God Control

Album: Madame X (2019)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This heady track finds Madonna taking on the issue of gun control in the US, a topic she also touches on during another Madame X song, "I Rise."

    Everybody knows the damn truth
    Our nation lied, we lost respect


    Madonna is saying the easy availability of firearms in America is a result of the country deviating away from its religious roots. Now guns, rather than God, is in control.
  • The six-minute plus track features the sound of gun shots running under a swirly electric beat. Madonna co-produced the song with frequent Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean and French producer Mirwais.
  • Mirwais previously worked with Madonna on her Music and American Life albums. "A lot of the music I make with Mirwais ends up being political because we have very similar minds and we think about what's going on in the world a lot," Madonna told NME. "He's very philosophical. We get into debates about what's right and what's wrong and somehow, it just sparks things inside of us."
  • That's The Tiffin Children's Choir singing the chorus. The young singers also accompany Madonna on another Madame X track "Come Alive."
  • Directed by frequent Madonna video collaborator Jonas Åkerlund, the song's hard-hitting visual shows clubgoers getting mowed down by bullets as a gunman opens fire; among the dead is Madonna herself. We also see the singer's alter-ego, Madame X, holed up in an apartment furiously typing out the lyrics to her song.
  • Mojo magazine commented in an interview with Madonna that her vocals at the beginning of the song muster a "particular kind of contained aggression." She agreed, saying, "I wanted to sing as if someone had wired my jaw shut and l wasn't allowed to speak but I had to speak and I was coming from a very angry place."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Angelo Moore of Fishbone

Angelo Moore of FishboneSongwriter Interviews

Fishbone has always enjoyed much more acclaim than popularity - Angelo might know why.

Barney Hoskyns Explores The Forgotten History Of Woodstock, New York

Barney Hoskyns Explores The Forgotten History Of Woodstock, New YorkSong Writing

Our chat with Barney Hoskyns, who covers the wild years of Woodstock - the town, not the festival - in his book Small Town Talk.

Janet Jackson

Janet JacksonFact or Fiction

Was Janet secretly married at 18? Did she gain 60 pounds for a movie role that went to Mariah Carey? See what you know about Ms. Jackson.

Graduation Songs

Graduation SongsFact or Fiction

Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.

Colin Hay

Colin HaySongwriter Interviews

Established as a redoubtable singer-songwriter, the Men At Work frontman explains how religion, sobriety and Jack Nicholson play into his songwriting.