Ray of Light is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released in early 1998 by Maverick Records. A major stylistic and aesthetic departure from her previous work, Bedtime Stories, Ray of Light is an electronica and techno-pop record which incorporates multiple genres, including ambient, trip hop, psychedelic music and Middle Eastern music, while also seeing Madonna singing with greater breadth and a fuller tone. Mystical themes are also strongly present in both the music and lyrics, as a result of Madonna embracing Kabbalah, her study of Hinduism and Buddhism, and her daily practice of Ashtanga yoga.
Madonna wearing a red string, performing the album's opening track, "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", on the 2006 Confessions Tour
Madonna performing promotional single "Sky Fits Heaven", during the Drowned World Tour in 2001
Madonna performing the album's lead single "Frozen" on the Re-Invention World Tour in 2004.
Madonna performing "Ray of Light" during the 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour. The song won an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
Bedtime Stories (Madonna album)
Bedtime Stories is the sixth studio album by American singer Madonna, released on October 25, 1994, by Maverick and Sire Records. In 1992, Madonna released her fifth studio album Erotica, the coffee table book Sex, and starred in the erotic thriller Body of Evidence. Due to their sexually explicit nature, all three projects were negatively received by critics and fans alike, who felt the singer had "gone too far" and that her career was over. Madonna decided that she needed to soften her image if she wanted to regain her audience. The first attempt was the ballad "I'll Remember" from the soundtrack to the 1994 film With Honors, which gained positive critics and reached the second spot of the Billboard Hot 100. For her sixth studio album, Madonna decided to incorporate R&B elements, and collaborated with Babyface, Dallas Austin, and Dave Hall. She also chose to explore the British club musical scene, where genres such as dub had been growing in popularity, and hired producer Nellee Hooper.
Rapper Meshell Ndegeocello (pictured in 2016) played bass and provided her vocals on the album's third track, "I'd Rather Be Your Lover".
Madonna performing "Take a Bow" on one of the Taipei concerts of 2015–2016's Rebel Heart Tour. Released as Bedtime Stories' second single, it's her longest-running number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Madonna singing title track and third single "Bedtime Story" on the Celebration Tour (2023—2024). The song reached the top-five of the UK Singles Chart.
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