{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}
Thanks for coming
Sometimes I like to just hide in the shadows
Create a new persona, a different identity
I can be whoever I wanna be
Create a new persona
Honestly, I wish I could be like?other?people and?just not care
But?out here, on the?dance floor
I feel so free…
Never before has a Madonna timeline served so many purposes and marked so many moments as this one may be doing right now. First off, this is the return of the Madonna Timeline feature, which has gotten away from us since early April of this year. Second, this marks the first selection from Madonna’s latest album, the rightly-celebrated ‘Confessions II’. Third, this is the first time a lead single coincides with a timeline from that album. And finally, today marks Madonna’s birthday, another milestone in a day of them. On a personal note, this entry finds me in better spirits than I’ve been over the past couple of months, as I learn to throw things off over which I have no control, leave people behind who aren’t worth my time (sorry, friends and family, if you can’t be bothered to return a simple text, I won’t be bothered to return any affection) and come into a new level of genuine self-respect and worthiness. In other words, a realm of freedom I haven’t felt probably ever, and it’s fan-fucking-tastic. Makes one want to go dancing…
Oh, by the way, it all started like this
So, how’s your evening so far?
Don’t be a vibe kill
Beginning with a muffled stampede echoing the start of Madonna’s ‘Confessions Tour’ (which celebrated the original ‘Confessions on A Dance Floor’ album) ‘I Feel Love’ pays musical homage to Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and Madonna’s own tribute to that ‘Future Lovers‘. It’s a brilliant if somewhat subtle re-entry into the club world from whence she was born, and nobody does this better than Madonna – it’s doubtful anyone ever will. When she starts the minimalist melody of the song, imploring us to meet her on the dance floor, it’s exactly what we so desperately needed at this moment.
Come on, meet me on the dance floor
Come here, baby, I can give you much more tonight
Oh, baby, let’s do it right
It’s really hard for me to trust people
Can you blame me?
I never know what people like me
That’s why I like to go dancing
Safety in numbers
That’s why I like to go dancing
Safety in numbers
Safety in numbers
The first time I hear a new Madonna song, I’m sometimes a little unsure. It happened with ‘Like A Prayer’ when it premiered during ‘The Cosby Show’ and all of America was watching. Same thing occurred with the slow-burn genius of ‘Secret’ as I was keeping my first kiss with a man quiet. It happened again with ‘Frozen’ on an icy night in Rochester, NY when I was on the brink of ruining myself by falling for a one night stand. Both of those instances took a few listens before I gave in to their brilliance. By 2000’s ‘Music’ I was more ready to immediately dig what she was putting out, the same way I instantly fell for ‘Hung Up’, and this one had similar thrills when I first heard it. Madonna still knows her way around a dance song.
Come on, meet me on the dance floor
Come here, baby, I can give you much more tonight
Oh, baby, let’s do it right
I feel so free
I feel so free
I feel so free
A little past the midnight hour, in the darkened spring night on which it first becomes available, ‘I Feel So Free’ plays from the computer and I feel like a younger Madonna fan again – excited and giddy and anticipating something miraculous. There is hope in this music, hope in this spring, the way hope perennially arrives in the spring when we just start to doubt its return. Madonna’s been doing this for four decades, and that she still wields such power and casts such a spell is a reassuring dose of nostalgia and future promise at once.
It’s dangerous with just one person
And that’s not a nice feeling
But out here, on the dance floor
I feel so free, I can’t explain
On the dance floor
I feel so free
Been so lonely, I can’t take anymore
Give me champagne so I can get on the floor tonight
Oh, baby, let’s do it right
As a lilac spring began its perfumed bloom, and Madonna’s lilac and fuchsia-hued ‘Confessions II’ campaign went into overdrive, I felt on the verge of something and at the end of something else. Like most of the Madonna moments of my life, it was pure inspiration, and I drove around for the next few weeks listening to this song, fueling the spring days that unfurled in beautiful form. And this was only an appetizer for what the ‘Confessions II’ album was about to deliver…
I feel so free
I feel so free
I feel so free
SONG: #182: ‘I Feel So Free’ – Spring/Summer 2026
