"Sorry" is a song by American singer Madonna from her tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). The song was written and produced by both Madonna and Stuart Price. It was released to hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States as the second single from the album on February 6, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records. The song was later included on Madonna's compilation album, Celebration (2009). One of the first tracks developed for the album, it is a dance-pop and disco song, and lyrically talks about personal empowerment and self-sufficiency. For the single release, remixers such as Pet Shop Boys, Green Velvet, and Paul Oakenfold were enlisted to conceive remixes for the song.
Upon release, "Sorry" received positive reviews from music critics, who deemed it "catchy" and one of the strongest tracks on Confessions on a Dance Floor. Some critics also commented on the song's disco-influenced beats while comparing it to Madonna's older dance songs. The song achieved commercial success, topping the charts in Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, where it became Madonna's twelfth number one single. However, in the United States, the song only managed to reach number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart due to an underplay on radio; nonetheless, it reached the summit of the dance charts.
The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Jamie King and was a continuation from the "Hung Up" music video. It features Madonna and her dancers roaming around a city in a van, dancing on roller skates, and the singer fighting with a group of men in a cage. She performed the song on her 2006 Confessions Tour in a similar theme to that shown in the video. For the tour, an additional video was created as a backdrop for a remix of the track, which depicted political leaders, and scenes of war and destruction.
Background and release In 2004, after the release of her ninth studio album American Life (2003), Madonna began working on two different musicals: one tentatively called Hello Suckers and the other with Luc Besson, who previously directed the music video for her single "Love Profusion", which would portray her as a woman on her deathbed looking back on her life. Madonna collaborated with Patrick Leonard, Mirwais Ahmadzaï, and Stuart Price to write new songs, and told Price to pen material that sounded like "ABBA on drugs". However, Madonna found herself dissatisfied with the script written by Besson and scrapped it. As she was asked by her record company to compose a new studio album, the singer decided to go with a dance direction for the record, influenced by their work on the musicals.
"Sorry" was one of the first tracks developed for Confessions on a Dance Floor, along with lead single "Hung Up" and "Future Lovers". It was also the one which took the most time to finish because Madonna "thought it was too melodramatic and could never decide when it was right". The songs were developed with a remixed perspective in mind. Madonna commented, "Whenever I make records, I often like the remixes better than the original ones. [...] So I thought, screw that. I'm going to start from that perspective." She promoted the album at the dance party named "Misshapes", held at Luke & Leroy's nightclub in Greenwich Village, and was invited by Junior Sanchez to take over the DJ booth, where she mixed "Hung Up" with "Sorry".
"Sorry" was sent to hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States on February 6, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records as the second single from Confessions on a Dance Floor; the next day, it was released digitally on the region, as well as in the United Kingdom as an extended play featuring several remixes. The song eventually received a physical release in the UK on February 20, while in the US it was issued eight days later. The single cover was taken by Marcin Kokowski, a fan who photographed the singer during her concert at G-A-Y in 2005. She chose the picture among 80 pictures by several other photographers. Madonna later defined "Sorry" as one of her "most retarded songs" during an interview with Rolling Stone in 2009. It was later included on her compilation album, Celebration (2009).
Composition and remixes
"Sorry" was written and produced by both Madonna and Price. Musically, the track mixes dance-pop and disco in its composition. The song is set in common time with a moderately fast dance groove tempo of 132 beats per minute. Composed in the key of C minor, Madonna's vocal range spans from F3 to G4. It follows the chord progression of E–Cm–A–B during the spoken introduction. The range then changes to Fm–Gm-Cm in the chorus, while continuing in A–Cm–A–Fm in the intermediate verses, ultimately ending in repeated lines of "I've heard it all before". "Sorry" starts off with calm, ballad-esque strings, with Madonna apologizing in several languages, but "soon the pounding drums and '80s-inspired synths kick things into overdrive", as noted by Bianca Gracie from Billboard. Around the 2:44 minute mark, a "cracking noise, like a baseball hitting a bat" is heard, which was used in numerous Price productions, including his remix of Gwen Stefani's 2004 single "What You Waiting For?". A writer for Virgin Media website said that the song's musicscape features an "infectious combo of pumping, filtered synths and disco beats". Some reviewers also noted that the bassline of the song resembles the Jacksons' 1980 song "Can You Feel It".
Lyrically, the song talks about personal empowerment and self-sufficiency. This denoted a shift in focus of Madonna as an artist from her previous songs about supremacy, like "Everybody" (1982), "Vogue" (1990), and "Music" (2000), which were centered around the subject of music itself, as noted by Alan Light from Rolling Stone. According to Billboards Fred Sahai, the lyrics do not "ask for forgiveness, but rather rejects an apology: 'Please don't say you're sorry/I've heard it all before and I/Can take care of myself.'" On the chorus, Madonna sings "don't explain yourself 'cause talk is cheap, there's more important things than hearing you speak". Jude Rogers from The Guardian deemed the lyrics as "one of her most unforgiving, reprimanding a serial apologist", while author Lucy O'Brien in her book Madonna: Like an Icon (2007) speculated that the song was written after a row with her then-husband Guy Ritchie. Throughout the track, the singer speaks "I'm sorry", "Forgive me", and "I am sad" in a total of eight different languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi, Polish, and Japanese. While all other sentences were referring to someone apologizing, the Dutch sentence used - "Ik ben droevig" - roughly translates to "I am sad" and is a mistranslation, as it is not used to apologize. During an interview on AOL conducted by Red Hot Chili Peppers' vocalist Anthony Kiedis, Madonna justified the usage of other languages on the song by saying that "everything sounds better in another language".
For the single release, several remixers were enlisted to remix the track. English duo the Pet Shop Boys were one of them, as they were cited as one of the inspirations for Confessions on a Dance Floor; it consisted of additional vocals provided by member Neil Tennant saying "I'm sorry… so sorry" and "please forgive me". The duo and Madonna had always mutually admired each other, from the time they wrote the song "Heart" (1988) for Madonna but never delivered it. As Tennant had always wanted to sing a duet with Madonna, he added his own vocals to the song, to which she replied, "That was really cheeky of you but it worked." According to O'Brien on The Quietus, the remix "echoes Giorgio Moroder's work with Donna Summer on 'I Feel Love', where Summer's voice became the robot in the mix"; she also thought, "The Pet Shop Boys re-imagined her and in so doing created a disco classic." In another review for The Guardian, she wrote that the remix "brings out a whole new layer of meaning, emphasising the drama behind Madonna's words", also calling it "thunderous" and "my favorite remix ever". It was later included on Pet Shop Boys' remix album Disco 4 (2007). Other remixers included Green Velvet and Paul Oakenfold. On February 10, 2023, Madonna released a remix in collaboration with Blond:ish, Eran Hersh and Darmon. Following this, an two additional remixes featuring production from Miss Monique and Franky Rizardo were released on July 26, 2023, and August 2, 2023. The overall extended play for the Blondish remixes were released on Madonna's 65th birthday, on August 16, 2023. The EP includes Eran Hersh and Darmon's remix, alongside TIBASKO.
Critical reception Upon release, "Sorry" was met with positive responses from music critics. Jennifer Vineyard of MTV considered it the "album's strongest track" and that the song "wistfully evokes the sounds of the '80s-era dance clubs that first lofted her toward stardom". According to a review in the BBC's Collective, "New single 'Sorry' states Queen Madge's unapologetic stance, and though the song is wrapped up in relationship sentiment, one cannot help but hear the subtext, perhaps directed at her more savage critics: 'there are more important things than hearing you speak'." Alan Braidwood from BBC Music called the song "lethally catchy". While reviewing Confessions on a Dance Floor, Keith Caulfield from Billboard called the song "springy", and commented that it "should keep fans hung up on Madonna's ability to create instant radio and club classics", sounding "like a smash no matter how you spin it; no need for apologies here" in a separate review for the single. Ben Williams of New York magazine opined that the song is "propelled by a catchy bass melody". According to Stephen M. Deusner from Pitchfork, "The cascades of sound wash directly into 'Sorry', setting up the song's panlingual apologies and shifting bass tectonics." Alexis Petridis from The Guardian referred to the song's chorus as "triumphant", while Rolling Stones Alan Light classified it as "throbbing".
According to Slant Magazines Sal Cinquemani, "Sorry" was a "insanely catchy second single that’s destined to become a Madonna classic". Similarly, the staff of E! Online wrote it was "sure to be a future disco anthem". Joan Morgan from The Village Voice newspaper, in a review of Confessions on a Dance Floor, wrote: "The party continues admirably with the multilingual, kick-your-man-to-the-curb 'Sorry'." Jon Pareles of The New York Times felt that the first half of the album consists of love songs, happy and sad, and included "Sorry" into the mix. According to Caryn Ganz from Spin, Price transformed the track into a "bouncy talk-to-the-hand groovefest". Thomas Inksweep from Stylus Magazine commented that "Sorry" and "Hung Up" may not be as sleazy as Madonna's initial singles "Burning Up" (1983) or "Physical Attraction" (1983), but they have the same modus operandi of being designed for all-night dancing. Johnny Davis of Q magazine said "Sorry" is catchier than "Hung Up", while the staff of Herald Sun newspaper called it Madonna's "most popstatic single" since "Ray of Light" (1998) as well as "brilliant dance-influenced pop, this will be unavoidable once the album is released". Het Nieuwsblads Mark Coppens also complimented the song, calling it "fantastic" and "catchy, even though you could label it 'flat dance.'"