Nobody Knows Me
The song was written and produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï for her ninth studio album American Life (2003).
It is a dance and electronic song, with vocoder effects, spacey synths and a bubbly bass, and lyrically, Madonna rejects tabloid culture's "social disease", denouncing both TV and magazines.
The song received generally favorable reviews from music critics, with many of whom calling it as a highlight from American Life.
It was also used as a video interlude on the MDNA Tour in 2012, showing Madonna's face morphed with a number of famous figures.
French right-wing Marine Le Pen sued Madonna for superimposing a swastika and Adolf Hitler's face with hers.
[5] Usage of the negative tone led Madonna to be sarcastic on people's assumptions about her and emphasize about her knowledge of romantic love.
Much of the album is suffused with sarcasm: right from the disaffected ennui of the title track to the stroppiness of 'Nobody Knows Me', Madonna is kicking against the claustrophobic effect of celebrity worship.
[9] The recording sessions for American Life started at late 2001, then was put on hold as Madonna filmed Swept Away in Malta and starred in the West End play Up for Grabs.
The chorus features repeated echo shifts of "nobody knows me" while she ponders thoughts like, "It's no good when you're misunderstood, but why should I care what the world thinks of me?".
[16][17] O'Brien described it as a trancey track with a sense of childlike defiant lyrics, dismissing critics who have no knowledge of her "jealously guarded inner self".
[22] James Hannaham from Spin compared "Nobody Knows Me" to Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", and deemed it as a highlight from the album.
[23] Alan Braidwood from BBC Music felt that the song was "insane" with its electronic, chaotic, fast and manic pounding synths.
"[24] Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly described "Nobody Knows Me" as the "downright thrilling" and "deploys a shrewd little form-versus-content paradox".
[14] Paul Rees from Q magazine complemented the track as a "conventional rock song, filled with drama, darkness and surprises".
[26] USA Today's Edna Gunderson said that the "funkified" synth-pop of "Nobody Knows Me" attests to Madonna's "undiminished" skills as a shrewd pop composer.
[28] Jessica Winter from The Village Voice gave the song a mixed review, writing: "It mutes slightly the slaphappy beats of Mirwais's own club hit "Disco Science" to make vague digs at the press and defensively vow self-improvement.
"[29] John Payne from LA Weekly deduced that even within the synth sounds of the song, he could see "real feeling deeply ingrained in this particular icon.
[38][39] After the opening number, "Vogue", she started an energetic version of the song, on a conveyor belt with some laser light words appearing on the backdrop screens behind her.
[43] The song was later added as a video interlude on the MDNA Tour in 2012, as a tribute to Tyler Clementi and other teens who had committed suicide due to bullying.
[44] The film, which was created by Swedish director Johan Söderberg, morphed Madonna's face with a number of famous figures, including then-Chinese President Hu Jintao, US Republican former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Pope Benedict XVI.
