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Secret: The Revealing Story Behind Madonna’s Most Critical Reinvention
Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo
In Depth

Secret: The Revealing Story Behind Madonna’s Most Critical Reinvention

The lead single from Madonna’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ album, Secret realigned the “Queen Of Pop”’s musical career in the mid-90s.

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Madonna had to face some tough decisions in the early 90s. The defiant artistic statement of her Sex book and its attendant album, Erotica, had at first thrilled and titillated, but ultimately shocked, chunks of her big, broad audience, and the media scrutiny had become ferocious. While no one would suggest an artist as brave and uncompromising as Madonna would shy away from that sort of confrontation, she could have been forgiven for tiring of the hypocritical fuss about her work. Deciding to take her music in a new direction, she shelved plans to record another album with Erotica producer Shep Pettibone, but Pettibone did earn a writing credit on Secret, which would become the lead single from Madonna’s new album, 1994’s Bedtime Stories.

There was a lot riding on the song’s success. Would people finally look beyond Madonna’s image and focus on its foundation: her music?

Listen to the best of Madonna here.

Secret took the “Queen Of Pop”’s sound in a new direction

Enlisting Dallas Austin for writing and production duties for Secret was a smart move. Austin had enjoyed tremendous success with Boyz II Men and TLC, and his R&B-pop blend was largely the sound of North American radio in the early 90s.

The midtempo Secret was one of four tracks Austin co-wrote and co-produced that would appear on Bedtime Stories, which was released a month after Secret hit the shelves. Recorded in New York City and Atlanta, and issued on 27 September 1994, Secret was a big departure from what had come before, yet the folk-y tune had plenty of sensuality and a funky groove that would make it a big dance success. Immediately receiving a stamp of approval, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No.30 – Madonna’s third-highest debut to date on the critical chart that is largely made up of stateside airplay – proving that the “Queen Of Pop” had, yet again, successfully pivoted her musical style.

The Junior Vasquez remix stormed the us dance charts

Junior Vasquez, the resident DJ at New York’s Sound Factory nightclub, was picked to give Secret a series of remixes. Speeding up Madonna’s vocals slightly, and effectively reworking the song’s production from the ground up, the Luscious mixes became the definitive remixes of no less than eight Secret retoolings, all released on physical formats at the time, with many making it on to a digital EP in 2020. Junior’s Luscious Single Mix is the one that you’ll find on Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, the 2022 compilation issued to celebrate Madonna’s record-breaking run on the US Billboard dance charts, achieving more No.1s on it than any other artist.

Secret reignited Madonna’s chart reign around the globe

After its impressive Billboard Hot 100 debut, Secret raced up the charts to peak at No.3 in October 1994. It also made the Top 5 across the Atlantic, with a nine-week run that took Madonna into the upper echelons of the UK charts since the release of Erotica’s title track, two years earlier. Secret also scored strongly on the American Adult Contemporary charts and made decent progress elsewhere across the planet. With this latest reinvention, Madonna had definitively claimed the crown as the most reliable global hitmaker of the 80s and 90s.

Secret’s promo video reinforced the song’s creative genesis

Melodie McDaniel, best known for her photojournalism, was picked as the director for Secret’s promo clip. “I wanted to combine that old classic Hollywood mix with the edginess of modern contemporary, but make it feel timeless,” she told Lucy O’Brien for Madonna: Like An Icon. “I was trying to think of something different, something real…” Madonna even let McDaniel stay at her apartment while the director was doing research for the project.

“It was awesome I got this break, but I was freaked out. I was jumping from young artists, to working with an icon,” McDaniel recalled. “I think she was drawn to the rawness of my work.” Premiering on MTV, the Harlem-shot clip, filmed in early September of 1994, featured Madonna looking a little like movie star Jean Harlow. Now recognised as one of the best Madonna promo videos, it was a big change of direction from the sleek, icy visuals of Rain or I’ll Remember, or the edgy sexual satire of Erotica.

Secret has rarely been performed live

In the 90s, Madonna’s touring schedule slowed. After The Girlie Show of 1993, she wouldn’t stage another concert trek until 2001’s Drowned World Tour. Consequently, when it was first performed live, on that first Madonna tour of the new millennium, Secret was already considered a back-catalogue gem.

The “Queen Of Pop” has revisited it infrequently since – there were brief renditions on the Sticky And Sweet Tour of 2008 and 2009, and a handful of more rounded-out performances on the Rebel Heart Tour of 2015 and 2016. Secret remains one of the best Madonna songs of the 90s, but so vast is her list of hits that it failed even to make the Top 40 Ultimate Madonna Songs poll, as voted by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in 2023. One might conclude that the track lives up to its title somewhat, but many fans choose to recognise it as the song that set Madonna on course for another decade or so of chart supremacy.

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