A er Madonna’s pointedly political 2003 album, American Life failed to produce any hits, she decided to return to her happy-go-lucky pop roots. It was a move that produced one of her biggest hits ever, and a brand new mega-gay anthem.

Words by Conor Behan.

This summer the music of ABBA will be reimagined and celebrated once more with the release of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! The addition of Cher to the new Mamma Mia movie, offering up a new rendition of ‘Fernando’ will be the icing on a very camp cake and later this year fans can expect two brand new tracks from the Swedish pop legends.

In 2005. ABBA were the subject of another reimagining, one that would reignite the career of pop icon with similar status. That year Madonna debuted her ABBA-sampling single ‘Hung Up’, a floor-filler that soon became one of her biggest hits.

After middling reception to her 2003 album American Life, Madonna was ready to embrace her dancefloor roots. The pointed political messages of the album didn’t work with Madonna’s pop image and it failed to produce hit singles, particularly in the US.

The following year saw Madonna undertake the ‘Re-Invention’ tour, film a documentary of said tour and start work on two musicals. The musicals didn’t come to pass but they did inspire the genesis of ‘Hung Up’. Madonna had worked with producer and DJ Stuart Price on a track on American Life. His background as DJ and remixer under the aliases Les Rhythm Digitales and Jacques Lu Cont meant he had the right sensibility to work on dance songs for the musicals.

One of those songs was ‘Hung Up’, which would inform the resulting album Confessions on a Dancefloor, the 2005 release that had Madonna looking to the future of club music while grappling with her own past.

Talking to The Guardian, Madonna said that the pace of touring along with editing the documentary (now titled I’m Going To Tell You A Secret) inspired her to seek a new danceorientated direction. “I don’t want to repeat myself, so I moved to another area and that’s ‘God, I really feel like dancing right now’,” she confided. “It was too intense. It’s not just a reaction to what I was doing work-wise, but also a reaction to what was going on in the world. I just wanted some relief.”

Inspired by the disco-pop of both ABBA and Giorgio Moroder, Madonna and Price decided to throw in a very familiar sample to amp up ‘Hung Up’s’ impact. Taking the signature riff from ABBA’s ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ and melding it to ‘Hung Up’s’ insistent chorus and thumping production may have been a stroke of a genius, but it was not an easy sample to clear.

“I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record, begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music,” Madonna told Attitude magazine. “They had to think about it, Benny and Björn, they didn’t say yes right away. They never let anyone sample their music. They could have said no. Thank God they didn’t.”

In an interview with the Telegraph in 2005, Benny Andersson said it was only the second time they’d allowed a sample. “We said ‘yes’ this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done,” he revealed. The fact that Andersson and his ABBA band-mate Bjorn Ulvaeus would net a hefty royalty payment for the sample probably didn’t hurt.

With a belter of a pop song in the can, the Madonna hypemachine kicked off in full force. A November release was scheduled for the album, with ‘Hung Up’ pencilled in for release a month earlier.

In August Madonna fell off a horse while riding around her English country estate, sustaining three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a broken hand. Despite these injuries she moved forward. Weeks after the accident she filmed the video for ‘Hung Up’, writhing around in a disco-inspired leotard. In an interview with MTV the video’s director Johan Renck said: “She’d take a break and sit down for two minutes. ‘I have broken ribs, remember that!’ I just can’t imagine dancing like that. Talk about priorities.”

While filled with young dancers and of-the-moment

styling ‘Hung Up’s’ video was a gleeful homage to the kind of camp often derided by the mainstream but catnip to queer audiences. From Madonna’s bouncy Farrah Fawcett hair-do to the pink leotard, it signified a sense of fun that was sometimes missing from the Queen of Pop’s music. She played intimate live shows for the album, including London’s G-A-Y and made surprise appearances at clubs to DJ alongside Stuart Price.

For Madonna’s legions of gay fans it felt like a coming home of sorts to the giddy rush of great pop music, something that had made her the biggest star in the world and one of the few to speak up for queer fans when it wasn’t always trendy. With many of her close friends dying in the middle of the AIDS crisis in the ’80s, Madonna had put her weight behind fundraising events and included safe-sex literature in her album sleeves. She had soundtracked the lives of LGBT people and defended them at a time when everyone else was looking the other way. When she found her past self by reclaiming the dancefloor with ‘Hung Up’, it struck a deep chord with her queer fans.

This return to her roots worked to dizzying effect. ‘Hung Up’ topped the charts in 41 countries and sold over nine million copies, while ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ sold ten million. Madonna had bounced back from a previous flop, showing the power of a solid pop tune mixed with queer flavour, and the enduring appeal of ABBA.

“ ABBA never let anyone sample their music. They could have said no. Thank God they didn’t.

The Verdict

Janelle Monaé’s new direction

Only three albums into her career, Janelle Monaé has positioned herself as a critical darling and an alternative artist edging further and further into the mainstream. Since her previous album The Electric Lady, Monaé has won praise for her acting roles in Hidden Figures and Moonlight, and has caught the eye of the world on the red carpet.

Dirty Computer riffs on themes that have always typified her work, while feeling more personal and intimate. Embracing a pop sensibility alongside forward-thinking production, Monaé crafts an album that feels confident and fresh, and undeniably catchy. ‘Pynk’ is a joyful and delicate ode to female sexuality, ‘Screwed’ sees Zoe Kravitz join Monaé for an earworm of a song that’s utterly nihilistic, while ‘So Afraid’ is an introspective moment that stays with you.

It would be easy to be cynical about Monaé’s foray into a more pop-orientated direction, but while Dirty Computer offers up a more immediate take on her signature sound, it feels more personal and direct than ever. Monaé told Rolling Stone she wanted this album to be for “queer people who are having a hard time dealing with their sexuality, dealing with feeling ostracised or bullied for just being their unique selves to know that I see you. This album is for you. Be proud.” After even one listen, it’s hard to deny that Monaé has succeeded.