Madonna’s ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ at 20: Here’s 9 Things You Don’t Know About It

“[American Life was] the worst-selling album of my career, but one of my favorite records ever,” Madonna told CBS’s Harry Smith on The Early Show in late 2005. “But what I’m grateful for is the ability to just keep — keep doing what I do. And … OK, people weren’t, you know, people didn’t accept that. Fine. Pick my crown up off the floor, put it back on my head and keep going. It’s alright.”

Her follow-up album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, released 20 years ago on Nov. 9, 2005, put her right back on top. American Life was hardly a flop (it topped the Billboard 200 and housed the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Die Another Day”), but Confessions was exactly what fans and critics were hungry for. American Life spent 14 weeks on the Billboard 200 in total, while Confessions—another Billboard 200 No. 1–remained on the chart for 37 weeks. Lead single “Hung Up” reached No. 7 on the Hot 100 and remains one of her best-loved songs, and Madonna’s tour the following year set an all-time record.

In the U.S., Confessions ranked as the second-biggest dance album of the 2000s, just behind Gorillaz’s Demon Days, per Luminate. Madonna won the Grammy for best electronic/dance album in 2007, while the Guinness Book of World Records recognized her as the oldest artist ever to simultaneously top the U.K. singles and albums charts with “Hung Up” and Confessions, respectively. Does that qualify as reverse ageism?

For the album’s 20th anniversary, here are nine things you might not know about Confessions on a Dance Floor.

Giulio Mazzoleni is the author of Madonna Songbook, a luxury coffee-table book chronicling Madonna’s entire musical career, with in-depth analysis of over 500 released and unreleased titles written, produced and sung by Madonna. The book is available for import in the U.S. through Fishpond, AbeBooks, or directly from the original publisher, Edizioni Antiga. You can find him on Instagram @MadonnaSongbook.