‘Empowering Women’: Madonna Breaks Down the Message Behind Her Music
As Madonna celebrates the release of new remix compilation Finally Enough Love, which brings together all 50 of her dancefloor classics that have gone No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart, she’s also looking back on her game-changing career with a new profile in PAPER.
“If you think about all the songs, whether it’s ‘Like a Virgin’ or ‘Material Girl’ or ‘Express Yourself’ or ‘Papa Don’t Preach,’ I was very much invested in empowering women…and that was a very big part of the storytelling,” the icon told the outlet. “Because I think, while women were making great dance records, I feel like in the early days, while the songs and melodies are really strong and the singers are really good, they weren’t really invested in making women think, ‘Wow, I don’t have to live in a man’s world, living under the male gaze for the rest of my life. I can look at life in a different way and not settle. I can have my own voice and my own vision.’ So that was an important element.”
More from Billboard
Camila Cabello Joins Hans Zimmer for 'Frozen Planet II' Song 'Take Me Back Home'
Fans Choose BLACKPINK's 'Pink Venom' as This Week's Favorite New Music
During the chat, Her Madgesty also reminisced with Nile Rodgers (whom she recently went roller disco skating with) about making her 1984 sophomore album Like a Virgin, as well as her unforgettable performance of the erotic title track at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards. “What you did at the MTV Awards was just complete genius,” the Chic legend said of the performance, adding, “I believe it forced [Madonna’s label] to put the record out at that time.”
“It did,” Madonna agreed. “It was quite scandalous and provocative also. Not intentionally! Not intentionally, of course. I never do things intentionally. Well, sometimes I do…”
Currently, the “Music” songstress is celebrating the release of Finally Enough Love and Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, her two-collection compilation featuring all 50 songs from her expansive catalog that have gone to No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs Chart. “It was just intuitive, I guess,” she said of crossing over from pop to the dance charts. “Not conscious, not premeditated.”
Read Madonna’s full conversation with Rodgers for PAPER here.
