Nothing Really Matters
Lyrics
When I was very young
Nothing really mattered to me
But making myself happy
I was the only one
Now that I am grown
Everything's changed
I'll never be the same
Because of you
Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Everything I give you
All comes back to me
Looking at my life
It's very clear to me
I lived so selfishly
I was the only one
I realize
That nobody wins
Something is ending
And something begins
Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Everything I give you
All comes back to
Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Everything I give you
All comes back to me
Nothing takes the past away
Like the future
Nothing makes the darkness go
Like the light
You're shelter from the storm
Give me comfort in your arms
Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Everything I give you
All comes back to me
Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Everything I give you
All comes back to me
Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Credits
Written by Madonna and Patrick Leonard
Produced by Madonna, William Orbit and Marius De Vries
Background vocals by Donna DeLory and Niki Haris
Additional drum programming by Steve Sidelnyk
Album
Single
This ambient electronic track describes how the birth of Lola makes all the rest in Madonna's life less important. Released as fifth and final single on March 2, 1999, a full year after the album came out, it didn't chart too well. In the US it didn't go higher than #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. The highest position in the UK and Canada was respectively #7 and #6. Madonna opened the 1999 Grammy Awards with this single in a set reminiscent of the Geisha video. Later that night, she went on to win four trophies.
Video
This video, directed by Johan Renck, must be the most mysterious video since Bedtime Story. Madonna plays a Geisha - inspired by Arthur C. Golden's book 'Memoirs of a Geisha' - in a red kimono and a black Cleopatra-wig. The other creatures in the video seem to be her followers. First they all treasure false forms of love, represented by bags of water. But that's not what really matters. Slowly they get the insight, symbolized with the people rising in the air. Madonna herself is walking and dancing through a long corridor. She has left the typical Ray Of Light-dance moves and now does a mystical Geisha-choreography.
Tour
Madonna performed the song live at the 1999 Grammy Awards, using the same esthetics as the music video.
On the 2001 Drowned World Tour there was an entire Geisha-part which resembled a lot the style used in the Nothing Really Matters video. However, Nothing Really Matters itself wasn't included on the setlist.
Many fans had given up on the idea of ever seeing Nothing Really Matters as part of a Madonna tour. Big surprise when the song wasn't just included in the 2023-2024 Celebration Tour, but it even featured as its opening. Contrary to previous tours, Madonna opted to perform this opening completely alone on stage. Dressed in a black-hued kimono by Eyob Yohannes and wearing a silver halo crown featuring faceted Swarovski crystals, she stood under a ring of lights that mimicked her halo The performance instantly became a classic and a true representationof the tour.