Ray of Light (song)
"Ray of Light" is a song by American singer Madonna. It is the title track from her seventh studio album, Ray of Light (1998), and was released as the album's second single on April 27, 1998, by Maverick Records. The song was also included on the compilation albums GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009). Written by Madonna, William Orbit, Clive Maldoon, Dave Curtiss, Christine Leach, and produced by Madonna and Orbit, "Ray of Light" is based on Curtiss Maldoon's "Sepheryn" and is an electronic dance song with techno, trance, Eurodance, and disco influences. "Ray of Light" consists of a main synth sound oscillating on the primary musical note and an electric guitar riff. Lyrically, the song has a theme of freedom.
"Ray of Light"
"Has to Be"
April 27, 1998
1997
5:21
- Maverick
- Warner Bros.
- Madonna
- William Orbit
- Clive Maldoon
- Dave Curtiss
- Christine Leach
- Madonna
- William Orbit
The song has received critical acclaim by music critics for its club-friendly, electronic sound, lyrics, and "emotional warmth". The song was also nominated for three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Best Dance Recording, and Best Short Form Music Video, winning the last two. "Ray of Light" debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Madonna's highest debut on the chart to date. It also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Internationally, the song reached the top five in Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom, and peaked at number one in Greece, Scotland, and Spain.
An accompanying music video for "Ray of Light" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and shows scenes from different cities around the world, with Madonna singing the song in front of them. The video was critically acclaimed, receiving the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video, as well as winning five awards at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. Later, Stefano Salvati accused her of plagiarizing the concept of a music video he directed for Biagio Antonacci in 1994. The song has been performed in three of Madonna's concert tours, the last being the Celebration Tour (2023–24). It has been covered by a number of artists, and has been featured in several elements of popular culture, such as on the FOX show Glee, as well as different advertising campaigns.
Background and release[edit]
Since 1996, Madonna went through a number of "life-changing experiences" which included giving birth to her daughter Lourdes, gaining interest in Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah, as well as earning the title role on the film adaptation of the musical Evita (1996). A year later she started working on Ray of Light, her seventh studio album. Madonna wrote songs with William Orbit, Patrick Leonard, Rick Nowels and Babyface.[3] The album would reflect the singer's changed perspectives about life. Author Carol Benson noted that it was a "deeply spiritual dance record", with the crux of it based on Madonna's career, her journey and the many identities she had assumed over the years. Motherhood had softened the singer emotionally, which was reflected in the songs. She started talking about ideas and used words which implied deep and personal thoughts, rather than the regular dance-floor anthemic tunes she had composed.[4]
Madonna worked primarily with Orbit after Guy Oseary, Maverick Records's partner, phoned Orbit and suggested that he send some songs to the singer.[5] He sent a 13-track digital audio tape (DAT) to Madonna, and "Ray of Light" was among these tracks. It is based on the track "Sepheryn" (1971), by English folk music duo Curtiss Maldoon (consisting of Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon).[6] In 1996, English singer and songwriter Christine Leach, Maldoon's niece, had recorded her version of the track. Leach said she had always loved the duo's work and "Sepheryn" was her favorite. She worked for a time with Orbit and recorded a demo of "Sepheryn" over a melody on which he was working. Leach rewrote the chorus and also removed a few bits from the original composition.[6][7] Orbit included it in the DAT thinking that Leach had written the song.[3] After Madonna heard the demo she liked it, and reworked the lyrics to create "Ray of Light".[6]
The track was released as the second single from the parent album on April 27, 1998, in the United Kingdom.[8] In the United States, the single was released to retail on June 23, 1998, along with 40,000 copies of the song's music video.[9] Curtiss was not aware of the fact that Madonna had recorded "Sepheryn" as "Ray of Light" and heard it for the first time being played on the radio. He "couldn't believe it" and was initially a bit annoyed, but became pleased when he learned that he would receive 15% of the royalties, as he had a songwriter credit. Madonna took 30% of the royalties, another 15% was given to Maldoon's estate and the rest was earned by Madonna's record company.[10] The singer said about the song: "It's totally out of control. The original version is well over 10 minutes long. It was completely indulgent, but I loved it. It was heartbreaking to cut it down to a manageable length." The original version was to be included on a compilation album titled Veronica Electronica, but it was not released.[11] Curtiss confirmed in an interview with The Australian in January 2017, that he recorded a contemporary jazz version of "Sepheryn".[7]
Recording and composition[edit]
"Ray of Light" was recorded along with the rest of the album at Larrabee North Studio in North Hollywood, California during mid-1997. It was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Studios in New York.[12] The DAT contained the main portion of the song recordings, as well as preliminary demo sessions in Madonna's house in New York, as well as Hit Factory Studios where Madonna first sang the song. Like most of the album, the synth sounds recorded for "Ray of Light" were played on a Roland Juno-106. Madonna and Orbit had conducted a drummer session in Los Angeles, but it did not work out. So he contacted Fergus Gerrand who played drum samples for him in London. Orbit fed them in his workstation and cut them manually, instead of using auto-editing software like ReCycle.[13]
An electronic dance music song, "Ray of Light" has stylistic influences from acid electronica.[14] According to biographer Lucy O'Brien who wrote in Madonna: Like an Icon, Orbit created a sensurround like atmosphere in the track, which sees Madonna deepen her dance roots and go for a more electronic sound.[14][15] According to the sheet music published by Musicnotes.com, the song is set in common time, with a moderately fast-groove tempo of 126 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of B♭ major, with Madonna's vocals on the song spanning 2 octaves and 1 semitone from B♭3 to B5, the sharp high note being belted on the word 'feel' near the end of the song. "Ray of Light" has a basic sequence of B♭–E♭–B–E–B♭ as its chord progression.[16]
The song starts with an electric guitar riff comparable to the music of English alternative rock band Oasis.[17] The chords harmonize with each other, continuing for 22 seconds.[18] The techno melody then begins, consisting of a main synth sound oscillating on the primary musical note, with the EQ moving between the bass and the treble.[14][18] The "restless" beat is accompanied by a rock-inspired chord riff, with Madonna's pitch being higher than the other tracks from the album.[18][19] While recording, Orbit kept "Ray of Light" a semitone higher than the singer's limit, resulting in a strain added to the vocals. "She got frustrated when we were recording but you want that bit of edge with singers, that thing of reaching. You can't fake it, and you can hear it when she cracks it on the record," he recalled.[14] Before the final chorus there is a synth solo again, reminiscent of a 1970s prog-rock record. According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, this was a link to the origin of the song from "Sepheryn".[18]
Lyrically, the track is upbeat, keeping in theme with the music. According to Madonna the verses are a mystical look at the universe and how small we are compared to it.[3] She wanted to capture a feeling of "wonderment" with the lyrics, as if some one has just opened their eyes and looked at the world for the first time.[20] With NME, Madonna further clarified that the lyrics convey the feeling of being small in comparison to the vast universe. It also talks about how regular life goes on faster "than the speeding light", but one can get out of that journey and look at themselves from an outsider's perspective.[21]
Music video[edit]
Background and development[edit]
The music video for "Ray of Light" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who had previously shot the controversial clip for the song "Smack My Bitch Up" (1997) by The Prodigy.[60] Madonna had been planning the video from the time she was filming the clip for previous single "Frozen" in the Mojave Desert. "Smack My Bitch Up" was her current favorite and she enlisted Åkerlund.[61] Madonna stated that when she makes an album, she "puts [her] soul on it", but a music video is a lot more working with a director. With the Ray of Light album, she wanted to have videos with fresh expression, and hence wanted to collaborate with new directors. She liked Åkerlund's "special way of working" and spoke with him over the telephone. Their conversations continued for over six months, and most of the time was spent coming with a final concept for the clip.[62][63] Åkerlund said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet:
Accolades and recognition[edit]
In 1999, "Ray of Light" won two Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording and Best Short Form Music Video. It was nominated for Record of the Year, but lost to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".[77][78] Furthermore, The Village Voice ranked it as the fourth best in 1998 in its Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[79] At the 1999 ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Awards, the track was the Top Dance Song winner. It also won the category of Most Performed Song at the ASCAP Pop Awards the same year.[80][81] The 1999 Ivor Novello Awards nominated the record in the category of International Hit of the Year[82]
"Ray of Light" is also often ranked as being one of the best songs of the 1990s.[19] In 2003, Q Magazine ranked it at number 609 in its list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever".[83] In 2005, the song was placed at number 401 on Blender's "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".[84] On Slant Magazine's list of the best singles of the 1990s, in which "Ray of Light" was placed 16th, a reviewer wrote that the song's "beat is restless", and that "Ray of Light" is "a standout single" due to its "emotional warmth".[19] Pichfork ranked the track as the 55th best song of the 1990s, describing it as "a Kabbalah-coded ode to divine femininity with a racing pulse, "Ray of Light" is body music for the embodied consciousness."[85] Billboard placed it at number five on their ranking of Madonna's best songs, saying that it "marked a new chapter in her illustrious career".[86] In another ranking for the singer's 50 Greatest Songs by Rolling Stone, "Ray of Light" attained a rank of number eight, with a writer from the magazine noting Madonna's "most powerfully sung vocals to date".[20] In May 2018, Billboard ranked the top songs of 1998, ranking "Ray of Light" at number nine. Joe Lynch from the publication asserted that the composition "gave radio its most joyous, ebullient and life-affirming dance banger... Yeah, the cool kids had been raving for years, but it took a trendsetting 39-year-old mom to crack open the top 40 for what was then called electronica's eventual pop takeover."[87] One month later, The Guardian listed it as Madonna's fourth best single.[34] Similarly, Entertainment Weekly listed it as her fifth greatest single.[88]
The music video received a total of eight MTV Video Music Awards nominations in 1998, eventually winning five; for Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Choreography, becoming her most-winning song at the show.[89] It was the first time that the singer won the Video of the Year award; Madonna said she was grateful for MTV's recognition of the clip.[63] At the International Dance Music Awards, it won the trophy for Best Dance Video,[90] and at the Much Music Video Awards, the clip won the Best International Video trophy.[91] Other awards was won at the 1998 Music Video Production Association ceremony, winning the category of Best Pop Video of the Year.[92] The video came atop a ranking of "The Top 10 Videos That Broke The Rules", issued by MTV on the channel's 25th anniversary in August 2006.[93] In 2016, Rolling Stone listed it at position two on their ranking of "Madonna's 20 Greatest Videos" with Bilge Ebiri from the publication calling it a "bold embrace of electronica that got Madonna her due at the VMAs".[64]
Credits and personnel adapted from the Ray of Light album liner notes.[132]