You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh, your way.

This episode contains explicit language.

Madonna's the best-selling female recording artist of all time. She has 12 albums that have gone multi-platinum,

she's won seven Grammys and she's had 50 songs reach number one on the Billboard Dance Chart.

That's more number one's than anyone in any category ever. In today's episode, she's gonna talk about one of those number ones.

Hung up from her 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor. The song and that album were co-produced by Stuart Price, an electronic musician, producer and DJ from the UK.

Madonna has a new career-spanning album out called Finally Enough Love, 50 number ones.

And in honor of its release, Madonna and Stuart Price told me the story of how their collaboration and partnership led to one of Madonna's biggest hits.

My name is Madonna Louise Chaconi.

And I'm Stuart Price, the co-producer and co-writer of Hung up.

I met Stuart because I was looking for a musical genre.

I heard him perform on the show, and he was like, I'm trying to get it out of my head.

I was like, I'm going to do it.

My name is Madonna Louise Chaconi.

And I'm Stuart Price, the co-producer and co-writer of Hung Up.

I met Stuart because I was looking for a musical director.

A musical director, in this case, would be someone to come work with Madonna to shape her songs into what they would be for a performance.

They'd conduct the band and arrange the music to fit with the overall vision for the tour.

And Stuart was recommended for the job.

But he's like, oh, he's a DJ. He's not going to know all.

Like, I need somebody who's like really musical. I really know how to play musical instruments.

And I was extremely resistant, but it turns out that Stuart is an excellent musician also.

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