"Drowned World/Substitute for Love" is a pop song written by American singer Madonna, William Orbit, Rod McKuen, Anita Kerr and David Collins for Madonna's seventh album Ray of Light (1998). It was produced by Madonna and William Orbit, and received a positive reception from music critics. The song was released as a single in the summer of 1998 and was a hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number ten selling 90,651 copies, in Italy and in Spain. The single was not released in the U.S. market.

1 Song information
2 Chart performance
3 Music video
4 Track listings and formats
5 Official versions
- 5.1 Drowned World/Substitute For Love
- 5.2 Sky Fits Heaven
6 Release history
7 Charts
- 7.1 Drowned World/Substitute for Love
- 7.2 Sky Fits Heaven
8 Notes
9 References

Song information

Since the album's second single "Ray of Light" was released with a one month delay in the U.S., Madonna's record label decided to release "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" as a single in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa to close the time-gap between the next international single-release, "The Power of Good-Bye".

The song begins with a male voice saying "You see", which is a sample of the song "Why I Follow the Tigers", performed by The San Sebastian Strings. The author of the song, Rod McKuen, explains:

"The voice belongs to Jesse Pearson and the repeated phrase is 'You see'. If you follow the lyrics on 'Drowned World' and 'Why I Follow the Tigers' you'll find 'Drowned' follows the plot line of 'Tigers', which is why Anita [Kerr] and I receive co-author credit on the song and not merely 'sampling mention'." ^[1]

The original title for this song was "No Substitute For Love" which had slightly different lyrics to the completed version. A demo with the original lyrics and different musical set up has been leaked to the internet. Some differences in lyrics are: "Face the truth, No substitute for love". The final song contains the lyrics "The face of you, My substitute for love".

Madonna named her 2001 tour after the song and used it to open the tour as well. Also, the last lyrics from the song ("Now, I find I changed my mind. This is my religion") were used at the end of the performance of "Ray of Light" in the same tour.

In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna singles of all-time by Q. "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" was allocated the #17 spot.

Drowned World was also part of the setlist of her Confessions Tour in the summer of 2006. The song was cut from the NBC special, The Confessions Tour - Live from London on November 22, 2006 but appeared on the full-length DVD.

The song title (and the tour title) is said to be loosely inspired by British author J.G. Ballard's apocalyptic 1962 novel The Drowned World.

Chart performance

In the United Kingdom the song was another hit for Madonna, debuting and peaking at number 10 on the singles chart. "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" was also a number one hit in Spain and went to number 6 in Italy, elsewhere the song was a modest success, usually charting within the top twenty. The song charted in the top twenty in South Africa, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan. "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" entered the official Spanish Singles Chart at number ten on the issue date August 29, 1998. The next week, it jumped to number one, where it stayed for one week.^[1]

Music video

Madonna being chased by paparazzi in the music video for "Drowned World/Substitute for Love".

The music video was directed by Walter Stern and filmed on June 26–27, 1998 at London's famous Savoy Hotel and Piccadilly Circus. The video features Madonna leaving her home and being chased by paparazzi. She is constantly running, even from the other celebrities in a hotel bar. In this scene all the celebrities' faces, except Madonna's, are distorted to make everyone look demonic. One of the most striking and memorable moments of the video occurs when Madonna passes a hotel maid, smiling at her. Madonna returns the smile. Then the camera goes off; the maid has just taken a picture of her. Madonna flees, running all the way home to her daughter's (not played by Madonna's real daughter, Lourdes) arms, singing that she's "changed her mind" about being a celebrity.

The video created a lot of controversy in 1998 due to the scenes that feature Madonna being chased by paparazzi on motor-bikes, a scenario similar to Diana, Princess of Wales's death in 1997. The video premiered in Europe on July 25, 1998 and remained unavailable in North America until the release of Madonna's DVD compilation The Video Collection 93:99.

Director: Walter Stern
Producer: Simon Cooper
Executive Producer: Laura Kanerick
Director of Photography: John Mathieson
Editor: John McManus
Production Company: Academy Films

Track listings and formats

Madonna Performing "Drowned World" at the Confessions Tour.

UK 12" promo vinyl (3331 00003 7)^[2]
EU 12" vinyl (9362 44552 0)^[3]

Side A

"Drowned World / Substitute For Love" (BT & Sasha's Ashram Remix) — 9:28

Side B

"Sky Fits Heaven" (Sasha Remix) — 7:21
"Sky Fits Heaven" (Victor Calderone Remix Edit) — 5:50

EU promo CD single (3333 00054-2)^[4]

"Drowned World / Substitute For Love" (Radio Edit) — 4:45

EU CD single (9362 17156 9)^[5]

"Drowned World / Substitute For Love" (Album Version) — 5:09
"Sky Fits Heaven" (Sasha Remix Edit) — 4:08

UK CD single 1 (W0453CD1)^[6]
JP Maxi-CD (WPCR-1983)^[7]

"Drowned World / Substitute For Love" (Album Version) — 5:09
"Drowned World / Substitute For Love" (BT & Sasha's Ashram Remix) — 9:28
"Sky Fits Heaven" (Victor Calderone Remix Edit) — 5:50

UK CD single 2 (W0453CD2)^[8]

"Drowned World / Substitute For Love" (Album Version) — 5:09
"Sky Fits Heaven" (Sasha Remix) — 7:21
"Sky Fits Heaven" (Victor Calderone Remix Edit) — 5:50

Official versions