In what still remains one of Madonna’s less loved and remembered photo sessions in promotion of a record, the motif of 2008’s Hard Candy is surprisingly all over the video for Ellie Goulding’s latest single from Brightest Blue, “Love I’m Given.” With the Hard Candy album cover set against the red and white backdrop of a giant plastic-wrapped lollipop, M appeared in front of it in full boxing regalia. Carrying that concept in her photoshoot to a video filmed by Tom Munro for her Sticky & Sweet Tour (which kicked off in ‘08 and extended into ‘09) that would serve as the “Die Another Day” interlude, many of the scenes echo the aesthetic Goulding presents in “Love I’m Given.”
With interspersed, “flashing”-like images of Goulding in the boxing ring in between moments of her in a shimmering gown, the intent of the song to get across a message that beneath every seeming “delicate flower” is a fighter (Christina Aguilera really missed an opportunity to do something with boxing in her “Fighter” video, by the way) and a champion is, indeed, successful.
Considering the track is about having a newfound respect for yourself and, therefore, the type of person you attract (a.k.a. not a dickhead who’s going to treat you like shit), the boxing theme makes sense when punctuated against lyrics like, “And maybe I’m paying for the things I’ve done/And maybe I’m paying for the ones I’ve hurt/But I feel a change in the love I’m given/I’m turning the page on my indecision.” Evincing the image of a supportive coach in the corner of the ring, Goulding wields it as a metaphor for a romantic partner that displays the same support and devotion no matter how dire things get in the ring of a relationship.
A barrage of sweaty, combating bodies are cut in with Goulding’s own fight and, in between, she also finds time to appear in a gold, boxing robe-like dress that’s so long she can lie down on it. As though it’s her reward for making it through the pugilistic scuffle that is self-discovery. Rising up in said ensemble, we see Goulding in a room with water as its floor. That water–also indicative of the river of sweat that pours from one’s body (see: Raging Bull and, for another Madonna tie-in, Snatch)–is seemingly baptismal in terms of the rebirth Goulding is alluding to in her lyrics (e.g. “I’m still on fire from all the times I tried to climb higher and higher/But you put me in the water now, I drown in desire/For all the things you make me feel/You make me feel better, you make me feel better”).
Because, so often, finding one’s self-esteem and worth is tantamount to finding God. It’s, to be sure, a near religious awakening. Madonna was already aware of hers long ago, hence her own use of the boxer trope as a means to evoke her fighting spirit (which is also, incidentally, the title of a bonus track she put on Confessions on a Dance Floor). The fighting spirit she also wielded as a boxing metaphor when choosing to feature Mike Tyson on her 2015 track, “Iconic,” and when she sang, “If I was a fighter, I’d be Cassius Clay” on another unreleased track from COADF called “Super Pop.”
Whether or not Goulding took inspiration intentionally from the pop star’s “I coulda been a contender” Hard Candy epoch is irrelevant, for it is undeniably steeped within the visuals of this video.
