It was released to hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States as the second single from the album on February 6, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records.

Upon release, "Sorry" received positive reviews from music critics, who deemed it "catchy" and one of the strongest tracks on Confessions on a Dance Floor.

The song achieved commercial success, topping the charts in Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, where it became Madonna's twelfth number one single.

It features Madonna and her dancers roaming around a city in a van, dancing on roller skates, and the singer fighting with a group of men in a cage.

For the tour, an additional video was created as a backdrop for a remix of the track, which depicted political leaders, and scenes of war and destruction.

"[7] She promoted the album at the dance party named "Misshapes", held at Luke & Leroy's nightclub in Greenwich Village, and was invited by Junior Sanchez to take over the DJ booth, where she mixed "Hung Up" with "Sorry".

[21] "Sorry" starts off with calm, ballad-esque strings, with Madonna apologizing in several languages, but "soon the pounding drums and '80s-inspired synths kick things into overdrive", as noted by Bianca Gracie from Billboard.

[22][23] Around the 2:44 minute mark, a "cracking noise, like a baseball hitting a bat" is heard, which was used in numerous Price productions, including his remix of Gwen Stefani's 2004 single "What You Waiting For?".

[24] A writer for Virgin Media website said that the song's musicscape features an "infectious combo of pumping, filtered synths and disco beats".

[22] Jude Rogers from The Guardian deemed the lyrics as "one of her most unforgiving, reprimanding a serial apologist",[31] while author Lucy O'Brien in her book Madonna: Like an Icon (2007) speculated that the song was written after a row with her then-husband Guy Ritchie.

[25] Throughout the track, the singer speaks "I'm sorry", "Forgive me", and "I am sad" in a total of eight different languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi, Polish, and Japanese.

English duo the Pet Shop Boys were one of them, as they were cited as one of the inspirations for Confessions on a Dance Floor; it consisted of additional vocals provided by member Neil Tennant saying "I'm sorry… so sorry" and "please forgive me".

Jennifer Vineyard of MTV considered it the "album's strongest track" and that the song "wistfully evokes the sounds of the '80s-era dance clubs that first lofted her toward stardom".

[49] According to Stephen M. Deusner from Pitchfork, "The cascades of sound wash directly into 'Sorry', setting up the song's panlingual apologies and shifting bass tectonics.

"[50] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian referred to the song's chorus as "triumphant",[51] while Rolling Stone's Alan Light classified it as "throbbing".

[20] Joan Morgan from The Village Voice newspaper, in a review of Confessions on a Dance Floor, wrote: "The party continues admirably with the multilingual, kick-your-man-to-the-curb 'Sorry'.

"[52] Jon Pareles of The New York Times felt that the first half of the album consists of love songs, happy and sad, and included "Sorry" into the mix.

[54] Thomas Inksweep from Stylus Magazine commented that "Sorry" and "Hung Up" may not be as sleazy as Madonna's initial singles "Burning Up" (1984) or "Physical Attraction" (1984), but they have the same modus operandi of being designed for all-night dancing.

[55] Johnny Davis of Q magazine said "Sorry" is catchier than "Hung Up", [56] while the staff of Herald Sun newspaper called it Madonna's "most popstatic single" since "Ray of Light" (1998) as well as "brilliant dance-influenced pop, this will be unavoidable once the album is released".

[31] On Gay Star News' ranking, the single came in at number 25, with Joe Morgan stating that "when you're the Queen of Pop, you have to make sure your songs translate.

[62] "Sorry" was considered the third best single of 2006 by Slant Magazine,[63] and was nominated in the categories of PRS Most Performed Work and International Hit of the Year at the 2007 Ivor Novello Awards, eventually winning the latter.

A petition titled "End the Madonna U.S. Radio Boycott" was signed by about 3,300 fans at petitiononline.com, and was addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays.

Additionally, fans posted messages supporting Madonna on Entertainment Weekly and VH1 websites, as well as conspiracy theories about why she was not played on radio.

[78][79] Elsewhere in Europe, "Sorry" reached the top 10 in several countries, including Austria,[80] Belgium's regions of Flanders and Wallonia,[81][82] Denmark,[83] Finland,[84] France,[85] Germany,[86] Netherlands,[87] Norway,[88] Sweden,[89] and Switzerland.

Woodford was asked to transform it with disco-themed features, including lilac leather couches, a mirrored disco ball in the ceiling, velvet walls, fake snakeskin columns, and a large stereo system.

[114] Tom Young from BBC Music called the performance a "delight",[115] while Christopher John Treacy of the Boston Herald said "the bitchy house vibe of Sorry had the entire floor jumping in a unified mass".

[117] According to the staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer, musically the most successful numbers of the show were "those free of too much high-concept staging and blessed with catchy tunes", such as "Sorry".

The video contained images of many political leaders past and present like Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair.

[119] Madonna appeared on the screens wearing her "Sorry" video leotard, and uttered the words "talk is cheap" and "don't speak", along with the music and Bush's lips stuttering.

[124] In February 2022, amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, the singer shared an edit of the video, which went viral, through her social media accounts, while expressing support for Ukraine.