"Girl Gone Wild" is a song by American singer Madonna from her twelfth studio album, MDNA (2012). She co-wrote the song with Benny Benassi, his cousin Alle Benassi (known together as the Benassi Bros.), and songwriter Jenson Vaughan, while the Benassi Bros. co-produced the track with Madonna. Vaughan had worked on the lyrics before sending them to Madonna, who developed the demo into the final version of "Girl Gone Wild". The song was confirmed by Madonna as the second single from the album and was released on March 2, 2012, by Interscope Records. Musically, "Girl Gone Wild" is a mid-tempo electropop, dance, Euro disco, electro, Euro house and techno party track with a four-on-the-floor influence. The song opens with a prayer and "confession" by Madonna, and features EDM-heavy elements. After the song was released, Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild adult entertainment franchise, threatened to sue Madonna for copyright infringement if she sang the song during her performance at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show. And the song was one of the official theme songs of WrestleMania XXVIII. Madonna's representatives stated that she was not aware of either Francis or the lawsuit, and cited the fact that several songs with the same name had already been recorded or released by other artists. The song received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its composition and return to dance music for Madonna, but criticized its lyrics and believed it failed as the album-opener of MDNA. "Girl Gone Wild" reached the top-ten of many global charts, including Hungary, Israel, Italy, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Spain, along with the Billboard digital charts in Greece. It debuted and peaked at number 38 on US Pop Songs due to lack of radio airplay. It also became Madonna's 42nd number-one hit on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. A black-and-white music video for the song, directed by Mert and Marcus, was released on March 20, 2012. The video features Madonna with a number of athletic male dancers and models in different looks, and dancing with Ukrainian group Kazaky. The dancing was performed by the male dancers and Madonna in high stiletto heels, with choreography by Tabitha. It received critical acclaim for the editing and the visuals, while reviewers noted that it took inspiration from Madonna's older videos, such as "Erotica", "Justify My Love", "Human Nature" and "Vogue". "Girl Gone Wild" was performed as the opening song during The MDNA Tour (2012), in a Gothic cathedral setting showing religious iconography, with Madonna her dancers executing choreography in high-heels.
Background and release
In December 2010, Madonna posted a message on her Facebook page exclaiming that she was on the lookout for "maddest, sickest, most badass people" as collaborators for making new dance music. On July 4, 2011, her manager Guy Oseary announced that the singer had entered the studio for recording her then unnamed twelfth studio album. Among the collaborators enlisted for the project was Italian record producer Benny Benassi, who at that time was working on the release of his fourth studio album Electroman. His label Ultra Records' head Patrick Moxey felt that the producer's "aggressive" sounds would "work well with some of the major American superstar artists". Moxey asked for some additional tracks from him, and his longtime production partner and cousin, Alle Benassi. A few demos produced by them were sent to songwriter Jenson Vaughan, who liked the lyrics and the "bass-driven" sound. Vaughan added the top-line on a demo and returned it to Moxey, who shared it with Benassi's European co-manager Paul Sears, who in-turn shared the demo with Oseary. Upon listening, Madonna was impressed with the demos and requested the Benassi Bros. to come to London for a recording session. Moxey commented that the singer "loved [the producer]. Benny is such a quality person; I think that made it all flow so much easier." Two tracks from those sessions, "Girl Gone Wild" and "I'm Addicted", were included on the final track list of the album, named MDNA. Madonna spoke about her experience of collaborating with the Benassi Bros.:
Benny was a tricky one because he doesn't speak English very well. I ended up kind of using his cousin Alle as an interpreter. It was a little bit frustrating at first but eventually we found a way to communicate. You figure out a way. With music it's so much about the vibe and the energy and you know when things are working and when they’re not. When you're working with someone for the first time, there's a kind of shyness that everybody has, so with Benny it was more challenging because of that but we figured it out and by the end I felt like I knew him very well.
A day after Madonna's halftime show performance on the Super Bowl XLVI, the singer confirmed to Ryan Seacrest that "Girl Gone Wild" would be released as the second single from the album. A lyric video for the song was released on February 27, 2012, while it was available for digital download from March 2, 2012, at the iTunes Store. The cover art for the single was released on February 29, 2012. Shot by fashion photographers Mert and Marcus, who had also created the covers for MDNA, the "Girl Gone Wild" artwork showed Madonna wearing lingerie by English retailer Agent Provocateur. She had chosen the brand's "Raphaella" padded bra, made from French corded lace and pleated tulle. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly praised the artwork saying that the singer "still wears underwear in public better than most women half her age". Billboard writer Gregory DelliCarpini Jr. felt that Madonna portrayed having fun in "racy undies" on the cover, in spite of being a mother. "Is this the 21st century version of her infamous cone bra? Nah, but it made you look [at her]," he concluded.
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