There was a time when it would have been unfathomable for Madonna to bother looking back on or revisiting certain moments in her career. Not so directly, anyway. She was always decidedly determined to move “onward and upward.” And when it came to talk of “aging out” of being a pop star, Madonna seemed to take a cue from Cher as Rachel Flax in Mermaids when she said, “A real woman is never too old.” Or, when her boyfriend, Lou (Bob Hoskins), asks, “Well, time catches up. What can you do?” and Rachel replies firmly, “Keep moving.” That’s clearly what Madonna has done, despite the frequent criticisms about her retouched Instagram photos and general predilection for surgical procedures.
Which is what makes this return to and repurposing of the past so unique and rare. Though there have been instances when Madonna has paid homage to her iconic career moments (e.g. at the 2003 VMAs with “Like A Virgin” or in calling her 2004 concert production The Re-invention Tour, filled with greatest hits she wouldn’t have otherwise played if American Life had been more well-received), they are few and far between. And “Frozen,” while part of the “cultural reset” that composed Ray of Light as a whole, is not necessarily one of her most indelible incarnations. Granted, it does stand out for being Madonna at her most “goth,” complete with a witchy, Elvira-reminiscent aesthetic for the original video. This shift to a dark mood was in contrast to the effusive happiness she had found in motherhood, with the entire record being inspired by this resultant “reinvention,” as well as her newfound love of Kabbalah.
The lyrical content’s focus on a cold and impervious man may have led some to believe it was about M’s baby daddy, Carlos Leon, but anyone familiar with the pop star’s dating history would be better off positing that it was about her shift to a fetish for inherently callous British men, starting with Andy Bird. The two began dating in 1997, which would check out for “inspiration” purposes in terms of when “Frozen” came to fruition. An out-of-work filmmaker that Madonna met through her Truth or Dare documentarian Alek Keshishian, Bird managed to be the one who would break M’s heart (even if many cynics would counter that it was only her ego he wounded) by ending it with her amid the media frenzy that commenced with Ray of Light’s promo. Indeed, their relationship was only made public after the album came out and the duo was spotted together in London. That Madonna would also end up aborting Bird’s child lends a further layer to “Frozen.” And while M can say “it’s just about people in general” all she wants, the events of her personal life during this era feel a bit too tailored for the single’s content.
All that said, Madonna knows a thing or two about “wanting, waiting, needing” for someone to justify her love. Cut to twenty-one years later with Madame X’s “Crave,” the second video release from the record after “Medellín.” Thematically speaking, the lyrics cover many of the same lovelorn issues of “Frozen.” Accordingly, it also seems like more than mere coincidence that such lamenting content should prompt “Crave” to become Madonna’s biggest hit on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart since “Frozen.” Unlike the latter, however, Madonna felt the song needed a male voice to complement the motifs of yearning expressed throughout. Enter Swae Lee, who now seems like a precursor to Fireboy DML on the Sickick remix of “Frozen.” In 2019, Lee was twenty-six, just as Fireboy DML currently is… and there’s no denying that both of their dulcet tones seem to appeal to what Madonna wants to achieve with each song—that is to say, creating a sense of yearning and nostalgia.
Apart from Nuno Xico, who directed “Crave,” Ricardo Gomes seems to be among Madonna’s preferred “directors” (a.k.a., at times, videographers) in recent years. Although the visuals are as “simple” as the ones in the original “Frozen” video, there appears to be more sublte nods to M’s career highlights, including elements of “Don’t Tell Me” with projected backdrops of roads, as well as original footage from the Chris Cunningnam-directed “Frozen” that was filmed in the Mojave Desert. There’s even a touch of Jonas & François’ “4 Minutes” in terms how Fireboy DML and Madonna are positioned next to each other in their shared scenes.
Notably, Swae Lee and Madonna are never in the same frame together in “Crave” until the final moments when they approach one another on the rooftop. As M extends her hand out for Lee’s, God-style in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” a spark of electricity juts out from her fingertips. That same sort of extension of arms occurs in “Frozen,” with Madonna appearing in sartorial styles that seem to want to make good on her missed-out role as Trinity in The Matrix.
With Fireboy DML contributing several new verses, he’s given ample screen time as he speaks to the inner twenty-something in Madonna when she was hustling to get a record deal with lyrics like, “I’ve been waiting, waiting for a sign/You delayed me, playing, wasting time/Don’t make me wait in line/Don’t make me waste my time/I’ve been waiting all my life.”
Fireboy also appears to have done his homework on Madonna allusions by intermixing “Open Your Heart”-esque lyrics that decry, “I tried to take care of your heart, but it’s frozen/Why can’t you show me, don’t leave me open/I thought you told me, that you’re ready, but you’re broken.” The tragedy of stars not aligning when it comes to love tinges the unrequited element of “Crave” as well—which Madonna unwittingly seems to be revisiting perhaps even more than “Frozen” on this “revamp.”
Though technically revisiting the “old” with this effort, Madonna has actually proven her ability to constantly shift with the mediums of the era by capitulating to how TikTok was responsible for re-popularizing the single. Now where’s the update to the “Material Girl” video wherein Madonna plays a depraved and battered Marilyn (sort of like what Harley Quinn did in Birds of Prey) as she goes on a looting rampage through the high-end shopping districts of the world?
