and Tracy Young. The "Velvet Masta Mix", created by Richard Vission, gave the song a bass-heavy intro and a funkier groove. Vission recalled that Madonna had turned down his first mix and asked him to redo it again. Calderone's "Dark Side Mix" was more mellow, relying more on percussions while Tracy Young's mix included stringed harp instrumentation. AllMusic's Jose F. Promis praised in particular the Oakenfold version for "transforming the song into a massive, deep arena club stomper". The Above & Beyond remix, which was used for the music video, features "hard and rhythmic" pumping beats and removed Madonna's verses, leaving only the chorus and repeating the Charlotte Gainsbourg sample several times in the middle. It peaked at number 14 on the VG-lista in Norway. Production duo Thunderpuss was hired to do an official remix of "What It Feels Like for a Girl". However, when they were almost finished, an unofficial remix, credited as "The Thunderpuss Mix", leaked on the internet. During an interview with About.com, Barry Harris from the group recalled that they had been working on the remix and were waiting for it to be approved when they received a call from Warner Bros. Records, informing them that the remix was circulating in the internet. Both Chris Cox and Harris tried to find out the issue and concluded that someone had retitled the original with their group's name and released it. Thunderpuss tried to convince the record label executives but failed and the remix was canceled. Critical reception Upon release, the song received general acclaim from music critics. Rikky Rooksby wrote in his book, The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna (2004), that "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was the best track on Music. Author Lucy O'Brien described the song as having a "beautifully executed sense of anger" in her 2007 biography, Madonna: Like an Icon. Likening it to Madonna's 1989 single "Express Yourself", O'Brien called it a "femme-pop" song. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine picked it as one of the album's highlights, calling it a "terrific midtempo cut". Slants Sal Cinquemani felt that "Madonna has revealed more of herself than ever [in Music]. No longer shrouded with pedantic spirituality, she has become even more human [...] revealing her soul on 'What It Feels Like For A Girl'". However, on his review of GHV2, Cinquemani felt the track was "largely lost amid the conventional sonics of