Editing Ray of Light (section)

== Background ==
[[File:Madonna - Wembley Arena 120806 (35).jpg|thumb|upright|Madonna wearing a [[Red string (Kabbalah)|red string]], performing the album's opening track, "[[Drowned World/Substitute for Love]]", on the 2006 [[Confessions Tour]]]]
Following the release of her compilation album ''[[Something to Remember]]'' (1995), Madonna started taking vocal lessons in preparation for her role as [[Eva Perón]] in ''[[Evita (1996 film)|Evita]]'' (1996). She would also give birth to her daughter, [[Lourdes Leon]], later in 1996. These events inspired a period of introspection. "That was a big catalyst for me. It took me on a search for answers to questions I'd never asked myself before", she said to ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]'' magazine, in 2002.<ref name="qmag" /> During the same period, she embraced [[Kabbalah]] and started studying [[Hinduism]] and [[yoga]], all of which helped her "step outside [myself] and see the world from a different perspective".<ref name="qmag" /> Madonna felt that there was a "whole piece" of her voice left unused, which she decided to utilize for the album.<ref name="qmag">{{cite magazine|title=Making of Ray of Light|first=Johnny|last=Black|magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]]|date=August 2002|volume=17|issue=8|issn=0955-4955}}</ref> By May 1997, Madonna had started writing songs for the album. She began collaborating with [[Babyface (musician)|Babyface]], who had first worked with her on her previous album ''[[Bedtime Stories (Madonna album)|Bedtime Stories]]'' (1994). The two wrote a couple of songs together before Madonna decided the collaborations were not going in the musical direction she wanted for the album. According to Babyface, the songs "had a '[[Take a Bow (Madonna song)|Take a Bow]]-ish' kind of vibe, and Madonna didn't want, or need, to repeat herself".<ref name="spin">{{cite magazine|last=Walters|first=Barry|date=April 1998|title=Madonna: The 'Ray of Light' Cover Story, 'Madonna Chooses Dare'|url=http://www.spin.com/2016/03/madonna-ray-of-light-cover-story-1998/|magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|access-date=March 4, 2016|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114308/http://www.spin.com/2016/03/madonna-ray-of-light-cover-story-1998/|url-status=live}}</ref>

After abandoning the songs she had written with Babyface, Madonna turned to musician [[Rick Nowels]], who had previously co-written songs with [[Stevie Nicks]] and [[Celine Dion]]. The collaboration produced seven songs in nine days, but those songs also did not display the album's future [[Electronic music|electronic]] musical direction.<ref name="spin" /> Three of the songs, "[[The Power of Good-Bye]]", "To Have and Not to Hold" and "Little Star", appear on the album.<ref name="spin" /> Madonna then began writing songs with [[Patrick Leonard]], who had produced many songs for Madonna in the late 1980s. Unlike her previous albums, Leonard's songwriting collaborations were accompanied by very little studio input. Madonna believed that Leonard's production "would have lent the songs more of a [[Peter Gabriel]] vibe", a sound that she did not want for the album.<ref name="spin" /> [[Guy Oseary]], chairman of [[Maverick (company)|Maverick Records]], then phoned British electronic musician [[William Orbit]], and suggested that he send some songs to Madonna.<ref name="qmag" /> Orbit sent a 13-track [[digital audio tape]] to Madonna. "I was a huge fan of William's earlier records, ''[[Strange Cargo (William Orbit album)|Strange Cargo 1]]'' and ''[[Strange Cargo 2|2]]'' and all that. I also loved all the remixes he did for me and I was interested in fusing a kind of futuristic sound but also using lots of Indian and Moroccan influences and things like that, and I wanted it to sound old and new at the same time," Madonna said.<ref name="qmag" />