Madonna wrote a song with her eldest daughter to “heal” their relationship.
The 67-year-old singer has teamed up with Lourdes Leon, who is known as Lola, for a track on her upcoming album Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II – and the musical moment was “really important” for them both.
Speaking to Interview magazine, Madonna said: “It’s hard for me to write a song about nothing. I have to tell a story. So I wrote about a lot of family trauma, and then we started making dance music. …
“So many very important things have happened to me along the way. For instance, the song I wrote with my daughter, Lola. She approached me about writing a song together as a way to heal our relationship. It was a really important moment, and it solidified the idea that now is the time to make this record.
“All these symbolic things happened. My step-mother died, my brother was ill, my brother died, my daughter approached me… you know what I mean? And then I thought, well, it’s like the script of my film. It begins with death and it ends with death, but there’s all this life in between. Paradoxical subjects, obviously, but death is a part of life. It just felt like I had a lot to get off my chest.
Madonna wants the record to show people who clubs can “save” them, just as they did for her.
She said: “And it always saved me. I have a song that’s not on the record called What Will Save Me. I did it with Arca and Stuart [Price].
“We all talked about feeling like outsiders and how the club life and being on the dance floor make you feel like you’re part of a community, without saying anything. It saves you every time, whenever you’re feeling down, whenever you feel like you can’t get it right, whenever you feel like a failure, whatever. Go out dancing because it will save you.
“I went through all this darkness in the beginning, writing these songs with Stuart, and then we went full circle, and I’m like, ‘Okay, now what happens? How do we get out of this? What happens when you walk into a nightclub or walk onto the dance floor or go to a rave?’ “
Madonna knew her new record had to be “as good or better than” her original 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor.
Asked if she listened to that record again before starting work on the new LP, she said: “Absolutely. It was about to be re-released, so we were like, ‘It’s got to be as good as or better than this.’
“I’ve made other records, like Ray of Light with William Orbit, and there’s all the stuff I do with Mirwais. I love all of them, but my sound with Stuart, I don’t even have to think about it. We just channel. That’s what I think was happening.
“That’s what producing means for me. You’re putting together all your tastes, your knowledge, your vision, and gathering a group of people who are aligned with you.”