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Madonna · S8 E6
Hung Up
ABBA gave no one permission to sample them. Then she asked — and what happened at radio changed everything.
A radio station in Tokyo, October 2005. "Hung Up" has been number one for three weeks straight, and the program director realizes the same thing is happening in London, Paris, Sydney, São Paulo, and 36 other countries simultaneously.
"Turn Up the Radio" (2012). Seven years after "Hung Up" conquers global radio, Madonna makes another song about the pure, unthinking joy of hearing the right track at the right moment. The video captures the energy of dancing without agenda, which is the exact sensation that made "Hung Up" the biggest international single of her career.
The Biggest Single
"Hung Up" reaches number one in over 40 countries, more than any other Madonna single before or since. The ABBA sample that Benny and Björn almost never approved becomes the most recognizable synth riff of 2005. At 47 years old, Madonna is not competing with younger artists. She is outselling them.
“We said we would have to listen to it first, but after half a minute I knew it was brilliant.”
— Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, on hearing Madonna's "Hung Up" sample
Turn Up the Radio, Madonna (2012)
"Turn Up the Radio" is built on a driving Eurodance beat that owes everything to the sound Stuart Price perfected on Confessions. The production layers synths and handclaps into a wall of sound designed for car stereos and open windows. Listen for how the chorus opens up into pure space, as if the song is trying to fill an entire highway. It is the spiritual sequel to "Hung Up": another Madonna track that exists only to make you forget everything except the beat.
TAP TO REVEAL: How many countries did "Hung Up" reach number one in?
Olympic Stadium, Rome
The Confessions Tour plays here in August 2006, within sight of Vatican City. Madonna performs "Live to Tell" suspended from a mirrored cross, and Cardinal Ersilio Tonini calls it a "scandal created on purpose." The show sells out. The Vatican's protest only makes the tickets more valuable.
Hung Up & The Confessions Tour
How High
From Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). A deep cut that captures the dizzy, euphoric energy of the Confessions era better than any single. "How High" asks how far you can go, how much you can take, how long you can keep dancing before the floor gives out. It is the question "Hung Up" never bothers to answer because it is too busy moving. On an album designed as one continuous mix, this track is the peak where everything feels weightless.
How High, Madonna (2005)
Read the lyrics while you listen. The song is about pushing past limits, and on an album where every track bleeds into the next without a break, the sentiment is literal. You cannot stop. The beat will not let you.
What Guinness World Record did "Hung Up" set upon its release?
In October 2006, Madonna flies to Malawi and visits an orphanage in the town of Mchinji. She meets a thirteen-month-old boy named David Banda, and the adoption that follows will trigger a global debate about celebrity, wealth, and who gets to be a parent.
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