In February 2014, Madonna announced that she had begun working on her thirteenth studio album, saying "I'm right now in the process of talking to various co-writers and producers and talking about where I want to go with my music".[1] By the next month she started posting a number of images on social media website Instagram, where she hinted at possible songwriters and collaborators with hashtag captions. Two months later, Madonna posted a selfie where she talked about working with American DJ Diplo.[2] Madonna had invited him to her annual Oscar party, but he was unable to attend. They eventually started talking about music through texts and decided to collaborate on the album.[3] In an interview with Idolator, Diplo explained that Madonna had asked him to provide his "craziest record" for the album. Together they wrote and recorded seven songs and Diplo added that "[Madonna] was up for anything. I love when an artist gives a producer the confidence he needs to work with them, and [she] was very open-minded to my ideas. Those records are gonna be crazy-sounding. We really pushed the envelope with some of the stuff we were doing."[4]
On December 17, 2014, Billboard reported that the demo version of "Bitch I'm Madonna" had leaked onto the Internet, alongside the other twelve demo recordings for Madonna's then untitled thirteenth studio album.[11] An aggravated Madonna clarified that the songs were demo versions from earlier recordings; she compared the leak to that of "artistic rape".[12][13] She was subsequently criticized for referring to the hack as "terrorism" in the wake of the Peshawar school attack and Sydney hostage crisis.[14] On December 20, 2014, the album became available for pre-order on iTunes Store. When ordered, six tracks including "Bitch I'm Madonna" were available for digital download. Madonna stated that the songs were meant to be "an early Christmas gift" with the final release in March 2015.[15]
Run Raja Run [2014 – FLAC]
In the United Kingdom, Alan Jones from Music Week reported that following the release of the music video, there was a sales surge for "Bitch I'm Madonna", which sold 1,667 copies (up from 148 copies of previous week); however, it was not able to chart within the top 200 positions of the UK Singles Chart.[57] In France, the song debuted at number 90 on the French Singles Chart the week of December 27, 2014, following the advanced release of the album's six tracks for pre-order on iTunes. Later, it fell to number 135, before dropping off the chart. The song re-entered at number 104 when the music video was released, and fell to number 149 the following week.[58] In Spain, the song also debuted with the advanced release, reaching number 49.[59]
Christopher Rosa from VH1 criticized the fact that none of the female singers apart from Rita Ora were actually present on set during shooting of the video; their parts were filmed separately. He added that it was "pretty hilarious. Madge's clip is called, 'Bitch I'm Madonna', but why couldn't she get these youths to show the eff up?"[87] Writing for Life & Style magazine, Chantal Waldholtz was disappointed with the clip, calling it "lackluster" due to the short cameo appearances.[88] Kevin Fallon from The Daily Beast called the video "pathetic and sad" and questioned the inclusion of guest stars like Swift's video, ultimately describing the whole affair as "absolutely pointless. At worst, it's desperate. At best, it's just dumb ... [The video] is a fascinating mix of impressive and sad, both aggressively relevant and therefore wholly irrelevant at the same time." He ended the review with one compliment about the single take in which the video was shot, comparing it to the 2014 black comedy film Birdman.[89] 2ff7e9595c
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