When we last saw Madonna, things weren’t looking too good for the pop icon. With 2003 marking her 20th anniversary in the industry, it should’ve been an easy victory lap with another hit record. Instead, it produced her rare misfire with “American Life”: an electronic folk album that claimed to be about politics but maybe was more about a midlife crisis. Nobody can blame her for being concerned, especially in the wake of 9/11 and The War on Terrorism, but it revealed that her attempt to make serious music that mattered more was a misfire. People preferred the fun Madonna, delivering plenty of reasons to keep the dance floor open.
It was not a great start to her third decade, producing some of her lowest record sales to date in her career. “American Life” was considered one of her worst singles, and had it not been for the tacked-on “Die Another Day,” it would’ve been her first album to not feature an actual hit. While Madonna has gone on record as saying she doesn’t feel regret over making the record, it was clear that she would need to rebound in some significant way if for no other reason than “Confessions on a Dance Floor” would mark another special occasion in her memorable career: her 10th studio album.
There was a need to make something that reminded audiences why she was vital. While it hadn’t been that long since her last major hit with “Music,” many were already doubting that she could still deliver. After initially starting production with that album’s producer Mirwais Ahmadzai, she found that he was “too political” for the album and decided to turn to Stuart Price. The catch was simple. She was going to make a dance record that recalled the disco, electropop, and club genres. The goal was to make it flow seamlessly like you’re having a personally catered mix for your own dance floor. Every song would flow into each other, building energy reminiscent of a club. There would be no ballads or filler. It was straightforward energy.
Given that Price was an established DJ, Madonna trusted him to be able to stay up all night while working on ideas. She was attracted to him following his presence in the documentary I’m Going to Tell You a Secret (2005). The goal was as much to make an original work as it was to pay homage to artists from these genres. The most noteworthy came on the lead single “Hung Up,” which used the backing track for ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme.” There would also be references to The Bee Gees, Giorgio Moroder, and Madonna herself. Yes, Madonna would borrow lyrical passages from her own career going back to her albums “Bedtime Stories” and “Like a Prayer.” Not bad for an album that stemmed from Madonna’s desire to make musicals with Luc Besson.
Among the odd tidbits that make this album standout is the title. In the bigger picture, it was one of her rare albums that didn’t use a song title for the album’s name. More than that, it was referencing what the album would be. “Confessions” was meant to suggest that these songs would be personal while “dance floor” was reflective of where this could be played. It was an appealing way to begin things. After all, Madonna wanted to pivot from politics and wanted to just plain out dance.
Then came the music video for “Hung Up.” While the song itself was described as “ABBA on drugs,” many praised it as a return to form. It also featured the singer in a leotard, doing an homage to various John Travolta movies. It was the perfect way to kick off the album launch, finding her ability to dance with exuberance like performers half her age. She was still dominating the conversation, able to follow her own path, and inspire future generations to give the electropop/disco sound a spin. It would lead to an overall revival.
“Hung Up” was everywhere in such a way that it made “American Life” look like a glitch in the matrix. The U.K. Official Charts Company called what followed her third “imperial phase,” meaning a time when she was ubiquitous with pop culture. Speaking as she was entering her 40s, it was a great time to prove that she could rise to the challenge. Around this time, The Age would label her “The Mother of Reinvention,” having done so for over 20 years with mostly successful results. Even then, nobody was really prepared for what would happen when the actual album dropped.
To begin with, the album’s late-2005 release wasn’t enough to hold back its end of the year success. Within months, it was labeled as the sixth biggest-selling albums of the year with 6.3 million sales. It would go on to be one of the highest-selling albums of the decade with 10 million copies. Before that, it was her sixth number one album in America and her third consecutive. With 350,000 copies sold in its first week, it earned the distinction of being one of the fastest-selling albums ever in The United Kingdom. Likewise, she became the oldest artist to simultaneously top The U.K. Singles and Album charts.
The buzz was back around her and everything that followed would be an incredible victory lap. She racked up Guinness Book of World Records for things like “Hung Up,” which became her most successful single. When she was given the chance to perform on all of the familiar shows, she did so with familiar energy, donning a purple leotard, and proving that she could dance as well as her counterparts. When she was nominated at The Grammy Awards, she would perform opposite Gorillaz and De La Soul with their song “Feel Good Inc.” Later on, she would even headline the Coachella Music Festival.
But things couldn’t be without some controversy. In the song most resembling a ballad, “Isaac,” she received complaints from Israeli rabbis who called it a “blasphemy with their religion.” It was believed that the song was about 16th century Kabbalah scholar Yitzhak Luria. Madonna claimed that it was actually about her collaborator on the song, Yitzhak Sinwani, who sang portions of a Yemenite Hebrew poem “Im Nin’alu” and referenced the story of Abraham and Isaac. She claimed that these rabbis hadn’t actually heard the song and thus were getting hung up on misinformation.
Then there was The Confessions Tour itself. It was considered to be called “Confess Your Sins” at one point, but they settled on the name before launching the tour in Inglewood, CA. Like most of her tours, it was going to pull from a variety of themes. Broken up into four parts, it would feature Equestrian, Bedouin, Glam-Punk, and Disco. While they would all feature songs from “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” they would feature different things like bondage, riding carousel horses, parkour, and one particular controversial moment that was once again lost in translation.
During the song “Live to Tell,” she would be suspended from a reflective crucifix while wearing a crown of thorns. The number behind her, “12,000,000” would flash. This was intended to be a commentary on The AIDS Pandemic in Africa. However, many got caught up in the blasphemous idea that she was comparing herself to Jesus Christ, causing The Catholic Church to condemn the performance. In reply to the controversy, Madonna claimed that:
“My specific intent is to bring attention to the millions of children in Africa who are dying every day, and are living without care, without medicine and without hope. I am asking people to open their hearts and minds to get involved in whatever way they can. The song ends with a quote from the Bible's Book of Matthew: 'For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me and God replied, 'Whatever you did for the least of my brothers... you did it to me.’”
It wasn’t enough to save face. Given that she once got Pope John Paul II to have Catholics boycott KFC over her Pepsi commercial, it was one of the few vital things that clearly didn’t dull with age. Still, she ended the post by asking “Please do not pass judgment without seeing my show.”
The concert was eventually shown internationally on channels like NBC and Channel 4 in The U.K., proving how successful this experience had been. It was dubbed by Guinness Books to be the highest-grossing tour ever for a female artist with a total of $194.7 million from 60 shows with 1.2 million spectators. It was also recognized for its creative stage production and received Top Boxscore by The Billboard Touring Awards.
As mentioned, the album would be one of Madonna’s last major triumphs. With new records set, she proved how vital she was even 20 years into her pop career. The fact that she could release songs like “Hung Up” and still draw a crowd proved how much she had to offer the world. Her interest in disco music lead to a revival that would continue to inspire artists for the next decade, including most recently with Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia.” Considering how versatile her sound was throughout the years, it was amazing to know she still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
On the one hand, “Confessions on a Dance Floor” was one of her most streamlined successes. Whereas most of her other albums relied on gimmicks to sell records, there aren’t as many noteworthy stories going into the release of this one. It was clear that Madonna was changing her focus more to the music, working on iconography that would be synonymous with music videos. This was definitely her leotard period, and the additional single “Jump” definitely helped to keep people dancing. In that way, she was already losing some of her appeal by becoming a more conventional artist from a marketing standpoint. Then again, that may be why she ended up doing so well with critics, making this a critically acclaimed masterpiece, considered by many to be one of the best albums of the 2010s and one of the best dance albums in general.
That’s quite an achievement, especially given that three of her most acclaimed albums (“Ray of Light,” “Music,” and “Confessions on a Dance Floor”) all came out within a decade after she had been considered a has-been. She had built her way back up and I would argue that it was some of her most interesting music yet. Once she became more experimental and allowed to play with her own approach to music, she began to discover something more vital about herself. She could be someone defined by her own sound, not needing controversy to make you care about her sound.
It helps that “Confessions on a Dance Floor” feels like a throwback to a sound reminiscent of her early days that actually sounded like it mattered. Her voice was finally rich enough and the producers more capable of blending styles in memorable ways, making a sonic experience that was familiar, but also new. It was pure pop, and it’s what she did best. While I greatly prefer “Music” for all of its small weird touches, “Confessions on a Dance Floor” never fails to be an entertaining, immersive experience that achieves an exciting experience for the listener. It is definitely designed to get your blood flowing and to feel like everything will be okay.
Now the question came back. How would Madonna possibly follow up on her biggest success in her entire career? Having followed “Music” with “American Life,” it was clear that the future would be far more uneven in terms of quality, but one had to wonder if she still had reason to pay attention, make a fourth consecutive number one album full of great hits. While “Hard Candy” may not necessarily be considered a step down in terms of public image, it definitely was the mark of a different kind of turning point. It wasn’t one where she grew irrelevant, but her chances of being more than a legacy act were about to get much more difficult as she tried to keep up with her younger peers.
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