Living For Love

This was one of six Rebel Heart tracks that Madonna made available for purchase on December 19, 2014 three months ahead of schedule. The early release followed a flood of leaks, where over ten demo tracks from the album's sessions found their way to the Internet. "I was hoping to release my new single 'Living For Love' on Valentine's Day with the rest of the album coming in the Spring," the singer said. "I would prefer my fans to hear completed versions of some of the songs instead of the incomplete tracks that are circulating. Please consider these six songs as an early Christmas gift."

The song is a collaboration with American DJ-producer Diplo. A number of different incarnations were done before the final version. Madonna explained to Billboard magazine: "We knew we wanted to make a dance record. But you know, there's so many different levels of dance music and even different categories of house music. So, it was really like, what's the bass line gonna sound like? Is it gonna be really stripped down and sparse, or is it going to be loaded up? Is it gonna be Chicago house? Is it gonna be UK house? It's like, all over the place. Is it gonna be a little bit of one vocal line? Is it gonna be a whole choir singing? So we were experimenting and trying out different things. They all sounded good, but at the end of the day, we wanted it to sound timeless, also. Not just something of the moment."

Lyrically, this is a triumphant breakup song. Madonna explained to Rolling Stone: "The thing is, lots of people write about being in love and being happy or they write about having a broken heart and being inconsolable. But nobody writes about having a broken heart and being hopeful and triumphant afterwards. So I thought, how can I do this? I didn't want to share the sentiment of being a victim. This scenario devastated me, but it just made me stronger."