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One of my ultimate faves. How about you? I can't get enough of the song or the video to this day! I've loved every performance too. Madonna’s ‘Don’t Tell Me’ Turns 20: Co-Writers Mirwais and Joe Henry Tell the Story Behind One of Her Most Underrated Hits Twenty years ago this month, Madonna released “Don’t Tell Me,” the second single from her triple-platinum, Grammy nominated “Music” album. The song may be less remembered today than the title track from “Music,” but it arguably holds up even better, thanks not only to its minimalist production and forlorn lyrics, but also its fresh melding of country-and-folk with electronic music production (long before names such as Lil Nas X and Diplo won praise for doing the same in recent years). Co-writer and producer of the song, Mirwais Ahmadzai, has a few ideas as to why “Don’t Tell Me” still resonates with listeners, two decades on. “I think ‘Don’t Tell Me’ has remained since that time as an iconic song for several reasons,” he says from France, where he is making music at home during the pandemic. “We can call this song the very first ‘Folktronica’ or ‘Cyberfolk’ song. I think Madonna and I invented this style. And the magnificent music video made by Jean Baptiste Mondino helped to crystallize the ‘Electronic Cowboy’ image, which was something totally new at the time,” he adds. But the French producer thinks the main reason “Don’t Tell Me” has held up so well, is Madonna’s vocal delivery on the single. “This song is one of the very rare singles Madonna performs with no effects on her vocals, and on this, everyone noticed it,” he says of the tune, which was recorded at London’s Sarm West Studio (minus the strings, which were done at AIR Studios). The French producer confirms he borrowed heavily from the electronic music world for the drum programming on “Don’t Tell Me,” drawing inspiration from the UK’s jungle music scene, which was booming at the end of the last millennium. “I loved the jungle programing vibe, this is why I incorporated it on ‘Don’t Tell Me’ and that it sounded very ahead of the times with its rolls.” As for the glitch-y start/stop guitar riff that anchors the song and repeats throughout, the hook comes from Ahmadzai not being able to play what he wanted. “I couldn’t play some parts that I had in mind, so I decided to ‘computerize’ the performance by creating this start/stop effects,” he says. (Ahmadzai recently released a new song, “2016 – My Generation” and premiered a short film collaboration at Amsterdam’s ADE conference last month). Lyrically, Madonna got her inspiration for “Don’t Tell Me” via her sister Melanie’s husband, veteran singer-songwriter Joe Henry. Melanie sent Madonna Henry’s demo of a song called “Stop,” and she fell hard for the wistful, poetic lyrics. “My [demo] version was written in about 20 minutes, and I did not revise it — I let it stand for the burst that it was,” says Henry. “I always hear its primary influence to be tango, [and] I was thinking about [Argentine composer] Astor Piazzolla, but Madonna heard its pop sensibility, and sculpted a chorus out of a passing stanza from my original take. That repetition gave it weight, and expanded it, sharpened a hook that I had barely gestured toward. That evidences her gift of taking something fairly obtuse, and translating into something memorable.” Henry was wowed with Madonna’s take on his tune when he finally heard it, marveling at the juxtapositioning of his at-times dark lyrics (“Tell the bed not to lay/ Like the open mouth of a grave/ Not to stare up at me/ Like a calf down on its knees”) with heartfelt delivery grafted onto a sunny-sounding pop song. “That verse is dark, but playfully so,” Henry says. “I was watching a lot of Luis Bunuel’s movies at the time, and relishing how darkly comic are many of the films from his so-called ‘Mexican period’ can be,” he adds. “I think as little as possible when i am initially writing [for a song].” The song took its sweet time climbing the charts, finally peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March of 2001, some four months after its release as a single, and six after “Music” was released. Henry went onto release his version of the song (“Stop”) in 2001 on Mammoth Records, and it ended up being used in an episode of “The Sopranos.” “I was most pleased to hear it appear within an episode of that seminal show,” he says of the sync. Henry, who released his 15th solo album, “The Gospel According to Water,” last year, remembers the time “Don’t Tell Me” became a worldwide smash fondly, offering up a memory of Madonna playing the tune (which went top 5 in America) live in Southern California. “Just after ‘Music’ was released, she invited Melanie and I down to see her concert in Anaheim,” he remembers. “It was very soon after 9-11, and I recall the air being very electrically charged, everyone in attendance hungry for a positive experience and for the kind of community that sharing music invariably invites. About midway through the performance, she dismissed the dancers and acrobats, the full band and backing singers, and came to the front of the stage with just her guitar player, Monte [Pittman]. They sat close together on stools and had only acoustic guitars and a beatbox, and I can recall how odd and wonderful it was that the intensely scripted evening stopped for a moment. She was off the grid of a very intricate production, and seemed to relish it. She let out a big breath, looked straight at me in the second row, and said, ‘This is for you’ — and then they launched into ‘Don’t Tell Me,’ and the whole room went up,” Henry recalls. “I remember it as the most visceral and human moment of the whole show — and seemingly not just for me,” he concludes. “The entire audience seemed to understand that she had taken off the ‘Madonna’ mask — was less a persona and more a person. And at one point, she and Monte stopped playing and the entire arena of 20-some thousand people took over singing it. I don’t have to tell you that I am not the kind of artist that frequently experiences my songs being born aloft by the masses that way. It was incredibly affirming.”

JLo should play Madonna in the documentary.

All these bitches fucking up the Madonna mole. I NAILED it at 5 years old ARE THEY OKAY

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHD0DjqnHCO/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CHD2Ueap0sH/ https://www.instagram.com/stories/jlo/2433029920900224489/

My memory erased that shit

She always said that one of her favorite track growing up was Holiday. I think she looks good and nailed it (better than Rodriguez did Springsteen). When i was a kid and i first was aware of Madonna during the virgin years i thought she was latina or arab especially on the LAV album cover. So i think JLO quite got it.

i don't love this, but i don't hate it either

This is a great watch. I love these sort of videos where they actually go deeper in to the lyrics and music....and a chat with Pat.

Thank you for this excellent review on Live To Tell. He nailed it. I loved what Patrick Leonard said on it too. I also agree how Oh Father is Part 2 of Live To Tell. Excellent. ?✨?

One of my Top 5 favorite Madonna songs. It's a classic.

Absolutely love the Lizz Wright version. Amazing vocals. The softness.

I liked it when it was first released. Nice video too. I remembered being a little shocked about Madonna‘s look. It seemed Rocco‘s birth had taken its toll on her. I prefer the original version though and would have loved Madonna‘s voice on this production: Or in a softer rendition (if Madonna ever does an acoustic set):

Love it! Thank you so much! But... "underrated"? It was a worlwide massive hit

Ashanti and Brandy were the most obvious. You could clearly hear it’s them who were singing. I was suspecting Amerie‘s voice was used too, I didn’t know they were trying to steal It‘s This One Thing from her. Good move to have leaked it to the radio stations. I think it‘s Amerie‘s voice on other JLo tracks though too. I can enjoy JLo‘s act in total, as a performance. She is the face and body. (Her movies are good.) And her voice has improved by now. But this Milli Vanilli thing is a crying shame. Mottola sabotaging Mariah Carey‘s career after the divorce was widely known. The media ate her up for her meltdown, which was also largely due to the sabotage (and I am not exactly a Mariah fan). Mafia stuff. Let those people be seen who are really singing. I don’t care what they look like. JLo “I‘m Real“, yeah right...

other ARTISTESESESES.... I mean if we wanna go down this road Madonna been stealing Donna and Niki’s vocals her whole life. This is what is called a REACH.

I don't love his work but I don't dislike it either. There's some heavy hate going on towards him on here that's making me a bit unconfortable. He's just sharing the things he does as a fan, it's not his fault that Madonna likes that type of art. Of course there's more skilled amateur designers out there but well. Chill!

it's insane that people actually follow him on instagram and like his work....

http://www.joshbrandao.com/

Wasn’t she initially going to be one of Madonna’s brides instead of Xtina at the VMAs 2003? Can someone confirm?

No, it was a photographer shot I believe.

I love these kind of stories and essays about her songs - so little attention ever gets paid to her songwriting and what she brings to her music. To me her career really started with live to tell and the true blue album. To this day it’s still my favourite pop album and I don’t think it will ever be topped unless she ever plans to work with him again but sadly she seems too focused on auto tune, one hit rappers and computerised music now and won’t go back to making great music like she did with Pat but I would love to be proved wrong ??

Found an extract of 2016 - My Generation -love it!

Does anyone have the new Mirwais track? ?

Truly one of her very BEST!! Adore everything about this single.

Cute. And I love her in The Cell.

Keep It Together Don't Tell Me or Like It Or Not?

Get Together Keep it Together or Push?

How High You Thrill Me or Erotic (SEX book version)?

lol we wantz secretz in 4k lol

Thank you baymad4her

It kind of weird feeling to see this to me because of history of Alex Rodriguez with Madonna. Anyway maybe this is secret signal which she also wants to play Madonna role in Madonna biography movie. who knows LOL.

Erotica Waiting or Why's It So Hard?

She's also a theif. I can't stand her personality but I love her music

Thank god the RHT cover was changed to the final one that we got, the first that aldo had made from what I can recall was awful

What can you lose Buenos Aires or Wash All Over Me?

Material Girl More or Extreme Occident?

Heartbeat Frozen or Like a Prayer?

Express Yourself This Used to Be My Playground or Rain?

Celebration Candy Shop or She's Not Me?

Guess it’ll be u + ur hand

I used to love getting the Danilo official calendars so I'm very annoyed about this happening again in 2021. I'll have to do what I did in previous years when there wasn't one: 1998, 2003, 2017 and this year, and buy the best unoffical one I can. The problem is they usually look cheap and badly designed, except the unofficial one I bought for 2020 - it was just as good as an official one. I can't get through a day without Madonna in my life so a calendar is essential.

Yes a sequence of calendars can be reused every 28 years! https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/repeating.html?year=2021 But for next year also 1999 and 2010 calendars are good!

I hope so! It's embarassing that you can have a calendar for every animal or tv star and not Madonna! Does it sell so bad? I thought many of us would buy it! Luckily we can re-use 1993... also one of her best!

The second verse has the lyrics - We cannot deny our holiness Though every day we try In this life of pain We always feel the same Alone again

Ha,l I think I made that edit long ago ;)

I find it insane how in that tour there's an geisha section inspired by the nothing really matters video an yet that song is not on the tour yeah that makes total sense NOT

I agree. I would have loved these...especially Swim, Nothing Really Matters, and Power Of Goodbye.

Can we all pretend all of the Power of Goodbye performances never happened? it's for the best.

WannaBe Starting Something??? Ahahaha This looks very very odd to be honest.