Hollywood (song)
Categories: 2003 singles | Madonna singles | Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play number-one singles
| "Hollywood" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Image:Hollywood (single).jpg | ||
| Single by Madonna | ||
| From the album American Life | ||
| Released | July 2003 | |
| Format | CD maxi Single 12" maxi single | |
| Recorded | 2003 | |
| Length | 4:25 | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Label | Maverick Warner Bros. | |
| Writers | Madonna Mirwais Ahmadzaï | |
| Producers | Madonna Mirwais Ahmadzaï | |
| Madonna singles chronology | ||
| "American Life" (2003) | "Hollywood" (2003) | "Nobody Knows Me" (2003) |
"Hollywood" is the second single from Madonna's 16th album American Life Released in 2003, the single failed to chart becoming the first single in 20 years at that point to not chart.
Song information
The song was the follow up to the single "American Life". But it suffered from the anti-war message that the song's original video had displayed. "Hollywood" became Madonna's first single to miss the Billboard Hot 100 since she first appeared on to the chart twenty years prior with "Holiday." "Hollywood" was released as the second "American Life" single on July 7th, 2003 in Europe and on July 8th in the United States.
The single featured remixes by Jacques Lu Cont, The Micronauts, Paul Oakenfold, Deepsky and Victor Calderone. In an interview, Madonna said of the song: "This song is like a metaphor for me. It's the city of dreams and superficiality. It's the place where you forget about the really interesting things in life. In Hollywood, you can lose your memory and your vision of the future. You can lose everything because you can lose yourself."
Chart performance
"Hollywood" failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States;it did manage some minimal pop and adult top 40 airplay. The song could have managed a week or two at the bottom of the Hot 100 had the single release been a little more timely.
Music video
The video dealt with the often shallow world of Hollywood. The video also features Madonna receiving botox shots, now a symbol for the superficiality of the celebrity set. The video was based around recreations of the photographs of Guy Bourdin.
Guy Bourdin's son didn't consider the video to be homage, but rather stealing, and sued Madonna for using the images by his father without permission. Although Madonna has frequently appropriated the work of other artists in her music videos without legal trouble, in this case she reportedly settled the lawsuit with a $600,000 pay out.