American Life

Untitled

American Life is the ninth studio album and sixteenth recording by Madonna, released in 2003 (see 2003 in music).

Album information

American Life is considered to be one of Madonna's riskiest albums both artistically and commercially. Songs on the album are a mix of acoustic and techno music. The lyrics are about her coming to terms with her fame, her own life, and the illusion fame and fortune give you, and that love, over matter, is what brings fulfillment. Mirwais Ahmadzaï (who produced her 2000 hit album Music) came back on board to produce it.

The album suffered commercially, in part, due to controversy over its single, "American Life". The video for the single was filmed in the run up to the second Iraq War, and its content was deemed "unpatriotic" by early reports. This was quickly picked up in the media, which gave the impression that the album was anti-American in content. This was controversial amongst Madonna fans since she is known to never back down. With the pull out of this video - it seems that she was forced to do something she is known to not do: give in.

Madonna decided to withdraw the video, and issued the following statement:

I have decided not to release my new video. It was filmed before the war started and I do not believe it is appropriate to air it at this time. Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video.

Receiving mixed critical review but never fully embraced by the public, American Life posted the lowest sales of any Madonna album to date both in the US and worldwide - reaching 666,000 copies sold as of July 2006 in the U.S., compared against the three million copies sold of its 2000 predecessor Music in the US. American Life did debut at number one on the Billboard 200, however. It was her second consecutive album to do so, and her sixth #1 overall. The album also shifted 330,000 copies in the UK, and just under 3.5 million world-wide [1].

Album sales aside, American Life was a success on the U.S. club scene. It is the only album in history to provide seven top-ten hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

The album did better in countries which did not support the Iraq war, especially in France where the album reached number 1 and sold more than 500,000 copies.

Seven songs from the album were performed as part of Madonna's hugely successful Re-Invention Tour; Nobody Knows Me, American Life, Hollywood, Die Another Day, Nothing Fails, Mother And Father, the last of which including a sample of Intervention.

Despite the fact that American Life posted the lowest sales of a studio album of her career, Madonna has stated that it is one of her favorite records.

Singles

#	Title	Date
1.	"American Life"	April 2003
2.	"Hollywood"	July 2003
3.	"Nothing Fails"	December 2003
4.	"Love Profusion"	December 2003 (Europe/Australia), March 2004 (North America)

Track listing

#	Title	Time
1.	"American Life" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:58
2.	"Hollywood" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:24
3.	"I'm So Stupid" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:09
4.	"Love Profusion" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	3:38
5.	"Nobody Knows Me" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:39
6.	"Nothing Fails" (Jem, Madonna, Sigsworth)	4:49
7.	"Intervention" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:54
8.	"X-Static Process" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	3:50
9.	"Mother and Father" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:33
10.	"Die Another Day" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)	4:38
11.	"Easy Ride" (Madonna, Pittman)	5:07

Recording process

Madonna started recording American Life in late 2001 after filming Swept Away with her husband Guy Ritchie in Europe. While recording the album in London, England, Madonna was also working on other projects such as her West-End appearance in the play Up For Grabs, which put the recording of the album on hold from May to July 2002. Madonna also did some more film work, filming her cameo-appearance in 2002 for the James Bond film Die Another Day.

Recording of the album was finished in London and Los Angeles in late 2002. Recording for the album was carried out at Sarm West Studios, Sony Music Studios UK (no longer operating), and Olympic Studios, among others. Mixing took place at Olympic Studios, as well as at studios in the USA.

Collaboration

American Life saw Madonna collaborate again with Music producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï, with whom she co-wrote and produced most of the songs on the album. Ahmadzaï is also credited for doing most of the programming and guitar-play on the album.

Madonna also collaborates again with Guy Sigsworth, with whom she had worked on Music. Madonna co-wrote the track "Nothing Fails" with him and British singer-songwriter Jem Griffiths. Sigsworth previously worked with Madonna on "What It Feels Like For A Girl."

Michel Colombier also collaborated with Madonna, after he previously worked with her on some of the string-arrangements on Music and "Die Another Day." Colombier is responsible for all the string-arrangements on American Life and conducted "Easy Ride", "Nothing Fails" and "Die Another Day".

Two new collaborators also worked on the album. Stuart Price, with whom Madonna would later work in 2005 on her album Confessions on a Dancefloor co-wrote the song "X-Static Process" and Monte Pittman co-wrote "Easy Ride". Both musicians had previously worked with Madonna on her "Drowned World Tour" in 2001.

Title, cover and direction

Hearst posing for a Symbionese Liberation Army picture

One of the first rumoured titles of the album was Ein Sof, which Madonna had mentioned in an interview with Larry King in October 2002 during the promotion for Swept Away. "Ein Sof" is hebrew and means "no end". In early 2003 is was revealed that the working title for the album was Hollywood (a song on the album) until the final title American Life was confirmed on February 10, 2003.

In mid-January 2003 in Los Angeles the photo shoot for the album was done by photographer Craig McDean. McDean had already worked with Madonna for the portfolio for Vanity Fair magazine in October 2002. According to unconfirmed reports the photo shoot cost $415,000. It had a military theme, with Madonna posing in dark greens and blacks, combat boots and with guns. Her hair was dyed dark brown and on the cover of the album Madonna is wearing a beret and is an almost copy of the famous image of revolutionary Che Guevara. Because of the paramilitary theme, the dyed hair and the artistic composition, some see a parallel between the album cover and the infamous news photo of kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

The French design-team M/M Paris were responsible for the artwork of American Life. M/M Paris is a partnership between Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak. The duo are perhaps best known for their collaborations with Icelandic pop singer Björk.

Downloads

To counter illegal internet downloads of the album's songs both before and after the album's release, Madonna's associates created a number of false song-files of similar length and size. Some of these files delivered a brief message from Madonna saying "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" followed by minutes of silence. Other dummy files included Madonna quasi-rapping, "Thought you'd sneak past me, didn't you? Thought you'd get by me, now didn't you?" and an endless loop of the line "I'm drinking a soy latte, I get a double shoté, it goes right through my body and you know I'm satisfied" from the track "American Life." Most of the songs could not be successfully downloaded because of these tracks.

Personnel

Madonna	vocals, electric guitar
Michel Colombier	conductor
The London Community Gospel Choir
Mirwais	acoustic guitar, background vocals
Stuart Price	piano

Production

Producers	Madonna, Mirwais, Mark "Spike" Stent
String engineer	George Foster
Assistant engineers	Rob Haggett, Tom Hannen, Jeff Kanan, Tim Lambert, Gabe Sganga, David Treahearn
Mastering	Tim Young
Programming	Mirwais
Choir arrangement	Nicky Brown
String arrangements	Michel Colombier
Photography	Craig McDean

Chart performance

Chart (2003)	Peak Position
Australia albums chart	3
Austria albums chart	1
Canada albums chart	1
Europe albums chart	1
Finland albums chart	2
France albums chart	1
Germany albums chart	1
Greece International albums chart	1
Hungary albums chart	3
Ireland (Éire) albums chart	1
Japanese albums chart	4
Mexico albums chart	1
New Zealand albums chart	2
Norway albums chart	1
Portugal albums chart	10
Spain albums chart	2
Sweden albums chart	1
Switzerland albums chart	1
Turkey albums chart	1
UK albums chart	1
USA Billboard 200	1
USA Billboard Top Internet Albums	1

Certifications

Country	Certification
Australia	Platinum
Austria	Gold
Belgium	Gold
Brazil	Platinum
Canada	Platinum
Europe	Platinum
France	Platinum
Germany	Platinum
Greece	Gold
Hungary	Gold
Italy	2x Platinum
Ireland	Platinum
Japan	Gold
Mexico	Platinum
Netherlands	Gold
Norway	Gold
Singapore	Gold
Slovakia	Gold
Spain	Gold
Sweden	Gold
Switzerland	Platinum
Thailand	Gold
UK	Platinum
USA	Platinum
Venezuela	Gold