Following our Billboard staff-picked list of the 100 greatest songs of 2000, we're writing this week about some of the stories and trends that defined the year for us.
Here, we look back at the way Madonna, arguably the most iconic pop star of the '80s and '90s, entered her third decade: with an album that pushed both music and her own songwriting into new and unexpected places.
The year 2000 was a good time to be Madonna. Through the ups and downs of the ’90s, she’d followed the musical standard she’d set on 1989’s Like a Prayer, extending her range as a singles artist into a more personal, album-driven format.
The birth of Lourdes Leon, her first child, sparked the creation of 1998’s Ray of Light -- still her most critically acclaimed
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