Madonna Hits 50

Madonna’s 50th chart entry on the Billboard Hot 100 bows, appropriately, at No. 50. In another chart coincidence, this debut comes 20 years to the week after Madonna made her first appearance on the Hot 100 with “Holiday,” the week of Oct. 29, 1983.

There’s something unique about Madonna’s 50th chart entry. “Me Against the Music” is Britney Spears’ 10th appearance on the Hot 100, and the first song in chart history to include the name Madonna and the word “featuring.” Madonna’s first 49 chart entries were all solo efforts, despite the growing trend of sharing credit with another artist. “Me Against the Music,” the first hit from Spears’ forthcoming album, “In the Zone,” is credited to Britney Spears Featuring Madonna.

There’s another unique fact about this collaboration: It’s the first of Spears’ 10 chart entries that she has co-written. The track is produced by Christopher “Tricky” Stewart under the name Trixster. It’s his sixth production to reach the Hot 100, and it will have to go to No. 1 to be his biggest hit. That honor is now held by Mya’s “Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do),” which hit No. 2 in December 2000.

Stewart’s first production to chart on the Hot 100 was “Who Dat,” a No. 5 hit for JT Money Featuring Sole in May 1999. Stewart’s mother, Maryann, was a backing vocalist who worked with Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin. He wanted to be a drummer, but his mother told him there wasn’t any money in it. “She wanted me to be a producer,” he says. “She wanted me to write songs, so I started writing.”

While Stewart is listed as producer on “Me Against the Music,” Madonna is not. It is the first of her chart entries she has not produced since her remake of Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” went to No. 78 in 1996.

Source: Fred Bronson, Billboard/Reuters
Thanks to Liz