
On February 10 1998, Madonna appeared on the March cover of Vanity Fair, with incredible photos by Mario Testino.


On February 10 1998, Madonna appeared on the March cover of Vanity Fair, with incredible photos by Mario Testino.


On February 2 1998, the April issue of Spin magazine with Madonna featured on the cover hit stands across North America.
From the issue:
Thirty-nine-year-old Madonna Louise Ciccone could easily have hacked out an album of Babs-and-Celine-style schmaltz and laughed all the way to the ashram. Instead, says Barry Walters, she delivered Ray Of Light, the riskiest, most revealing record of her career. Photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

On January 24 1998, Madonna performed Frozen for the very first time. It was at the Sanremo Music Festival, in Sanremo, Italy, that she first promoted the song, and the forthcoming album, Ray of Light.
The following month, on February 21, she performed the song on the BBC 1’s The National Lottery Show. Additionally, that same month, she appeared and performed the song on the German TV show Wetten dass..?
You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
You’re frozen
When your heart’s not open
On January 7 1998, filming began for Madonna’s Frozen music video in the California desert with director Chris Cunningham.
Cunningham recalled the initial concept for the video in his book, Directors Label:
“The original treatment was, like, massive piles of bodies in the desert. All these figurative sculptures made up of bodies that were all multiple Madonnas. They were all going to split and break up and change into ravens and then change into dogs. Just a performance video, but a really elaborate one using her, her clothes, and any shapes that would come out of her clothes.”

On November 28 1998, Madonna’s The Power Of Good-Bye hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in the USA. The hit single from Ray Of Light was written by Madonna and Rick Nowels; produced by Madonna, William Orbit and Patrick Leonard.
Rick Nowels had this to say about his experience writing the song with Madonna:
It was a career-changing experience for me. Before that I had always done my co-writing with friends. But working with Madonna. It was the first time I had ever written one-on-one with a great artist/writer. After that I changed gears a little, and now I mostly collaborate directly with artists.


On November 10 1998, Madonna met her favourite actress of all-time, Jeanne Moreau, during an interview on the TF1 French series Sacrées Femmes. During the show Madonna promoted the Ray Of Light album with a performance of Drowned World/Substitute For Love. The show also included the following guests: Jean Paul Gautier and Patricia Kaas.
Madonna tweeted the following on July 31 2016 about that special meeting:
“Remembering this magnificent day when I first met my favourite actress Jeanne Moreau. She died today. There was no one like her.”
