a period of introspection for the singer. "That was 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 in 2002. Madonna begun writing the song with Leonard during developing her album Ray of Light. However, unlike their previous work dynamics, Leonard gave little input during studio sessions and only co-wrote four songs for the album, including "Nothing Really Matters". As a result, Madonna did not want him to produce the track. Her manager Guy Oseary then telephoned Orbit, and suggested that the latter send some songs to Madonna. Orbit sent a 13-track digital audio tape (DAT) to her, which included a demo version of "Nothing Really Matters"'s music. According to Madonna, she had been a fan of Orbit's work for a long time and was pleased with the demo version, which he started to work on. De Vries, who had worked on the demo, asked Orbit to help produce the song, and was enlisted. According to Madonna: Like an Icon writer Lucy O'Brien, De Vries and Orbit had originally composed and produced the track before Ray of Light had been conceived. During the sessions, Orbit found De Vries' contribution "off-putting", to which the latter confessed, "On all the collaborations I'd left a lot of space for him, but for this I wanted to put something on the table and say, 'This is what I think'". De Vries had added electronic noise frequencies during the first chorus of the song, stating that he had a "vision on how the song should be finished". Orbit did not like the addition since it sounded to him that the "DAT's broken". De Vries defended his contribution saying that it was supposed to be "like that [...] It's quite slow for a dance tune of that nature, not a pacey tune." Madonna had enjoyed all three of their contributions to the track, and as a result, Orbit reluctantly left it on. In J. Randy Taraborrelli's book Madonna: An Intimate Biography, the singer said that the main inspiration behind "Nothing Really Matters" and "The Power of Good-Bye" from the same album, was other people judging and dissecting her creative process. Elaborating on the statement, she added, In 'Nothing Really Matters' and 'The Power of Good-Bye', I want people to have a visceral and emotional reaction to things, rather than to