I Don't Search I Find

In 2017, Madonna relocated to Lisbon when seeking a top football academy for her son David Banda, who wanted to become a professional association football player.[1] While living in the city, she began meeting artists; painters and musicians, who would invite her to "living room sessions". In these sessions, they would bring food and sit around the table, and musicians would start playing instruments, singing Fado and samba music.[1] On April 15, 2019, Madonna revealed Madame X as the album's title. For the album, she worked with longtime collaborator Mirwais, who had previously contributed to her albums Music (2000), American Life (2003) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), as well as Mike Dean, who served as a producer on Rebel Heart (2015), and Diplo.[2]

"I Don't Search I Find" was written and produced by Madonna and Mirwais.[3] It takes its title after a quote by Pablo Picasso,[4] and has been described as a disco and EDM song[5][6] with a "chunky '90s house percussion" and a "rumbling" bass line;[7][8] it draws influence from Madonna's previous works such as "Vogue" (1990), Erotica (1992) and Confessions on a Dance Floor.[6][9][10] Throughout the song, Madonna repeats the hook "finally, enough love" and, with an "wide-eyed and awestruck" tone, the phrase "I found you, I found a new view".[11][12] Also present is a finger snapping sample taken from "Vogue".[13] According to Paper, with the line "Platinum gold, inside your soul" Madonna was "affirming the beauty in others".[12] Paul Nolan, from Hot Press, considered "I Don't Search I Find" the "manifesto for Madame X".[14]

On December 2019, an EP featuring three remixes created by Honey Dijon was distributed to digital retailers.[15] An additional EP − featuring remixes by Chris Cox, Endor, DJLW, DJ Kue and Offer Nissim − was released on May 2, 2020.[16] In Italy, "I Don't Search I Find" was released as the fourth official single from Madame X on May 22, 2020.[17]

Upon release, the single received positive from music critics. Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani called it "smoldering" and compared it to "Vogue" and "Erotica" (1992), concluding that it "isn’t a song so much as a mood. It’s downstairs music, the distant bassline rumbling beneath your feet as you slip into a bathroom stall for a quick bump or fuck".[8] El Hunt from NME, also compared it to "Vogue" and deemed it an album standout.[4] Jeremy Halliger, from Variety, said it was "pure ’90s disco bliss, the album’s only non-stop party".[18] Mark Savage from the BBC, felt it "updates the deep house grooves of the Erotica era".[9] Ben Beaumont-Thomas from The Guardian praised its house-influenced sound and compared it to "Deeper and Deeper" (1992).[19] Jaime Tabberer, from Gay Star News, opined that, "once it gets going, disco stomper 'I Don’t Search I Find' is a class of its own. It’s like a Confessions number that criminally ended up on the cutting room floor".[20] Gay Times' Daniel Megarry deemed the second best song on the album; "if 'Justify My Love', 'Rescue Me' and the best bits of Confessions On A Dance Floor had a lovechild, it’d be this [...] Absolute heaven".[13]

On her review of Madame X, Alexandra Pollard from The Independent, described the track as "a cross between Nina Simone’s 'Feeling Good', a Nineties house track, and an orchestral Bond song".[21] Nicolas Hautman from Us Weekly deemed it "one of the fiercest ‘90s dance songs she has made since, well, the ‘90s?".[22] Louise Bruton from The Irish Times, stated that "on the zorbing 1990s disco song 'I Don’t Search I Find', complete with 'Vogue'-style sass, she reminds us that she always gets what she wants".[5] Robbie Barnett from the Washington Blade wrote: "if Music and American Life had a baby with Confessions on a Dance Floor as its stepmother, it would be the mid-tempo treasure 'I Don’t Search I Find'", comparing it to Madonna's 1991 single "Rescue Me".[10] The New York Post considered "I Don't Search I Find" the eight best song of 2019.[6] On a more critical note, The Hollywood Reporter's Jonny Coleman said that "even though it’s a clear rip-off of 'Vogue', it’s the closest thing [on the album] you can actually imagine human beings dancing to".[23] More negative was Pitchfork's Rich Juzwiak, who dismissed the song as a "loosely structured workout that sounds like it was ripped from The Rain Tapes".[7]

In the United States, "I Don't Search I Find" became Madonna's 67th entry on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart.[24] It eventually reached the first position, making Madonna the first act in history to score at least 50 number-one songs in a single Billboard chart, as well as across five decades.[25] The song also peaked at number 30 on the Dance/Electronic Songs chart on the same week it topped the Dance Club Songs chart.[26] In the United Kingdom, "I Don't Search I Find" entered the singles sales chart at number 66 on May 8, 2020.[27] It reached the fifth position of the Greece Digital Song Sales chart,[28] and peaked at number 73 in Slovakia.[29]

"I Don't Search I Find" was included on Madonna's 2019−20 Madame X Tour.[30] It was included on the show's second act and featured the singer "in secret agent mode".[31] She was flanked by lookalike dancers dressed as "noir detectives", wearing blonde wigs and trench coats, who eventually subdue her and interrogate her.[31][32] The performance was praised by the Miami New Times' Celia Almeida, who expressed that "[Madonna] embodied her femme fatale Madame X persona in an interrogation scene that recalled Michael Jackson's noir music video for 'Smooth Criminal'".[33]

• Madonna – writer, vocals, producer
• Mirwais – writer, producer

Credits and personnel adapted from the Madame X album liner notes.[3]

• List of number-one dance singles of 2020 (U.S.)