God Control

In 2017, Madonna relocated to Lisbon, Portugal, seeking a top soccer academy for her son David, who wanted to become a professional soccer player. While living in the city, she began meeting artists, painters and musicians, who would invite her to "living room sessions". In these sessions, they would bring food, sit around the table and musicians would start playing instruments, singing fado and samba music. On April 15, 2019, Madonna revealed Madame X as the album's title. For the album, she worked with longtime collaborator Mirwais Ahmadzaï, who had previously worked on her albums Music (2000), American Life (2003) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), as well as Mike Dean, who served as a producer on Rebel Heart (2015), and Diplo. "God Control" was written by Madonna and Mirwais and produced by the latter two along with Mike Dean. It has been described as an experimental pop, disco, hi-NRG and electropop song. Lyrically, it talks about gun control, as well as democracy and the political state of the United States. followed by the Tiffin Children's Chorus Spooner said he had created the song's melody when Mirwais asked him to rewrite the lyrics and mix the audio of a demo for his solo album, in which he wanted to sing in English about American politics. When Spooner first heard the melody to "God Control", he felt it was too similar to the one he had created and accused the producer of using his work without permission; he then posted a snippet, comparing both songs, on his Instagram account. He also claimed that "there's no money in record sales. Not even for Madonna", and demanded he be paid 1% of the singer's touring profits to "cover [my] contribution and damages". == Critical reception ==

The track received positive reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic, wrote that "darkness hangs heavy [on the album], surfacing fiercely in the clenched-mouth phrasing on 'God Control'." Varietys Jeremy Helligar deemed it, alongside previous track "Dark Ballet", as one of the moments in Madame X where "true weirdness sets in", and "the closest Madonna may ever come to her own 'Bohemian Rhapsody'." Ben Beaumont-Thomas, from The Guardian, called it one of the album's "shockers suitable only for schadenfreude lovers or scholars of extreme camp." He further concluded that "it is – only just – brilliant, and will become an equally beloved and despised curio among fans". Mike Wass from Idolator, said it was a "daring, successful experiment ... sprawling and perhaps unnecessarily baroque, but it burns with ambitious and anger. And still manages to be pop". Rolling Stones Rob Sheffield hailed it as "a rare moment of Madonna understatement". Louise Bruton from The Irish Times, stated that the song is "an experimental stand against authoritarianism and gun control through distorted Black Mirror-style pop ... to basically shake our shoulders and tell us to wake up, sheeple". Samuel R. Murrian from Parade ranked it at number 96 on his list of the singer's 100 greatest songs. According to Nicolas Hautman from Us Weekly, "God Control" is Madonna's "most daring and epic" song since 2012's "Gang Bang". Gay Times Daniel Megarry deemed it "creative, dance-able and unexpected ... pure perfection", as well as the best song on the album. Jonny Coleman from The Hollywood Reporter called the track a "a six-plus-minute odyssey". Papers Bradley Stern described it as a "happy-go-lucky disco ode to gun control". Sal Cinquemani, from Slant Magazine, opined it was the "album's pièce de résistance", as well as "the most exhilaratingly batshit thing she's done in years". For The Atlantics Spencer Kornhaber, it felt "like a few songs in one". Nonetheless, he called it an "irresistible take on Philadelphia soul" and praised it for being both "a camp commentary on the way people can dance in the face of crisis" and "catchy and amusing". Wren Graves, from online magazine Consequence of Sound, listed "God Control" as one of the standout tracks in Madame X; "Madonna's ambitions aren't merely musical. Several songs [on the album] contain social messages with varying amounts of bite ... But the message is even better expressed on the ambitious 'God Control'." HuffPosts Daniel Welsh opined it was one of the album's "party tracks tinged with sadness". Robbie Barnett from the Washington Blade compared it to Madonna's 2000 songs "Music" and "Impressive Instant", calling it "perfectly fit for dance floor consumption", the singer's best dance track since "Hung Up" (2005), as well as the best song on the album. In March 2023, Billboard ranked "God Control" as Madonna's 89th greatest song, with Joe Lynch writing that "this unusual odyssey announced that Madonna was far from finished when it comes to taking risks and speaking her mind." == Music video ==

Background and synopsis During an interview with People, Madonna said one of the main reasons she made a video for "God Control" were her kids; "I send my children to school with the same fear every mother in this era has [...] It's really scary to me that the once-safe spaces where we gather, worship and learn are targets. Nobody's safe". In another statement, she said that also wanted to draw attention to an ongoing problem in America. It opens with a text reading "The story you are about to see is very disturbing. It shows graphic scenes of gun violence. But it's happening every day. And it has to stop". Told through flashbacks in reverse chronological order, it begins with Madonna as her alter ego Madame X, wearing a short black wig and sitting at a typewriter typing the song's lyrics, interspersed with footage of the shooting at a New York Studio 54-like nightclub. The video then moves backwards in time and shows Madonna getting ready to go out; she's wearing a 1970s-inspired gold pantsuit and a blonde bob wig. Other scenes feature Madonna being assaulted on her way to the nightclub, a children's choir singing at a church vigil and footage of protests against guns and the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). It ends with the phrase "Wake Up", and a quote from civil rights activist and Black Panther member Angela Davis, "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept". Reception The video was criticized for its depiction of violence. Ryan Reed from Rolling Stone, said it touched the theme of society's inability to restrict gun ownership, and that certain scenes were a contrast of "the joy of nightclub dancing" and "the brutality of a mass shooting". Spencer Kornhaben said that the graphic tones of the video took away the song's "ambiguity and subtext", and criticized it for glamourizing trauma and "amplifying it", without "pushing the conversation anywhere new". Billboards Sal Cinquemani listed "God Control" as one of Madonna's nine most controversial videos. Shannon Watts, who founded Moms Demand Action, thanked Madonna for raising awareness about the horrors of gun violence. Patience Carter, survivor of the Orlando shooting, tweeted: "I applaud the attempt, but I am truly disturbed". Similarly, fellow survivor Brandon Wolf said that he appreciated the message, but felt the singer was using the tragedy and the victims as "props". == Live performances ==

Madonna first performed "God Control" during her appearance at Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019; she wore an eye-patch with an X, which was designed in the colors of the rainbow flag, while her background dancers were decked as police officers wielding combat shields. Billboard praised the "visually powerful live performance ... replete with detailed choreography and a disco groove that had the crowd gyrating and shimmying". The song was then performed as the opening number of the singer's Madame X Tour. The show began with a quote by James Baldwin: "Art is here to prove that all safety is an illusion... Artists are here to disturb the peace". Then, a silhouetted woman sat at a typewriter; each key press sounding like a gunshot, accompanied by a dancer jerking and flinching as if he's been shot. Madonna then appeared, decked in a glittery Revolutionary War attire and a feathered tricorne hat, to sing the song while being bounced between two police officers' shields; the performance featured two staircases, that moved and dismantled throughout the show, and cops attacking dancers under a video montage of news footage. On her review of one of the concert at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre, Kelli Syke Fadroski opined that "it was a bit unnerving to hear dozens of gunshot sound effects echo through a very dark venue. But that was the point". The performance was included on the live album Madame X: Music from the Theater Xperience. == Credits and personnel ==

• Madonna – writer, vocals, producer • Mirwais – writer, producer • Casey Spooner – writer • Mike Dean – producer • Tiffin Children's Chorus – backing vocals Credits and personnel adapted from the Madame X album liner notes. == References ==