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"What It Feels Like for a Girl"
Single by Madonna from the album Music
B-side	"Lo Que Siente La Mujer"
Released	April 17, 2001
Format	DVD single CD single CD maxi single Video single Cassette single 12" single
Recorded	2000
Genre	Pop Trance
Length	4:41
Label	Maverick, Warner Bros.
Writer	Madonna Guy Sigsworth David Torn
Producer	Madonna Sigsworth Mark Stent
Madonna singles chronology
"Don't Tell Me" (2000/2001) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (2001) "Die Another Day" (2002)
Music track listing
"Don't Tell Me" (7) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (8) "Paradise (Not for Me)" (9)
GHV2 track listing
"Don't Tell Me" (album version) (12) "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (album version) (13) "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" (album version) (14)

"What It Feels Like for a Girl" is a song by American singer Madonna from her 2000 album Music. The song was released as a single in April 2001. The song was written by Madonna and Guy Sigsworth. It was produced by Madonna, Sigsworth, and Mark "Spike" Stent. An additional composer credit is included in the I'm Going To Tell You A Secret CD inner notes, with David Torn being the third composer. The track contains an excerpt from "The Cement Garden".

A Spanish version of the song was especially recorded for inclusion on the single as the B-side. "Lo Que Siente la Mujer" was released as a promo-only single in Europe. Later it was added to the two-disc Tour Edition of Music and the Mexican Edition of the album along with the remix of the same track replacing "American Pie", and was performed live on Madonna's Drowned World Tour in the same summer.

A maxi-single containing the Above & Beyond and Paul Oakenfold trance remix of the song was also released alongside the conventional single version. This remix was very popular in nightclubs.

Madonna and the elderly woman she picks up from the Ol Kuntz Guest Home in "What It Feels Like for a Girl" video.

The song attracted attention because of its music video, which premiered on America Online, but was banned from TV broadcast in many parts of the world. The video features a blonde Madonna (later revealed to be a major felon and con artist) leaving her motel room and hotwiring a car to pick up an elderly woman (said in the GHV2 liner notes to be her grandmother) from the Ol Kuntz Guest Home. Madonna then causes various degrees of mischief, including tasering a man withdrawing cash from an ATM, firing a silver water pistol at police officers and blowing up a gas station, before finally crashing her car at full speed into a pole. It was directed by Madonna's husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie in February 2001 and filmed on location on Hill Street and 7th Street in Los Angeles, California. The video used an alternate remix edit by Above & Beyond which featured almost no vocals from the original song. This edit can be found on the European single.

Critics railed the video for being overly violent and graphic; Madonna defended the video, stating that male artists get away with the same, if not worse, in their own music videos. The video was nevertheless banned from most North American and European video stations including MTV and VH1, receiving only late-night play, if at all. The decision to ban the video was a source of argument, since it appeared to be no more violent than some television shows that aired at the time. Ironically, the video went into heavy rotation on the Oxygen channel and was streamed on America Online frequently. It was also later played frequently on VH1 Madonna programs, but in an edited format. Madonna released the video as a DVD single on April 17, 2001.

The video used the Above & Beyond remix of the track, which differs from the club-mix they produced. The remix was written in a small room hired out in the studios at the University Of Westminster by Jono Grant & Paavo Siljamki. The third member of the group, Tony McGuinness, joined the group as a result of the remix, having worked for Warner Music previously.

When aired on MTV and VH1, the video was given a TV-MA rating and when the DVD music video single was submitted to the MPAA, it received an R. Interestingly, the DVD single only received a 12 from the BBFC and a PG from the OFLC.

• Director: Guy Ritchie
• Producer: Lynn Zekanis
• Director of Photography: Alex Barber
• Editor: Michael Heldman
• Production Company: DNA Inc.

• The track was originally scheduled to be the second single from the album instead of "Don't Tell Me".
• The intro of the song features lines spoken by actress Charlotte Gainsbourg sampled from the movie The Cement Garden

• Donna Summer's I Feel Love was sampled for the interlude of the remix of this song for the Drowned World Tour, with scenes from anime films Perfect Blue and Urotsukidoji splashed on the TV screens.

• Album Version (4:45)
• Radio Edit (4:04)
• Instrumental (4:45) In-House Promo Only CD-Reference
• Lo Que Siente La Mujer/Spanish Version (4:45)
• Stéphane Pompougnac Remix (4:36)
• Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix (7:20)
• Above & Beyond 12" Club Mix (7:26)
• Above & Beyond Club Radio Edit (3:44)
• Above & Beyond Video Version (4:21)
• Tracy Young Club Mix (8:58)
• Tracy Young Instrumental (8:58) In-House Promo Only CD-Reference
• Tracy Young Cool Out Radio Mix (4:46)
• Richard Vission Velvet Masta Mix (8:09)
• Richard Vission Velvet Masta Edit (3:41)
• Calderone & Quayle Dark Side Mix (6:44)
• That Kid Chris Caligula 2001 Mix (9:48) Promo Only
• Saturday Night Mix (5:22) Promo Only
• Thunderpuss Club Mix (11:22) Unreleased
• Thunderdub (11:06) Unreleased
• Thunderpuss Tribe-A-Pella (8:04) Unreleased
• Thunderpuss Radio Mix (Unreleased)

• Mad-Eyes.net - "What It Feels Like For A Girl" Single Page