# Don't Tell Me (Madonna song)
**"Don't Tell Me"** is a song by the American singer Madonna from her eighth studio album, *[Music](https://www.edgepedia.org/music-madonna-album)* (2000), released as the album's second single on November 14, 2000. Written by Madonna, the French producer [Mirwais Ahmadzaï](https://www.edgepedia.org/mirwais-ahmadzai), and the singer-songwriter [Joe Henry](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-henry), Madonna's brother-in-law, it reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart and topped the charts in Canada, New Zealand, and Spain.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/album/dont-tell-me-mw0000116601) • [2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) • [3](https://www.chart2000.com/music/un4x1y.htm)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Second single from *Music*; released November 14, 2000 on Maverick/Warner Bros.[1](https://www.allmusic.com/album/dont-tell-me-mw0000116601) |
| Writers / producers | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï, and Joe Henry; produced by Madonna and Mirwais[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) |
| Origin | Began as Henry's tango-flavored torch song "Stop", later released on his album *Scar* (2001)[4](https://www.rocklists.com/artists/madonna/don-t-tell-me/) |
| Chart performance | No. 4 on the US Hot 100 (21 weeks on chart) and UK; No. 1 in Canada, New Zealand, and Spain; RIAA Gold[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) • [3](https://www.chart2000.com/music/un4x1y.htm) |
| Music video | "Madonna Goes Cowgirl", directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino; nominated for best female video and best choreography at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) |
| Signature sound | Acoustic folk guitar loop over chopped-up electronic production, including "digital dropout" effects that mimic a skipping CD[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231965913_Mediating_Music_Materiality_and_silence_in_Madonna%27s_%27Don%27t_Tell_Me%27) |
## Origin
The song began as "Stop", written by Joe Henry, a cult [Americana](https://www.edgepedia.org/americana) singer-songwriter married to Madonna's sister Melanie. A Pitchfork retrospective notes that Henry composed the song in 25 minutes while trying out the gear at his newly built studio; after hearing the demo, his wife said she imagined Madonna performing it.[6](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-music/) Henry's version was a noirish, [Tom Waits](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-waits)-style tango, and it later appeared as the first single from his album *Scar* (2001).[4](https://www.rocklists.com/artists/madonna/don-t-tell-me/) • [7](https://www.madonnanation.com/chartsarchive/dtm.htm)
When the demo reached Madonna, she rebuilt the track completely with Mirwais Ahmadzaï, her collaborator on *Music*, turning it into a rhythmic, country-tinged dance number while keeping most of Henry's lyrics intact.[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) • [6](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-music/) Madonna's official site notes that after hearing Henry's original version she "decided to retool it with Mirwais and make it her own", with most of the lyrics remaining unchanged.[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) The chorus keeps Henry's defiant refrain, "Tell me everything I'm not / But please don't tell me to stop", alongside darker verses such as "Tell the bed not to lay / Like the open mouth of a grave".[8](https://www.madonna.com/pages/song/don-t-tell-me) Henry later said he was struck by the juxtaposition of his dark lyrics with a heartfelt delivery grafted onto a sunny-sounding pop song.[9](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/madonna-don-t-tell-turns-145634252.html)
## Sound and production
The album version pairs a looping acoustic guitar part with start-stop electronic beats, a combination critics described as techno-rockabilly or folktronica. Pitchfork described it as playing "like Sheryl Crow's 'Strong Enough' as remixed by Timbaland", with a guitar part that loops and rewinds and occasionally halts for a string break.[6](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-music/) The single's credits list Mirwais on acoustic guitar, keyboards, and drum programming, with strings arranged by Michel Colombier and mixing by Mark "Spike" Stent.[10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktLUV2jhpbU)
**Digital dropouts.** The musicologists Anne Danielsen and Arnt Maasø, both of the [University of Oslo](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-oslo), analyzed the track in the journal *Popular Music* (2009) as a case study in digital sound's materiality. They identified its most striking trace of mediation as the use of "digital dropouts", an effect mimicking a [CD player](https://www.edgepedia.org/cd-player) failing to read a dirty or scratched disk. In their reading, the effect lends the song its contemporary feel through a clear display of a digital signature, even though the song's format, a lead vocal with a band in a verse-chorus form, could have resulted from analog recording or a live performance.[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231965913_Mediating_Music_Materiality_and_silence_in_Madonna%27s_%27Don%27t_Tell_Me%27) They also read the song as playing on the relation between old and new: acoustic instrumentation within a digital environment turns country and western, a style connoting authenticity, into what they call a sort of hyperreal travesty, with the track functioning as "the club version of country-pop".[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231965913_Mediating_Music_Materiality_and_silence_in_Madonna%27s_%27Don%27t_Tell_Me%27)
## Commercial performance
The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on December 9, 2000 and peaked at No. 4, spending 21 weeks on the chart, and reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom.[11](https://wikihits.com/2000s/madonna-dont-tell-me) • [2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) It was certified Gold by the RIAA in March 2001.[3](https://www.chart2000.com/music/un4x1y.htm) Elsewhere it reached No. 1 in Canada, New Zealand, and Spain, No. 5 in Sweden, No. 6 in Norway, and No. 10 in Switzerland.[3](https://www.chart2000.com/music/un4x1y.htm) On the US dance chart it spent one week at No. 1 and 14 weeks on the chart, outlasting the title single "Music".[7](https://www.madonnanation.com/chartsarchive/dtm.htm) The CD maxi-single collected seven remixes, with additional production by Timo Maas and Martin Buttrich, Richard "Humpty" Vission, Thunderpuss (Chris Cox and Barry Harris), Tracy Young, and Victor Calderone.[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) • [1](https://www.allmusic.com/album/dont-tell-me-mw0000116601)
## Music video
Jean-Baptiste Mondino directed the video, billed on Madonna's site as "Madonna Goes Cowgirl". Madonna walks in front of a screen showing a desert in plaid and denim, is joined by four male dancers, and performs a choreographed line-dancing routine in full cowgirl dress, with a mechanical bull featured.[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me) • [7](https://www.madonnanation.com/chartsarchive/dtm.htm) The video received two nominations at the 2001 [MTV Video Music Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/mtv-video-music-awards), for best female video and best choreography.[2](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me)
## Critical reception and legacy
In a 2020 retrospective, Pitchfork called it the album's most indelible song and one of Madonna's best-ever singles, noting that although she barely changed Henry's lyrics, they play like commentary on her reception in popular culture at the turn of the century.[6](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-music/)
The song has remained in Madonna's performing repertoire. In 2014 she joined [Miley Cyrus](https://www.edgepedia.org/miley-cyrus) onstage during Cyrus's MTV *Unplugged* taping for a mash-up of Cyrus's "We Can't Stop" and "Don't Tell Me".[12](https://time.com/2892/miley-cyrus-strips-down-her-songs-and-grinds-with-madonna-in-mtv-unplugged/) Henry's original composition also found a second life beyond Madonna: the jazz singer Lizz Wright recorded "Stop" on her 2005 album *Dreaming Wide Awake*, crediting Joe Henry as the writer.[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231965913_Mediating_Music_Materiality_and_silence_in_Madonna%27s_%27Don%27t_Tell_Me%27)
## References
1. [Don't Tell Me Tracks & Reviews, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/dont-tell-me-mw0000116601)
2. [Don't Tell Me, Icon Community (madonna.com)](https://www.madonna.com/products/dont-tell-me)
3. [Song artist 3 – Madonna, Chart2000](https://www.chart2000.com/music/un4x1y.htm)
4. ["Don't Tell Me" by Madonna: Radio Countdown History and Rankings, RockLists](https://www.rocklists.com/artists/madonna/don-t-tell-me/)
5. [Anne Danielsen and Arnt Maasø (2009). Mediating Music: materiality and silence in Madonna's 'Don't Tell Me'. Popular Music 28(2).](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231965913_Mediating_Music_Materiality_and_silence_in_Madonna%27s_%27Don%27t_Tell_Me%27)
6. [Madonna: Music Album Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/madonna-music/)
7. [Don't Tell Me, Madonna Nation charts archive](https://www.madonnanation.com/chartsarchive/dtm.htm)
8. [Don't Tell Me lyrics, Icon Community (madonna.com)](https://www.madonna.com/pages/song/don-t-tell-me)
9. [Madonna's 'Don't Tell Me' Turns 20: Co-Writers Mirwais and Joe Henry Tell the Story, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/madonna-don-t-tell-turns-145634252.html)
10. [Madonna – Don't Tell Me (official audio), YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktLUV2jhpbU)
11. [Don't Tell Me by Madonna (2000) – Hot 100 Story, WikiHits](https://wikihits.com/2000s/madonna-dont-tell-me)
12. [Miley Cyrus Strips Down (Her Songs) and Grinds With Madonna in MTV Unplugged, Time](https://time.com/2892/miley-cyrus-strips-down-her-songs-and-grinds-with-madonna-in-mtv-unplugged/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Pop songs › Pop songs of the 2000s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license