Crave

Single

Single: Crave
Artist: Madonna featuring Swae Lee
Album: Madame X
Released: 10 May 2019
Label: Interscope
Genre: Pop, trap-pop, acoustic pop
Writers: Madonna, Swae Lee, Starrah
Producers: Madonna, Mike Dean, Billboard

Released in 2019, Crave brought a more intimate and contemporary sound to the Madame X campaign. Featuring Swae Lee, the track softened the era’s theatrical edges with acoustic guitar, trap-pop restraint and a melody shaped around longing, desire and emotional risk. It was released on 10 May 2019 as the album’s second single.  

Crave is important within the Madame X singles archive because it reveals the album’s more vulnerable emotional core. It is polished and radio-friendly, but not empty. Beneath its smooth surface sits one of Madonna’s recurring subjects: desire as danger, distance as ache, and love as something that can pull you somewhere unsafe.