It’s 20 years since the release of ‘Sorry’. Share your thoughts and memories below!

It's emerged as my absolute favourite from the era these days, it feels really quite underrated!

I was impressed it got her another number one at the time, especially as the album has sold so well over Christmas. I was fully expecting a solid top 5!

'Sorry' has long been a huge favourite of mine and it would probably rank in my top 5 Madonna singles! It's like the clubbier, darker sister song to 'Hung Up'; genuinely couldn't think of a better song to follow up such a monster hit. What a 1-2 punch! I can remember hearing it on the radio all the time in the car and my mum was a huge fan of it too. I love the video too, the idea of taking off where 'Hung Up' finished was really cool and it would have been great to see this extend to the next two singles. The purple colour pallet just matches the vibe of the song perfectly in my mind, too.

Hard to imagine it not being a #1 but I guess it was a post-album single in the new download age and had competition from Corrine Bailey Rae and Westlife so it wasn't a given. In fact, it was physicals that got her there as Corrine was #1 on downloads. 'Sorry' spent its fourth week at #1 on radio as of the week it officially charted and I guess her two BRIT wins the week prior must have helped too.

01 36,928 Madonna - Sorry new
02 26,271 Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On new
03 24,644 Meck - Thunder in My Heart
04 16,316 Westlife - Amazing new
05 14,976 Notorious B.I.G. - Nasty Girl

I wrote about 'Sorry' quite recently when ranking the #1s of 2006:

On 08/12/2025 at 19:19, Jade said:

09 Madonna - Sorry

Kept off #1: Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On

As covered in Chez's 2005 #1s thread, Madonna pulled off another reinvention in style with ABBA-sampling 'Hung Up'. This juggernaut lead was going to be a tough act to follow but thankfully accompanying tenth studio album Confessions on a Dance Floor was packed with further hits. 'Sorry' was chosen as the follow-up single to take the campaign into 2006 and this was a smart move in the U.K., as it became her 12th #1 single here and penultimate one to date. The performance of 'Sorry' was hampered in the U.S. after it did not receive much radio play there. This song apologetically opens in several different languages, with a French "I am sorry" to kick off proceedings, then the same message attempted in Spanish, Dutch and Italian. This all takes place in the first verse but Japanese, Hindi, Polish and Hebrew is also used elsewhere in the song. Madonna claimed that everything "sounds better in another language". She recently praised Spanish singer ROSALÍA's latest album LUX on social media which also incorporates multiple different languages.

'Sorry' was written and produced by Madonna and Stuart Price. She asked Price to pen music that sounded like "ABBA on drugs" when brainstorming material for Confessions on a Dancefloor. 'Hung Up' may have an actual 'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)' sample but 'Sorry' continues their strong, catchy pop DNA on to another release. I really enjoy the pounding disco-synth production on this single and the confident, self-assured lyrics that radiate personal growth and empowerment. My favourite moment in the whole song is the build-up during the bridge where "I've heard it all before..." is repeated and the production switches up a little. The non-English language parts don't add a whole lot, especially as the Dutch translation is apparently incorrect, although it was a satisfying moment to be able to link "sono spiacente" back to a Madonna song during early days of learning Italian on Duolingo. Confessions... is a rightfully lauded Madonna project but 'Sorry' feels a little underrated in terms of her #1s. Understandable when her catalogue covers so many different eras. But I think it's a great pop song and had to put it within my top 10.

I remember 'Hung Up' really well from the time but 'Sorry' didn't follow me around quite as much. 'Put Your Records On' by Corinne Bailey Rae, which settled for #2 behind Madonna, was pretty ubiquitous in my world, with classmates often singing it, so I do actually recall that one better than 'Sorry' from the time - but I'm happy the latter did add to Madge's tally, as I go back to it more long-term.

9th may look a little low but it was an incredibly strong year for chart toppers, I really liked everything in my top 10.

Happy 20th birthday to this fabulous song 🩷

I agree 'Sorry' does feel somewhat underrated or at least it's not one that people often express love for even if they do like it. I don't know whether that's from being overshadowed by 'Hung Up' or it gets forgotten about due to not appearing on any tour setlists since Confessions.

It was her 15th most streamed song on Spotify yesterday (78,056 streams), just behind 'Holiday (80,293) which paints a prettier picture of how its regarded. It's got nearly 124m streams and has an additional 52m from the BLOND:ISH remix released a few years back).

Happy 20th birthday!

I listened to the album today to celebrate. Still sounds so fresh and brilliant 20 years on. She made timeless magic with this album and this song in particular stands strong. Total love