Ray of Light

Ray of Light
Studio album by Madonna
Publication (s)	March 3, 1998
Label (s)	Maverick Records / Warner Brothers Records
Format (s)	CD, LP, MC, MD
Genre (s)	Pop / Dance / Trance / Ambient
Title (number)	13
running time	66m: 52s
occupation	Madonna, William Orbit , Marius De Vries, Patrick Leonard
production	Madonna, William Orbit, Marius De Vries, Patrick Leonard
chronology Evita (1996) Ray of Light Music (2000)

Ray of Light is Madonna's seventh studio album . It was released in March 1998. It is named after the song of the same name it contains. With 371,000 units sold in the US, Madonna set a new sales record - no album by a female artist has sold more in its release week up to this point.

background

Ray of Light was critically acclaimed as the best Madonna album to date alongside Like a Prayer when it was released and has since been regularly included on the lists of music magazines as one of the best rock / pop albums. It won u. a. the two Grammys for the best pop album and the best dance album 1999 - also the best dance video Ray of Light .

After Madonna had made herself noticeable in the years before with rather quieter albums ( Bedtime Stories , Something to Remember , Evita ), this album should mean a complete turnaround in Madonna's career. Her voice had gained strength through working on the musical Evita and she had also personally experienced a change: She had become a mother for the first time with her daughter Lourdes and had turned to Kabbalah , which she incorporated into her lyrics: They were consistently shaped by her new role as a mother (including Little Star , Drowned World / Substitute for Love , Mer Girl ) and the Far Eastern and old Jewish faith with the themes of death and rebirth (including Ray of Light , Frozen , Sky Fits Heaven , The Power Of Goodbye and the Shanti / Ashtangi sung in Sanskrit ). The oriental influences were not limited to the lyrics, but were also reflected in the background music; Examples are the single releases Frozen and Nothing Really Matters .

With the participation of the main producers Patrick Leonard and William Orbit , an album was created between dance, rock and electronica, which also contained two trance / techno pieces ( Skin , Sky Fits Heaven ), which were based on the European club scene. The album sold over 20 million copies and the singles that were released were able to successfully place themselves in the charts. The 1998 video for Frozen sparked a new fashion trend: henna tattoos and ethno. With the video for the last single Nothing Really Matters , Madonna wanted to remember the filming of Die Geisha that was planned at the time , but the filming was discarded at the time and only realized with Zhang Ziyi in 2005 . Skin was planned as the last single release (a remix can be found on the second compilation by remixer Victor Calderone). Instead, a new song was released with Beautiful Stranger (from the second Austin Powers soundtrack). 2001 advertised the song Ray of Light as an official promotional song for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system.

In 2006 the album was named one of the “Capital Gold's All-Time Top 500” in the British charts.

Track list

1. Drowned World / Substitute for Love (Collins, Kerr, Madonna, McKuen, Orbit) - 5:09
2. Swim (Madonna, Orbit) - 5:00
3. Ray of Light (Curtiss, Leach, Madonna, Maldoon, Orbit) - 5:21
4. Candy Perfume Girl (Madonna, Melvoin, Orbit) - 4:34
5. Skin (Leonard, Madonna) - 6:22
6. Nothing Really Matters (Leonard, Madonna) - 4:27
7. Sky Fits Heaven (Leonard, Madonna) - 4:48
8. Shanti / Ashtangi (Madonna, Orbit) - 4:29
9. Frozen (Leonard, Madonna) - 6:12
10. The Power of Good-Bye (Madonna, Nowels) - 4:10
11. To Have and Not to Hold (Madonna, Nowels) - 5:23
12. Little Star (Madonna, Nowels) - 5:18
13. Mer Girl (Madonna, Orbit) - 5:32

Has to Be [Japanese bonus track] (Madonna, Orbit, Leonard) - 5:16

Chart placements

album

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	1 (83 weeks)	83
Austria (Ö3)	2 (42 weeks)	42
Switzerland (IFPI)	1 (57 weeks)	57
United Kingdom (OCC)	1 (138 weeks)	138
United States (Billboard)	2 (78 weeks)	78

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1998	Frozen Ray of Light	DE2 (19 weeks) DE	AT2 (14 weeks) AT	CH2 (24 weeks) CH	UK1 (13 weeks) UK	US2 (20 weeks) US	First published: February 23, 1998 Sales: + 2,010,000
	Ray of Light Ray of Light	DE28 (9 weeks) DE	AT31 (6 weeks) AT	CH32 (11 weeks) CH	UK2 (18 weeks) UK	US5 (20 weeks) US	First published: May 6, 1998 Sales: + 735,000
	Drowned World / Substitute for Love Ray of Light	DE39 (9 weeks) DE	AT34 (1 week) AT	CH31 (5 weeks) CH	UK10 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 24, 1998
	The Power of Good-Bye Ray of Light	DE4 (14 weeks) DE	AT4 (12 weeks) AT	CH8 (16 weeks) CH	UK6 (13 weeks) UK	US11 (19 weeks) US	First published: September 22, 1998 Sales: + 490,000
1999	Nothing Really Matters Ray of Light	DE38 (9 weeks) DE	AT29 (5 weeks) AT	CH26 (5 weeks) CH	UK7 (12 weeks) UK	US93 (2 weeks) US	First published: March 2nd, 1999 Sales: + 200,000

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

Web links

• Ray of Light at Discogs (English)
• Official music video for Nothing Really Matters on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nielsen Business Media Inc: Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc., November 14, 1998 ( google.de [accessed July 16, 2019]).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US