I choose

just godly

The production is insane

Swim

Frozen or Skin

The Power of Goodbye or Nothing Really Matters

27 minutes ago, tambora said:

I choose

just godly

You are correct

the immediate skin stanning

the way she emotes on this track, over such superb production
when she sings "kiss me, i'm dying" > the sentiment of that line

carries throughout the song and you can't help believe that

if no one kisses her, she will die queen of yearning

I have to go with Frozen.

To Have and Not to Hold and it's also one of her most underrated songs.

sky fits legend >>>>>

Drowned World/Substitute For Love, easily a top 5 Madonna song

Has To Be and Skin complete my personal trinity, greatest album of all time honestly

Ray of Light

Every time this thread comes up I start typing, delete everything, and then realize the real answer is that Ray of Light is one of those albums where the "best song" changes depending on what phase of life you're in, your mood, what you've lost recently, what you're trying to become, etc. But since you asked for a best song, I feel like I can't cheat without walking through the whole thing, because this album is basically one long emotional evolution disguised as a techno-pop record.

It opens with Drowned World / Substitute for Love and honestly this track already tells you you're in for something different. It's restrained, almost shy for an album opener, especially from someone known for being loud and provocative. There's this soft, gliding pulse underneath that feels like drifting over deep water at night. Madonna sounds reflective, a little tired, like she's looking at her life from a distance. Lyrically it's brutal in a quiet way — trading fame for love, isolation masked as adoration, realizing too late that applause doesn't replace actual connection. It's not trying to smack you with a hook, it's trying to set a tone: introspection first, spectacle later. It's not the best song on the album, but it's one of the most important songs on the album because it reframes Madonna entirely.

Then Swim hits and suddenly the anxiety kicks in. This song always feels like internal panic rendered in electronic form. The beat pulses like a racing heart, and the production is dense and underwater, like thoughts stacking on top of each other when you're overwhelmed. The lyrics are all surrender and survival and transformation — fear mixed with acceptance. It's not clean or comforting. It feels like drowning, except you're choosing to jump in anyway. This is one of those tracks that people underrate because it isn't catchy and it's not a single, but thematically it's doing massive work. It's basically the bridge between old Madonna and post-RoL Madonna.

And then Ray of Light (the title track) explodes out of nowhere like the universe just ripped open. This is the most obvious "best song" candidate for a lot of people, and honestly it's not a wrong answer. It's euphoric in a way that still sounds futuristic decades later. The tempo alone is wild for a Madonna single, and yet she sounds energized, alive, totally reawakened. The lyrics are simple but they hit because of the delivery — speed, youth, clarity, time slipping through your hands. It feels like enlightenment on a dance floor. William Orbit absolutely snapped with that spinning, rushing synth line that never lets up. This song is Madonna literally outrunning her own history. If you define "best" as most iconic, most influential, most alive, this is probably the answer.

Then Candy Perfume Girl comes in and slams the mood right back down into something dark and claustrophobic. This track feels toxic in the most intentional way. The lyrics read like obsession, control, desire turning sour. The production is thick, grimy, suffocating — it barely gives you air. It's one of the least friendly tracks on the album, and that's exactly why it works. It feels like being trapped in a relationship you know is wrong but can't escape yet. Not the "best" but one of the most psychologically interesting.

Skin follows and honestly this is peak late-90s erotic paranoia. It's anxious, slippery, sensual, but not in a triumphant way — it's sensual in a shaky, vulnerable, almost desperate way. The way the beat creeps instead of grooves is unsettling on purpose. Lyrically it's about intimacy with walls still up, wanting closeness but being scared of what that actually means. It's one of those songs that makes you feel like you're eavesdropping on someone's inner monologue during a relationship they shouldn't be in. Underrated as hell.

Nothing Really Matters is where the album starts rising back into light. This song is pure surrender. It's maternal, spiritual, liberating — especially knowing this was right after she became a mother. The lyrics feel like a total priority reset: ego dissolving, control dissolving, fear dissolving. The production is glittery but restrained, like light refracting through water. It's not my personal "best," but emotionally it's one of the album's most pivotal moments. It's Madonna letting go of the armor.

Sky Fits Heaven is sneaky one of the best-written tracks on the album. It's deceptively upbeat, almost bright sounding, but the message is about effort, faith, trial, struggle. I love how it balances pop structure with spiritual themes without sounding corny. There's a quiet determination in it — not explosive like Ray of Light, but steady. It feels like someone who's not fully healed but is committed to the work. This one grows on people over time.

Then you hit Shanti / Ashtangi, and this is where you either fully buy into the album's spiritual detour or you roll your eyes. It's Sanskrit chanting over electronic beats, weird even by 1998 standards for a mainstream pop album. I personally respect the hell out of it for existing at all. It's hypnotic, alien, meditative, and completely uninterested in being accessible. Is it the best song? Absolutely not in a conventional sense. But as a statement piece, it's fearless. No one at Madonna's level was doing this.

And then Frozen arrives like the emotional centerpiece, and this is where a LOT of people (including me, on many days) plant their flag for "best song." Frozen is untouchable. The atmosphere, the melancholy, the restraint, the yearning — it's all perfectly balanced. The lyrics are timeless: emotional distance, self-protection, being unable to love because you're afraid of being hurt. The production is icy but lush, minimal but huge. The way the song builds without ever fully exploding is what makes it devastating. It's not trying to release tension — it wants you to sit inside it. Frozen feels eternal. If someone told me this is the best Madonna song ever made, period, I wouldn't even argue that hard.

The Power of Good-Bye follows and somehow manages to match Frozen's emotional weight in a completely different way. Where Frozen is about emotional paralysis, Power of Good-Bye is about emotional release. It's clean, surgical heartbreak. No bitterness, no dramatics, just acceptance and grief intertwined. The melody is stunning in its simplicity. It's one of those breakup songs where the pain is quiet and dignified, which honestly hurts more. This song aged incredibly well. If your metric for "best" is emotional maturity and songwriting, this is easily a top contender.

To Have and Not to Hold is where things shift again into a colder, more detached emotional space. It's about loving independence more than attachment, choosing freedom over emotional comfort, even when it hurts. The production feels airy but distant, like standing alone on a beach at night. This one often gets overlooked, but thematically it continues the album's obsession with selfhood, boundaries, and transformation. It's not flashy, but it's necessary.

Little Star is pure tenderness. Knowing it's written for her daughter gives it this soft, sacred glow, but it doesn't lean into cheap sentimentality. It's gentle without being sugary. There's something really grounding about it — like the album briefly steps out of its cosmic, existential headspace and into something totally human and small and real. Not a "best song" pick for most, but it's one of the album's emotional anchors.

And then there's Mer Girl, which is honestly one of the most haunting album closers in pop music. It feels more like a short film than a song. The storm sounds, the spoken word, the slow, ominous buildup. It's about her mother's death, guilt, grief, unresolved trauma, and it feels raw in a way that Madonna rarely allowed herself to be before this era. There's no commercial instinct here at all. It's unsettling, personal, and heavy. Ending the album here instead of something triumphant was a bold artistic decision. It leaves you emotionally disarmed rather than hyped.

So after all that, if I actually have to answer the question instead of dodging it: Frozen is probably the "best song" in the purest artistic sense, Ray of Light is the best in terms of cultural impact and sheer sonic adrenaline, and The Power of Good-Bye might be the most emotionally complete. But the real strength of this album is that no single song fully represents it. It only works because of the full arc — fear, rebirth, ego death, love, detachment, grief, acceptance.

Ray of Light isn't just a great Madonna album. It's one of those rare pop albums where a massive superstar completely rewires herself without losing her identity. That's why people are still arguing about the best song on it over 25 years later.

If I absolutely had to plant a personal flag and choose one… it's Frozen. Every time.

Still Frozen. One of the best songs ever. It's just a spiritual experience

Frozen

1 hour ago, tambora said:

I choose

just godly

the correct choice

Ray of Light.

To this day I have never heard a song remotely like it..

Frozen is a VERY close second.

Frozen

Drowned World

Ray of Light

The Power of Goodbye

To Have And Not To Hold

Nothing Really Matters

This perfect album

57 minutes ago, Goaty said:

sky fits legend >>>>>

candy perfume girl

Nothing really matters

It's actually Nothing Really Matters

Nothing Really Matters & The Power of Goodbye are among my most played songs of all time.

2 hours ago, wish said:

Frozen

Drowned World

Ray of Light

The Power of Goodbye

To Have And Not To Hold

Nothing Really Matters

This perfect album

Exactly that but I would add to perfection:

Sky fits heaven

Swim

Skin

Mer Girl