On September 9 1999, MTV staged a tribute to Madonna, the most-nominated artist in Video Music Award history, by presenting a host of male drag performers dressed up as Madonna from her past music videos.
Madonna also introduced Paul McCartney, and then together they presented the Video of the Year.
Madonna was also nominated and won a VMA for:
Beautiful Stranger was also nominated for:
On July 26 1999, Beautiful Stranger hit #1 for the first of two weeks on the Top 100 Canadian Singles chart published by RPM.
In the U.S. a commercial single had been withheld for Beautiful Stranger to drive sales of Maverick Records’ Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack album, limiting the song’s chart potential on the Hot 100 despite favorable support from radio. In a rare move, Warner Music Canada opted against following the lead of its U.S. counterpart and instead released the song as a CD maxi-single on July 20th, 1999.
During the week of its release, Beautiful Stranger was spending a second week at #4 on the Canadian singles chart based on the strength of its airplay alone, however the loss of its bullet indicated that it had likely peaked at radio. Fortunately, the added boost from sales of the domestic maxi-single was enough to earn Madonna her 17th #1 single in Canada – her first since 1995’s Take A Bow, despite having achieved three Canadian top-5 hits in the interim between 1996 and 1998.
On June 26 1999, Madonna’s Beautiful Stranger debuted at #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Play chart in the USA.
On March 15 1999, Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, confirmed to MTV News that a tour in support of Ray Of Light had been canceled. Instead, Madonna would be working on a number of other projects including:
Liz had this to say:
“The starting date of the movie was postponed, and it created such a small window to turn things around and get into total tour mode and put together the kind of show Madonna does, with no stone unturned, that she thought it would be better to wait until 2000.”
On March 13 1999, Madonna’s The Power of Good-Bye, fell to #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales chart, spending its final week on the chart (after 22 weeks).
The Power of Good-Bye was written by Madonna and Rick Nowels. The song was produced by Madonna, William Orbit, Patrick Leonard with string arrangements by Craig Armstrong.
Rick said this of the hit song:
“The lyrics to The Power Of Good-Bye are stunning. I love Madonna as an artist and a songwriter… She is a wonderful confessional songwriter, as well as being a superb hit chorus pop writer… She doesn’t get the credit she deserves as a writer.”
On February 24 1999, Madonna performed Nothing Really Matters at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards. Madonna also took home 4 Grammies:
On January 2 1999, Madonna’s The Power of Good-Bye peaked at #14 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart in the USA. The single remained #14 for 6 non-consecutive weeks.
