TWENTY YEARS ago, on February 22, 1998, arguably the greatest pop album of all time was released. Ray Of Light was Madonna’s seventh studio album after 15 years of pop hits, controversy, crucifixes, the Sex book and the birth of her daughter, Lourdes. Produced, mainly, by William Orbit it topped album charts around the world and remade Madonna’s career in its second decade as a yogaposing, Kabbalah-studying yummy mummy.
What made it so special? This was not a record you skipped through to get to the hits. You played it in its entirety because there was a story of empowerment being told by the world’s most famous woman. She admonished celebrity (Drowned World), celebrated the birth of her daughter (Little Star), explored Jewish mysticism (Shanti/Ashtangi), questioned world politics and the recent murder of her buddy, Gianni Versace (Swim), touched on gender fluidity (Candy Perfume Girl) and even tossed in a cathartic self-help ballad, The Power Of Good-bye.