"Sorry" is a song by American singer Madonna from her tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). The song was written and produced by both Madonna and Stuart Price. It was released to hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States as the second single from the album on February 6, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records. The song was later included on Madonna's compilation album, Celebration (2009). One of the first tracks developed for the album, it is a dance-pop and disco song, and lyrically talks about personal empowerment and self-sufficiency. For the single release, remixers such as Pet Shop Boys, Green Velvet, and Paul Oakenfold were enlisted to conceive remixes for the song.
Upon release, "Sorry" received positive reviews from music critics, who deemed it "catchy" and one of the strongest tracks on Confessions on a Dance Floor. Some critics also commented on the song's disco-influenced beats while comparing it to Madonna's older dance songs. The song achieved commercial success, topping the charts in Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, where it became Madonna's twelfth number one single. However, in the United States, the song only managed to reach number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart due to an underplay on radio; nonetheless, it reached the summit of the dance charts.
The accompanying music video was directed by Jamie King and was a continuation from the "Hung Up" music video. It features Madonna and her dancers roaming around a city in a van, dancing on roller skates, and the singer fighting with a group of men in a cage. She performed the song on her 2006 Confessions Tour in a similar theme to that shown in the video. For the tour, an additional video was created as a backdrop for a remix of the track, which depicted political leaders, and scenes of war and destruction.
Background and release
In 2004, after the release of her ninth studio album American Life (2003), Madonna began working on two different musicals: one tentatively called Hello Suckers and the other with Luc Besson, who previously directed the music video for her single "Love Profusion", which would portray her as a woman on her deathbed looking back on her life. Madonna collaborated with Patrick Leonard, Mirwais Ahmadzaï, and Stuart Price to write new songs, and told Price to pen material that sounded like "ABBA on drugs". However, Madonna found herself dissatisfied with the script written by Besson and scrapped it. As she was asked by her record company to compose a new studio album, the singer decided to go with a dance direction for the record, influenced by their work on the musicals.
"Sorry" was one of the first tracks developed for Confessions on a Dance Floor, along with lead single "Hung Up" and "Future Lovers". It was also the one which took the most time to finish because Madonna "thought it was too melodramatic and could never decide when it was right". The songs were developed with a remixed perspective in mind. Madonna commented, "Whenever I make records, I often like the remixes better than the original ones. [...] So I thought, screw that. I'm going to start from that perspective." She promoted the album at the dance party named "Misshapes", held at Luke & Leroy's nightclub in Greenwich Village, and was invited by Junior Sanchez to take over the DJ booth, where she mixed "Hung Up" with "Sorry".
"Sorry" was sent to hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States on February 6, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records as the second single from Confessions on a Dance Floor; the next day, it was released digitally on the region, as well as in the United Kingdom as an extended play featuring several remixes. The song eventually received a physical release in the UK on February 20, while in the US it was issued eight days later. The single cover was taken by Marcin Kokowski, a fan who photographed the singer during her concert at G-A-Y in 2005. She chose the picture among 80 pictures by several other photographers. Madonna later defined "Sorry" as one of her "most retarded songs" during an interview with Rolling Stone in 2009. It was later included on her compilation album, Celebration (2009).