The best bit of Hung Up - Madonna

You could argue it's 'every little thing'

Overture

Hello again! Happy nearly-Easter, everyone? How’s all your Easter smalltalk going? GOT YOUR EGG YET?

But what (musical) news? Since we last chatted, we’ve had the Glastonbury headliners announced (it is certainly a line-up of musical acts, let’s just say that!) the unveiling of our UK Eurovision entry (I like it! Will it win? No) and I know it was a few weeks ago now but surely we’re all still thinking about…

The actual fuck?

Insane to think that The Madonna and The Kylie Minogue haven’t crossed paths before - and now they do so in their most powerful of forms: Madonna while on her ultimate legacy tour and Kylie, post-Padam. Not to be dramatic, but I feel like something’s ruptured in the universe since this event occurred. Everything is going to be OK now. Sure, it hasn’t materialised so far whatsoever, but these things take time. The Kydonna energy forcefield has begun – buy a lottery ticket!

To celebrate this new turning point in the universe, it’s only fair that we turn to Her Madgesty for today’s track. Talking about THE popstar’s most iconic reinvention on the weekend of Jesus’s very own big comeback moment? It just feels correct.

Today’s song | Hung Up - Madonna

I’ve been putting off doing Madonna because, eurgh, it’s Madonna! How could I ever pick between my hundreds and thousands of children? How dare I try and dissect this goddess’s extensive body of work? But there is no rule here that we can’t discuss multiple songs by one artist, so don’t worry everyone. We will eventually cover Die Another Day.

This time around, we focus on another pop Frankenstein’s Monster (I just love ‘em! Mary Shell-slay!) not too dissimilar to the synthy miracle of Sugababes’ Freak Like Me.  It’s Hung Up!!! Yes, this is the ABBA/Madonna mash-up from 2005 that started off a whole new regeneration for Madonna (her much-required leotard/disco/feathered bangs era) and once again revolutionised our dancefloors just like she did in the 80s, 90s and continues to do so to this present day. Hey, if anyone is gonna end up avoiding the cruel spectre of death and maintaining conscious thought on this earthly plain until the end of time, it’s gotta be our Madge, right?

Hung Up is a mad song when you think about it, stuffed with influences beyond the iconic ABBA sample, making for a pop DNA experiment with mindblowing results. The song proved that once again, Madonna’s relevance in the pop industry, no matter what age, was transcendent. Also, this song has a really long Wikipedia page, so you know it’s the good stuff.

The (whole lotta) history

Hung Up was the lead single from Madonna’s tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dancefloor, touching our souls in October, 2005. Created in collaboration with UK musician/producer Stuart Price, this was actually supposed to be part of a Luc Besson musical Madonna was working on, which sadly never came to be. Oh, to be alive in the Madonna/Luc Besson musical parallel universe. I can full recommend this Song Exploder episode where they fully get into all of this.

It had only been two short years since Madonna’s last album, American Life, (of ‘I’m drinking a soy latte, I get a double shot-ay’ rap fame) but Confessions on a Dancefloor immediately felt like a complete 360. With a new Farrah Fawcett haircut and probably a lot of advanced Pilate classes, our Madge was reborn in the doorway of a dingy nightclub, with an album full of 70s and 80s-inspired disco delights. The Pet Shop Boys, Donna Summer and the Bee Gees are all there, reflected inside the glass of that mirror-ball. But Hung Up went all in: providing one of my favourite ever samples (and also one of my favourite songs using a bracket) – Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) from ABBA in 1979.

Who can blame Madonna for wanting this glorious song, with this seismic opener as the ice-breaker for her next era? For this euphoric instrumental synthesizer moment lives deep in the recesses of many music fans’ hearts. Who among us hasn’t ‘doodaloo-doo-do-doooooo’ed’ at some point in their lives?

But it wasn’t going to be easy! Our Swedish pop deities don’t dish out their music willy-nilly, with even the likes of 𝓜𝓪𝓭𝓸𝓷𝓷𝓪 having to send ‘her emissary’ out to Stockholm with a begging letter to use the track. What in the James Bond? But thankfully, songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are no fools: they ‘admire Madonna so much’ obv! But they were sure to get in a significant portion of royalties when they finally said yes. Payout deserved, tbqph.

The perfect moment

Okay, here’s the thing. This song is *incredible*. It’s also very generous, coming in at a healthy 5 minutes, 37 seconds, with plenty of delicious auditory morsels for us mere mortals to chew up. Now, there are only two ways to truly know if a song is hitting as many nerve endings as possible: 1) at the gym or 2) drunk. So, on the treadmill yesterday with a bottle of Gordon’s in hand, I made my final decision.

You think the song is over! You think it’s about to fade out! But no!!!

After such a deluxe pop experience playing with that god-tier sample, we thought we were done. The clock ticking, the iconic “time goes by, so slowly…” vocal, the “don’t cry for me” (Argentina?!) hark-back, the repetition of “waiting for your call”… this is a giant Scooby Doo sandwich of a track, boasting such layers and depth. Surely there couldn’t be more?

And then, much like Madonna herself, resurrecting herself time and time again, the track comes back to life after what I can only describe as feeling like the sample has been plunged underwater. In the music video, this is the gyrating-in-slow-motion interlude. It’s like musical parenthesis - a time-out moment in the song for you to gather yourself or lose yourself, depending on preference. Maybe it’s all a big nod to that iconic bracket in the original ABBA song title. Or maybe I’ve been thinking about this for too long.

But srsly, this disco intermission could represent so many things: maybe you’re getting off with someone, maybe you’ve peaked on the dancefloor at your most euphoric high, or maybe you’re having a quiet moment in the loo because you’ve Jägerbombed too hard - listening to the throbbing, muffled beat of the music from the other room while you contemplate being sick. Whatever it means, this powerful moment of pop reflection cuts deep, that rhythm is carved into your mind permanently. We have always been warned that the rhythm’s gonna get you: it did!

Then the “time goes by…” motif kicks back in, and the volume on the synthesisers begins turning up for one last hurrah. We can’t believe it! We get an extra minute-and-a-half of song! Madonna’s back! And WE are back.

One moment in time

In the original Gimme, Gimme, Gimme song, ABBA choose “HALF PAST TWEEEELVE” as their late-night siren. For Madonna in Hung Up, it’s quarter to two when she’s attempting a failed booty call. What other iconic time stamps in music can you think of? The Arctic Monkeys were leaving ‘multiple miscalls’ at ‘three in the morning’ in Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High. Busted were also calling at 3am (same phone call?) - but perhaps the most specific time stamp award goes to Mariah Carey in Babydoll: “it’s 2:11 and I’m stressing!”

Final pop ponderings

What we love about Madonna is she’s never afraid to try new things, no matter what era. Sometimes they work magnificently, sometimes she gets a grill. Either way, we’ll always love her: our guiding light for so many generations. Kinda like in Everything, Everywhere All At Once where the characters pull their skills from different versions of themselves in different timelines, Madonna is the ultimate pop version of that. This particular metamorphosis, armed with a hard-to-acquire ABBA sample and a now-legendary pink leotard, occurred when Madge was 47. And we’ve had so many different Madonnas since then. After all, time goes by so slowly for those who wait: so soak up every little thing that she says and does!

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PS: For more on Hung Up, The Truth About Everything Substack has a cracking entry on the matter too. It’s important that everyone has a Substack post on this song, tbqph.