As far back as 1986 with True Blue‘s “Love Makes the World Go Round,” Madonna has been working toward crafting the perfect “unity” anthem. The one that speaks to the strength that comes through facing adversity as a united front, usually one populated by the marginalized. In terms of Madonna code, this typically speaks to gay men, a faction she’s had an arcane rapport with from the outset of her early development as an artist (including when she began as a dancer and Christopher Flynn was her mentor, the one who showed her a life outside of suburban Detroit in the underground of gay nightclubs). Though now, there are so many ungrateful twinks who simply want Ariana Grande on repeat, scarcely able to lift their heads from whatever app is finding them dick to take a moment and appreciate what the progenitor of pop culture did for them.
Her crusade for “the Gs” in the 80s and 90s was especially “avant-garde,” for lack of a better term, as the community was at its most stigmatized while the straight world accused them of being too diseased with AIDS to interact with–the lepers of the late twentieth century. But giving money from a distance was fine. Madonna did that and then some, holding the hand of Martin Burgoyne as his spirit left this world and honoring Keith Haring just a few months after his death in February of 1990 in a benefit concert during the Blond Ambition Tour on June 25th. Thus, it’s no great revelation that Madonna should comment on her latest single from Madame X, “I Rise,” that, “I wrote ‘I Rise’ as a way of giving a voice to all marginalized people who feel they don’t have the opportunity to speak their mind. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of Pride and I hope this song encourages all individuals to be who they are, to speak their minds and to love themselves.” It also helps that Madonna has well-timed the release of this track and the record itself (out June 14th) for the aforementioned fiftieth anniversary of Pride, which will kick off in June. As a newly named ambassador of beloved homo institution Stonewall Inn, her performance of this song in honor of Pride seems in the bag (even though God hates bags).
Its uplifting tone and lyrical content have taken decades for Madonna to finally perfect without being overly maudlin. The only reason “Love Makes the World Go Round” eked by as an anthemic song of peace was due to its context in the 80s, hence initially being performed a year before its official release on True Blue at the iconic Live Aid concert that took place in the dual locations of Wembley Arena in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. The first and only time she ever sang it, perhaps knowing that such a level of earnestness could only be “received” by the public at that exact moment. Speaking to the “cause” de la décennie–ending world hunger–Madonna wailed, “There’s hunger everywhere/We’ve got to take a stand/Reach out for someone’s hand/Love makes the world go round/It’s easy to forget/If you don’t hear the sound of pain and prejudice/Love makes the world go round.”
It would be quite some time before Madonna dabbled in the “benefit-tailored” track–nineteen years, to be precise. And it wasn’t her own song, so much as John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the end all, be all of “come together” anthems. Performed for Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope in 2004 (when the Indian Ocean earthquake occurred), Madonna sang a staid version of it for the twenty-first century iteration of what Bob Geldof hath wrought. Donald Trump was there, too. But then, when wasn’t he?
Apparently reingratiated to the benefit mindset that 2004 reminded her of, 2007 provided the twenty-first century version of Live Aid with Geldof’s new cause, climate change (never forget a Dick Cheney think tank rebranded that term from the ickier “global warming”). Hence, the name Live Earth. To tie in with the occasion, Madonna released the quickly forgotten “Hey You,” produced, bizarrely, by Pharrell Williams. Though the delivery was of an Evita-era caliber, many found it difficult to buy into lyrics like, “First love yourself then you can love someone else/Then you can change someone else/Then you have saved someone else.” She performed it but once as well, opening her set with it while backed by a children’s choir before transitioning into more noted bangers that included “Ray of Light,” “La Isla Bonita” and “Hung Up.” And then Madonna decidedly gave up on the “charity song” for good. That is, until now, in the guise of not making it about “charity.”
Of course, that’s precisely what it will become when the right moment presents itself (hint hint: Pride). Speaking in the sort of intonation of her “Causing A Commotion” meets “Unapologetic Bitch” “rap style,” Madonna sings, “There’s nothin’ you can do to me that hasn’t been done/Not bulletproof, shouldn’t have to run from a gun/River of tears ran dry, let ’em run/No game that you can play with me, I ain’t one.”
To drive home a certain point of surmounting harrowing obstacles, M extracts the key phrase from Emma González’s 2018 speech in response to the Parkland shooting: “Us kids don’t know what we’re talking about. That we’re too young to understand how the government works. We call BS!” The “BS” reverberating once more in the middle of the song for an added effect of hauntingness.
Madonna makes a greater attempt to personalize her message urging for peace and understanding via commencing with this soundbite, crafting it through the lens of her own long suffering in the face of particular prejudices (sexism and ageism, chiefly). Alluding to the many times she’s risen from the ashes of criticisms and “ill-advised” career moves, Madonna declares, “Died a thousand times/Managed to survive (I managed to survive)/I can’t break down now.” Going on to paraphrase a Jean-Paul Sartre quote she also used in “Freedom,” a scrapped demo from Rebel Heart, she insists, “Freedom’s what you choose to do with what’s been done to you.” Thus, in choosing to “rise up above it all,” Madonna has actually managed to create a viable “peacenik” anthem the likes of which hasn’t really happened since “Imagine.” Though Lady Gaga fans would argue it transpired with “Til It Happens To You.”
