10 unique Madonna songs

(Photo by Steven Meisel)

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We all know Madonna loves to experiment with her music but some of her songs are way more unusual than the others, musically and lyrically. 

Here are ten unique Madonna songs! 

10. Secret Garden (Erotica, 1992). 

The last track on Madonna's controversial fifth studio album, Secret Garden is a curious and atmospheric five-minute jazz number. The lyrics talk about Madonna's vagina in a very poetic way, not excluding melancholy, sensuality and a bit of irony. Her reproductive organ hides the truth, it knows who the real Madonna is, what she wants and what she is looking for. The "perfect flower" represents the perfect partner she is indeed searching for, psychologically and sexually. 

9. Paradise (Music, 2000).

Paradise was Madonna's first collaboration with electronic music producer Mirwais Ahmadzai. It is one of Madonna's longest songs ever, lasting over six minutes. Paradise is a mid-tempo electronic ballad and it features lyrics sung in both English and French. A very cryptic piece of poetry, the song is said to be about suicide, with the lines "There is a light above my head / into your eyes / my face remains" marking the singer's passage to the other side. The paradise Madonna is referring throughout the song, saying it is not for her, is supposedly Earth. 

8. Illuminati (Rebel Heart, 2015).

The fifth track on Madonna's thirteenth studio album, Illuminati is an electronic piece with multiple variations of rhythm. The song creates a spooky atmosphere and deals with Illuminati conspiracy theories; Madonna sings about supposed members of the  organisation (religious and political figures, celebrities, fashion brands, billionaires. In short "the greats of the world") and supposed symbols like the eye, the pyramid and the phoenix. Madonna, however, sings that the media is misleading us about the organisation, its supposed members, goal and also existence, as the Illuminati wouldn't be powerful people who want to control the universe but people who want to inspire and enlighten it, according to history itself. The negative shadow the media has tried to attach to the Illuminati is a lie. The song is also a response to those who have accused Madonna herself to be part of the organisation.

(Photo by Steven Klein)

7. Future Lovers (Confessions on a Dance Floor, 2005). 

Arguably Madonna's most spiritual song, Future Lovers is a synthpop masterpiece that samples the legendary "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. Lyrically, it deals with these mysterious entities Madonna refers to as "future lovers"....but who are they? Aliens? Angels? Us from the future? Star Childs? It's up to you to decide. These beings live forever, they are out of time and their love is eternal, unlike human love that is controlled by time. Maybe they are our next spiritual evolution, who knows? Speaking of this, the song could very well be Madonna's own intepretation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in my opinion. 

One of her best album tracks ever. 

6. Bedtime Story (Bedtime Stories, 1994). 

Bedtime Story is an electronic, hypnotic, almost ambient track. It was written by Bjork for Madonna, who then produced it with Nellee Hooper. The song was Madonna's first attempt at electronic music and it anticipated what would have been the sound of Ray of Light more than four years before its release.
The lyrics deal with unconsciousness. Madonna finds herself in this "dream world" where there is no need to explain emotions as they speak for themselves. Madonna's soothing vocal performance is also superb, she sounds like a rarified entity living in this dimension.

(Madonna in the video for "Bedtime Story")

5. Gang Bang (MDNA, 2012). 

Madonna finds out her lover has betrayed and fooled her....she then decides to kill him. After the murder, she commits suicide and goes straight to hell thinking that if she finds her lover there too, she'll kill him again and again for eternity. 

Gang Bang is a movie. A movie without visuals....but for those there's always the listener's imagination. An incredible, psychotic, crazy track that is to Madonna what Kill Bill is to cinema. 

It's not a surprise she had Quentin Tarantino in mind when she was writing this song. 

4. Sanctuary (Bedtime Stories, 1994). 

Second entry on the list for Madonna's sixth studio album. 

Sanctuary is an electronic, spiritual, exotic mid-tempo ballad dedicated to a significant other. Madonna's devotion to this man is so pure and deep that she treats him like a sanctuary. She wants to be married in his soul, carried in his heart and buried in his arms. Her lover's happiness is her happiness, his sadness is her sadness, she is completely abandoned to him in a spiritual way. Love and death go hand in hand in this song. The lyrics also reference Walt Whitman's poem "Vocalism" and the Book of Genesis.

(Photo by Pierre Et Gilles)

3. Impressive Instant (Music, 2000). 

Impressive Instant is when Madonna gave the world the sound of the future. Her vocals change from robotic and distorted to lively and child like over a techno and trance production. The lyrics deal with love at first sight and references to different cosmic phenomena are also present, making the listener wonder if Madonna is singing about an alien falling in love with an earthling or the other way around. A crackling sound also accompanies Madonna's vocals throughout the song.

This track is heavy, loud, chaotic, outer-spacey, silly but even a bit spiritual at the same time. Madonna is hypnotized by this "being" she doesn't know the name of, these celestial events and music itself: "And the world is spinning / spinning baby out of control". 

Almost twenty years after its release, Impressive Instant still refuses to age. 

2. Shanti/Ashtangi (Ray of Light, 1998). 

The eighth track on Madonna's seventh studio album, Shanti/Ashtangi was written and produced by Madonna and William Orbit. The song is a Hindu prayer sung by Madonna entirely in Sanskrit over a dance/electronic production. Shanti/Ashtangi features some of Madonna's most mystic and hypnotic vocals as they perfectly convey the sense of devotion and enlightenment the lyrics evoke.
After the birth of her daughter in 1996, Madonna had a spiritual awakening and Kabbalah became a regular part of her life. This song is about that acquired inner peace.

(Photo by Herb Ritts)

1. Act of Contrition (Like a Prayer, 1989). 

The final track on Madonna's fourth studio album, Act of Contrition, takes the top spot as Madonna's most unique, unusual track. Musically, this song is the reversed version of the first track on the album, Like a Prayer, and it features Prince on guitar. Madonna ironically recites her act of contrition, telling God she's sorry for all her sins....only to go mad at someone at the end of the track just because she gets denied a reservation (in a hotel, a restaurant....or heaven?). With this track Madonna criticizes and mocks the people who use religion as an excuse to act horribly.
Act of Contrition is pop, rock, dance, gospel, it is spiritual, religious but also ironic and intentionally hypocritical. Madonna has played with religion her whole career and if there is a song that can impeccably describe her relationship with Catholicism, that is Act of Contrition. 


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