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The Quicker Than Ray of Light Era


groovyguy
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Other Timelines:

The Pre- Madonna Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11688-the-pre-madonna-era/?p=542015

The First Album Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11796-the-madonna-first-album-era/?p=547412

The Like a Virgin Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12035-the-like-a-virgin-era/?p=557045

The True Blue Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12055-the-true-blue-era/?p=557777

The Who’s That Girl/You Can Dance Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12085-the-whos-that-girlyou-can-dance-era/?p=558619

The Like a Prayer Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12134-the-like-a-prayer-era/?p=560321

The Immaculate Breathless Blond Ambition Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12230-the-immaculate-breathless-blond-ambition-era/?p=562946

The Erotic Body of Girlie Sex Show Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570519

The Let’s Get Unconscious Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/

The You Must Remember to Love Her Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14891-the-you-must-remember-to-love-her-era/

 

Sources: 

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1997.html

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1998.html

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1999.html

todayinmadonnahistory.com

allaboutmadonna.com

Genesis Timeline by Nightshade [mostly on 1997 timeline]

todayinmadonnahistory.com

http://madonnaunderground.com

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATIONS by Bruce Baron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_of_Light

 

Overview / Background: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653632

Legacy: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653633

 

Timeline:

1997 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653634

Jan- March 1998  http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653635

Apr- June 1998 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653637

July- Sept 1998 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653638

Oct-Dec 1998 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653639

Jan-June 1999 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653641

July-Dec 1999 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653642

Unreleased: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14900-the-quicker-than-ray-of-light-era/&do=findComment&comment=653643

ROL Press:   http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/ray-of-light-promo-tour/

 

ROL Memorabilia:  http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/ray-of-light-promo-tour/

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Overview

·         Ray of Light was named Madonna’s ‘comeback record’ by critics

·         The recording took place over four months 

·         Madonna’s first real promotional appearance was at Roxy in NY. She opened her set after midnight with Sky Fits Heaven, Ray of Light and Shanti. According to the people attending the cheers were so loud that Madonna couldn’t be heard

·         Madonna was the big winner at the VMA’s, taking home a total of six! She performed Shanti and Ray of Light live

·         Madonna’s first European performance of Frozen was at the National Lottery Draw in the UK

·         She was a guest at Wetten Dass, after singing Frozen she was interviewed on the couch by Thomas

·         She continued her Ray of Light promo tour promoting new singles Drowned World and Power of Goodbye

·         Madonna performed Power of Goodbye at TOTP in London

·         At the European MTV Awards in Milan she sang Power of Goodbye and won 2 awards

·         She opened the Grammy Awards singing Nothing Really Matters and took home three wins

·         In Holland the Surprise Show also promoted The Power Of Good-bye. They traveled to Austria for the Wetten Dass show where Madonna was scheduled to perform. A Dutch fan calling herself The Dutch Madonna got to meet Madonna backstage

·         Ray Of Light was a massive success worldwide and named her ‘comeback’ album

·         Madonna was a guest at Oprah Winfrey’s show again, this time she performed Little Star and Ray Of Light. She also sat down for an interview with Oprah

·         Little Star was only ever released as a promotional CD Single in the U.K.

·         Madonna mostly worked on this record with William Orbit, getting her to change her musical direction for this record

·         SKIN’s original title was ‘Flirtation Dance’ as seen in the MTV Special ‘Ultrasound’

·         Madonna recorded a special with Rupert Everett called ‘Madonna Rising’ where they got to visit her old neighborhood in NYC

·         The song ‘Has To Be’ was added as a bonus to the Japanese version of Ray Of Light and later as a B-side to ‘Ray Of Light’

·         Unreleased track ‘Liquid Love’ later surfaced

·         There is an early version of the ‘Ray Of Light’ video with different footage before Madonna was added to it

 

Background

Following the release of her compilation album Something to Remember (1995), Madonna started taking vocal lessons in preparation for her role in Evita (1996). She also gave birth to her daughter, Lourdes in the same year. These events inspired a period of introspection. "That was a big catalyst for me. It took me on a search for answers to questions I'd never asked myself before," she said to Q magazine, in 2002. During the same period, she embraced Kabbalah and started studying Hinduism and yoga, all of which helped her "step outside [myself] and see the world from a different perspective. Madonna felt that there was a "whole piece" of her voice left unused, which she decided to utilize for the album. By May 1997, Madonna had started writing songs for the album. She began collaborating with Babyface, who had first worked with her on her previous album Bedtime Stories (1994). The two wrote a couple of songs together before Madonna decided the collaborations were not going in the musical direction she wanted for the album. According to Babyface, the songs "had a 'Take a Bow-ish' kind of vibe, and Madonna didn't want, or need, to repeat herself."

After abandoning the songs she had written with Babyface, Madonna turned to musician Rick Nowels. The collaboration produced seven songs in nine days, but those songs also did not display the album's future electronic musical direction. Three of the songs, "The Power of Good-Bye", "To Have and Not to Hold" and "Little Star", appear on the album. Madonna then began writing songs with Leonard, who had produced many songs for Madonna in the late 1980s. Unlike her previous albums, Leonard's song writing collaborations were accompanied by very little studio input. Madonna believed that Leonard's production "would have lent the songs more of a Peter Gabriel vibe", a sound that she did not want for the album. Guy Oseary, chairman of Maverick Records, then phoned British electronic musician William Orbit, and suggested that he send some songs to Madonna. Orbit sent a 13-track digital audio tape to Madonna. "I was a huge fan of William's earlier records, Strange Cargo 1 and 2 and all that. I also loved all the remixes he did for me and I was interested in fusing a kind of futuristic sound but also using lots of Indian and Moroccan influences and things like that, and I wanted it to sound old and new at the same time," Madonna said.

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Legacy

Ray of Light has been credited for bringing electronica music into global pop culture.

The Los Angeles Times noted that "aside from occasional breakthroughs such as Fatboy Slim, electronica wasn't totally mainstream fare when Madonna released Ray of Light."

Until the album brought the genre to the top of music charts, according to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, "techno and electronica had, for years, been the music played at so-called raves, hugely popular, illegal underground parties taking place in abandoned warehouse and deserted areas on the outskirts of town all around the world."

AllMusic editor Liana Jonas stated that the album's title track has "brought mainstream attention to electronica music, which ascended from its underground status to wild popularity in the early 21st century.” The Observer's writer Daryl Deino called Ray of Light "a risk-taking album that helped define mainstream electronic dance music."

Elliott H. Powell in an American Studies for New York University observed that Ray of Light made South Asian culture accessible to the American public in the 1990s. 

Rhonda Hammer and Douglas Kellner in their book Media/cultural Studies: Critical Approaches recalled that "the phenomenon of South Asian-inspired femininity as a Western media trend can be traced to February 1998, when pop icon Madonna released her video "Frozen"." They explained that "although Madonna did not initiate the fashion for Indian beauty accessories [...] she did propel it into the public eye by attracting the attention of the worldwide media."

Larry Flick from Billboard said that the album "not only provided the chameleon-like artist with her first universally applauded critical success, it has also proved that she remains a vital figure amongst woefully fickle young audiences." 

Music critic Lucy O'Brien commented: "1998's Ray of Light certainly rehabilitated Madonna's image. Up to that point she had still been written off as an average pop glamour girl who got lucky, but with this record she reached a whole new audience, proving that she was a good songwriter with an intensely productive talent."

Mary von Aue from Stereogum stated that "Ray of Light reestablished Madonna as a groundbreaking artist."

Due to its impact on popular music, Ray of Light has been featured on numerous critics' lists of greatest albums of all time. 

Rolling Stone magazine placed the album at number 367 on the list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". 

In 2001, a quarter of a million music fans on VH1 voted Ray of Light as the 10th of "100 Best Albums of All Time". 

In 2003, Ray of Light was allocated at number 17 on Q magazine readers' list of "100 Greatest Albums Ever". 

The album is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Mojo magazine also listed Ray of Light at number 29 on "100 Modern Classics: The Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime". 

In 2013, the album was also included at number 241 on NME magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

British singer Adele named Ray of Light as "one of the chief inspirations" for her third studio album, 25 (2015). 

Madonna herself considered Ray of Light the most fulfilling evolution of her career.

Edited by RUADJAI
Recolored text for legibility (see edit history)
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1996:

August 3, 1996: Madonna has approached DJ Robert Miles – a trance/progressive house composer from Switzerland who lives in Italy - about working on her next LP (due next year) after she heard his worldwide No. 1 hit, “Children.” She is apparently eager to experiment with “dream” and “trance” music on her new album. (MLVC Mailing List rumor)

Also of note in 1996 - Christine Leach records "Sepheryn" to backing music made by William Orbit one night while they were working together. That recording is among the first he sends to Madonna in the Spring of 1997. - from Q Magazine (August 2002) The Making of Ray of Light

Madonna Interview : Q Magazine (August 2002)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-q-magazine-august-2002

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/2002-madonna-q.jpg

 

1997

January 1997: In a radio interview with WKTU in NYC, Madonna says she and Babyface start writing next month for her next album.

February 26: Rick Nowels meets Madonna in a random encounter at Barney’s in NYC today. Later, they will have a meeting and end up writing 9 songs together – 3 of which will make the album.

March 1997: "Guy [Oseary] rang and suggested I send some tapes to her [Madonna]. I didn't take it very seriously, so I didn't send anything. Then he rang again, so I sent a DAT with 13 tracks on it. (William Orbit from Q Magazine - August 2002 - The Making of Ray of Light)

In an interview that will be published in November 1997, Italian dreamhouse DJ, Robert Miles talks about his new album, 23a.m. and how it started to take shape this month (March 1997) with a song he wrote for Madonna called, “Enjoy.” Scheduling problems prevented them from recording it together so he hired another singer to do it for his album.

March 17: Madonna is currently working with Pat Leonard and Babyface on her new album, which she will record in the spring. (ICON Newsletter)

March 20: Madonna is working on a new album, collaborating once again with the heavily-booked producer Babyface. However, whether or not she's reaching out to Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor to produce a track for her, a hot Internet rumor at the moment, remains to be seen. (MTV News)

April 11: Madonna has just arrived in London for a two-week stay. The UK papers say she will be recording her new album there with Nellee Hooper.

April 18: MTV News’ Kurt Loder says: Madonna is in London laying down tracks with producer Nellee Hooper (from the Bedtime Stories album) and will soon return to L.A. to record with Babyface.

Apri: In a March 1998 interview with MuchMusic, Madonna said she did approach Tricky to work with her but his management said he was busy finishing his own album. She also said she contacted Goldie and he initially agreed so she sent some demos and he “fell in love” with “To Have and Not to Hold” but never called her back after that. “I tried to get him to work on one of the tracks from Ray of Light. Nellee Hooper played a bunch of early demos for him and he fell in love with 'To Have And Not To Hold'. We sent him the master tapes and he said he wanted to work on it by himself, and then we never heard from him. Oh well, I guess he was busy."

May (early): "Five days later, sitting in my garden, I got a call from Madonna. She said she was working on my tracks and would I like to come out and meet up with her. They sent me a plane ticket and off I went." (William Orbit from Q Magazine - August 2002 - The Making of Ray of Light)

Additional notes collected:

LATER: After receiving the initial phone call from Madonna and when meeting her in person, Ørbit gives her a tape of five instrumental tracks. One becomes “Swim” – which was among the first of their collaberations. Orbit says once they completed this track, they both knew they were “onto something special” as it gave him shivers. “Frozen” was originally over 10 minutes long, and Madonna says it was “heart-breaking” cutting down to a manageable length.

From a Dotmusic Interview with W. Orbit:

“Power Of Goodbye” - Another of the songs for Madonna fans (this time one of Nowels'), it is all keyboard and drums and circus-like swirls and stands out for its all-knowing lyrics.

WO: "This track took a long time. I really did struggle. This was the midnight of the tracks. There was a

point on the album when I thought I was going to give it up. But like Robert the Bruce and the spider in the cave, I kept cracking away on it and then we were flying."

“To Have And Not To Hold” - A delicate chant-like track in which Madonna's voice weaves through the melody.

WO: "It was pretty straightforward, the sound just fell into place. Rico Conning put bells on and a great

descending bell-line and I totally neglected him in the credits."

“Little Star” - A lullaby-like track not least for its lyrics, which show Madonna's daughter Lourdes as being the most important thing in her life. The most ambient track which has restrained beats and complex effects held back by sweeping strings.

WO: "I had nothing to do with this track, apart from being around when it was done. Marius came in and went down the

corridor to come up with that. I walked by, loved it and gave them the thumbs up."

“Mer Girl” - From its landscape and the emotional resonances, this is a powerful ending to the album.

WO: "I'm very proud of this one. I set out to do something complex and I felt like I'd pulled it off. It has a lot more structure than it would first appear. She sang it so incredibly beautifully - in one take - early in the project. It's just a moment in time I'll cherish. Most people don't get that far on an album."

May 23: From Liz Smith's column: WHAT'S NEW on the Madonna front? The once-outrageous star is busy communing with the muse. In other words, songwriting for her next album. She will collaborate on a few tunes with Kenneth (Babyface) Edmonds. The last time Madonna and "Face" pooled their resources, it resulted in the zillion-seller, "Take a Bow."

Early June 1997: "It was a day of sun and showers, and I remember I got drenched just as I arrived at her apartment block. Her living-room hi-fi wasn't working, so we adjourned to her gymnasium with another hi-fi. She played me the stuff she'd written with Babyface and Pat Leonard, and I'm sitting thinking, "These tracks sound very slick. What can I contribute?"

We spent the next week at the Hit Factory getting my backing tracks up in stereo, and she sang what she'd worked out, and it was clear that something was happening. At the end of that week, she said, "Would you work on my record?" and I said. I'd love to."

(William Orbit from Q Magazine - August 2002 - The Making of Ray of Light)

June 15-22: Per a rumored letter between Madonna and Pat Leonard, Madonna is in Michigan around this time visiting her father. In the letter (if it is true), Madonna informs Pat that she wants William Orbit to be the primary producer of the album. (mid-to-late June): Work begins at Larrabee North Studio, Universal City, LA.

William Orbit:

"The first day, I was in paralysis because I was used to going off and being left to get on with it, but she said, "I'm not the kind of girl that leaves the guy to get on with it. Get used to it." It took me a while to get used to someone looking over my shoulder.

Larrabee was a real state-of-the-art studio. I'd never even worked on an automated desk before. It wasn't so much a learning curve as a learning cliff. I realised right away that my equipment was really superannuated, like my old Atari 1040, held together with gaffer tape. It caught fire twice on the sessions.

One minor hazard was that Lola (Lourdes) would come in every day and, like any toddler, she'd make a beeline for the knobs and buttons. We'd look away and the whole sound had changed. We had to keep an eye on her.

There weren't a lot cf musicians around. Mostly it was just me, Madonna, Pat McCarthy, who was a briliant engineer, and a tape-op called Matt. On Ray Of Light every guitar you hear is me. On a lot of tracks I did everything. Most of the tracks pre-existed, so Madonna would work on vocals and lyrics at home, or driving around in her car. It's Important to point out that I wasn't the only producer working on the LP. Patrick Leonard did some great work...

Madonna: As a classically trained musician, Patrick brought a whole other element to the mix, particularly his string arrangements...

William Orbit: About a third of the way through, I thought I was going to get fired. Madonna was used to working with super-slick producers, whereas I'm very lateral which she saw as being disorganised. I went to her house to playback “Power Of Goodbye”. We'd taken the wrong DAT with us and she was not amused. I ended up saying "Gimme a week and I'll turn this one round".

I virtually lived in the studio for that week, and from then on, it was great. She became confident that I knew what I was doing. – From Q Magazine (August 2002) The Making of Ray of Light

July 8: Freddy DeMann told WEA Italian executives that Madonna is recording her new album right now from songs she wrote this past spring. The recording will be finished in September but he said she wants to have plenty of time to promote it, so it is unlikely it will be released until early 1998. (MLVC Mailing List)

July 15: Madonna recorded the vocals for “Swim” today. Orbit later claims the vocals have “emotional resonance” to them because of how the death of Gianni Versace (murdered today) affected her - as she got the call about the designer just before she started recording the vocal in the studio. From Q Magazine (August 2002) The Making of Ray of Light

July 31: Madonna reportedly asked Liam Howlett of The Prodigy to produce the album with her but he declined saying to do so would be like “selling my soul to the Devil.” (MTV News, I think)

August 15: Madonna spent the spring and most of June writing material. On June 30 she went into the studio to record material with William Ørbit. On July 7 she was supposed to start recording with Nellee Hooper but the two had a falling out. Hooper is reportedly very upset. (I have no idea where I got this info - possibly a rumor ffrom the MLVC board)

August 25: A representative at Chrysalis Records reports that Susannah Melvoin (former Prince flame and half of the Paisley Park duo Wendy & Lisa) says that Susannah just completed a song ["Candy Perfume Girl"] with William Ørbit for Madonna’s next album. Susannah also just got married and will be taking a few weeks off now before re-entering the studio with Lisa again. (MLVC Mailing List)

August 26: Red-hot British producer Nellee Hooper, who has produced records for Soul II Soul, Massive Attack, U2, and Bjork, has refused to work with Madonna. Madonna and Hooper had originally agreed to record in London, so Hooper booked studio time along with some of London's top musicians. But when Madonna met with him in Los Angeles to discuss plans, one of the details was a switch of locale from London to L.A. Nellee agreed, on the condition that Madonna pay for the cost of canceling the London sessions. She refused. So he refused to do her album, or ever work with her again. Of the Hooper situation, Madonna's manager Caresse Norman says, "The stars weren't properly aligned."

[NOTE by Nightshade]: I know somewhere there is a print interview with Madonna where she says that she took her demos to Nellee Hooper in London and he "wanted to change the music" and get a writing credit, and that angered her so she took him off the project. However, considering she allowed William Orbit to write and change music from the demos - most notably, "Drowned World" which was her and Leonard's "Substitute for Love" - I am not sure who to believe.

Mid-September: In an interview for the 30th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone (which hits stands next month with M, Tina Turner and Courtney Love on the cover) she says Lourdes is always in the recording studio with her now. She also says she has a month to go on the recording process and that it is likely she will tour next summer (1998) to support the album. (Rolling Stone 11/13/1997)

During the photoshoot for the Rolling Stone cover, she is (reportedly) constantly playing a remix of Tricky's "Makes Me Wanna Die" (remixed by the Stereo MC's) - this will lead her to having them [stereo MC's] remix her lead track, "Frozen."

October 2: A Turkish magazine leaks 3 song titles: "Substitute for Love," "Sky Fits Heaven" and "Candy Perfume Girl." (as reported by the MLVC Mailing List)

October 3: Today, MTV films the ULTRASOUND episode of Madonna in the recording studio.

October 9: Donatella Versace unveiled the new Versace spring-summer collection in Milan, Italy. Madonna was unable to attend so instead she contributed the catwalk music. The song she supplied is from her forth-coming album. It was called “Candy Perfume Girl” and is described as “very Prodigy” – quite hard edged. (MLVC Mailing List)

October 12: BET reports Babyface has done a few tracks for the album but didn’t know if they would all be included. One is funky, one is a full-on jam (like TLC’s “Creep”) and one will be a smooth, beautiful ballad. They also mentioned that last time the two worked together, one cut didn’t make the Bedtime Stories album.

October 18: The lyrics to "Little Star" leak online. Two more track names are also leaked: "Ray of Light" and "Skin." Also, Marius de Vries is mentioned as a producer. (MLVC Mailing List)

October 29: According to her website, Madonna has decided on a name for the album and she has renamed the song “Substitute for Love” – “Drowned World.” The first single is due in February. As of today, she is still in the studio doing mastering for the album.

According to spokesperson Liz Rosenberg, Madonna considered titling the album Mantra, which she thought was a "really cool title". However, she changed the title to Ray of Light, as her albums were always titled after one of the songs from that album. ~ "Newsbytes". Icon7 (2): 15. 1997

November 18: Madonna has brought on some new management. Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch (of Q Prime Management) will co-manage Madonna along with current manager Caresse Norman. Their first priority will be the new album in March of 1998. Burnstein says the new album is “groundbreaking” and “It’s unlike anything else heard on the radio.”

November 20: This week Madonna invited top WB execs to a listening party for her new album. The party was held in a London recording studio she had decked out in Moroccan décor. WB president Phil Quartararo and the heads of the international labels were pleased with what they heard. The album is a dance disc that gets back to her original audience while mining the latest trip-hop and drum-and-bass grooves…courtesy William Orbit. One insider said: “It’s very ‘druggie’ sounding.”

November 21: Madonna christens the album RAY OF LIGHT. Madonna changed the title five times before deciding on this name. Previous names included: Mantra, Drowned World, Heartbreaking, and Electronica.

November 26: Madonna previews 5 tracks from the record at LIQUID (club) in Miami. While in Miami this weekend, she shoots the album cover with Mario Testino.

December 2: Marius de Vries tells an informant he worked on 3 cuts on the album, including Madonna’s drum-and-bass lullabye to Lourdes, “Little Star.” (MLVC Mailing List)

According to reports from Warner Europe, the first single will be called “Frozen” (produced by Madonna and William Orbit). It will be released to European radio January 23, 1998.

December 15: Chris Cunningham will direct the video for “Frozen,” a slow and spacey song according to an insider. Black Dog is the production company and the video will be shot January 5-12 in a location outside L.A. The casting calls for two body doubles and reports that one may “hang from a rig” while being scantily clad.

December 25: Madonna calls Victor Calderone today to inform him his up-tempo tribal remix of “Frozen” will be chosen for the maxi-single. (from an interview with Victor Calderone)

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Jan- March 1998

January 1: “Frozen” was played on New Year’s Eve at Twilo, the new NYC dance club opened by Junior Vasquez.

January 2: Lyrics to “Drowned World,” “Ray of Light,” “Frozen” and “Nothing Really Matters” hit the Internet.

January 4: A press release says there are two new song titles: “Swim” and “Mer Girl”

January 6: At the 2nd anniversary of Liquid (in Miami, November 1997), Madonna met Victor Calderone. Victor was DJ-ing that night and he hit it off so well with Madonna that he’s remixing 3 songs for her.

January 7-10: “Frozen” – Madonna shoots the video for this mystical clip in the Cuddeback Dry Lake Bed in the Indian Wells Valley region of Ridgecrest, CA in the Mojave Desert with Chris Cunningham. She chose him based on his disturbing video for “Come to Daddy” by the Aphex Twin. Black Dog Films produced. The production put $120,000 into the local economy. Jean Paul Gaultier designed the costumes.

Cunningham recalled the initial concept for the video in his book, Directors Label: “The original treatment was, like, massive piles of bodies in the desert. All these figurative sculptures made up of bodies that were all multiple Madonnas. They were all going to split and break up and change into ravens and then change into dogs. Just a performance video, but a really elaborate one using her, her clothes, and any shapes that would come out of her clothes.”

January 8: Madonna plans to work with Jonas Akerlund (director of Prodigy’s notorious “Smack My Bitch Up” video) on a video from the upcoming album. She is also planning a large-scale tour for summer 1998.

January 9: WB is planning a massive long-term promotional campaign for the album. Madonna will provide heavy participation. Music and fashion magazine spreads, talkshows, and performances of the album material are planned.

January 10: The song, “Shanti,” is taken from Sanskrit vocabulary. The word means “peace” and is frequently used in yoga. It’s repeated at the end of a meditation…like ‘amen.’ It is often used in conjunction with ‘Om’ which means “God.” It is most closely tied with Tantra, a branch of Hinduism that considers sexual ecstasy a sacrament. Such words are also used in Hindu ‘mantras’ which can act as spells for good or evil.

January 12: A rumor says Madonna was recently in the Mojave Desert filming her new video in a black gown and wig. She reportedly had “henna” (Islamic hand tattoos) painted on her hands.

January 13: The video for “Frozen” will reportedly feature a number of “trippy special effects.” Chris Cunningham, who has worked with Aphex Twin, is directing it outside of Palmdale, CA.

“Frozen” remixers: Victor Calderone, Junior Vasquez, and Stereo MC’s.

January 13: Madonna is #3 on Mr. Blackwell's 38th annual list of the worst-dressed women of 1997.
January 18: Madonna presents the award for Best Actor In A Motion Picture, Musical Or Comedy to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets at the 55th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA. She debuts her new self-proclaimed “Renaissance pre-Rafaelite” look with ratted, stawberry-blond hair and gothic dress.

January 19: SPIN magazine has a listening party for the album. Most of the listeners trash the new material.

January 20: The album cover debuts online with Madonna in her pre-Rafaelite hair, a blue dress and a logo for the album:

MTV announces it will air a special on the album with its new weekly series MTV Ultrasound, which will show the recording process of future hit albums. The Madonna episode (which will reportedly feature Lourdes) airs March 1.

January 21: A maxi-single for “Frozen,” with remixes by Victor Calderone will be released on March 17.

A revised album track listing is released which has “To Have and Not to Hold” instead of “Has To Be.”

January 23: The cover of the “Frozen” single is released. The B-side will be “Shanti/Ashtangi”:

January 24: The Japanese release of the LP will have a bonus track – “Has to Be”

WB reps say there will be a special edition of the album released that will have special artwork and retail for $30.00.

Madonna is talking about releasing a remix album of this LP’s material.

Madonna will perform several songs from the album on Valentine’s Day (2-14-98) at the Roxy in NYC.

January 25: “Frozen” is released to European radio stations this week.

January 26: The second single will be the title track which they are hoping will be the dance song of the summer.

Insiders say Madonna had originally planned to work on 2 cuts of the album with William Orbit, but their pairing worked so well, he ended up producing and writing a majority of the record. They recorded over the summer at Larrabe Studios in Universal City, California and Pat McCarthy engineered the sound.

Suzanne Melvoin (sister of Johnathan Melvoin – the Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist who OD’ed and died on tour) co-wrote “Candy Perfume Girl” while “Shanti/Ashtangi” had lyrics taken from ancient Sanskrit texts.

January 26: Madonna was interviewed by Ian “Molly” Meldrum in Los Angeles, California as part of the promotional campaign for her upcoming album, Ray Of Light.

The interview aired in early March as an Australian television special sponsored by Warner Music Australia.

Full video @ https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/2016/01/26/today-in-madonna-history-january-26-1998/

January 26: Madonna interviewed by Xuxa for Brazilian TV Show "Planeta Xuxa"

https://vimeo.com/88193928#at=1

January 27: Madonna gives a press conference in Beverly Hills, CA to promote the upcoming album.

January 27: Madonna on MTV Japan - Madonna interviewed for MTV Japan

https://vimeo.com/88193265#at=0

January 30: In an interview, Madonna says a remix album, Veronica Electronica, will be released later this year. She also reveals that the song “Mer Girl” is about death, was one of the first tracks recorded for the album and was done in one vocal take. She also knew that it would be the last song on the album. Her favorite track is “Drowned World.”

January 31: WB Records has joined forces with the RIAA to combat illegal leaking of the album and the single “Frozen” via the Internet. A number of fan sites have been streaming audio of the new song, pre-empting radio ad dates all over the world.

She also plans a “club date” tour soon.

February 2: The April issue of Spin magazine with Madonna featured on the cover hit stands across North America.

From the issue:

Thirty-nine-year-old Madonna Louise Ciccone could easily have hacked out an album of Babs-and-Celine-style schmaltz and laughed all the way to the ashram. Instead, says Barry Walters, she delivered Ray Of Light, the riskiest, most revealing record of her career. Photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

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February 3: In an interview with an Australian radio station to promote the album, Madonna says she’s been listening to a lot of Tricky – the Stereo MC’s remix of “She Makes Me Wanna Die” – and Aphex Twin. She also currently likes Portishead and Massive Attack.

Madonna will launch a promotional tour for the album.

Timeline:

• 2/17/98-3/3/98 Promo-tour in Europe

• 2/19/98: “Frozen” goes to radio.

• 3/3/98 Ray of Light and “Frozen” released for sale (U.S.)

• 3/6/98 Madonna visits Canada to promote the album.

• 3/13/98 Madonna will perform “Frozen” on Rosie O’Donnell

• 3/17/98 “Frozen” maxisingle released. (U.S.)

On “Shanti/Ashtangi” Madonna sings in Sanskrit. The first line translates as: “I worship the guru’s lotus feet.”

Madonna is still taking singing lessons.

Tommy Mottola (CEO of Sony Music) predicts “Frozen” will be “nothing less than a smash hit!”

Madonna and William Orbit only wrote 5 of the songs together. Among them, “Swim,” a guitar-driven electrofunk odyssey; and “Ray of Light” which originally ended up being 10 minutes long! The full version may surface on her upcoming remix album: Veronica Electronica.

The album is generating RAVE reviews.

U.S.A. Today gave “Frozen” 4 out of 4 stars in a review.

February 10: Madonna appeared on the March cover of Vanity Fair, with incredible photos by Mario Testino.

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February 14: Madonna performs a surprise mini-concert at 2:00 am to a sold-out crowd of 2,500 at The Roxy Club, New York, NY to promote her new CD Ray Of Light - it is her first club performance in 14 years. She performed a three-song mini-set. The exclusive event marked Madonna’s first club show in fourteen years and featured performances of Sky Fits Heaven, Shanti/Ashtangi and a ten-minute version of Ray Of Light.

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February 16: The video for “Frozen” premieres on MTV.

On February 16 1998, Madonna’s Frozen music video premiered on MTV. The video was delivered to select music video outlets (such as MTV and MuchMusic) in a block of dry ice.  Leading up to the video premiere, the VJs had to melt or chip away at the block to get to the video inside.

Select radio stations also received a promotional ice chest, which included a 3-track CD and a flyer promoting the lead single from Ray Of Light. The CD included the following tracks:

·         Frozen – Radio Edit

·         Frozen – Album Version

·         Frozen – Hook For Call Out Research

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/frozen-video-promo-1.jpg?w=550

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February 17: Madonna arrived in London, England to begin the European promotional tour for Ray of Light.

February 21: Madonna performed Frozen on BBC1-TV’s National Lottery Show in London, England.

National Lottery

https://youtu.be/Wr9bb3zmuII

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr9bb3zmuII
 

February 21: On February 21 1998, an article by Larry Flick focusing on the anticipation building around the release of Madonna’s album, Ray Of Light, was published in Billboard magazine. The feature included interviews with Madonna and William Orbit along with a teaser of the album cover.

NEW YORK – Is the world ready for a spiritually enlightened Madonna? The numerous pre-release radio and Internet leaks of “Frozen,” the lead single from the pop chameleon’s new Maverick/Warner Bros. album, “Ray Of Light,” certainly hint that she may be embarking on her most successful musical voyage to date.

With its worldwide release slated for March 3, the album is unarguably her most adventurous. She has teamed with techno pioneer William Orbit for a collection that sews intense, soul-searching words into edgy electronic/dance instrumentals. The result is a gave, visionary effort with the commercial potency needed to finally elevate electronica beyond its current status as a limited hipster movement into a true mass-appeal attraction.

“My intention was to make a record that I’d enjoy listening to,” Madonna says of her first studio set since 1994’s “Bedtime Stories,” which has sold 2 million units in the U.S., according to SoundScan. “This album is reflective of where I am in my life right now – in terms of my musical interests and in terms of my personal beliefs. I feel like I’ve been enlightened, and that it’s my responsibility to share what I’ve learned so far with the world.”

It appears much of the world is clamoring to hear the results. The Singapore Madonna Link, an unofficial, fan-operated World Wide Web site, began offering an unauthorized snippet of “Frozen” Jan. 23. The site has received more than 140,000 hits.

There have also been approximately a dozen leaks of “Frozen” on top 40 radio around the U.S. since Jan. 26. WKTU New York is among those stations that played “Frozen” to rabid listener response.

“The phones blew up,” says assistant PD/GM Andy Shane, adding that the station has continued sneaking the single on the air in advance of its official airplay date of Thursday (19). “For the days we haven’t had it on, people have been calling nonstop begging to hear it.”

Erik Bradley, music director at WBBM (B-96) Chicago, witnessed similar listener response when his station leaked “Frozen” Feb. 7. “People are going crazy for it,” he says. “It’s a compelling record that you can’t shake from your mind after you hear it. That’s the mark of a smash. Clearly, American pop radio needs Madonna.”

So does the rest of the world, apparently. “Frozen” has had “fantastic” early support across Europe, according to Jon Uren, marketing director, U.S. labels, for Warner Music Europe. The single has been A-listed at BBC Radio 1 in the U.K. and hit the airplay charts in France, the Netherlands, and Germany in its first week after a Jan. 23 release.

The project’s retail forecast is equally bright, with Jonathan Rees, head of rock and pop for the HMV chain in the U.K., describing its prospects as `very positive.”

Tim Devin, GM of Tower Records in New York, wholeheartedly agrees. “Quite frankly, I can’t wait for it. The anticipation surrounding this album is amazing. The industry needs an exciting, mega-star release, and this will fill that important void.”

That’s precisely how Phil Quartararo, president of Warner Bros. (U.S.), views “Ray Of Light.” “What Madonna does that’s so admirable is that she always manages to land on the cusp of what we call contemporary music,” he says. “In 1998, every established artist faces the dilemma of maintaining their importance and relevance. Madonna never fails to be relevant.”

The creative seeds for “Ray Of Light” were planted last year, when Madonna phoned Orbit and asked if he was interested in co- writing a few songs. “I’ve been a fan of all kinds of electronic music for many years, and I wanted to incorporate that sound into my music,” she says, adding that her admiration for Orbit’s catalog of recordings put him at the top of her wish list of collaborators. “I love the haunting, trance-like quality of his records. I’ve also always found something melancholy about his music. Since I’m attracted to that sound, and since I tend to write a lot of sad songs, we seemed like a good match.”

Upon introduction, Orbit handed Madonna a tape of five instrumental tracks. “It basically was a sketchbook of fantastic ideas,” she says. “Every track was so inspiring. I took them and gave them structure.”

Among the first songs to evolve from that tape was “Swim,” a guitar-driven electro-funk odyssey on which Madonna meditates on the perils of bad karma and its ongoing effect on the world at large. “It gave me shivers the first time I heard it,” Orbit says. “We both knew we were onto something special.”

From there, the two decided to guide the overall production of “Ray Of Light” together. In addition to the five songs she wrote with Orbit, Madonna collaborated with veteran pop tunesmith Rick Nowels, Nellee Hooper protégé Marius De Vries, and Patrick Leonard, with whom she created such early hits as “Live To Tell” and “Open Your Heart.” Leonard co-wrote “Frozen.”

After locking themselves away in the studio for six months “like a pair of mad scientists,” as Orbit puts it, they emerged with a high- concept collection that combines cutting-edge underground club elements with pure pop melodies and a generous slathering of what they call “teenage-angst guitars.”

Fresh from the rigors of 1996’s “Evita” film and soundtrack, Madonna has also found comfortable new vocal ground between the theatrical demands of that project and the more casual vibe of her early recordings, showcasing a fluid, flexible range that’s executed to haunting effect. “Training my voice has opened me up immeasurably, and it’s allowed me to do things with my voice that I never thought were possible,” she says.

“I’m so proud of the way the album came out,” Madonna adds. “But for a moment after I first finished it, I cringed. I thought, `What have I done ?’ Emotionally and sonically, it went in such a different territory for me.”

Orbit is equally pleased with the set’s results, primarily because Madonna “wasn’t at all interested in compromising or watering down” the electronic textures of his productions. If anything, he says, she `insisted upon purity in the arrangements, which worked astonishingly well with her pop songs at the core.”

Of those songs, both are irreversibly stuck on the title cut – the likely single follow-up to “Frozen” – which is a euphoric, deliciously over-the-top anthem that builds from a percolating trance-disco groove into a collision course of futuristic keyboards and assaulting metal riffs. “It’s totally out of control,” she says, laughing. “The original version is well over 10 minutes long. It was completely indulgent, but I loved it. It was heartbreaking to cut it down to a manageable length.”

The sprawling, unedited version of “Ray Of Light” is already earmarked for inclusion on “Veronica Electronica,” a compilation of single remixes and album outtakes, due in the fall.

“Veronica Electronica” is also a potential stage persona that Madonna is toying with as she ponders hitting the road for her first concert trek since 1993’s Girlie tour. Unlike that eye-popping spectacle, she says she’d like to do something “totally scaled down” this time, with a set list culled exclusively from “Ray Of Light,” “Bedtime Stories,” and 1992’s “Erotica.” If she decides to tour, it won’t happen until late summer/early fall.

Until then, she’ll test live waters with several European TV performances, including a gig on the U.K.’s “National Lottery Live” show Saturday (21), as well as her first U.S. club date in more than 10 years. On Saturday (14), she’ll take the stage of New York’s Roxy nightclub for a performance of three tunes from the album.

On February 23 1998, Frozen was released by Maverick records as the lead single from Madonna’s seventh studio album, Ray of Light. The song was written by Madonna & Patrick Leonard and was produced by Madonna, Leonard & William Orbit.

Madonna has mentioned that she considers Frozen as part of a thematic trilogy with The Power Of Good-Bye and To Have And Not To Hold. In an interview with Barry Walters for Spin magazine, Madonna commented on the inspiration behind the song:

“I was so obsessed with the movie The Sheltering Sky and that whole Moroccan/orchestral/super-romantic/man-carrying-the-woman-he-loves-across-the-desert vibe. So I told [Patrick Leonard] that I wanted something with a tribal feel, something really lush and romantic. When he started playing some music, I just turned the DAT on and started free-associating and came up with the melody.”

Initially unsure of which song should be released as the album’s first single, Madonna was eventually convinced by Warner Bros. executives that Frozen would be a perfect way to bridge the Adult Contemporary leanings of her most recent hits (Take A Bow, You’ll See and the singles from Evita) with the more cutting-edge, electronic sounds of Ray Of Light.

February 24: Madonna performed Frozen for the very first time.  It was at the Sanremo Music Festival, in Sanremo, Italy, that she first promoted the song, and the forthcoming album, Ray of Light.

https://vimeo.com/202540923

February 25: Madonna interviewed by Belinda Washington for Tele 5

https://vimeo.com/89307816#at=0

February 27: Madonna performs "Frozen" and is interviewed on TF1's Les Années Tubes TV show in Paris, France.
February 28: Madonna performs "Frozen" on Wetten Dass TV show in Duisberg, Germany.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4gf7yw

 

March: Madonna Interview : Vanity Fair (March 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-vanity-fair-march-1998

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March: Madonna Interview : Q Magazine (March 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-q-magazine-march-1998

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March 1: Madonna Interview : Los Angeles Times (March 01 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-los-angeles-times-march-01-1998

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1998-madonna-los-angeles-times.jpg

 

March 1: On March 1 1998, Madonna’s Ray Of Light album was featured in an episode MTV’s Ultrasound. Kurt Loder visited Madonna in the studio during the recording of the Ray Of Light album in late 1997 for an exclusive chat and behind-the-scenes look into her recording process. He later joined her on the set of the Frozen video to conduct an additional interview for the episode. Madonna chatted about motherhood, her recent spiritual awakening, and the inspiration behind the album. Kurt also conducted interviews with collaborator William Ørbit, Guy Oseary and the director of the Frozen video, Chris Cunningham.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ODgYFJ_eDU

March 1: Inside Madonna TV special premieres on MTV.

March 1: On March 1 1998, the lead single from Madonna’s Ray of Light album, Frozen, debuted on the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Singles Chart at its peak of number five.  The next week Frozen fell to number nine, returning at its peak on March 15 1998, and stayed there for another three weeks.

Australia released Frozen with a unique picture CD (5-track).


March 2: Madonna completes her European promotional tour for Ray Of Light in Madrid, Spain.
March 3: Ray Of Light CD and "Frozen" single are released.

On March 3 1998, Madonna’s seventh studio album, Ray Of Light, was released in North America.

Spawning five singles and winning four Grammy awards, it garnered near-universal acclaim upon its release and it is often cited as a high watermark in Madonna’s career as a recording artist.

Ray Of Light was produced by Madonna & William Orbit with additional production by Patrick Leonard & Marius De Vries.

March 4:

On March 4 1998, Madonna’s Frozen debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.

The lead single from Ray of Light climbed to number two on April 4 1998, behind the K-Ci & JoJo song All My Life.  Frozen became the sixth single by Madonna to reach the top two position, surpassing Elvis Presley for the most number-two songs.

March 6: Madonna visits Toronto, ON, Canada to promote Ray Of Light: she attends a press conference at The Sutton Place Hotel and is interviewed live at 6:00 pm on MuchMusic TV.

On March 6 1998, Madonna spent the day in Toronto, Canada conducting a press conference and various print interviews to promote her new album, Ray Of Light, released earlier that week. She ended the day with a live, hour-long interview on Much Music hosted by VJ’s Master T (personally selected by Madonna herself after viewing reels of the station’s on-air personalities) and Geneviève Borne (a self-proclaimed Madonna fan and VJ from Much Music’s French-language sister station, Musique Plus).

The much-hyped event, which marked Madonna’s first and only visit to the Much Music studios, was prefaced by the Canadian music video channel’s second Madonnathon – a day of all-Madonna programming. The first, which featured her 1992 interview with Jonathan Ross and a then-recent press junket interview with The New Music’s Jana Lynne White (and all of her music videos), aired in January of 1993 at the height of the Sex/Erotica/Body Of Evidence backlash.

After the appearance was announced, fans seeking a limited hot spot inside the studio for the interview were asked to call in and were queried a series of Madonna-related trivia questions to prove their worthiness, while others who didn’t make it inside lined the streets of the Queen St W studios on the day of the event to welcome the Queen of Pop to Toronto.

Madonna promoting her "Ray of Light" album at the Press Conference at The Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto, Canada

https://vimeo.com/88193267

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EER6yeT-9Ho

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MLIM: Madonna Live in Much

March 6: Master T and Geneive Borne interviewed Madonna for MuchMusic's TV Special "MLIM: Madonna Live in Much"

https://vimeo.com/89377284#at=0

March 7: Madonna Interview : NME (March 07 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-nme-march-07-1998

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1998-madonna-nme.jpg

March 7: Frozen, the lead single from Madonna’s Ray Of Light album, entered the UK Singles Chart at #1. The massive hit single was later certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

March 7: Madonna’s Frozen climbed to #2 on the Billboard Eurochart (in its second week), behind Celine Dion’s #1 My Heart Will Go On.

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March 9: Frozen hit #1 on the Italian Singles Chart (FIMI). On the same date, the Ray Of Light album made its debut at #1 in Italy.

The single would top the Italian charts for four weeks while the album spent three weeks at #1.

March 10: "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" wins Favorite Song From A Movie (Evita) at the 4th annual Blockbuster Entertainment Awards at the Pantages Theatre, Los Angeles, CA.
March 13: Madonna guests and performs "Frozen" on NBC-TV's The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8D0TYI5aLs
March 15: Madonna attends the New York premiere of film Wide Awake (starring Rosie O'Donnell) at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

March 17: The maxi-single for Madonna’s Frozen single was released in North America.

The maxi-single included:

·         Album Version

·         Stereo MC’s Remix

·         Extended Club Mix

·         Meltdown Mix


March 20: Madonna Interview : Boston Globe (March 20 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-boston-globe-march-20-1998

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1998-madonna-boston-globe.jpg

March 21: Ray Of Light hits US #2.

In the United States, Ray of Light debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 albums chart on the issue dated March 21, 1998. It set the record for biggest first-week sales by a female artist in Nielsen SoundScan era at that time with 371,000 copies sold. However, the album was not able to top the soundtrack album of the motion picture Titanic, becoming Madonna's fifth album to peak at the runner-up position. During the second week, the album sold 225,000 copies and was still kept off the top spot by the soundtrack. On March 16, 2000, the album was certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of four million units of the album. Madonna became the first female artist to have seven multi-platinum studio albums by RIAA. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Ray of Lighthad sold 3.891 million copies in the United States as of December 2016. This figure does not include units sold through clubs like the BMG Music, where the album sold over 459,000 copies. 

In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart with first week sales of 59,900 copies. It was later certified seven times platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for shipment of 700,000 copies. The album also achieved commercial success in Oceania, debuting at number one on the albums chart in Australia and New Zealand. It was certified triple platinum by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and platinum by Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for shipments of 210,000 and 15,000 copies respectively.

In the United Kingdom, Ray of Light debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, remaining at the top spot for two weeks. It was certified six times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipment of 1.8 million copies. In France, the album entered the albums chart at number two, staying there for seven weeks before descending the chart. It was certified three times platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for shipments of 900,000 copies. Actual sales of the album in France stand at 925,400 copies. In Germany, the album reached number one on the Media Control Charts and remained there for seven weeks. It remains Madonna's best-selling album in Germany with three times platinum certification from Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) for shipment of 1.5 million copies. Due to its commercial success in European countries, the album ultimately topped the European Top 100 Albums chart and was certified seven times platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for sales of seven million copies, becoming the third best selling albums in Europe for the 1998-2007 period. Ray of Light achieved similar success in the rest of world, topping the official charts of Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Norway, Singapore, Spain and Switzerland. It was the best-selling album from Warner Music company in the Asia-Pacific region during the 1998. In total, Ray of Light has sold over 16 million copies worldwide.

March 23: Madonna presents the Oscar for Best Original Song to James Horner and Will Jennings for "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic at the 70th annual Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA.

Buoyed by the success of her new album, Ray Of Light, it was all about the music for Madonna on the red carpet as well, as she chatted and posed for photographs with an impressive assortment of musical divas: Fiona Apple, Cher, k.d. lang & Joni Mitchell.

Prior to her shared Rolling Stone cover with Courtney Love & Tina Turner the previous year, Madonna had – at least publicly – tended to shy away from aligning herself too closely with other musicians – particularly other women in the industry. Be it a result of a renewed sense of spirituality, motherhood, maturity, or simply shrewd self-marketing (perhaps all the above?), one thing is clear: Madonna’s newfound camaraderie and supportive attitude towards her peers felt refreshing and inspiring!

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March 24: Evita is released on DVD.
March 25: Madonna begins filming "Ray Of Light" video in Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY, directed by Jonas Akerlund.

March: Madonna interviewed on the set of her "Ray of Light" video for Swedish STV 1

https://vimeo.com/88572656#at=0
 

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Apr- June 1998

April: Madonna Interview : Elle (April 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-elle-april-1998

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April: Madonna Interview : Juice (April 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-juice-1998

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1998-madonna-juice.jpg

April: Madonna Interview : Spin (April 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-spin-april-1998

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April 1: Madonna attends the premiere of film Mercury Rising in Beverly Hills, CA.
April 4: Madonna presents the Kids' Choice Blimp Award for favorite movie to Titanic and introduces a live performance by Cleopatra at the 11th annual Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards at the UCLA Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA.

April 4: Madonna’s Frozen; the first single from the ROL album, hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.

April 6: An exclusive studio performance of Frozen was broadcast during the Hey! Music Awards II on Fuji-TV in Japan. Madonna was also honoured with an award during the ceremony, and offered the taped performance and acceptance speech in lieu of attendance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=2M4qCAfdQ54

April 11: Madonna appeared on the cover of TV Guide.

In the issue, Madonna explains the relationship she had with Lourdes’ father, Carlos Leon:

I was in love with him. A lot of people think I walked out on the street and looked at him and said, `You’re going to be my sperm donor. I had a relationship with him. I still have a relationship with him. We are really good friends. . . . the last thing I want my daughter to do is grow up without a father. I grew up without a parent.”

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April 12: Madonna Rising TV special premieres on VH1.

Produced as part of the promotional activities for the Ray Of Light album, the special featured Madonna reminiscing about her formative years in New York with pal Rupert Everett as they visited some of her pre-fame dwellings and hang-outs. Interview segments with Nile Rodgers, Debi Mazar, Seymour Stein, Maripol and others were also included for good measure.

https://vimeo.com/90392352#at=35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbmFqfwf9c0

April 22: Madonna attends the New York premiere party of film Two Girls And A Guy at the club Moomba. Ray Of Light is certified 2x platinum (2 million units).

For the weeks of April 25, and May 2, 1998, Madonna’s Frozen was the #1 dance single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.

April 27: Madonna performs "Frozen" with the East Harlem Violin Project at the 9th annual Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, and also joins Elton John, Sting, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Herbie Hancock, Roberta Flack, Emmylou Harris and Joe Cocker in a rendition of The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "Twist & Shout".

Madonna made an unannounced appearance at the 9th annual Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, where she performed Frozen with the East Harlem Violin Project, while wearing a Versace dress.

Jon Pareles from The New York Times felt that during this performance Madonna had “turned herself into America’s answer to Björk”.

Later that night, she wore a cowboy hat and joined various artists in a rendition of The Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends and Twist & Shout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akZOZp6LavE

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April 28: Madonna attends the New York premiere of film Artemisia.
April 30: "Frozen" single is certified gold (500,000 units).

May 6: The single Ray of Light was released by Maverick Records. The title track from her seventh studio album was issued internationally as the album’s second single.

Ray Of Light is based on a track called Sepheryn by Curtiss Maldoon, and was included on their 1971 self-titled album. In 1996, Christine Leach, Maldoon’s niece, recorded her version of the track with William Orbit. Leach said she had always loved Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon’s work and noted that Sepheryn had a dream-like quality. Leach revised the chorus melody while Orbit provided new music for the song. After Madonna heard Leach’s version of the track, she immediately took to it and began reworking its lyrics.

Maldoon said he “couldn’t believe it” after he heard it, and was pleased with what Madonna had done with his original composition. Madonna said about the song: “It’s totally out of control. The original version is well over 10 minutes long. It was completely indulgent, but I loved it. It was heartbreaking to cut it down to a manageable length.”

Madonna’s original unedited version was set to be included on a remix album titled Veronica Electronica that was initially discussed as a follow-up to Ray Of Light, but plans for the collection apparently never made it past the drawing board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ5OtnBdcWw
May 8: Madonna is signed to co-star with Rupert Everett in Paramount Pictures film The Next Best Thing.

May 9: Ray of Light single debuted and peaked at #2 on the UK Singles Chart. It was held back from the top spot by another debut entry, All Saints’s double A-side charity single, Under the Bridge/Lady Marmalade.

Ray Of Light was the 68th best-selling song of 1998 in the UK, with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certifying it Silver for shipment of 200,000 copies.

May 12: "Ray Of Light" video premieres on MTV.

The video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund. Madonna’s scenes were shot in early April 1998 at MTV’s Times Square studios in New York and Los Angeles. The background images were shot in various cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, London, Las Vegas, and Stockholm.

The video was ranked No. 40 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Videos, listed No. 1 on Back In… 98’s Top 5 Best Videos, ranked No. 7 on Listed’s Top 40 Memorable Videos Pt. 1 & 2, on MuchMoreMusic, and ranked No. 26 on MuchMusic’s 100 Best Videos. It was ranked at number four on “The Top 100 Videos That Broke The Rules”, issued by MTV on the channel’s 25th anniversary in August 2006.

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.

May 18: "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" is honored as one of the Most Performed Songs Of 1997 at the 15th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA.
May 21: Like A Virgin is certified 10x platinum (10 million units).

May 24: The Ray of Light single made its debut on Australia’s ARIA Singles Chart at its peak position of #6. It was present for a total of seventeen weeks on the chart, and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 35,000 copies of the single.

In ARIA’s year-end singles chart, Ray of Light ranked 57th for best-selling Australian single of 1998.

May 29: Madonna guests on CBS-TV's The Oprah Winfrey Show: she performs "Ray Of Light" and "Little Star".

https://vimeo.com/87548633

June 11: Ray of Light became Madonna’s highest debuting single, peaking at number-five in its first week on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.

The title-track from her seventh studio album was present for a total of twenty weeks on the Hot 100, and placed at number seventy-five on the year-end chart. Much of its chart success was due to strong sales, while on the Airplay chart it fizzled out at number twenty-six. The remixes earned Madonna another number-one on the Hot Dance/Club Play chart, spending four weeks at the top spot and seven weeks in the top-five.

Outside the U.S., the Ray of Light single reached number-three in Canada, number-two in the UK, Italy and Finland, and number-one in Spain.

June 20: Madonna’s Ray of Light became the #1 dance single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The hit single remained #1 for 4 weeks!

Ray of Light was written by Madonna, William Orbit, Clive Muldoon, Dave Curtiss, Christine Leach, and produced by Madonna and Orbit.  Ray of Light is based on Curtiss Maldoon’s Sepheryn.

“It took a long time to do the album, months. And it wasn’t like we were slacking. We actually did have to work fast, and there were many times when we had to move on. One of Madonna’s favorite phrases was: ‘Don’t gild the lily.’ In other words, keep it rough, and don’t perfect it too much. It’s a natural urge for computer buffs to perfect everything because they can, and we were very wary of that.”

—William Orbit on working with Madonna; Keyboard magazine

June 23: The music video for Ray of Light was released by Warner Reprise Video as a limited edition video single of 40,000 VHS copies. It sold 7,381 copies within its first month of release, becoming one of the best-selling video singles of the Nielsen SoundScan era. Madonna’s previous video single release, Justify My Love, which predated SoundScan, was certified quadruple-Platinum by the RIAA (for shipment of over 200,000 copies).

The reason behind Ray of Light being issued as a video single were twofold. Madonna was very pleased with the outcome of her first collaboration with director Jonas Åkerlund and her record company felt that there would be enough interest to warrant its commercial release. Secondly, Warner’s marketing team correctly sensed that the song’s then-experimental sound would be a tough sell at radio, so the decision was made to pull out all the stops to ensure the release outperformed on the sales chart. Another prong in this strategy was the inclusion of album outtake Has To Be as the b-side to the two-track single, while excluding it from the maxi-single in an attempt to persuade fans to purchase the single in multiple formats. The strategy proved successful, with the song’s number-five debut and peak on the Billboard Hot 100 mainly due to its sales strength. According to Billboard, the music video single boosted its first-week sales by roughly 7%, helping it to secure its place in the top-five.

Shortly after Ray of Light‘s release as a video single, Billboard magazine published an article musing on whether renewed interest in the relatively obscure format could ever prove lucrative for the music industry. A video buyer for a major retail chained remarked:

“Madonna’s Ray of Light video single is a success because she has a fervent fan base. There are very few artists with videos that consistently get people’s attention, but Madonna is one of those artists. It’s too early to tell if there’s a true market for video singles. Right now, it seems like record companies are trying video singles to see what happens. I think we’re going to see the lines becoming more blurred in how audio and video singles are marketed.”

Indeed. Within the next five years (and two Madonna video singles later), the emergence of online file sharing would obliterate the physical singles market in North America, and video streaming sites would soon spell an end to the prospect of marketing music video singles as a physical format. In digital form, however, music video singles may be selling in larger numbers than ever due to increased availability through iTunes. Strangely, however, sales of music videos through iTunes are not reported to Billboard and no longer count towards a single’s chart position (reportedly due to iTunes’ monopoly on digital sales of the format), while streams of music videos through sites like YouTube and Vevo are used in Billboard’s chart methodology.

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June 25: Madonna begins filming "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" video in London, England, directed by Walter Stern.

June 29: Madonna’s Ray of Light single peaked at #3 on RPM’s Top 100 Canadian Singles chart.

As with all the singles from the Ray of Light album, the title track was issued by Warner Music Canada as a 2-track CD single and as a CD maxi-single. In the U.S. the album’s CD singles were issued in cardboard sleeves with “draw pack” trays and the CD maxi-singles in “FLP digipak” cases, while in Canada the two configurations for each of the album’s four domestic singles were packaged in standard CD jewel cases with printed inserts.

June 30: Madonna - BIOrhythm TV special premieres on MTV.

Madonna's "Ray of Light" video (MTV World Premiere hosted by Carson Daly and Halle Berry), plus two alternate remix versions of the video ("Calderone Club Mix" and "Sasha Edit." Also included on this DVD is the beautiful 1/2 documentary produced by MTV called BIORHYTHM

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July- Sept 1998

July 1: Madonna and Lourdes attend a Spice Girls concert at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY.
July 7: Madonna is the centre of a controversy when The London Daily Mirror accuses her of exploiting the late Princess Diana's tragic death in "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" video; a spokeswoman for Madonna releases a statement explaining that the video has nothing to do with Princess Diana and her life or her death.

July 9: Madonna was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

David LaChapelle was the photographer for the photo shoot.

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July 11: "Ray Of Light" hits US #5. "Ray Of Light" video single hits US #4 on Top Music Videos chart.
July 25: "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" video premieres in Europe. The video was directed by Walter Stern and was filmed on June 26 & 27 1998 at London’s famous Claridge’s Hotel and Piccadilly Circus. "Ray Of Light" wins Video Of The Year at the 1998 VH1 Viewer's Vote Awards.

The video caused some controversy when the British press reported that it would feature scenes of Madonna’s car being chased by paparazzi on mopeds, concluding that it was a reference to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the previous year. Liz Rosenberg responded by denying that the scenes were intended to draw comparison to Diana’s death and insisting that the video was about Madonna’s own relationship with fame.

Sadly the video was not serviced to video channels in North America, and with online steaming and downloadable videos not yet prevalent at the time, most fans outside of Europe were only able to enjoy the video for the first time when it appeared on the 93:99video collection over a year later.

August 1: Madonna is named VH1's Artist Of The Month.
August 8: Madonna begins filming "The Power Of Good-Bye" video in Los Angeles, CA, directed by Matthew Rolston.

August 10: Matthew Rolston wrapped up the 3-day shoot for Madonna’s The Power of Good-Bye music video. The video was shot in Los Angeles and Malibu Beach, California.
August 12: Madonna is interviewed on ABC TV's Entertainment Tonight.

https://vimeo.com/87839823#at=0

August 14: Madonna wins Best International Act at the German VIVA Comet Media Awards at the Akropolis in Cologne, Germany.
August 16: Madonna celebrates her 40th birthday. Madonna: Behind The Music documentary premieres on VH1.
August 24: "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" was released as the third single from Ray Of Light in most major markets outside North America. The song was written by Madonna, William Orbit and David Collins (Rod McKuen and Anita Kerr were also credited for sampled use of their composition “Why I Follow The Tigers” performed by The San Sebastian Strings) and was produced by Madonna and Orbit.

With the album’s title track being issued as the second single in North America a month after its release in other markets, it was decided to release Drowned World/Substitute For Love to fill the gap until her next international single release, The Power Of Good-bye. The single peaked at number-ten in the UK, at number-five in Italy and at number-one in Spain. Despite not being released in Canada, the song managed to reach number eighteen on the Canadian singles chart based solely on sales of the European import single, and without any promotion from radio or music video stations. Club play of the imported single, which featured remixes of both Drowned World/Substitute For Love and its b-side, Sky Fits Heaven, prompted a brief appearance by the latter on the U.S. Hot Dance/Club Play Chart, peaking at number forty-one.

The music video, filmed in London by director Walter Stern, caused a minor controversy due to scenes of Madonna’s car being chased by paparazzi on motorcycles, an image still fresh in the public’s mind at the time due the circumstances surrounding the death of Princess Diana. Liz Rosenberg denied that the scene had anything to do with the late Princess, adding that the video was about Madonna’s own experience and relationship with fame.

The song is often ranked as a fan favorite and seems to be highly-regarded by Madonna as well, considering her 2001 concert tour was named after the song and it was used as the show’s opening number. It was also performed during 2006’s Confessions Tour and appeared on her second greatest hits collection, GHV2. An early demo version of the song believed to be produced with Patrick Leonard titled No Substitute For Love leaked online in the early 2000’s. The demo contains similar lyrics but a completely different musical backing track and melody. The music that was used on the final version of the song was a previously composed instrumental track by William Orbit.

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August 25: Madonna reads the poem "Bittersweet" on Deepak Chopra's 2-CD set A Gift Of Love - Deepak & Friends Present Music Inspired By The Love Poems Of Rumi.
August 31: Madonna is interviewed on the set of "The Power Of Good-Bye" video on ABC-TV's Entertainment Tonight.

Madonna interviewed by Kerri-Anne Kennerley for Channel 9's Midday Show

https://vimeo.com/88735466#at=1

August: Madonna MTV VMA Commercial with Madonna and Ben Stiller

https://vimeo.com/90577105#at=1
 

September 5: "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" hits UK #10.
September 10: Madonna performs "Shanti/Ashtangi" and "Ray Of Light" at the 15th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA; "Ray Of Light" wins Best Video, Best Female Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Editing and "Frozen" wins Best Special Effects. "Ray Of Light" single is certified gold (500,000 units).
September 9,10: Madonna is featured in a 2-part interview on ABC-TV's Good Morning America.

https://vimeo.com/88853278#at=1

September 9: Madonna interviewed by Kurt Loder for MTV before the VMAs

https://vimeo.com/90542492#at=0

September 10: Madonna performs "Shanti/Ashtangi" and "Ray Of Light" at the 15th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA; "Ray Of Light" wins Best Video, Best Female Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Editing and "Frozen" wins Best Special Effects. "Ray Of Light" single is certified gold (500,000 units).
https://youtu.be/uFt46cS-EhE

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September 10: "Ray Of Light" single is certified gold (500,000 units).
September 11: "The Power Of Good-Bye" video premieres on MTV.
September 16: The World Vaishnava Association (WVA) condemns Madonna's performance of "Shanti/Ashtangi" at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept 10 as sacrilegious in which she wore a holy facial marking and a see-through blouse. The New York Post announces that Madonna is dating 29-year-old British film director Guy Ritchie.
September 17: Madonna released a statement against the World Vaisnava Association’s criticism of her Ray of Light/Shanti MTV performance: “The essence of purity and divinity is non-judgement… they should practice what they preach… if they’re so pure, why are they watching MTV?”

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September 22: The Power of Good-Bye was released as the third North American single from the Ray Of Light album. It was the fourth single in international markets that opted to release Drowned World/Substitute For Love as the album’s third single.

In the UK, the release was promoted as a double A-side single with Little Star.

The Power Of Good-Bye was written by Madonna & Rick Nowels and was produced by Madonna, William Orbit & Patrick Leonard. An earlier demo version of the track, believed to have been produced by Madonna & Leonard prior to Orbit’s involvement in the project, leaked in 2002.

September 24: Madonna accepts the Best International Video award for "Ray Of Light" via taped message at the 9th annual MuchMusic Video Awards at the Chumcity Building, Toronto, ON, Canada.
September 27: Madonna is guest of honor at the 14th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA.
September 28: Madonna narrates a chapter of "The Emperor's New Clothes" story on the Starbright Foundation benefit CD The Emperor's New Clothes: An All-Star Retelling Of The Classic Fairy Tale.

Each snippet of the story is performed on an audio CD by one of 23 celebrities, including: Jay Leno, Liam Neeson, Angela Lansbury, Madonna, Carrie Fisher, Jeff Goldblum, Dan Ackroyd, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Steven Spielberg, General Norman Schwarzkopf, John Lithgow, and others. Contributing illustrators include Maurice Sendak, Mark Teague, Chris Van Allsburg, Berkeley Breathed, Steven Kellogg, Tomie de Paola, Graeme Base and others.

On the CD Madonna tells the story from the perspective of the Emperor’s Wife (illustrated as Marie Antoinette by Daniel Adel).

https://youtu.be/P3Jiwom--SY

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September 29: "The Power Of Good-Bye" single is released.

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Oct-Dec 1998

October 15: Madonna is featured in book Ladies Home Journal's 100 Most Important Women Of The 21st Century.

October 15: An article by Chuck Philips ran in the LA Times regarding a dispute between the principal shareholders of Maverick Records – Freddy DeMann, Guy Oseary and Madonna.

A feud between the founders of Madonna’s Maverick Records, one of the most successful start-up labels of the decade, is threatening to undercut the label’s value if it goes up for sale next year. Sources said Maverick co-Chairman Freddy DeMann might leave the company before January with a buyout package worth more than $20 million. Representatives for Madonna, DeMann and Maverick minority owner Guy Oseary have been meeting regularly in Burbank to resolve the matter with senior brass at Time Warner’s Warner Music Group, which owns 50% of Maverick. None of the principals involved in the discussions would comment, but sources said Madonna and Oseary have wanted DeMann to leave for more than a year and have asked Warner to underwrite his exit. The disagreement is likely to undercut the trio’s bargaining power when its joint-venture deal with Warner runs out in July.

Maverick could command as much as $200 million on the open market if Warner chooses not to exercise its option to buy the company next year, sources said. The label has generated more than $750 million in revenue since 1992 selling music by such acts as Alanis Morissette, Prodigy and Candlebox. Discord among Maverick’s principals, however, has hampered the trio’s ability to attract suitors and has given Warner the upper hand in the negotiations, sources said. Indeed, one proposal on the table calls for Warner to put up the money to finance DeMann’s exit and possibly give Madonna and Oseary a higher stake in the label in exchange for a commitment from them to extend their joint venture with Warner for five to seven years, sources said.

The size of DeMann’s exit package will depend on what value the parties assign Maverick, sources said. DeMann is likely to walk away with at least $20 million to cover his 20% stake in Maverick but could be paid twice that amount before the talks conclude, sources said. DeMann is being represented in the negotiations by financier Jerry Perenchio, a longtime friend. One source said the 59-year-old DeMann is upset because he wants to sell Maverick in July and cash out, but Oseary and Madonna prefer to negotiate for a bigger stake in the company, with plans to sell in six years. Other sources, however, said DeMann is being forced out by Madonna and Oseary–who, until recently, have relied on his expertise to navigate their careers, as well as manage the record label now at the center of the dispute.

Madonna and DeMann launched Maverick in 1992 as a joint venture with Warner, which put up about $10 million to finance the partnership. Initially, the company was viewed as little more than a vanity label–a bargaining chip used by Warner to sweeten its offer during contract renegotiations with Madonna, who is signed to the company as a recording artist. DeMann had pitched the label concept to Madonna, whose career he had managed since her arrival on the pop music scene in the early 1980s. He then built the label from scratch, hired its staff and even came up with the company’s name–a combination of letters culled from Madonna, Veronica (the singer’s middle name) and Frederick (his first name).

One of DeMann’s first hires at Maverick was Oseary, a 19-year-old with virtually no experience in the music business who was a friend of DeMann’s daughter. DeMann took Oseary under his wing and gave him a job as Maverick’s artist and repertoire man, the employee responsible for discovering musical talent. Oseary delivered his first hit in 1993 with the Seattle rock act Candlebox, whose debut album sold 4 million copies. Oseary then came across a tape of Morissette, an unknown Canadian singer whose demo had been rejected by every major record company. He liked what he heard and played it for DeMann, who agreed to sign her to Maverick. The album eventually sold more than 28 million copies worldwide. Following Morissette’s success, Oseary’s profile rose dramatically. The young executive was rewarded with a minority stake in Maverick and tensions soon began to mount within the company, sources said.

In 1996, Madonna dumped DeMann as her manager and ultimately hired Q-Prime’s Cliff Bernstein and Peter Mench to represent her. A friend of Oseary’s is said to have helped facilitate the singer’s move to Q-Prime, sources said. Within a year, representatives for Madonna and Oseary began to lobby Warner for help in financing an exit package for DeMann, sources said. Warner turned the request down last October but resumed discussions with representatives for the trio a few months ago after rumors surfaced that Sony Music might be interested in acquiring Maverick or hiring Oseary and Madonna next year to start a new label, sources said.

It is unclear why Madonna, Oseary and DeMann couldn’t maintain a united front until after their Warner deal runs out in July. The dispute, however, appears to be heating up as Maverick prepares for the Nov. 3 release of Morissette’s follow-up album, one of the most widely anticipated projects of the year. During the last few weeks, executives from Warner have held meetings with Madonna’s attorney Allen Grubman, Oseary’s lawyer John Branca and DeMann’s representatives Perenchio and attorney Larry Kartiganer. While nothing has been decided, sources said the matter is expected to be resolved by the end of the year and possibly even before Morissette’s album hits the street.

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October 22: "Borderline", "Papa Don't Preach", "True Blue" and "You Must Love Me" singles are certified gold (500,000 units).

October 22: Madonna presented the GQ Solo Music Artist Of The Year award to Sting at the 1998 GQ Men Of The Year Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

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October 23: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" at the 4th annual VH1 Fashion Awards at the Theatre in Madison Square Garden, New York, NY; she is honored with the Gianni Versace Tribute Award and wins Most Fashionable Artist.

Video @ https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/2014/10/23/today-in-madonna-history-october-23-1998/

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October 30: Madonna begins a European promotional tour for "The Power Of Good-Bye" single.

November 1: Madonna makes a surprise appearance in London, England to present a lifetime achievement award to film director Alan Parker (Evita) at the Directors' Guild of Great Britain dinner in his honor on a boat on the River Thames.
November 7: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" on Wetten Dass TV show in Linz, Austria.

https://www.mojevideo.sk/video/1a0df/madonna_power_of_goodbye_(_wetten_dass_).html

November 7: Sky Fits Heaven peaked at #41 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart in the US.

Although the song was not released commercially or promotionally in North America, remixes by Sasha and Victor Calderone released abroad on the Drowned World/Substitute For Love single managed to garner enough club play in the U.S. to merit a six-week run on the chart (plus one week on the Hot Dance Music Breakouts chart).

A remix video of Sky Fits Heaven (Sasha Remix) featuring outtakes from the Ray Of Light music video was serviced to select clubs, and this non-traditional form of promotion may have contributed to its chart placement.

November 7: Madonna meeting her #1 Dutch fan on RTL

https://vimeo.com/88572699#at=0

November 9: Madonna is interviewed on NRJ Radio Show in Paris, France.
November 10: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" and "Drowned World" on TF1's Les Années Tubes TV show in Paris, France.

November 10: Madonna met her favourite actress of all-time, Jeanne Moreau, during an interview on the TF1 French series Sacrées Femmes. During the show Madonna promoted the Ray Of Light album with a performance of Drowned World/Substitute For Love. The show also included the following guests: Jean Paul Gautier and Patricia Kaas.

Madonna tweeted the following on July 31 2016 about that special meeting:

“Remembering this magnificent day when I first met my favourite actress Jeanne Moreau. She died today. There was no one like her.”

Madonna with Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Patricia Kaas, interviewed by Jean-Pierre Foucault for TF1's "Sacrées Femmes"

https://vimeo.com/89377285

https://vimeo.com/227771683
November 12: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" at the 5th annual MTV Europe Music Awards at the Fila Forum in Milan, Italy and wins 2 awards: Best Female and Best Album (Ray Of Light).

https://vimeo.com/88566077#at=0

November 14: Madonna attends a press conference at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden - her first visit to Sweden in 8 years.

https://youtu.be/uPIW7eS6dY8

November 15: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" and is interviewed on Luuk TV show in Stockholm, Sweden.

Though the song was mimed, Madonna still had plenty to showcase in a performance that was both distinctly European – and distinctly Madonna!    

https://vimeo.com/87335720#at=0

November 17: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" and "Drowned World" on El Septimo De Caballeria TV show in Madrid, Spain. [rec: November 17 1998 air: November 23 1998] 

https://vimeo.com/88270220#at=0

Setlist

The Power Of Good-Bye https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=0Z_-EGhIIl8

Drowned World / Substitute For Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=XGSYnlqI3Zs

Location: TVE Studios in Madrid, Spain

November 19: Madonna performs "The Power Of Good-Bye" on BBC1-TV's Top Of The Pops in London, England.

November 20: Madonna is interviewed by Johnny Vaughan on his BBC-TV show in London, England.

The special was titled Johnny Meets Madonna and was part of Madonna’s European promotional campaign for The Power Of Good-Bye and the Ray Of Light album.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9mtjv

https://vimeo.com/88854125#at=20
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November 28: Madonna’s The Power Of Good-Bye hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in the USA. The hit single from Ray Of Light was written by Madonna and Rick Nowels; produced by Madonna, William Orbit and Patrick Leonard.

Rick Nowels had this to say about his experience writing the song with Madonna:

It was a career-changing experience for me. Before that I had always done my co-writing with friends. But working with Madonna. It was the first time I had ever written one-on-one with a great artist/writer. After that I changed gears a little, and now I mostly collaborate directly with artists.

December 6: Madonna narrates "The Camel Dances" story on animated HBO-TV special Rosie O'Donnell's Kids Are Punny.
December 7: Madonna congratulates Tony Bennett on his 50th anniversary in show business via taped message during his A&E-TV special Tony Bennett - Live By Request: An All-Star Tribute.
December 9: Madonna attended the Fire & Ice Ball at Universal Studios in Hollywood, benefitting the UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program.

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December 11: Ray Of Light is certified 3x platinum (3 million units).
December 26: Madonna wins 2 Billboard Music Awards: Top Dance Club Play Artist and Top Dance Club Play Single ("Ray Of Light").

December 26: The fourth single from Madonna’s Ray of Light album, The Power of Good-Bye, peaked at #2 on the United World Chart.

Billboard’s Larry Flick had this to say about the single release of The Power of Good-Bye in the September 12, 1998 issue of the magazine:

Next to the title track to Madonna’s glorious Ray of Light opus, this is the tune that radio programmers and diehard fans have long been clamoring to be released as a single. With a little help from co-producers William Orbit and Patrick Leonard, the diva brilliantly nestles a dewy love ballad within a cutting-edge electronic pop framework. You can listen to this track a dozen times and still pluck something new from the richly layered arrangement, which is anchored by a crisp shuffle beat and sweetened by occasional orchestral string flourishes and contrasting acoustic guitar strumming. All the while, Madonna performs with a confidence that allows her to flawlessly merge a widened vocal range with a considerable dose of raw emotion and soul. Although this gem would find instant success on its own, look for The Power of Good-Bye to be bolstered by its prominent play during the hotly anticipated new WB TV series Felicity.

December 30: In Denmark, Madonna and Ray Of Light are named the most popular artist and album of 1998.

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Jan-June 1999



January 1: Madonna is voted Artist Of The Year by readers of the music internet website Rock On The Net.

January 2:, Madonna’s The Power of Good-Bye peaked at #14 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart in the USA. The single remained #14 for 6 non-consecutive weeks.
January 4: Ray Of Light is voted Favorite Album Of The Year by Billboard magazine.
January 5: Madonna and Ray Of Light are nominated for 6 Grammy Awards: Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Best Pop Album, Best Dance Recording, Best Recording Package and Best Short-Form Music Video.
January 9: Madonna began filming the music video for Nothing Really Matters at Silvercup Studios in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in NYC.

The imagery in the video was inspired by Arthur Golden’s 1997 bestselling novel, Memoirs Of A Geisha. It marked Madonna’s first collaboration with Swedish director Johan Renck, who had been introduced to Madonna by Ray Of Light video director, Jonas Åkerlund.


January 12: Madonna is #2 on Mr. Blackwell's 39th annual list of the worst-dressed women of 1998.

January 16: The Power of Good-Bye spent its sixteenth and final week on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart at #75. The song had peaked at #26 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart during the week of November 28, 1998.
January 18: Madonna guests on CNN-TV's Larry King Live.

https://vimeo.com/88377025#at=0

January 18: Madonna appeared on the cover of People magazine with the headline, “The New Pop Divas.”

The new pop divas.  By that definition, say hello to the latest wave of pop divas: Celine Dion, 30; Whitney Houston, 35; Mariah Carey, 29; Madonna, the old-timer at 40; Janet Jackson, 32; Shania Twain, 33; and Jewel, 24—with divas-in-waiting Brandy, 19; Monica, 18; and LeAnn Rimes, 16, warbling in the wings. All certainly have the requisite lung power. Houston, whose Top 20 album My Love Is Your Love marks her first studio release in eight years, can rattle roof beams, Carey skips octaves with the ease of a kindergartner at jump rope, and Dion (who, like Carey and Twain, sang with Franklin on VH1) belts out “My Heart Will Go On,” the Oscar-winning Titanic theme, with chest-thumping majesty. And, with all due R-E-S-P-E-C-T to Aretha and company, these superdivas are richer and wield more power. True, some of their pre-MTV forebears dabbled in movies, but were they also best-selling authors a la Jewel? Did they, like Madonna, run their own record labels? Even divette Brandy has her own TV show.

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January 21: Madonna wins Best Female Artist and Best Dance/Electronica Artist in Rolling Stone magazine's 23rd annual Readers Poll.
January 29: Ray Of Light is voted Pop/Rock Album Of The Year by Playboy magazine.

Madonna Interview : Arena (January / February 1999)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-arena-janfeb-1999

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February 1: A geisha-inspired Madonna was featured on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine in the USA, with photos by Patrick Demarchelier.

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February 2: Madonna signs a long-term licensing and marketing contract with Sony Signatures: she will lend her name and image to fashion designers and manufacturers of fragrances, cosmetics and collectibles, and Swiss watchmaker Ebel.
February 5: Madonna is interviewed on ABC-TV's Entertainment Tonight.

https://vimeo.com/88853280#at=0
February 6: Madonna wins Best International Female Artist and Best International Album (Ray Of Light) at the 10th annual Dansk Grammy Awards at Tivoli's Garden Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark.
February 8: Madonna wins Female Artist Of The Year at the 1st annual NRJ Radio Awards at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden.
February 10: Madonna attends a reception at Astra in the D&D Building, New York, for the unveiling of Esquire magazine's March 1999 issue about the AIDS crisis in which she is featured on the cover with other AIDS activists.
February 13: "Nothing Really Matters" video premieres on MTV.

The video was directed by Johan Renck and filmed in January 1999 at the Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, New York.

The kimono Madonna wore in the video was created by Jean-Paul Gaultier.  

Madonna stated that the inspiration behind the video was from the 1996 novel Memoirs of a Geisha. Madonna later stated; “The whole idea of a geisha is a straight metaphor for being an [entertainer] because, on one hand you’re privileged to be a geisha, but on the other hand you’re a prisoner.” Madonna also choreographed her own moves on the video, as she stated “I don’t like how other people say how I should move, I’m my own best choreographer.”

February 16: Madonna attends the Los Angeles premiere of Guy Ritchie film Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.

February 20: Madonna began rehearsals for her performance of Nothing Really Matters at the Grammys with Donna De Lory and Niki Haris. It marked their first live performance together since The Girlie Show Tour in 1993.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxfln5
February 22: Max Factor announces a $6.5 million agreement with Madonna to collaborate on a line of several new cosmetic products, and she will also appear in TV commercials and ad campaigns which will run in Europe, Japan and Asia.
February 24: Madonna performs "Nothing Really Matters" at the 41st annual Grammy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA; Madonna also took home 4 Grammies: Ray Of Light wins Best Pop Album, Best Dance Recording, Best Recording Package and Best Short-Form Music Video.

Best Pop Album – David Reitzas, Jon Ingoldsby, Pat McCarthy (engineers/mixers), William Orbit (producer) and Madonna (producer & artist) for Ray Of Light

Best Dance Recording – Pat McCarthy (mixer), William Orbit (producer) and Madonna (producer & artist) for Ray of Light

Best Short Form Music Video – Jonas Åkerlund (video director) and Madonna for Ray of Light

Best Recording Package – Kevin Reagan (art director) for Ray of Light performed by Madonna

March 2: Maverick Recording Company and Warner Bros. Inc. announce a long-term extension of their joint venture which also includes a new long-term contract with Maverick partners Madonna, Guy Oseary and Ronnie Dashev.
March 3: Madonna is voted Electronic Artist Of The Year and Ray Of Light is voted Electronic Album Of The Year in the 2nd annual Sonicnet / Addicted To Noise Readers Poll.
March 4: Madonna wins Best International Female Artist at the 39th annual Edison Music Awards in Amsterdam, Holland.
March 9: "Madonna - Ciao Italia: Live From Italy" (1988) is released on DVD.

Dennis Hunt from the Los Angeles Times gave Ciao Italia a positive review:

“A festive Italian stadium show featuring the Material Girl, who’s turned into a first-rate entertainer, strutting and singing in flashy production-number renditions of her most recent Billboard topping songs, is indeed a delight. The video captures the enormity of Madonna as a performer, and her theatrics, oomph and chutzpah.”

March 13: Madonna’s The Power of Good-Bye, fell to #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales chart, spending its final week on the chart (after 22 weeks).

The Power of Good-Bye was written by Madonna and Rick Nowels.  The song was produced by Madonna, William Orbit, Patrick Leonard with string arrangements by Craig Armstrong.

Rick said this of the hit song:

“The lyrics to The Power Of Good-Bye are stunning. I love Madonna as an artist and a songwriter… She is a wonderful confessional songwriter, as well as being a superb hit chorus pop writer… She doesn’t get the credit she deserves as a writer.”

March 13: Nothing Really Matters spent the first of two weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart in the U.S.

Despite being a successful club hit, many have cited Warner’s unusual marketing choices for the single as the primary reason for its poor placement on the Hot 100, where its peak of #93 remains the lowest of her charting singles.

The delayed release of the commercial single – which came long after the song had peaked at radio – was clearly a blunder, while other aspects of the song’s promotion seemingly started too early. After declining to release the experimental remixes for The Power Of Good-Bye in the U.S. (the remixes were issued commercially in Canada & abroad), Warner jumped the gun by beginning to service remixes of Nothing Really Matters promotionally to clubs as early as September of 1998 – over six months ahead of the maxi-single release.

An alternative might have been to service the Sky Fits Heaven remixes promotionally in the U.S. during the interim, considering that it managed to enter the Dance/Club Play chart based solely on spins from the imported Drowned World/Substitute For Lovesingle, with no push from the label domestically.


March 15: Madonna is named one of People magazine's "25 Legends Of The Past 25 Years".

March 15: Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, confirmed to MTV News that a tour in support of Ray Of Light had been canceled.  Instead, Madonna would be working on a number of other projects including:

A new song with Ricky Martin for his next album

A new song for the Austin Powers 2 soundtrack

Assembling a new greatest hits album (Liz called it “The Immaculate Collection2“) with a few new songs

Starring in a new film, The Next Best Thing, with Rupert Everett

Liz had this to say:

“The starting date of the movie was postponed, and it created such a small window to turn things around and get into total tour mode and put together the kind of show Madonna does, with no stone unturned, that she thought it would be better to wait until 2000.”

March 17: Madonna wins Best Dance Artist - Solo and Best Dance Video ("Ray Of Light") at the 14th annual International Dance Music Awards at the Winter Music Conference in Miami, FL.

March 17: On March 17 1999, CBS-TV’s news magazine, 60 Minutes II, aired a Madonna interview conducted by Charlie Rose. The segment was titled “Madonna at 40”.

“I refused to wear makeup – and that’s when girls are, sort of, going out of their way to be attractive and please boys at school. I said, ‘Well I’ll be damned! They’re going to have to like me with hairy armpits or they’re not worthy of me!'”

https://vimeo.com/87247843

March 19: Madonna attends Sony Music's pre-Academy Awards party at Mondrian Hotel's Asia de Cuba restaurant, Los Angeles, CA.
March 20: 20) Madonna begins filming Max Factor commercial in Los Angeles, CA, directed by Alek Keshishian.
March 21: Madonna attends the Vanity Fair post-Academy Awards party at Morton's restaurant, West Hollywood, CA.
March 29: Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack is certified 5x platinum (5 million units).

March 29: Nothing Really Matters peaked at #7 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles chart (RPM).

Warner Music Canada issued Nothing Really Matters as a CD maxi-single and as a two-track CD single featuring the b-side, To Have And Not Hold. While their U.S. counterparts were housed in “FLP” and “draw pack” sleeves, in Canada standard jewel cases with inserts were used for both configurations.

April 5: Madonna is voted the Most Positive & Influential Sexual Voice Of The Past 35 Years in a USA Today online survey.

April 9: "Ray Of Light" wins Pop Video Of The Year and "Frozen" wins Best Special Effects In A Music Video at the 8th annual Music Video Production Association (MVPA) Awards at the Egyptian Theatre, Los Angeles, CA.
April 13: "Nothing Really Matters" single is released.
April 14: Ray Of Light wins Best Foreign Album Of The Year at the Fryderyk Music Awards in Warsaw, Poland.
April 20: Four Rooms (1995) is released on DVD.
April 23: Madonna begins filming The Next Best Thing, starring Rupert Everett and Benjamin Bratt, directed by John Schlesinger.
April 25: Madonna is featured in various photographs in The UK Sunday Times for the Max Factor campaign.
April 30: The Max Factor commercial premieres on TV in Europe.


May 1:  Madonna begins filming "Beautiful Stranger" video at Universal Studios, Los Angeles, CA, directed by Brett Ratner.
May 2:  2) Madonna wins Best International Pop/Rock Album (Ray Of Light) and Best International Music Video ("Frozen") at the 6th annual Croatian Porin Music Awards in Makarska, Croatia.
May 8:  "Nothing Really Matters" hits US #93.
May 11:  Madonna & Ricky Martin duet "Cuidado Con Mi Corazon (Be Careful With My Heart)" is featured on his CD Ricky Martin.
May 13: Ray Of Light is named one of Rolling Stone magazine's "Essential Recordings Of The 90s".
May 17: "Frozen" is honored as one of the Most Performed Songs Of 1998 at the 16th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA.
May 19:  "Beautiful Stranger" video premieres on MTV. Madonna is interviewed by Charlie Rose on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes II.

https://vimeo.com/87247843#at=0

May 23: Guinness Book of Records - Top 100 Singles includes "Crazy For You" #16 and "Holiday" #33.
May 26: Ray Of Light" is honored as Top ASCAP Dance Song at the 12th annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center, New York, NY.

June 1: "Beautiful Stranger" single (from film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) is released.
June 8: 8) "The Immaculate Collection" (1990) is released on DVD.

June 10: Madonna and Rupert Everett attend the Los Angeles premiere of his film An Ideal Husband.
June 16: Madonna is interviewed on ABC-TV's Entertainment Tonight.
June 29: Madonna files a $2.5 million lawsuit against her ex-financial advisors, Padell, Nadell, Fine, Weinberger & Co. for malpractice and breach of contract: she claims to have paid $2 million in New York state income taxes in 1992 after the firm prepared her taxes saying she was a California resident; Madonna seeks $2 million in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.
June 30: Madonna completes filming The Next Best Thing in Los Angeles, CA.

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July-Dec 1999

 

July 15: "Beautiful Stranger" is the most-played song on radio ever in UK: it was played 2,462 times in only one week.
July 17: During a 2-week vacation in Europe, Madonna attends the Versace Fashion Couture party at Man Ray Club in Paris, France.
July 24: "Beautiful Stranger" hits US #19.
July 26: "Beautiful Stranger" wins Best Pop Song Of The Year on BBC2-TV's Gaytime TV Awards in London, England.

July: William Orbit on Madonna, Ray Of Light : Keyboard Magazine (July 1998)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/william-orbit-madonna-ray-light-keyboard-magazine-july-1998

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1998-madonna-keyboard-july.jpg

August 2: Madonna attends the Talk magazine launch party on Liberty Island, Manhattan, NY.

SUMMER: Madonna Interview : Aperture (Summer 1999)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-aperture-magazine-summer-1999

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1999-madonna-aperture.jpg

“Madonna’s Indian Summer” by Madonna : Rolling Stone

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-articles/madonnas-indian-summer-by-madonna-rolling-stone-july-09-23-1998

https://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1998-madonna-rolling-stone.jpg

September 9: Madonna wins Best Video From A Film for "Beautiful Stranger" and co-presents with Paul McCartney the Best Video Of The Year award to Lauryn Hill for "Doo Wop (That Thing)" at the 16th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, NY. (Madonna is crowned Most Honored Artist Of The 20th Century in the 15-year history of the MTV Video Music Awards with a career total of 18 awards).

September 9: MTV staged a tribute to Madonna, the most-nominated artist in Video Music Award history, by presenting a host of male drag performers dressed up as Madonna from her past music videos.

Madonna also introduced Paul McCartney, and then together they presented the Video of the Year.

Madonna was also nominated and won a VMA for:

Best Video from a Film – Beautiful Stranger

Beautiful Stranger was also nominated for:

Best Female Video

Best Cinematography

Best Visual Effects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsJWwKG1Yc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e6VXJBD7Jo

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September 12: Madonna and Lourdes attend the Versace Spring 2000 Show at the Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY.
September 30: "Blond Ambition Tour" is named The Greatest Concert of The 1990s by Rolling Stone magazine.

October 5: Madonna’s The Video Collection 92:99 was originally scheduled to be released, but was later renamed The Video Collection 93:99 and was finally released on November 2 1999.

The original release was planned to include the Erotica music video, but excluded the video for The Power of Good-Bye. The actual release excluded Erotica, and added The Power of Good-Bye to the collection.

The following music videos were included in 93:99

Bad Girl
Fever
Rain
Secret
Take A Bow
Bedtime Story
Human Nature
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
Frozen
Ray Of Light
Drowned World/Substitute For Love
The Power Of Good-Bye
Nothing Really Matters
Beautiful Stranger

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October 7: Madonna wins Favorite Female Artist at the 1st annual ARTIST Direct Online Music Awards in Los Angeles, CA.
October 13: Madonna attends the Details magazine party at the Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, NY.
October 17: Madonna receives death threats from a telephone caller on her way to London, England to begin work on a new album; upon their arrival at Heathrow Airport, Madonna and Lourdes are escorted by police but there are no incidents.

November 1: Guinness World Records: Madonna is the most successful female solo artist for selling 120 million albums worldwide.

November 2: The Madonna: The Video Collection 1993-99 was released on home video and DVD.

Madonna: The Video Collection 1993-99 was released as a collection of Madonna’s favourite videos from 1993-1999. The collection contains 14 videos: Bad Girl, Fever, Rain, Secret, Take A Bow, Bedtime Story, Human Nature, Love Don’t Live Here Anymore, Frozen, Ray Of Light, Drowned World, The Power of Goodbye, Nothing Really Matters, and Beautiful Stranger.

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November 7: Madonna is #5 on "Top Entertainers Of The Half-Century (1950-2000)" list by Entertainment Weekly magazine.
November 9: Madonna is named Top-Selling Female Rock Artist Of The Century by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA).
November 13: In UK, Madonna is voted Female Performer Of The Millenium on Channel 4's Music Of The Millenium Poll.
November 17: Madonna is voted Favorite Female Music Artist Of The 80s (37.8% votes) on AccessHollywood.com - Millenium Poll.
November 27: "Madonna: The Video Collection 1993-99" hits US #3 on Top Music Videos chart.

Heather Phares from Allmusic gave the release five out of five stars and said:

“Madonna’s Video Collection: 1993-1999 adds to her status as one of the best represented artists on DVD. Though it doesn’t offer much in the way of DVD-specific features, the artistry of directors like Mark Romanek, Stephane Sedaoui, David Fincher, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, as well as Madonna herself, is on full display with videos like ‘Take a Bow’, ‘Bedtime Story’, ‘Human Nature’, ‘Frozen’, and ‘Ray of Light’. All in all, it’s a worthwhile collection of memorable videos from one of pop’s trendsetters.”  

November 30: MTV & TV Guide's Top 100 Videos Ever Made includes "Vogue" #2, "Express Yourself" #10 and "Lucky Star" #50.

December 1: Madonna is crowned Artist Of The Millenium by MTV Asia. Madonna is voted #3 Artist Of The Decade and "Beautiful Stranger" is #2 Song Of The Decade in RollingStone.com and TDK's "90s Music Time Capsule" Online Survey.
December 5: Madonna presents the Male Celebrity Style Award to Rupert Everett at the 5th annual VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards at the Lexington Avenue Armory, Manhattan, NY.
December 12: Madonna is #8 on The Detroit Free Press newspaper's "100 Greatest Artists & Entertainers Of Michigan's Century".
December 14: Madonna is voted Female Artist Of The Century by readers of SongLink International, a UK songwriters and music magazine.
December 18: 18) Madonna is #3 on VH1-UK's "Millenium Honors List" of the top 100 greatest artists of the millenium.

December 25: Madonna is featured in Billboard magazine's "Totally 90s - Diary Of A Decade": Top Pop Artist Of The Decade #6, Top Pop Female Artist Of The Decade #4, Hot 100 Singles Of The Decade "Take A Bow" #24 and "Vogue" #93.
December 28: Madonna is honored as Female Artist Of The Millenium by Radio Tel Aviv in Israel.
December 30: In Australia, Madonna is voted #1 "Female Music Star Of The Millennium" in a Virtual Time Capsule by 2DayFM radio station.
December 31: MuchMusic: Top 100 Videos Of The Century includes "Express Yourself" #3, "Ray Of Light" #8 and "Like A Prayer" #47.

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Unreleased

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATIONS by Bruce Baron

Madonna's most recent studio album "Ray Of Light" was originally
  planned as techno project with Robert Miles, Trent Reznor, Nelle
   Hooper, Babyace, and William Orbit as musical collaborators. In
   the end, only Orbit was retained. There may be early demos of the
   "Ray Of Light" songs co-produced with one or more of the original
   line-up, but none have turned up so far. One track "Skin" is known
   to have first been titled "Flirtation Dance", and may have had
   different lyrics. This alternate title is documented on the songs
   copyright submission. Ever since this album was released, reports
   of a never completed dance remix album called "Veronica
   Electronica" featuring songs from the "Ray Of Light" album have
   been rather persistent. There are thought to be officially
   commissioned unreleased remixes of "To Have And Not To Hold" by
   Goldie, which were never turned back in to Madonna. Another track
   from "Ray Of Light" called "Has To Be" appears on the album only
   outside of North America. Other reports of unreleased mixes have
   not been well supported, and are probably independently produced
   bootlegs.

 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/madonnadotrefugees/full-list-of-unreleased-madonna-songs-t144.html

Ray of Light/Additional Notes

1998 FLIRTATION DANCE Original title for "Skin" listed as secondary cross-ref at Library Of Congress for that song. Early version may have had alternate lyrics 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1998 LIKE A FLOWER - unreleased confirmed title written by Madonna and Rick Nowels (Ray Of Light era). Lyrics include "You'll always be a part of me - what you love can never let you go - you'll always be inside of me" 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1998 GONE, GONE, GONE - unreleased confirmed title written by Madonna and Rick Nowels (Ray Of Light era). Lyrics include: "this love affair.....what we had is gone, gone, gone" 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1998 NO SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE - unreleased confirmed title from the Ray Of Light era. Almost identical lyrics to the finished version, but the melody and tempo are completely different from the finished album version. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1998 REVENGE - unreleased confirmed title written by Madonna, Rick Nowels, and Gregg Fitzgerald (Ray Of Light era). Lyrics include: "There is no such thing as regret, there is no point in placing the blame....hate destroys the one who hates and everyone suffers the same." Other lyrics include: "take the judgements and let them go." A small snippet of this song first surfaced on the Madonna's Ashram web site. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1998 TO HAVE NOT TO HOLD (REMIX) Studio master reportedly sent to Goldie for remixing, but was never returned according to UK media report. Current status unknown. 
1998 TO HAVE AND NOT TO HOLD (DEMO) - Different vocal take, and significantly different music (more of a Latin influence with guitar), and slightly different vocals ad-libs at end. Recorded during the "Ray Of Light" sessions, but never released. Existence confirmed. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1999 ANGEL OF FIRE - As usual this one is part fact and part fiction. Several Mariah Carey fan sites have reported that Madonna and William Orbit were recording a ballad (sometimes incorrectly reported as "Angel Fire") for Carey's forthcoming movie project "All That Glitters". This film is scheduled to begin filming in late summer 2000. Also see this Mariah fan site: 
http://wildcathg.tripod.com/sep99.html 
I have read two of the actual media reports in addition to the fan sites and the correct media report seems to be that this song was written by Mariah Carey and Patrick Leonard. Madonna and Orbit were later brought in to review the song which sounds to me more like a consulting session than a co-write. Perhaps they will get some kind of co-production credit, but it's probably not a duet. Mariah seemed to be uncertain if the song would even be used, but we will know more when the Soundtrack album is released in 2001. There are also rumours that she has recorded a cover of "Burning Up" for this film set during the 1980's. According to Liz Rosenberg (Madonna's publicist, and the ICON (Official Madonna Fan Club)'s "Validator", "It is not true that Madonna will be contributing a song to the soundtrack "All That Glitters" and she will not be doing a duet with Babyface but they have worked on some stuff together previously which he may be using."
----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------
1999 BE CAREFUL (CUIDADO CON MI CORAZON) Pablo Flores and/or Victor Calderone remixes: Bruce Baron writes, "Billboard magazine once reported that Pablo Flores was remixing the Ricky Martin and Madonna duet "Cuidado Con Mi Corozon". Martin and MTV discussed the changing dates for the video shoot several times, only to have Madonna delay the project over and over until it was time for "Beautiful Stranger" and "American Pie". Victor Calderone also mentioned in a media report that he was planing to remix "Be Careful" in addition to Madonna's "Skin". To the dissapointment of both fan groups, neither remix has been released by Martin's label, Sony or Madonna's label, Warner Brothers. It's not certain if they were completed. A few different "DJ" and/or "home made" mixes have surfaced (such as the "Fin De Siecle" mix, and the "Vocal Edit") - but these are just poorly made mixes or re-edits, and they are NOT official. 

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The Making of Ray of Light

Q Magazine (August 2002)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews/madonna-interview-q-magazine-august-2002

Inspired by motherhood, Hinduism, yoga and a “dwindling” English dance producer, the world’s most successful female singer set about reinventing herself. Armed with a “gaffer-taped” Atari and with her baby daughter manning the mixing desk, Madonna made Ray Of Light.

The mid-’90s showered material girl Madonna with a string of life-changing experiences, from the birth of her daughter to an awakening of interest in Eastern mysticism. Then, in May 1997, following the Evita soundtrack, she started work on an album that would reflect those changes, sell in truckloads and help create a new Madonna.

As told to Johnny Black

14 October 1996

Madonna gives birth to a baby girl, Lourdes, in Los Angeles.

Madonna: That was a big catalyst for me. It took me on a search for answers to questions I’d never asked myself before.

William Orbit: Long before we started working on the album, Madonna was going through changes. I think she was heading in the direction we eventually took anyway.

Madonna: I started studying the Kabbalah, which is a Jewish mystical interpretation of the Old Testament. I also found myself becoming very interested in Hinduism and yoga, and for the first time in a long time, I was able to step outside myself and see the world from a different perspective.

William Orbit: Madonna was itchy to make a change. and I came along at the right time. It bothers me when the press say, ‘William Orbit revived her dwindling career.’ It’s so not the case. If anything, she revived my dwindling career.

1 February 1997

The soundtrack to the film Evita reaches Number 1 In the UK.

William Orbit: Another important contributing factor to how Ray Of Light turned out was the Evita record which helped her grow as a singer, because she’d taken voice lessans.

Madonna - Q / August 2002

Madonna: There was a whole piece of my voice I wasn’t using. And I was going to make the most of it.

Spring 1997

Madonna begins the writing process with various collaborators.

Madonna: I wrote with everybody — William, Pat Leonard, Rick Howes. I even wrote some tracks with Babyface but they never made it onto the album.

Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds: We came up with a couple of songs we liked before she changed her idea about the album’s direction.

March 1997

Madonna’s Maverick Records partner Guy Oseary rings William Orbit.

William Orbit: Guy rang and suggested I send some topes to her. I didn’t take it very seriously, so I didn’t send anything. Then he rang again, so I sent a DAT with 13 tracks on it.

Madonna: I was a huge fan of William’s earlier records, Strange Cargo 1 and 2 and all that. I also loved all the remixes he did for me and I was interested in fusing a kind of futuristic sound but also using lots of Indian and Moroccan influences and things like that, and I wanted it to sound old and new at the same time.

12 May 1997

William Orbit: Five days later, sitting in my garden, I got a call from Madonna. She said she was working on my tracks and would I like to come out and meet up with her. They sent me a plane ticket and off I went.

Early June 1997

Madonna and William Orbit meet in New York.

William Orbit: It was a day of sun and showers, and I remember I got drenched just as I arrived at her apartment block.

Madonna: William showed up with his plastic bag full of tapes… he arrived at my door looking like a drowned rat. He looked really fragile. He was very humble and unassuming and endearing, like a little boy. As soon as I met him, I liked him.

William Orbit: Her living-room hi-fi wasn’t working, so we adjourned to her gymnasium with another hi-fi. She played me the stuff she’d written with Babyface and Pat Leonard, and I’m sitting thinking, “These tracks sound very slick. What can I contribute?”
We spent the next week at the Hit Factory getting my backing tracks up in stereo, and she sang what she’d worked out, and it was clear that something was happening. At the end of that week, she said, “Would you work on my record?” and I said. I’d love to.”

Mid-June 1997

Work begins at Larrabee North Studio, Universal City, LA.

William Orbit: The first day, I was in paralysis because I was used to going off and being left to get on with it, but she said, “I’m not the kind of girl that leaves the guy to get on with it. Get used to it.” It took me a while to get used to someone looking over my shoulder.

Larrabee was a real state-of-the-art studio. I’d never even worked on an automated desk before. It wasn’t so much a learning curve as a learning cliff. I realised right away that my equipment was really superannuated, like my old Atari 1040, held together with gaffer tape. It caught fire twice on the sessions.
One minor hazard was that Lola (Lourdes) would come in every day and, like any toddler, she’d make a beeline for the knobs and buttons. We’d look away and the whole sound had changed. We had to keep an eye on her.
There weren’t a lot cf musicians around. Mostly it was just me, Madonna, Pat McCarthy, who was a briliant engineer, and a tape-op called Matt. On Ray Of Light every guitar you hear is me. On a lot of tracks I did everything.
Most of the tracks pre-existed, so Madonna would work on vocals and lyrics at home, or driving around in her car. It’s Important to point out that I wasn’t the only producer working on the LP. Patrick Leonard did some great work…

Madonna: As a classically trained musician, Patrick brought a whole other element to the mix, particularly his string arrangements…

William Orbit: About a third of the way through, I thought I was going to get fired. Madonna was used to working with super-slick producers, whereas I’m very lateral which she saw as being disorganised.
I went to her house to playback Power Of Goodbye. We’d taken the wrong DAT with us and she was not amused. I ended up saying “Gimme a week and I’ll turn this one round”.

I virtually lived in the studio for that week, and from then on, it was great. She became confident that I knew what I was doing.

15 July 1997

Gianni Versace is shot dead outside his home in Miami Beach, Florida.

William Orbit: We were recording Swim on the day Versace was murdered. Madonna was very friendly with him and his sister, Donatella, who was in the street, distraught, on her cellphone to Madonna. But she did the vocal, which is probably why it has such an emotional impact.

Madonna: Ray Of Light (the track) is a mystical look at the universe and how small we are…

Christine Leach: My uncle, Clive Muldoon, and his partner, Dave Curtiss wrote a song in the 70s called Sepheryn, which became Ray Of Light. I’d been working with William one fateful night in 1996, in London. and he played me a backing track that fitted so well with the lyric to Sepheran that I just started singing it.

William Orbit: It was excellent, and I said so. I thought she’d written it, and she didn’t say she hadn’t. So that was among the tracks on the original DAT I sent to Madonna.

Christine Leach: Later, I was sent a cassette in the post, of Madonna’s version of the track and I nearly fainted. She must have loved the track – even her ad libs are the same as mine.

William Orbit: The final track, Mer Girl was another crucial point for me. I was very proud of it, but there was outside pressure to change it, and she just said, “No, It’s a piece of art. Don’t touch it.” I thought “I’m in good hands here.” I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about the music being trampled on by A&R interventions.

Madonna: It’s a song about dealing with death. There’s the obvious thing about my mother’s death but also Princess Diana’s and Versace’s death. There seemed to be so much death actually around the time that I had written it.

3 March 1998

Ray Of Light is released.

Dave Curtiss: I didn’t even know Ray Of Light had been recorded. A friend heard about it on the radio and told me. I was a bit annoyed at first because Madonna wanted 30 per cent just for changing a couple of lines, but then I realised that 15 per cent of millions is a lot better than 100 per cent of nothing. I did very well out of it. It’s been a life-changing experience. I’d say I’m financially secure for at least the next five to 10 years as a result of 15 per cent of one track by Madonna.

 

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MADONNA GETS LYRICAL HELP FROM GAP AD, FREEZES FOR "FROZEN"

http://www.mtv.com/news/1431615/madonna-gets-lyrical-help-from-gap-ad-freezes-for-frozen/

03/18/1998

 

Madonna's publicist confirms that two lines in the chorus of "Sky Fits Heaven," a song on Madonna's new "Ray of Light" album, are taken from a 1993 TV ad for the Gap starring poet Max Blagg.

Blagg's poem included the lines, "Sky fits heaven so fly it, Child fits mother so hold your baby tight." Madonna's song includes both lines, changing the first to "Sky fits heaven so ride it."

Representatives for Madonna say Blagg agreed to a deal where he was paid for the use of the lyrics, but gets no credit on the track. Blagg was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, manufacturers of Magnetic Poetry -- those magnetic word bits usually seen gracing refrigerators and file cabinets -- are claiming that the Material Girl could have used one of its boxed kits to write "Candy Perfume Girl," another song off "Ray of Light."

An employee for Magnetic Poetry noticed the similarities between the lyrics for "Girl" and the words included in one of their products, and the company noted in

a press release that less than 4% of the song's words are not found in one of their poetry kits. A spokesperson for Madonna said the singer denied ever having heard of Magnetic Poetry.

At any rate, Madonna generally gets what she wants, even if it's not what she expected, and she recently talked with MTV Asia about the grueling shoot for her video for "Frozen" [1MB QuickTime].

"Because the song is called 'Frozen'," Madonna said, "the original idea was to go someplace where it's really cold and where there's snow, and we were thinking of shooting it in Iceland. But then I thought, 'You know what, I'm going to be freezing. I'm going to be miserable, I'll be complaining all day, I'll be sorry that I ever chose a cold place. So I said, 'Let's do it in the desert, it'll be warm,' and it would be sort of the opposite, because even though you think of deserts as being hot, they're still sort of frozen in terms of there's no vegetation and they're very desolate."

"I thought that that would still work as a visual," Madonna continued, "but then we got there and it was like 20 degrees below zero, it was bitterly cold, and I was barefoot. I was barefoot for the entire video, and then it started pouring rain and everyone got really sick, and it just actually turned out to be a really miserable experience" [1MB QuickTime].

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William Orbit: I blew my fortune, thank God

Ray of Light producer William Orbit talks about why life's good.

By Bernadette McNulty

12:04PM BST 19 May 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/bernadettemcnulty/5319542/William-Orbit-I-blew-my-fortune-thank-God.html

William Orbit's partner answers the door to his north London flat for our midday interview and apologises that I might find him still in his pyjamas. Amid half-open suitcases and blinking computer screens, the man most famous for producing Madonna's landmark album Ray of Light soon materialises – fully dressed – although he has the red-rimmed eyes and scarecrow hair of someone who's barely slept.

"I'm tired and I'm wired," he sighs – his long, crumpled figure folding on to the sofa as if he were a piece of origami.

You hardly expect music producers to look the picture of health. Locked in dark studios, clamped into headphones and twiddling knobs, you imagine sallow complexions and atrophied social skills – one step away from the derangement of Phil Spector. But, despite his current tiredness, brought on by the deadline for his new album, My Oracle Lives Uptown, Orbit tells me he is a rejuvenated man.

A shockingly boyish 52, he says he is happier in his skin than he has been for a long time, concentrating on his own music rather than other people's and overflowing with passion for life beyond the studio.

"I tried to sound like other people for so long. But I can't do it. I am all over the place but I've accepted that."

Colliding with the force-field of Madonna's star was an extreme experience for the gentle character who spent the first half of his life a determined free spirit. Born William Wainwright (Orbit was a nickname for the gangly "space cadet") in east London, he shocked his teacher parents by dropping out of school at 16. "Education was a salvation for my mother and father. To spurn that was a huge deal."

Orbit spent the next two decades slowly building a career as a producer and artist, scoring a hit with his band Bassomatic and their song Fascinating Rhythm. Orbit went on to spearhead the slower, less dance-floor orientated sounds of ambient-techno; the spacey, electronic drifts labelled "chill out" music.

Orbit stood out from the pack with his unpredictable compositions, fragile vocals and air of tangential wandering, borrowing as much from the style and sounds of classical music or Seventies prog as dance music or pop. It comes as a surprise, then, to learn that the man who remixed Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings and wrote a classical symphony for the inaugural Manchester International Festival, has no formal musical training.

"Everyone expects that I will be able to play the piano but I can't. I can't read or write music. I play the guitar well and I have a good ear and that's how I do all the classical stuff. Computers give you that freedom; you don't have to see the music as dots on the page and you can break free of conventions."

In 1998, the kind of futuristic but deep sound that Orbit was creating dovetailed perfectly with Madonna's new-found motherhood and spirituality. He was rocketed into the mainstream by the huge success of Ray of Light, which went on to sell 14 million copies worldwide, and Orbit became known as the man who "reinvented" Madonna, a charge that visibly riles him.

"I hate it when people say I reinvented her – I find it embarrassing. She wanted to make this major statement and if I hadn't come along someone else would have. She was the savvy one, to make it work."

He is equally fierce in his defence of her talent.

"People think she was the star and I had the musical talent but we were equals. It was a real collaboration."

 

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Quicker Than A Ray Of Light

https://www.metafilter.com/136741/Quicker-Than-A-Ray-Of-Light

February 17, 2014 

Sixteen years ago, on February 22, 1998, Madonna released her seventh studio album, Ray Of Light, followed the next day by lead-off single Frozen. Popular music and culture would never be the same.


Ray Of Light marked a departure for Madonna. It was the first time she used an electronica/dance producer for the main producer for an album, in this case William Orbit, who had already made a name for himself in the underground scene and was known for creating popular remixes for Madonna and many other artists. She wrote many of the songs with Patrick Leonard, a long-time songwriting partner, but did not have him produce the tracks like she had in the past. Also, this album took over four months to complete, much longer than any album she had worked on before.

The Album
Drowned World/Substitute For Love
Swim
Ray Of Light [video mix, album mix not available]
Candy Perfume Girl
Skin
Nothing Really Matters
Sky Fits Heaven
Shanti/Ashtangi
Frozen
The Power Of Goodbye [video mix, album mix not available]
To Have And Not To Hold
Little Star
Mer Girl
Has To Be (Bonus Track)
Madonna's hard work with vocal lessons for her role in the Evita film plus the birth of her daughter Lourdes had given her reason to stretch herself vocally and spiritually. Her period of introspection led her to begin examining Eastern philosophies such as Kabbalah and yoga. These explorations were heavy influences during the creation of Ray Of Light, both sonically and lyrically. 

First Single: Frozen February 23, 1998
Frozen: Album Version, Stereo MC's Mix [slight edit], Meltdown Mix, Extended Mix, Widescreen Mix

Frozen "making of" video
Madonna's work with William Orbit brought electronica and dance music out of the background and underground and pushed it directly into the face of pop music. This one album is widely credited with popularizing what we now refer to as EDM (Electronic Dance Music). It would begin a string of albums by Madonna produced with electronica artists which would only be broken by 2008's Hard Candy, after which she would return to EDM producers for MDNA.

Second Single: Ray Of Light May 6, 1998
Ray Of Light: Album Version [video mix, album mix unavailable online], Sasha Ultra Violet Mix, William Orbit Liquid Mix, Victor Calderone Club Mix, Sasha's Twilo Mix, Sasha's Strip Down Mix, Victor Calderone Drum Mix, Orbit's Ultra Violet Mix

Ray Of Light "making of" video
Madonna's outspoken advocacy of Kabbalah and yoga created a popular culture surge in interest of both practices. Yoga sessions became mainstream, and Kabbalah bracelets became common accessories. How many new practitioners were taking the philosophies seriously remains in question, but the impact of having the Queen Of Pop as informal spokesperson for these practices has left a mark on popular culture that is still seen today.

Third Single: Drowned World/Substitute For Love August 24, 1998
Drowned World/Subtitute For Love: Album Version [video mix featured here, album version linked above], BT & Sasha's Bucklodge Ashram Remix, Sky Fits Heaven (Sasha The Drug Fits Face Mix), Sky Fits Heaven (Victor Calderone Future Anthem Mix)
The reflective nature of the lyrics of Ray Of Light showed a new, mature side of Madonna which many critics praised highly. The album was nominated for 6 Grammy Awards, and won four, including the first-ever award for Madonna in a music category (she'd only ever won for videos before). She also gathered trophies from several other organizations, including many international awards. Ray Of Light was a giant smash with both the public and the music industry.

Fourth Single: The Power Of Goodbye September 22, 1998
The Power Of Goodbye: The Power Of Goodbye, Dallas' Low End Mix, Luke Slater's Super Luper, Luke Slater's Filtered Mix, Fabien's Good God Mix [unavailable]

The Power Of Goodbye "making of" video
Madonna did not tour for this album. The Drowned World Tour took place after the release of the follow-up album Music. It featured, for the first time, Madonna playing guitar on stage. It was her first tour in eight years.

Fifth Single: Nothing Really Matters March 2, 1999
Nothing Really Matters: Album Version [video mix, album version linked above], Club 69 Radio Mix, Club 69 Vocal Club Mix, Club 69 Future Mix, Kruder & Dorfmeister Remix, Club 69 Funk Mix, Vikram Remix, Club 69 Show Mix [not available], Club 69 Speed Mix

Nothing Really Matters "making of" video
Ray Of Light pushed EDM and eastern styles and interested into the spotlight. Dance music would soon take over the popular music charts, Asian culture would rise in popularity. Kabbalah and yoga would begin to move into the mainstream. Perhaps the album and its influences were perfectly timed for a cultural takeover, or perhaps they were the impetus for shifting popular consciousness. Either way, Ray Of Light is considered one of the most influential pop albums released in the 1990s, and its mark remains felt to this day.

Bonus Material
Madonna Rising (terrible quality, interesting content) in conversation with Rupert Everett [38m]

Unreleased tracks:
Revenge
Gone Gone Gone (This Love Affair Is Over)

Ultra Sound - Making Of Ray Of Light [highly recommended] Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Instrumental:
Drowned World/Substitute For Love
Skin
Ray Of Light
Candy Perfume Girl
Skin
Nothing Really Matters
Sky Fits Heaven
Shanti/Ashtangi
Frozen
The Power Of Goodbye
To Have And Not To Hold
Little Star
Mer Girl
So many additional remixes for tracks from this album exist, it would require too much effort to try to catalogue them here.
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Yearly Most Successful Female Album: The Divas

http://chartmasters.org/2018/03/yearly-most-successful-female-album-the-divas-1983-1998/17/

1998 – MADONNA – RAY OF LIGHT

Almost one decade after Like A Prayer, Madonna is back! Of course, she never really left. Turning 40, the Queen of Pop stood on 4 consecutive albums which had mixed results when she dropped her album Ray Of Light. The lead single Frozen was a huge hit, perfectly paving the way for the album. Singles Ray Of Light, The Power of Goodbye and Nothing Really Matters kept the LP afloat for 18 months.

It moved 16 million units in the process while its singles and subsequent releases exploiting its tracks increased this figure to 21,1 million. It’s her fourth album to top an annual listing after Like A Virgin, True Blue and Like A Prayer. She distances herself from the pack as Streisand, Houston and Carey recorded 3 each.

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Hit Parade: The Veronica Electronica Edition

Listen to Episode 11 of Hit Parade @

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/hit_parade/2018/03/how_madonna_turned_electronica_into_pop_for_her_1998_comeback.html

MARCH 29 2018 7:03 AM

In 1998, at a crossroads, Madonna rebooted her career by fusing electronics with matters of the heart—and turned digital music into viable pop.

 
In 1998, Madonna was at a career crossroads. After dominating the 1980s with hits like “Like a Virgin” and “Open Your Heart,” she spent the first half of the ’90s wavering between roles as a provocateur (EroticaSex) and adult-contemporary balladeer (“I’ll Remember,” “Take a Bow”). That’s when she took a sharp left turn, working with producers and DJs in the burgeoning electronica scene. If it even was a scene: The very term electronica was a music-business confection, and by 1997, it was more hype than hit. But the result of Madonna’s experiment—her acclaimed ’98 album Ray of Light—was not only one of her biggest smashes. It also helped turn electronic music into viable pop.
 
 
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In 2000, #Madonna came to #SmashboxStudios where I was working to be photographed by #JeanBaptisteMondino for the Music album cover. She was pregnant with Rocco and brought little Lourdes along.  I befriended her manager (natch) who at one point asked me to walk M and Lola to another studio. Since it was only the 3 of us walking together (and her green beret-ed security guy) I introduced myself to M and she said "Hi, Aron" in the curt way only she could to let me know she was not there to chat. Earlier in the day I had given her manager my ROL CD cover for her to sign.  After they left, this was waiting for me at the front desk ?❤️  #MadameX

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