iTunedIN | MADONNA’s CONFESSIONS 20 Years Later

A Pop Music Review

Two decades later, Madonna, the Queen of Pop’s opus on the decadence of the underground club scene that elevated her to iconic status, remains one of her most profound musical works. It’s time to confess…again!

After the release of perhaps her most conceptual and deeply political album projects, Madonna had entered an era of reinvention marked by the provocative statements on American Life. Her 2003 album completed a trilogy that began with the ethereal masterpiece Ray of Light and continued with the lyrically ostentatious Music. Her ninth album evoked a more folksy expression with tracks like “Nothing Fails” and “Easy Ride” that would work equally as well acoustically and with full-on pop production. The notoriously obtuse syncopation of the American Life title track dared the once Material Girl to rap on its bridge. Clearly, after a rousing world tour, the Queen of Pop was ready to get back to basics, to the dance of all,  and inspire the masses.

2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor was the tonic to an era of popular culture that had become radically unclear. Creatively, Madonna hadn’t landed on her next project easily, and following the less-than-enthusiastic commercial appeal of American Life, she appeared open to trying new things. She intended to move forward with producer Mirwais on a new album, and she opened the iris a bit. Madonna brought DJ/producer Stuart Price into the mix. Price proved to be the necessary ingredient for an elixir of inspiration. The pair had worked on several nu disco-themed demo tracks [intended for filmmaker Luc Besson] that spoke to Madonna’s dance/pop instincts.

One track in particular was resonating with the pair.

Stuart was digesting the raw demo for “Hung Up” and couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. In keeping with their disco-inspired vibe, he worked in a sample from ABBA’s “Gimme!  Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” and the rest is history! Madonna was motivated to get their commitment on the track and personally met with ABBA’s frontmen, who gave their consent, and only if they were included as co-writers. Hoping to gauge audience reactions, Stuart played the unfinished demo during a DJ set, and the crowd enthusiastically approved!

“Hung Up” heralded the rousing arrival of Confessions on a Dance Floor, and Madonna’s dance music renaissance. Alternatively, even as the first hints of “Hung Up” started to circulate on the club scene, the big rooms were starting to shutter their doors. An entire generation had risen that found less reason to seek community and relegated itself to the internet's vacuum to scratch its itches and satisfy its carnal impulses. Ignoring the draw of the dance is practical blasphemy, as mandated by the Queen of Pop’s proclamation that everyone take to the floor and confess!

The Digital Album Cover Art evokes Tina Turner's fabulousness!

Twenty Years Edition

It’s hard to imagine that Confessions on a Dance Floor landed on the musical spectrum 20 years ago, and even more eccentric to imagine the shape the pop-culture landscape was in at the time. The digital debate was at a fever pitch as musical artists raced to protect their original work from scalpers on emerging download sites like Napster, which blatantly stole copyrighted music and made it available to the public for free. In fact, Madonna marked the release of Confessions by bringing her entire album catalog onto iTunes, making “Hung Up” available a week before the entire album debuted. She cited in a forum with then Apple CEO Steve Jobs, that she was tired of not being able to download her own music. Music, released in 2000, was the first full-length album made available to purchase in digital format.

The album’s launch sparked several online and digital download campaigns, and while the album was produced as a seamless DJ-like setlist, the downloadable format provided Madonna’s audiences with proper edit versions of each track.

Ironically, Confessions, with its ultra-nu-disco and house influences and nods to drum and bass, heralded the decline of the big room era in nightlife culture. With a premiere party held at the fabled Roxy Ballroom in New York City, the legendary warehouse space would soon close its doors forever, followed by its contemporaries, Twilo and Tunnel. The DJs who inspired and produced many of Madonna's hit-making remixes in the new millennium would soon find themselves without a home base, and the EDM circuit party festival would take the tempo on the road across all continents.

The internet and social hook-up apps had all but decimated the social revelatory nature of club culture, which had given Madonna a community and a key audience in the LGBTQ+ world that ignited her celebratory spirit. The track “Future Lovers,” which opened her Confessions Tour, references this disembodied, modernized exploration of sexuality. The track is as transcendent as Giorgio Moroder’s “I Feel Love” performed by Donna Summer, to which it pays homage. Confessions on a Dance Floor borrowed from many of the greatest dance influences, including the Euro-Pop sound of the Pet Shop Boys (“Sorry”), and at times explicitly self-referential (“Jump” and “High How”). As much as it felt like it looked back, it completely faced forward.

The Twenty Years Edition includes additional tracks, featuring three previously released bonus songs, and remixes that capitalize on the relevance of what is likely one of Madonna’s most endurable works. It’s no surprise that upon its immediate digital release, the package raced (once again) to the top of the music charts. With bonus tracks “Fighting Spirit,” “Super Pop,” and “History” elegantly settling into their proper place as encores to the original 12 tracks in the setlist, which are mixed continuously. Confessions on a Dance Floor remains one of the Queen of Pop’s most remarkable pieces of work, and seamlessly casts itself as a lesson in a genre that often gets overlooked in popular music.

With the release of this special digital package, it wouldn’t be complete without a proper smattering of remixes that only enhance the entire experience. For the most dedicated of the dance devotees, we know that the Queen of Pop is only subtly reminding us that both she and Stuart Price are hard at work on what is billed as “Confessions Part II.” The sequel has been teased and is promised will get its due in 2026, marking Madonna’s next creative era, and her return to where it all began. Earlier this year, the artist signed a new deal with Warner Records, ensuring her continued presence in the cultural stratosphere.

Here is your #FanzEyeView Behind-the-Scenes of Madonna’s “Hung Up” music video:

Here is your #FanzEyeView of Madonna’s “History” appearing on Confessions on a Dance Floor: Twenty Years Edition:

CONFESSION ON A DANCE FLOOR (TWENTY YEARS EDITION) | by MADONNA | is available now in a special vinyl edition release and as a digital download on iTunes.

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