Madonna managed to get into the Guinness Book of Records during her creative career as the most commercially successful performer. Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan, USA. She started her singing career quite early and was already a world star at the end of the 80s. Over the years on stage, the singer has released 30 studio and five live albums, six collections, and 82 singles and gave hundreds of concerts in all corners of the world.
No matter what they say about Madonna, she is still on horseback and managed to bypass many other famous singers in the ranking of the best pop divas. Madge won the honorable first place on the list for her creativity and because of her invaluable contribution to popular culture in general. We at The Dope Lists present you 10 of Madonna’s songs of all time.
“MATERIAL GIRL”
The song from the second album Like a Virgin, released in winter 1985, became, as they say, Madonna’s calling card. The singer herself later repeatedly denounced Material Girl, either regretting that she had recorded it or hiding behind self-irony, performing a parody version at concerts. One way or another, this song, the author of which Madonna was not – for several years became the second I of the artist, and the image of Marilyn Monroe, which Madonna tried on herself in the video, is her stable style. Almost thirty years later, Material Girl’s merits are undeniable: tenacious melody, flawless chorus, great sound. The song – and the entire Like a Virgin album – was produced by Neil Rogers, one of Daft Punk’s key partners on their latest record. The black man with the weird hairstyle and glam guitar in the video for Get Lucky.
“LIVE TO TELL”
They included it in the True Blue album, from which Madonna’s long-playing triumph began. Papa Don’t Preach, Open Your Heart, La Isla Bonita, the record was packed full of hits, and Live To Tell was one of them. The thing made it to the soundtrack to the movie Point-Blank, where the then-husband of the singer, Sean Penn, starred (who, by the way, is dedicated to True Blue). A heartfelt text about “the light that is inside me, which you could not see and cannot take away” in a year will turn out to be a prophecy – Penn will beat his wife with a bat, and love will slowly fade away.
“CHERISH”
On the 1989 album Like a Prayer, there are many total hits, including (above all) – a song that is of the same name to the disc. But Cherish is definitely the best. The song’s merits are emphasized by the black-and-white video, which became the film debut of photographer Herb Ritz, and showed the public Madonna in her natural form, without a PET make-up.
“VOGUE”
Stitched together from strangers and its own samples, inspired by illegal gay bars in New York, Vogue became Madonna’s most successful hit in the 80s. #1 in thirty countries, the title of the perfect dance song, Vogue, accompanied by a brilliant video by David Fincher, ushered in a new decade in which Madonna will win no fewer victories than before.
“JUSTIFY MY LOVE”
An example of plagiarism, morally controversial but definitely successful in terms of the result. The song’s co-author Lenny Kravitz built the beat on a fragment of the instrumental track by the group Public Enemy, and the lyrics were based on a love poem by Ingrid Chaves, then Prince’s mistress. Chaves, in her intimate message to Prince, reported what she wanted from him in bed. Madonna, having added a few phrases, turned someone else’s into hers. It turned out incredibly cool, mysterious, and very vicious.
“RAIN”
The most “harmless” song on the chaotic Erotica album and definitely the most exquisite. One of the best mid-tempo slows in Madonna’s career is illustrated with an aesthetic video by Mark Romanek. The man who plays in the director’s video is the Japanese Richie Sakamoto, the most essential Japanese composer.
“SECRET”
The lavish 1994 album Bedtime Stories was filled with hits like Take a Bow and Human Nature and showed Madonna’s return to hip-hop beats territory. Secret, with its rhythm screwing into the brain and soul, optimally conveys the spirit of the record and sounds impressive today.
“DROWNED WORLD / SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE”
In 1998, Madonna surprised everyone again, introducing herself as a spiritual diva. Produced by William Orbit, almost the most relevant artist of the dance underground, the album Ray Of Light made even the most hardened skeptics listen to Madonna. Drowned World / Substitute for Love, of course, is not as well known as the actual Ray Of Light thing, but it is certainly no worse.
“HUNG UP”
Although the key hook in the song is a sample from the imperishable ABBA, Hung Up sounds incredibly incendiary and cool. The song and the entire album Confessions on a Dance Floor returned Madonna to her lost status as Queen.
“MASTERPIECE”
The last great song of Madonna, the only justification for the film W.E, directed by her. This beautiful ballad made it onto Madonna’s MDNA record and won an Oscar for best song. Madonna sings in a way that she has not sung for a very long time – sincerely, without acting and pose, purely and deeply. Quite deservedly so.
