“Hung Up” by Madonna

Madonna’s “Hung Up” captures a feeling of helplessness from the narrator who is growing tired of waiting for her indecisive love interest to requite her affection. The narrator admits that she is getting fed up mainly because she is yet to receive a positive response from her suitor.

The main theme captured in the song is that for people who are patiently waiting to experience a particular result, time seems to be slow; whereas time races by when you’re preoccupied with having fun.

In the second verse, the writer appears to have given up on her wait and finally warns her love interest that he may lose her before he finally makes a decision to be with her.

Interestingly, most of the lyrics of this song is a reference to Madonna’s “Love Song” which features Prince.

Summary

Madonna basically illustrates the struggle of a woman who is craving for her love interest to respond more speedily to her requests.

Facts about “Hung Up”

Madonna and the songwriter and producer Stuart Price wrote and helmed the song’s production duties. However, because the song samples ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!“, its writers are also given writing credits for this song. And the writers in question are Benny Andersson and his former bandmate and writing partner Björn Ulvaeus. Both Andersson and Ulvaeus were ABBA’s primary songwriters.

It should be pointed out that prior to sampling the aforementioned ABBA classic, Madonna had to personally talk to Ulvaeus and Andersson and seek their permission.

“Hung Up” can be found on Madonna’s 2005 studio album titled “Confessions on a Dance Floor”. This album, which happens to be the tenth studio album of her career, had this song as one of its singles.

Madonna enjoyed a lot of musical success upon the release of “Hung Up”. For example, the song not only peaked on the top of numerous singles charts worldwide, it also revived Madonna’s popularity (which at that time was declining).

In terms of its chart performance, this single topped the charts in at least 40 countries (actually the exact figure is 41). This was a remarkable feat that up until that point, no recording artist had ever achieved.

The United States was one of the many countries where this song flew to number 1. And in doing so, this gave Madonna her 36th number 1 hit in America. At that time, no other musician had achieved that many number 1 hits in the United States apart from the late Elvis Presley.

Countries where “Hung Up” reached Number 1

Aside the United States, the following are other notable places where this got to number 1:

1. United Kingdom
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Spain
5. Scotland
6. Russia
7. Romania
8. Norway
9. New Zealand
10. Netherlands
11. Japan
12. Italy
13. Italy
14. Hungary
15. Germany
16. France
17. Finland
18. Denmark
19. Czech Republic
20. Canada
21. Belgium
22. Austria
23. Australia

All in all, “Hung Up” was an exceptional commercial success the world over. It ended up selling more than 9 million units across the globe. It is therefore included in the list of the most commercially successful singles ever released.