Madonna ft. Nicki Minaj – Bitch I'm Madonna
2015 · Directed by Jonas Åkerlund
2.8M Likes
Best comments
1.“Legend says people are still cleaning the place where this was filmed...”
More comments
- 2.“I like how every celebrity is there except the one actually featured in the song, lmao.”
- 3.“I love the way Nicki couldn't be there, so they just held up a TV with her on it...”
The story
One night, three floors of a Manhattan hotel, wrapped before sunrise. Director Jonas Åkerlund shot this at the Standard High Line in the Meatpacking District, moving between the Boom Boom Room and the roof terrace as Madonna tears through a penthouse party with Diplo and her own sons, Rocco and David. Rita Ora, Chris Rock, Alexander Wang and model Jon Kortajarena turn up too, and Kanye West gets a cameo.
Then there are the guests who weren't actually there. Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus were filmed separately and stitched in later by the effects team at MPC NY. Nicki Minaj, who raps on the track, was shot on greenscreen and tracked onto a flat panel a dancer carries through the room. Critics noticed. Some called the whole thing desperate, some compared it to Taylor Swift's celebrity-stuffed Bad Blood, and Entertainment Weekly called it her most bonkers video in years. Time still ranked it number eight among the top pop videos of 2015.
The premiere was its own mess. It debuted on Tidal on June 17, 2015, exclusive for 24 hours, and playback broke badly enough that Tidal apologized. The song, from Rebel Heart, stalled at 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 but went to number one on the dance club chart, Madonna's 46th. Still the queen of the party, even when half the guests are pixels.
