Frozen (English)

You hold the key...

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information

Title: Frozen
Writers: Madonna and Patrick Leonard
Producers: Madonna, William Orbit and Patrick Leonard
Album: Ray Of Light (1998) and GHV2 (2001)
Editon date: It was the first single of Ray Of Light, January 1998
Length of the album version: 6 ' 11''
Credits: ©1998 WB Music Corp./Webo Girl Pub. Inc., adm. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/No Tomato Music ASCAP.

coments

Frozen was the first single from the Ray Of Light album. Madonna wanted to taste the electronic sound, completing the song with string arrangements and her own ethereal voice. The song rescues her long time collaborator Patrick Leonard, using the production of William Orbit, who gave the song a completely different sound. They kept the original arrangement made by Leonard, but Madonna and Orbit added new rythms and syntetizers which give the song a fresh techno style.
The single was officially released in February 1998, reaching very easily #1 and #2 in the european and the US charts. But Frozen was being aired is the radio stations long before that, and the first staion was one from Singapore. Part of the song was inmediately available in a Singapore Madonna site (The Singapore Madonna Link), on January 23rd 1998. The web got more than 14.000 visits. A spokeperson from Warner said that the company had taken some actions to delete the song from the Internet (but the same thing was about to happen with Beautiful Stranger, American Pie, Music,…)
Finally, the lyrics shows us this is a song about a broken love. Some people say that is dedicated to Carlos Leon, the father of Madonna's daughter, Lourdes María.

videoclip

For this video, Madonna used all her efforts and resources to make it a high quality video, hiring an excellent crew and using the best digital effects (that made it win an MTV Award in 1998)
It was filmed in the Mojave desert (California), and is inspired in one of the desert scenes of the film The English Patient, which made Madonna cry very much. The filming began on Januay 8th of 1998, and the original idea was to film in a very cold set, even with snow and ice. But Madonna didn't want to be cold, and decided to film it in a desert at night. But in deserts, at night, temperatures reach the lowest marks of the years, a fact they forgot. What is more, it even rained, making the filming very difficult. Madonna said it was the hardest work in her career due to the extreme cold she had to suffer. Madonna hired director Chris Cunningham to direct the video. Chris is the great creator of the monsters from the fourth Alien film (Alien:Resurrection), and had directed videos for Aphex Twin, Björk and Portishead. He is responsible of the magic and dark gothic spirit of this video, perfectly combined with the song. Arianne Phillips was the woman who gave Madonna her dark goddess image, and she kept working for Madonna long after (she was the stylist of her Drowned World Tour). The dress and the wig (Madonna said it was like wearing an Octopus over her head) are a creation of the great Jean-Paul Gaultier. Madonna has some henna tatoos over her hands, with drawings full of meanings in the Yoga philosophy (the symbol in the palm of her hand is called Ohm) and that gives a mystic meaning to this video. This indian use of the tatoos is caled Mendhi.
The character Madonna plays is called Veronica Electronica, and had previously appeared in other videos as Bedtime Stories (the dark haired Madonna in the screen).
There are three different versions of the Frozen video: Album Version, Stereo Mc´s Remix y Extended Club Mix.

live

Madonna performed Frozen live several times during her promotional Ray Of Light tour in the early 1998 (San Remo festival, Telecinco, Les Annes Tube, Wetten Dass, Rosie O' Donnel show, Rainforest, UK's National Lotery, Japan, ...). She used almost the same look in all the performances, very similar to the video image. But all of them were lip-synch. The only chance we have to see Madonna singing Frozen live is in Drowned World Tour.

collector items

	This cover is used for almost every release of the Frozen single (Cd-maxi, Cd-single, 12" Maxi single, 7" single, ...). Most of them have the same tracklisting: Album Version, Stereo MC's Remix, Meltdown Long Mix,Extended Club Mix and Widescreen Mix. Shanti-Ashtangi appears as the B-side of the singles. The promo editions contain the Radio Edit and a version called Hook For Call Out Research, which is just a small section of the song for its promotion on the radio stations.
	Mexican edition with picture cd. It includes Album Version, Stereo MC's Remix, Meltdown Long Mix,Extended Club Mix and Widescreen Mix.
	Promotional edition exclusively released for the spanish radio station '40 Principales'. It has a different cover, with the logo of the radio on it.
	The US edition of the Cd-maxi was released in ecopack package, using the same cover as the usual Frozen releases, but with a different CD design. It contains Album Version, Stereo MC's Remix, Meltdown Long Mix y Extended Club Mix.
	Promotional edition for Germany (cd-single format), very dificult to find nowadays. It contains three edit versions: Radio Edit, Stereo MC's Remix Edit y Extended Club Mix Edit.

This list of collectibles is not complete, it's just an orientative guide of the most important things.

lyric

Frozen

You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

You're so consumed with how much you get
You waste your time with hate and regret
You're broken
When your heart's not open

Mmmm, if I could melt your heart
Mmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmm, you hold the key

Now there's no point in placing the blame
And you should know I sufferd the same
If I lose you
My heart will be broken

Love is a bird she needs to fly
Let all the hurt inside of you die
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

Mmmm, if I could melt your heart
Mmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmm, you hold the key

You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

Mmmm, if I could melt your heart
Mmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmm, you hold the key

If I could melt your heart
Mmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmm, you hold the key

If I could melt your heart...

a new madonna

Frozen was the beggining of a new artistic Madonna period. But this new section was very influenced by her personal life, giving a lot of importance to her daughter Lourdes Maria. Madonna abandons sexual scandals and stops provoquing, and now she wants to sell her new spiritual, calmed, motherhood and mature image (which she began to make in her Evita role). But the best change of all was the one her music made. Still having her personal sign, she added New Age, Electric sounds, Techno,…Once more, a new Madonna. Marketing or evolution?

cover

The picture from the cover is from the same photo session as the others used for the Ray Of Light album, taken by Mario Testino. The design is made by Kevin Reagan.

in the chart

Although the return of Madonna to the music spotlight with a new album was long awaited (more than four years without any brand new album), the song didn't reach #1 in countries as USA, Canada or Germany. Even considering that the critics really acclaimed this new project. But it reached the top position in UK, Spain and Italy. Anyway, Madonna's return was known by everyone, giving an answer to all those who said Madonna had nothing new to say for many years.

martha grahams (1894-1991)

Dancer and choreographer, Martha Gramhams is one of the most important figures of the modern dance, with more than 180 plays and works made in 50 years in the dance world
She began to dance in 1916, and quited in 1970 to dedicate all her time to teaching and choreography works. She founded a dance school and Madonna joined it when she was 18 years old. In 1994 Madonna made her a tribute and wrote an article about Martha Gramhams for the magazine Harper's Bazaar. Along with this article Madonna included a photo session inspired by the famous dancer. Some years later Madonna gave her another tribute in her Frozen video: wearing her hair in the same style and colour, and with those dark long dresses (and even the way she moves).

official versions

1. Album Version (6:11)
2. Video Version (5:19)
3. Video Instrumental
4. Radio Version / Radio edit / Edit (5:06)
5. Hook For Call Out Research (0:17)
6. Extended Club Mix Edit (4:35)
7. Club Mix (Video Version) (4:12)
8. Club Mix Radio Edit (4:57)
9. Extended Club Mix (11:17)
10. Stereo Mc's Edit / Stereo Mc's Remix Edit / Sstereo Mc's Mix (4:51)
11. Stereo Mc's Mix (5:45)
12. Meltdown Mix - Short (4:54)
13. Meltdown Mix / Meltdown Mix - Long Version / Meltdown Long Mix (8:10)
14. Widescreen Mix / William Orbit Widescreen Mix (6:33)
15. William Orbit Drumapella (5:15)
16. Victor Calderone Drumapella (5:09)
17. Junior Vasquez Remix #1 / Juniorverse Mix 1 (9:16)
18. Junior Vasquez Remix #2 / Juniorverse Mix 2 (7:50)
19. Junior Vasquez Remix #3 / Juniorverse Mix 3 (5:20)

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