Songoftheday 9/25/23 -I'm gonna break the cycle I'm gonna shake up the system, I'm gonna destroy my ego I'm gonna close my body now...

 

 

"Die Another Day" - Madonna

from the albums Die Another Day (Original Soundtrack) (2002) and American Life (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 10

 

Today's song is from Madonna, whose first album of the new millennium, Music, had sold three million copies and brought her back to the top of the Billboard 200 sales tally for the first time since the 80's. It also spun off three hits with "What It Feels Like For A Girl", "Don't Tell Me", and the #1 smash "Music".  In 2003, Madonna, who had been dabbling into acting again after marrying British director Guy Ritchie, was commissioned to record the theme to the twentieth "James Bond" film, Die Another Day, as well as have a cameo in the film. The result, "Die Another Day", was another electro-dance track she wrote and produced with Mirwais Ahmadzai, who assisted on five of the tracks on Music. The lyrics contain a lot of repetition of the title, along with vague semi-reflective thoughts about herself and her psyche. The production does give a future forward take on the classic James Bond theme without actually using the recognizable melody, with composer Michael Colombier arranging the string section that brings a bit of class albeit chopped and screwed with by Mirwais, who contorts Madonna's vocals into a robotic quality. The result was a club hit toned down for a big-budget movie, and Madonna proved herself (mostly) again a winner with soundtrack songs. The music video develops a whole Bond-esque adventure with Madonna fighting herself and all the baddies...

"Die Another Day" put Madonna back into the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in November of 2002. On the radio, the song peaked at #4 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #23 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio panel, and #22 on the dance/R&B oriented Rhythmic format. The remixes of the track, done by Dirty Vegas, Thunderpuss, and Deepsky, helped it spend two weeks at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, it was also a big success, topping the charts in Spain, Italy, Canada (sales), Portugal, and Romania, and reached the top ten in Austria (#2), Denmark (#2), Greece (#2), the United Kingdom (#3), Germany (#4), Sweden (#4), Switzerland (#4), Finland (#4), Hungary (#4), Croatia (#4), Australia (#5), the Netherlands (#5), Norway (#5), Belgium (#7 Flanders/#9 Wallonia), and Ireland (#9), and got to #15 in France. The Die Another Day soundtrack, released in November as the single was peaking, went to #156 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Die Another Day" was nominated for Best Dance Recording, losing to Kylie Minogue for "Come Into My World", while the music video was up for Best Short Form Music Video, which went to Johnny Cash for his eerie remake of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". 

The following year, the song would appear on Madonna's next album, American Life, and she's be back to the series.

(6/10)

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Here's one of the remixes by Dirty Vegas that helped it become one of the biggest club hits of the year...

Next up, Madonna on her 2004 Re-Invention tour...

and finally, Madonna used the song in one of her costume change video interludes in the Sticky & Sweet tour in 2008..

Up tomorrow: A country trio mines a classic from the 70s.