"
Vogue" is a song by American singer-songwriter
Madonna from her soundtrack album
I'm Breathless (Music from and Inspired by the film Dick Tracy) and was released on March 20, 1990, by
Sire Records. It also appears in a slightly remixed and extended form on the 1990 greatest hits compilation
The Immaculate Collection and Madonna's third greatest hits album,
Celebration.
Background
In late 1989, after the album
Like a Prayer had spawned three U.S. hits - the
title track, "
Express Yourself" and "
Cherish" - and a top-five European single in "
Dear Jessie" - its fourth US single, "
Oh Father", stalled at number twenty in the charts. Perhaps to ensure that the last single release of "
Keep It Together" would fare better on the charts, Madonna and producer
Shep Pettibone decided to compose a new song to be placed on the flipside of "Keep It Together" and quickly produced "Vogue". The song and video was inspired by a
dance performed in New York clubs, made famous by famous femme drag queen Willie Ninja, on the underground gay scene of the
same name in which dancers used a series of complex hand gestures and body poses and movements to imitate their favourite Hollywood stars (see the list of the names of the Hollywood stars below), as well as the cover models on the magazine
Vogue.
Madonna brought the underground "vogueing" culture into the mainstream with the release of her song, although
Malcolm Mclaren had a number one on the Billboard Dance Chart with
Deep in Vogue the previous year. After presenting the song to Warner Bros. executives, all parties involved decided that the song was too good to be wasted on a
B-side and that it should be released as a single. Although the song itself had nothing to do with Madonna's then-upcoming movie
Dick Tracy, it was included on the album
I'm Breathless, which contained songs from and inspired by the film.
In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna singles of all-time by
Q-Magazine. "Vogue" was allocated the #14 spot.
The song is featured in
The Devil Wears Prada during a scene with
Anne Hathaway.
Chart performance
Aided by both a single version and an extended
remix, as well as a black-and-white video directed by
David Fincher, the song shot to number one in several countries. In the UK, the song knocked
Snap!'s "
The Power" off the number one slot and stayed there for four weeks, continuing a trend of club/pop crossovers going to number one. It was helped in the UK by mutli-formatting. As well as the 7, 12, CD and cassette singles, the label released four limited editions: 12 with Face of the 80s poster, 12 with 'X-rated poster and an extra remix on the b-side, 7 picture disc and 12 picture disc. In the US, the single reached multi-platinum status. In Australia, it was released as a double A-side to "
Keep It Together", and it went to the top spot.
In the U.S., massive airplay and sales demand in response to the popular music video (discussed below) in April 1990 made way for "Vogue"'s number 39 debut in the week of April 14. The song made it to number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 in its sixth week on the chart, displacing
Sinéad O'Connor's four-week run in the top spot with "
Nothing Compares 2 U". The song also reached number one on the
Hot Dance Club Play chart, remaining there for two weeks.
"Vogue" was at the time of its release Madonna's highest-selling single and her most successful single worldwide, surpassing the success of "
Like a Prayer". "Vogue" also became Madonna's first multi-platinum certified single in the U.S.
Worldwide, the song was the biggest hit single in her career hitting number-one in over thirty countries and selling over six million copies, until 2005 when "
Hung Up" topped the charts of over 45 countries and sold nine million copies.
The success of "Vogue" boosted the sales of the
I'm Breathless album, and combined with Madonna's
Blond Ambition Tour, generated massive publicity for the
Dick Tracy movie.
Music video
Madonna in the black and white "Vogue" music video.
The video was directed by
David Fincher and shot at The Burbank Studios in
Burbank, California on February 9-10, 1990. In 1993,
Rolling Stone magazine listed the video as the twenty-eighth best music video of all-time. It was the third time Fincher and Madonna collaborated on a video (the first being 1989's "
Express Yourself" and the second being 1989's "
Oh Father").
Filmed in black-and-white, the video recalled the look of 1930s Hollywood films with the use of artwork by the
Art Deco artist
Tamara de Lempicka and an Art Deco set design. Many of the scenes were recreations of photographs taken by noted photographer
Horst P. Horst, including his famous "Mainbocher Corset". Some of the close-up poses recreated noted portraits of such stars as
Marilyn Monroe,
Veronica Lake and
Marlene Dietrich. (Additionally, several stars of this era were name-checked in the song's lyrics.)
There was some controversy surrounding the video due to a scene in which Madonna's breasts (though not her nipples) could be seen through her sheer blouse, as seen in the above picture. MTV wanted to remove this scene, but Madonna refused, and the video aired with the shot intact. The video was edited in Australia for daytime screenings, with the sheer blouse images replaced with slow motion shots of other parts of the video.
The video features the dancers and back-up vocalists for Madonna's then-upcoming
Blond Ambition Tour. The choreography was set by "Punk Ballerina"
Karole Armitage. The video world-premiered on
MTV on March 29, 1990.
There were two versions of the video, the regularly aired television music video, and an extended version over three minutes longer.
- Director of Photography: Pascal Lebegue
- Production Company: Propaganda Films
Track listing
US CD Single- "Vogue" (Single Version) – 4:19
- "Vogue" (12" Version) – 8:25
- "Vogue" (Bette Davis Dub) – 7:26
- "Vogue" (Strike-A-Pose Dub) – 7:36
US 12" Single- "Vogue" (12" Version) – 8:25
- "Vogue" (Bette Davis Dub) – 7:26
- "Vogue" (Strike-A-Pose Dub) – 7:36
7" Single (Worldwide)- "Vogue" (Single Version) – 4:19
- "Keep it Together" (Single Version) – 4:31
UK / EU CD Single- "Vogue" (12" Version) – 8:25
- "Keep it Together" (12" Remix) – 7:50
UK / EU 12" Single- "Vogue" (12" Version) – 8:25
- "Keep it Together" (12" Remix) – 7:50
US Cassette Single- "Vogue" (Single Version) – 4:19
- "Vogue" (Bette Davis Dub) – 7:26
UK / EU Cassette Single- "Vogue" (Single Version) – 4:19
- "Keep it Together" (Single Version) – 4:31
JP 3" CD Single- "Vogue" (Single Version) – 4:19
- "Vogue" (Bette Davis Dub) – 7:26
Official versions
- "Vogue" (Album Version) – 4:49
- "Vogue" (Single Version) – 4:19
- "Vogue" (12" Version) – 8:25
- "Vogue" (12" Version edit) used in a remix video – 8:04
- "Vogue" (Shep's On The Fly Dub) – 11:42
- "Vogue" (Bette Davis Dub) – 7:26
- "Vogue" (Strike-A-Pose Dub) – 7:36
- "Vogue" (Q-Sound Version from The Immaculate Collection) – 5:16
- "Vogue" (Live at the MTV Video Music Awards 1990) – 5:40
- "Vogue" (Live Version from "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret") – 5:31
Charts
Chart procession and succession
|-
Live performance
Madonna performing "Vogue" on the Sticky & Sweet Tour.
A performance of the song was included on the
Blond Ambition Tour. Then a live performance of "Vogue" at the 1990
MTV Video Music Awards also proved popular and was released as a music video on
The Immaculate Collection compilation. It featured Madonna and her dancers dressed in an 18th-century French theme, with Madonna bearing great resemblance to
Marie Antoinette. During the performance, Madonna and her dancers flashed their undergarments during their routine, and at one point Madonna pushed the faces of two male dancers into her breasts, and one of her dancers also fondled her breasts.
In 1993, Madonna performed "Vogue" on her tour
The Girlie Show. During the song, she wore a large beaded headdress inspired by
The King And I and the music was re-arranged with Middle-Eastern sounds.
In 2004, Madonna opened her
Re-Invention Tour with "Vogue". The version is included on the track setlists of
I'm Going to Tell You a Secret.
In 2008-2009, Madonna once again performed "Vogue" on the
Sticky and Sweet Tour, and for the first time in her career, entirely live. Having lipsynced past performances due to the constricting choreography, for the first time Madonna adapted the choreography to allow her to sing into a hand held microphone. The song was layered over the backing horns of "
4 Minutes", merging two of her biggest hits. It also featured samples from
Timbaland's "
Give It to Me" and
U2's "
Discothèque".
Trivia
- This video was ranked #28 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 100 Top Music Videos".
- This video was ranked #2 on MTV's "100 Greatest Videos Ever Made".
- This video was ranked #5 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's.
- In the late 90's - encouraged by the critical reception of her more serious album Ray of Light, Madonna said she would never perform the song again, but has since changed her mind.
Hollywood star names
The
lyrics of the song's
rap references the names of several 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 80s stars, in this order (order sung in the song):
Nine of the stars were living at the time the single was released: Greta Garbo (who died less than a month after "Vogue" was released), Marlene Dietrich, Joe DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, and Lana Turner. Ten years after it was released, the only alive were Bacall, Brando, and Hepburn. As of November 2009, Bacall is the only one still living.
Cover versions
- A dance version by Mad'House can be found on their album Absolutely Mad.
- On 2004's, Platinum Blonde NRG, Vol. 2: Nrgised Madonna Classics, a Hi NRG cover is performed by Nicki O
- Rihanna at Conde Nast Media Group's 2008 Fashion Rocks.
