Escapade” and “Black Cat” in 1990, and “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” in 1991.

The video was directed by the late photographer Herb Ritts and choreographed by Tina Landon on September 13, 1990. Jackson originally planned to wear a dress for the video, but Ritts envisioned Jackson in nothing more than a black top and a pair of jeans. The video features cameos by actors (then Calvin Klein underwear models) Antonio Sabàto, Jr. and Djimon Hounsou.

The video won for Best Female Video and was nominated for Best Choreography and Best Art Direction at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. It ranked 13 on Rolling Stone’s The 100 Top Music Videos, 72 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Videos, and 88 on MTV’s 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made.

NOTHING LIKE

OPEN YOUR HEART

LOS ANGELES, July 25, 2012 — Following overwhelming demand for tickets to Madonna’s intimate club show scheduled to take place on Thursday, July 26th at the historic Olympia in Paris, the Material Girl has invited her fans around the world to see her performance via a live global stream through LoveLive’s YouTube channel beginning 10:15pm Paris time CET; 4:15pm ET. There will also be a post stream of the show where the footage can be viewed in its entirety.

The show, which was confirmed by Live Nation – Madonna’s MDNA international tour partner -, will include songs from the artist’s current album, MDNA, along with her new single, “Turn Up The Radio” as well as several classics. MDNA which was released by Universal Records debuted at No. 1 in over 40 countries. The Olympia, founded in 1888 has been the site of legendary shows by performers such as Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour.

SHADOWS

“Scream”/”Childhood” is the lead single from Michael Jackson’s ninth studio album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I where “Scream” is the first song and “Childhood” is the tenth song on the second disc of the album HIStory Continues. The A-side, “Scream”, is a duet with his younger sister Janet Jackson, while the corresponding B-side, “Childhood”, a solo piece. The single was released on May 31, 1995.

Generally well received amongst critics, it has been compared favorably to other accomplished pieces by Jackson. It went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award and an American Music Award. The corresponding music video remains one of Jackson’s most critically acclaimed pieces; it won numerous MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy. At a cost of $ 7 million, it was listed in the Guinness World Records as the most expensive music video ever made, however director Mark Romanek has refuted the claim saying that there were two other music videos from the same era which cost “millions more” than the video for “Scream”.

Michael performed the song on his 96-97 HIStory World Tour. Janet performed the song on her 2011 Number Ones: Up Close and Personal World Tour as a tribute to her late brother.

THERE IS A LIGHT

SHAKE UP

FEELS GOOD

FEVER

“Bad Girl” is a song by Madonna, released as the third single from her 1992 studio album Erotica in February 1993 by Maverick Records. Written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone, and Anthony Shimkin and produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone, the single was released a month after the controversial erotic thriller Body of Evidence, which also starred Madonna. The song was a modest success on the charts, reaching number thirty-six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number ten on the UK Singles Chart, falling off the chart shortly after. This caused the release of the next UK single “Fever” to be released only four weeks later.

Madonna has only ever performed the song live once during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in January 1993. In North America the single included remixes of the album track “Fever”, which was released independently in Europe as the fourth single from Erotica.

The music video to accompany the single was directed by David Fincher, who had previously collaborated on Madonna’s “Express Yourself”, “Oh Father” and “Vogue” videos. It also features the American actor Christopher Walken who plays “a guardian angel (or the angel of death)”.

The video features Madonna as “Louise Oriole” (Madonna’s middle name is Louise and Oriole is a street she once lived on), a high-powered Manhattan female executive who is an alcoholic and has a penchant for one-night stands with many different men (from affluent yuppies to shady low-lifes). She behaves this way in order to try to deal with her depression and sadness over a relationship with someone she loves deeply, but ultimately has no future. Through her days, Louise gets distracted by cigarettes, cocktails, and random hook-ups, as lamented in the song’s lyrics. Christopher Walken plays her guardian angel, who watches over her activities and delivers Louise with a “kiss of death” before her final encounter with a man, during which she is suggested to have been strangled with pantyhose.

After Ellen von Unwerth and Tim Burton had rejected the offer to direct the music video, it was eventually directed by David Fincher, who worked with Madonna in her videos for “Express Yourself”, “Oh Father” and “Vogue”, and filmed on location in New York City from January 12–18, 1993. The video also features an uncredited cameo appearance from Matt Dillon, who plays a crime scene cop.

FALLING FREE

DON’T BE FOOLED