How Madonna Reacted When Britney Spears Asked to Do a Song With Her

Music

Britney Spears wanted to save one of her songs from obscurity, and Madonna helped her do it. Spears revealed what she thought of the song in question years later.

Published on June 29, 2024

2 min read

Britney Spears wanted to save one of her songs from obscurity, and Madonna helped her do it. In her memoir, Spears elaborated on her collaboration with the Material Girl. She revealed what she thought of the song in question years later. 

Britney Spears used Madonna to get her label to like 1 of her songs

In Spears' 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, Spears recalled the creation of her album In the Zone. The "… Baby One More Time" singer said her label wanted to release another song like the track "I'm a Slave 4 U" from her previous album as a single. They were uninterested in the track "Me Against the Music," an R&B/hip-hop hybrid that was characteristic of much of her mid-2000s output.  On the other hand, Spears loved it, and she came up with an idea to make it appealing to her label.

"'Then what if we do a feature on it?' I said," Spears wrote. "A song can become a massive hit because of the event that drives it. I thought if we could find someone to be on the song, we could create a story around it. 'Who do you want to feature?' my manager asked. 'Her!' I said, pointing across the room at Madonna. 'Let's get her on the song.' 'Holy s***,' he said. 'Yeah — that'd work.'" 

Why Madonna lent her voice to the song

The "Womanizer" star explained how she brought the song to Madonna. "Instead of asking through her team, we agreed that I would ask her directly," she said. "So I went over to Madonna. 'Let's talk,' I said. 

"I told her how much fun it would be to do the song with me and how I thought we could help each other: it was something that would benefit us both," she added. "She agreed. 'Me Against the Music' is still one of my favorite songs, and the collaboration with her is part of what makes it so memorable."

How Britney Spears' 'Me Against the Music' performed

"Me Against the Music" was a modest hit at best. It reached No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 13 weeks. The track is mainly remembered for its Sapphic music video, in which Spears and Madonna pursue one another in an otherworldly nightclub. "Me Against the Music" appeared on Spears' record In the Zone. That record hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a single week and stayed on the chart for 45 weeks in total.

In the Zone gave us some of Spears' essential singles. The record also includes "Toxic" and "Everytime." The former reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the latter reached No. 15. The former might be the most acclaimed song in Spears' catalog, while the latter proved she had the singing and songwriting chops to pull off an emotional ballad. Both songs have become part of popular culture. For example, Melanie Martinez did a memorable acoustic cover of "Toxic" while "Everytime" appeared in a shocking scene from Spring Breakers starring Selena Gomez, James Franco, and Vanessa Hudgens. 

Although "Me Against the Music" was not a massive hit, it remains a memorable moment in both Spears' and Madonna's careers.