l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) in France. Background and release By the mid to late 1990s, Madonna was in a more mature and introspective mood, after giving birth to her daughter Lourdes, gaining interest in Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah, and earning the title role in the film adaptation of the musical Evita (1996). In 1997, Madonna began working on Ray of Light, her seventh studio album and wrote songs with William Orbit, Patrick Leonard, Rick Nowels and Babyface. The album would reflect the singer's changed perspectives about life. Author Carol Benson noted that it was a "deeply spiritual dance record", with the crux of it based on Madonna's career, her journey and the many identities she had assumed over the years. Motherhood had softened the singer emotionally, which was reflected in the songs. She started talking about ideas and used words which implied deep and personal thoughts, rather than the regular dance-floor anthemic tunes she had composed. The singer began introspecting herself with motherhood being a "big catalyst for me. It took me on a search for answers to questions I'd never asked myself before", she said to Q magazine. Madonna worked primarily with Orbit after Guy Oseary, Maverick Records' partner, phoned Orbit and suggested that he send some songs to the singer. He sent a 13-track digital audio tape (DAT) to Madonna, and "Frozen" was among these tracks. "I was a huge fan of William's earlier records. [...] I also loved all the remixes he did for me and I was interested in fusing a kind of futuristic sound but also using lots of Indian and Moroccan influences and things like that, and I wanted it to sound old and new at the same time", Madonna said. The singer drew inspiration from Bernardo Bertolucci's 1990 British-Italian drama film, The Sheltering Sky, which dealt with a couple trying to save their marriage during a trip to Africa. She wanted to have the "whole Moroccan/orchestral/super-romantic/man-carrying-the-woman-he-loves-across-the-desert vibe" for the track. Still continuing work with Leonard on some of the tracks, Madonna asked him to give her a composition with "tribal feel, something really lush and romantic". They composed the melody on the DAT and recorded the demo, which stretched to over 10 minutes due to Madonna continuing to write the track. A low quality snippet of "Frozen" was leaked by fans on January 23, 1998, after it debuted on radio in Singapore, and posted