Дождь (Мадонна) Rain (Madonna)

1993 single by Madonna

"Rain" is a song by American singer Madonna from her fifth studio album, Erotica (1992), released by Maverick, Sire and Warner. Written and produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone, in Australia and most European countries, the song was released as the album's fifth single on July 17, 1993; in the United States, a release was issued on August 5. A pop ballad that mixes elements of R&B, trip hop, and new age music, its lyrics liken water and rainfall to the power of love. Upon release, "Rain" was positively received by critics, who deemed it a highlight in Erotica and one of the best ballads Madonna had released up to that point. Commercially, the single saw moderate success. In the United States, it reached the 14th spot of the Billboard Hot 100. It fared better in Canada and the United Kingdom, where it reached the chart's second spot and top ten, respectively. The accompanying music video was directed by Mark Romanek and finds Madonna singing in front of a Japanese film crew; critics applauded the visual for its cinematography. "Rain" has been included on three of Madonna's concert tours, the most recent being the Celebration Tour of 2023–2024. It has been covered by multiple artists ―particularly for tribute albums―, including Madonna's former back up singers Donna De Lory and Niki Haris.

In early 1992, Madonna founded her own multi media entertainment company Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing, and merchandising divisions. The first two projects from the venture were her fifth studio album Erotica and a coffee table book of photographs featuring Madonna, entitled Sex. For Erotica, Madonna primarily collaborated with American producer Shep Pettibone; Pettibone first began working with the singer during the 1980s, providing remixes for several of her singles. Petibone would create the music and Madonna the lyrics. They came up with "Rain" the night before Madonna was scheduled to come in to the studio; "it was a Sunday, it was raining ha! and she wrote the words, and sang the song and harmonies all in that day. ['Rain'] came together very quickly", recalled the producer. According to author Matthew Rettenmund, "Rain" was intended to be part of a planned musical adaptation of the 1939 film Wuthering Heights, set to be directed by Madonna's collaborator Alek Keshishian. personnel working on the song included Pettibone on the sequencing, keyboard arrangement, and programming; Anthony Shimkin was in charge of drum programming, Dennis Mitchell and Robin Hancock worked as recording engineers, and Goh Hotoda was the mixing engineer. In 1995, "Rain" was added to Madonna's compilation Something to Remember.

"Rain" is a pop ballad with influence of R&B, trip hop, and New age, comparable to the work of Peter Gabriel and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Madonna sings with "heartfelt intensity" the lines When you looked into my eyes/And you said goodbye/Could you see my tears/When I turned the other way. Towards the bridge, there is a key change from B major to C major, followed by two spoken parts and a harmony alongside it;

Upon release, "Rain" was generally well received by most music critics. In his 2000 book Madonna: Blonde Ambition, Bego said it was one of Madonna's best and most beautiful ballads. On his review of Erotica, Billboards Paul Verna referred to "Rain" as a "lovely pop ballad". From the same magazine, Larry Flick called it "gorgeous [ ] though not as lyrically daring as [previous single] 'Bad Girl', ['Rain'] is a wonderfully constructed tune". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered it among Madonna's "best and most accomplished music"; Jose F. Promis from the same portal said it was a more "friendly" song than the album's previous singles, and that it paved the way for the "softer" image and sound the singer would adopt later on in the decade. Anthony Violanti from The Buffalo News gave a particularly positive review, naming it one of the album's best moments, and one of the best ballads Madonna had done up to that point. Writing for The Independent, Giles Smith said the song is "as close to the Madonna of Like a Prayer as [Erotica] comes, a big and solemn ballad". For Rolling Stone, Arion Berger highlighted the track as one of Eroticas "yearning ballads" that help it sustain its "icy tone". At Blender, Tony Powers considered it one of the album's standout tracks. Sal Cinquemani pointed out that, "Madonna’s rarely acknowledged harmonies glide atop the frosty beats, thunder claps of percussion, and skyward drone of the sonorous 'Rain'". Cash Boxs Troy J. Augusto opined it was a "simple yet effective" song, and noted that, "at times, [Madonna] almost sounds like Karen Carpenter, all tender and shy. (My God, there's no limit to this artist's depth!)". Annie Zaleski from The A. V. Club stated that "Rain" turned the singer into a "sensual New age goddess". Idolators Stephen Sears considered it Eroticas "sole expression of pure love [ ] a swooningly romantic" track that "revisits the oceanic sonic landscape" of 1986's "Live to Tell". Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost opined it wasn't "terribly distinctive" from other ballads Madonna had released at the time. Barbara Walker, writing in the Sun Sentinel, named "Rain" a highlight in Erotica, but said that it didn't add anything new to Madonna's catalogue. Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, was also critical; he complimented the "radio friendly" sound of the song, but felt that the lyrical theme "had been used in countless [songs]". In less favorable reviews, Albumism's Justin Chadwick said it is the album's "only banal and skippable offering". Chris Willman for the Los Angeles Times wrote that, "despite having crafted some of the best singles of the '80s, and despite being a genuine wit, Madonna can tend toward terribly banal rhymes", citing "Rain" as an example. Alfred Soto from Stylus Magazine referred to it as a "slushy rewrite of that year's 'This Used to Be My Playground', itself a slushy rewrite of Like a Prayers 'Promise to Try'". Brian Boone from Popdose dismissed it as mediocre. Retrospective reviews have been positive. Rocco Papa from The Odyssey deemed it "one of the most beautiful songs on one of her most underrated albums". Nayer Missim from PinkNews considered it the singer's ninth best, and said it was the "softest, most atmospheric (and least overtly sexual) bit of Erotica, but no less sensual and seductive for it". For Billboards Andrew Unterberger, it is the singer's 73th best: An "easily understood, highly accessible ballad [ ] of perfectly polished R&B". Louis Virtel, writing for The Backlot, named "Rain" Madonna's 47th best song and highlighted its warmth, an opinion that was shared by Parades Samuel R. Murrian. The Nationals Saeed Saeed named it an "ethereal beauty", and one of Madonna's "most criminally underrated" singles. Finally, for Sal Cinquemani it is the album's "least pugnacious moment" that "launched the great post Sex rebuilding phase of [Madonna's] career".

In the United States, "Rain" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 75, in the issue dated July 24, 1993. As the weeks went by, the song climbed places and finally peaked at number 14 on the week of September 11, spending a total of 20 weeks on the chart. On Billboards Adult Contemporary chart, "Rain" peaked at number seven. "Rain" is Madonna's 40th biggest hit in the United States, according to Billboard magazine. In Canada, the single debuted in the 95th position of RPMs Top Singles chart on the week of July 17, 1993; two months later, it peaked at number two behind Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover". In the United Kingdom, "Rain" debuted at the 10th position of the UK Singles Chart on July 31, 1993, and, one week later, peaked at number seven; it spent 8 weeks on the chart overall. In Australia, the song debuted at number 21 on the charts before rising and peaking at number five; it was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 35,000 copies.

The music video for "Rain" was directed by American filmmaker and photographer Mark Romanek, and filmed at a Santa Monica Airport hangar in Santa Monica, California from May 16–19, 1993. Madonna had previously expressed interest in working with Romanek due to his collaborations with Lenny Kravitz and En Vogue. Comparing the song to Wuthering Heights, Madonna came up with the idea of shooting in black and white, but Romanek thought that would be "a little too kind of on the nose"; he instead decided on a futuristic theme of a video within a video, showing the singer as a "doe eyed ingenue" performing for a film crew. Described as "very zen, very stripped away", the music video takes place in Tokyo and shows Madonna as an "accessible, vulnerable creature surrounded by the high tech and the global". "Rain" premiered on MTV, on June 21, 1993; While Maureen Sajbel singled out the singer's "striking" appearance, Bryant Frazer from Studio Daily applauded it for pushing "the boundaries of telecine work at the time". At the MTV Video Music Awards, Jan Peter Flack and Savides won for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, respectively; it was nominated for clip of the year, and Romanek awarded director of the year at the Billboard Music Video Awards. Both Rocco Papa and the staff of Rolling Stone deemed "Rain" Madonna's sixth best video, with the latter highlighting its "high contrast look and meta narrative concept". Idolators Mike Neid wrote that, with its "gorgeous set pieces and stunning cinematography, ['Rain'] is sheer class"; he placed it on the 24th position on his ranking of Madonna's 25 best music videos. Slant Magazine considered "Rain" the 70th greatest music video of all time; Sal Cinquemani and Ed Gonzalez opined it was one of Madonna's "most beautiful", as well as a "simple and refreshing break from [her] sex drenched Erotica period". For VH1's Christopher Rosa, it is one of the singer's most underrated music videos, describing it as "simple, [and] electric", and comparing her short hair look to that of Mia Farrow. Jef Rouner from the Houston Press named it the ninth best music video directed by Romanek: "One of [his] more light hearted and definitely the most purple of his work, 'Rain' is a fascinating treatise on the act of creating a music video itself". Finally, Rettenmund called it a "masterpiece about art and artifice", concluding that, although Romanek intended to make a video "devoid of nostalgia", "['Rain'] created a modern enigma [out of Madonna] who herself was no stranger to overexposure". Dave Marsh and James Bernard wrote in New Book of Rock Lists (1994) that, "the video confronts the issues of Japanese influences on contemporary art and style". "Rain" can be found on Madonna's compilations The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) and Celebration: The Video Collection (2009), as well as on the DVD The Work Of Director Mark Romanek (2005).

On the Girlie Show of 1993, Madonna sang "Rain" interspersed with lyrics of the Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" (1971). Former back up singer Niki Haris recalled that it was the "first time [on stage] we sat down together and felt our harmonies. Madonna's voice was starting to get strong and she was into trying new things". The number was praised by The Baltimore Sun s J. D. Considine, who opined that, even though the artist "just sat and sang, that hardly took away from ['Rain's] gorgeous harmonies". The performance recorded on November 19, 1993, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, was included on The Girlie Show: Live Down Under video release (1994). A mashup of "Rain" and Eurythmics "Here Comes the Rain Again" (1984) was used as a video interlude on 2008―2009's Sticky & Sweet Tour. The number featured a cylindrical screen lowered from the ceiling, with projections of rain and water tumbling down its sides, while the video showed "an alien woman chasing fish". Also present were dancers doing an Asian inspired choreography. The performance of "Rain" on the Celebration Tour (2023―2024) sees a "shadowy reaper" embrace Madonna —who's decked out in a long robe— and "pull[ing] her into the darkness". Reviewing the tour's opening concert in London, the staff of OutInPerth criticized the "anti climactic" number.

In 2000, British gothic rock band Rosetta Stone covered "Rain" for the tribute album Virgin Voices: A Tribute to Madonna, Vol. 2; AllMusic's Heather Phares considered it one of the album's finest moment. The following year, a hi NRG/Eurodance cover by Who's That Girl! was included on the album Exposed, released through Almighty Records. The Vitamin String Quartet included a cover of "Rain" on The String Quartet Tribute to Madonna (2002), while Los Angeles based band Motor Industries did it for The Dancefloor Tribute to Madonna (2003). A cover by Da Capo Players and the Vitamin String Quartet was included on Strung out on Madonna: The String Quartet Tribute (2008); that same year, Madonna impersonator Melissa Totten included the song as part of the "Klubkidz House Party Mix", from her album Forever Madonna. In May 2016, Niki Haris and Donna De Lory recorded an acoustic version of "Rain" and released it as a digital single; this release also included a remix created by Willie Ray Lewis. An EP containing four additional remixes was released on October. In the 2019 film Uncut Gems, "Rain" was used in a scene in which Adam Sandler's character walks into his apartment and finds it empty and dark.