MDNA

MDNA is the twelfth studio album by Madonna. The pop and EDM record focuses on themes such as partying and heartbreak, being heavily influenced by her divorce with English director Guy Ritchie.

The album was conceived while the singer was busy throughout 2011 with filming her directorial venture, W.E.. Madonna started the recording in July 2011 and collaborated with a variety of producers such as Benny Benassi, Martin Solveig and William Orbit, the latter being already known to Madonna, since they worked together in Ray of Light (1998). The recording process was smooth although Madonna found difficulty working with Benny Benassi who did not speak fluent English and had to use his cousin Alle Benassi as interpreter. Solveig commented on Madonna’s involvement in the process:

She is as involved as you can be in the recording process. This was a very good and big surprise for me! I was assuming that she would spend only an hour or two in the studio per day and come and see where we were and say, “Ok I like this, I don’t like that. I’ll sing this. Bye!” And absolutely not… I mean we co-produced the track and it’s not just written on the credits “co-produced by Martin Solveig and Madonna”, we literally co-produced the tracks. I mean, at some point she wanted to choose the sound of a snare drum or a synth and that kind of stuff. She was really in the session!

The album debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200 and spawnedfour singles: “Give Me All Your Luvin'”, “Girl Gone Wild”, “Masterpiece” and “Turn Up the Radio”. With “Give Me All Your Luvin'” reaching the top-ten of Billboard Hot 100, it extended Madonna’s record as the artist with the most top-ten singles on that chart.MDNA was the twelfth best-selling album of 2012 globally as it sold two million copies.