After a long period without recording any new song (Madonna didn't record any studio song sincre her Music album, and that was in the early 2000), Madonna brings us Die Another Day, another Mirwais production. As all the fans can guess, the song has almost the same sound as the last project she had, Music. Using auto-tune (brought to popular music by Cher in her Believe album), as in other songs like Impressive Instant or Nobody's Perfect, and some rhythm cuts as in Don't Tell Me.
Without any doubt this is a techno song, really catchy, and doesn't get out of your head easily.
People responsible for the James Bond movies had been many years trying to convince Madonna to make the title track for one of the Bond's films, one of the most famous saga's in cinema. Madonna has finally decided to do it in the 20th Bond anniversary, just the same as her 20th anniversary in the music world (is it a coincidence?). But Madonna has made something completely different to any othe Bond song ever written. This song has made her receive some hard bad critics by many people. One of them is David Arnold, composer of the score of the same movie (and the last 4 Bond movies), saying that this is the worst song ever written for a James Bond film. Even some known Madonna friends, as Elton John, support this kind of critics, saying that Die Another Day is tuneless. We personally think that making a 'tuneless' song like this sound so cool takes double effort. In fact, the only part of the song that follows the typical Bond line is the string arrangement composed by Michael Colombier (who had previously worked with Madonna in her album Music and in the Swept Away soundtrack). Madonna said she got the inspiration for the lyrics in the film itself, talking about destroying your ego.
The story of this song begins in summer of 2002, when some rumours said that Madonna was about to record the next Bond title song, and was in negotiations for it. Many things were said by the time, even that the song was going to be a cover of the famous song Can't You See My Mind, and that she was forced to add the film title to the lyrics.
Some radio stations began to air the song Revenge (a demo recorded for the Ray Of Light album) saying that this song was the next Madonna release. The truth is that we couldn't hear anything until early September, when a 36 second clip hit the internet. It was just the beginning of the song, without Madonna's vocals. A couple of weeks later, one of the assistants working in the video set of Die Another Day, could record the song with a small recorder, through a wall, and was soon all over the net. That sounded to anything but the final version, it was a very bad quality recording.
Finally, on September 27th, the internet radio station Z100 aired the song, although the official date for the song premiere was on October 8th, but the radio version was already on the stations. The single was released on October 28th.
The song appears in the movie in the beginning titles (we all remember that the bond titles are always beautifully spectacular), an intrumental dance version can be heard in a party that takes place in an ice palace (at the middle of the film), and in the closing titles with the Dirty Vegas remix version. Madonna has not only written and sung the title song of the movie, but also has appeared on it with a very small cameo. She played the role of Verity, a lesbian fencing instructor. The main female role wasn't offered to her, although some newspapers had said it was.
Die Another Day has been remixed by a group of the best Dj's nowadays (but if we have to be sincere, none of them can reach the excellent production and sound of the normal version, already dancing and catchy): Dirty Vegas, J.Scott G. and Jason Blum, Da Housecat, Thunderpuss and Brother Brown, not including the remixes made by Victor Calderone and Junior Vazquez.
Many rumours have said Madonna was to perform this song live, but it has come to be untrue. Some said she was going to sing it in the 2002 MTV European Video Music Awards, and in the London Premiere of the film (we can't imagine Madonna performing in front of the Queen of England)
The only chance we still have to see Madonna performing this cool song live is the nomination for the best song in the Oscars, and she would have the chance to win one, as You Must Love Me and Sooner Or Later were written by other people.
Maybe Die Another Day is some kind of advance of what her next album will be. Although this album is recorded, it won't be released until early 2003. We only want her to change a little bit, and not to do another album with the same Music sound (Madonna, none of your albums sounds the same as another, analyze this).

In 1992, the critics were very hard to the sexual content Madonna added to all she did, they said she was obsessed with sex. Then Madonna said that they didn't have to scandal because of something as natural as sex, and then they weren't offended by the violence shown in TV and cinema. That really was a bad thing to show.
But a decade after that, Madonna has used violence in many of her works, maybe forgetting what she had said, maybe using it as another strategy for success. This brings her loads of attention. Here are some examples: her What It Feel Like For A Girl video was banned by MTV for its violent content, the Star ad she made with Guy Ritchie for BMW, the Drowned World Tour (manga scenes, she shots her opponent, lots of fighting, the images being abused…), and finally Swept Away (the male character slaps her in the face). The last censored images have been the ones for the Die Another Day video, the bloody and cut scenes have been treated and the blood was deleted.

The Die Another Day video is inspired in the same title movie (even some scenes are exactly the same as in the film). But Madonna has added a couple of elements taken from the jew-christian religion. This isn't new for Madonna, shall we remember many of other videos with religious iconography?

The tattoo Madonna has in her shoulder is the same symbol appearing in the electric chair at the end of the video. There are three hebrew letters called 'Lamed' 'Alef' and 'Vav' (hebrew people read from right to left): It can be pronounced as LAV, and it means 'no', although it also means 'what you won't do', a fight against your ego. But it is a funny thing, tattoos are not allowed in this religion.

The leather strip she wears in her arm is called Tefillin, and only men can wear it. It is a symbol of loyalty to God. The ritual is to put it around your arm seven times, after doing the same in your head, that means that the thinking is before the action. The seven turns of the strip means the seven divine emotions.
Madonna shows us again her inpirations in many cultures and religions for many of her songs and videos.

1. Album Version (4:38)
2. Radio Edit (3.29)
3. Dirty Vegas Radio Mix (4:27)
4. Dirty Vegas Main Mix (10.08)
5. Dirty Vegas Dub (9:10)
6. Thee Retrolectro Radio Edit (3:41)
7. Thee Retrolectro Mix (6:59)
8. Thunderpuss Radio Edit
9. Thundepuss Mix (9.25)
10. Thunderpuss Club Mix Instrumental (9:25)
11. Deepsky Remix Edit (4:06)
12. Deepsky Remix (7:27)
13. Brother Brown’s Bond-age Radio (3:37)
14. Brother Brown's Bond-age Club (7.51)
15. Thee Die Another Dub (8:26)
16. Deepsky Dub (7.27)
17. Brother Brown's Bond-age Dub (7.21)
18. Victor Calderone Afterlife Mix (8:52)
19. Victor Calderone Afterlife Dub (10:08)
20. Humpty Vission Electrified Mix (6:01)