"Open Your Heart" is a song by American singer-songwriter
Madonna. It was released as the fourth single from her third
studio album
True Blueon November 12, 1986 by Sire Records. It has
since appeared remixed on the compilation albums
The Immaculate Collection(1990) and
Celebration(2009). Written originally as a rock 'n roll
song, Madonna changed it to a dance-pop genre. Lyrically it is
a love song telling about innocent feelings of boy meets girl
romance and Madonna expressing her sexual desire.
The song was well-received by critics and achieved
commercial success worldwide topping the chart in U.S., thus
making it Madonna's fifth
BillboardHot 100 number-one single. The music video,
however, visualised a different concept of the song. Madonna
played an exotic dancer in a peep-show club, who befriends a
little boy and escapes from there. It was critically acclaimed
for portraying a completely opposite perspective of
"voyeuristic male gaze and object", and depicting innocence
rather than sexual overtones, although the entry of a child in
a strip club was negatively criticized. The video was an homage
to actresses Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich.
The song has been performed by Madonna in two of her world
tours – 1987's Who's That Girl World Tour, and 1990's Blond
Ambition World Tour, where Madonna wore her infamous conical
bra during the song. "Open Your Heart" has been covered a
number of times by different artists, and appeared in the
Britney Spears film,
Crossroads(2002).
"Open Your Heart" was originally a rock 'n roll song with
the title "Follow Your Heart" and had been written for singer
Cyndi Lauper by songwriters Gardner Cole and Peter Rafelson,
although it was never played to her. The Temptations were also
considered for the song. Their manager Benny Medina decided
that they wanted to record the song after all, but upon hearing
that Madonna had already recorded it, changed their mind. The
original title according to Cole, was from a local health food
restaurant called
Follow Your Heartin Canoga Park, California. In Fred
Bronson's book
The The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, Cole
explained,
"Peter and I usually write very quickly. It's usually a day
or two a song, but for some reason this didn't really hit us as
a hit song. We didn't give up on it. We just kept working on it
over the course of a year. Thank God we did. [...] It was the
first song that was cut on the
True Bluealbum. It made me nervous as a writer, because
a lot of times the very first song that gets cut doesn't make
it in the long run. But the song ended up making the album,
which really opened up a lot of doors for me."
Cole's manager Bennett Freed was working with Madonna's
management and they were looking for new material for her
album. Three of Cole's songs were chosen for reviewing
including "Open Your Heart". Despite the fact that it did not
fit exactly with the choice and genre of songs Madonna was
singing at that time, she nevertheless accepted it. Madonna
recorded "Open Your Heart", altered the lyrics thus earning a
co-writing credit, and along with Patrick Leonard added a
bassline underneath the song which turned it into a rock-dance
track rather than the original rock 'n roll genre. The song was
the first recorded cut for the
True Bluealbum in late 1985 and ultimately made it to
the final released tracklist.
The song has a continuous percussion filled structure and a
chorus sounding like Belinda Carlisle, according to author
Rikky Rooksby in his book
The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna. Lyrically,
"Open your Heart" is a simple love song. The song speaks of
earnest innocent notions of boy meets girl kind of feelings.
According to professor Mavis Tsai, the phrase "Open Your Heart"
is a metaphor for the act of being vulnerable that corresponds
to the behavior involved in developing an intimate or close
relationship. The following lines in the song, "Open Your
Heart, I'll make you love me; It's not that hard, if you just
turn the key" illustrate this metaphor vividly. The concept of
the song places Madonna as a victim of love. The lyrics puts
Madonna in a more direct position expressing her sexual desires
for her man according to author Santiago Fouz-Hernández in the
line "If you gave me half a chance you'd see; My desire burning
inside of me."
Author Nicholas B. Dirks, one of the authors of
Culture/power/history, reviewed the song saying that it
was more upbeat than previous single "Live to Tell" and "the
play with closure in 'Open Your Heart' creates the image of
open ended jouissance - an erotic energy that continually
escapes containment". Author Taraborrelli called it as one of
her most "earnest" songs and compared it with Aretha Franklin's
song "Respect" as well as Barbra Streisand's "A House is Not a
Home". According to him "it was a tune people could understand
and latch on to, which is what makes a pop song memorable".
The New York Timeswriter Stephen Holden compared the
song with sweeter post-Motown valentine songs.
Houston Chroniclewriter Joey Guerra called the song
"perfect" for dancefloor strut. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
Allmusic called it a perfect dance song with deepened dance
grooves. Slant Magazine named the song as one of Madonna's most
"robust" songs. Robert Christgau said of the song, "I'm not
saying her flair is pleasureless - the generosity she demands
in the inexhaustible "Open Your Heart" is a two-way street and
then some."
"Open Your Heart" debuted at fifty-one the week ending
December 6, 1986, on the Hot 100 chart. It had a gradual rise
and subsequently peaked the chart on February 7, 1987 becoming
Madonna's fifth number-one single on the
BillboardHot 100 chart. The single also had its
success on the
BillboardHot Dance Club Play chart reaching number-one
on February 14, 1987. The single was Madonna's sixth entry on
the
BillboardHot Adult Contemporary chart where it reached a
peak of twelve. In Canada, the song debuted at number
eighty-three on the
RPMchart on December 13, 1986, and reached a peak
position of eight for the chart issue dated February 21,
1987.
Internationally, it became a top ten hit in several European
countries including the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland,
Netherlands, and Belgium. In the United Kingdom, the single
debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number eight and
subsequently reached a peak of four on December 13, 1986. The
single was on the chart for nine weeks in total, and was
certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on
December 1, 1986. It also peaked at number four in Europe, thus
becoming the only single from
True Bluenot to top the Eurochart Hot 100. In Australia,
it only reached a peak of sixteen, breaking a run of nine
consecutive top ten singles for Madonna in that country.
Elsewhere, like in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France, it
reached within the top 40 of the singles chart.
The music video was shot at Echo Park in Los Angeles,
California. Madonna portrays an exotic dancer who befriends a
young boy, played by child actor Felix Howard. This video was
originally set to be directed by Madonna's then-husband Sean
Penn, but in the end the final honors went to Jean-Baptiste
Mondino, who went on to work with Madonna on her videos for
"Justify My Love" (1990), "Human Nature" (1995), "Love Don't
Live Here Anymore" (1996), "Don't Tell Me" (2000) and
"Hollywood" (2003). The video was shot in July 1986 and was
released in December 1986. It was produced by David Naylor. The
video was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards in 1987.
In the best female video category "Open Your Heart" lost to
another Madonna video, when her "Papa Don't Preach" video won
the award.
The "Open Your Heart" music video presents an early version
of Madonna's musings about her Italian-American heritage and
focus on her feminocentric street theology, which was also
explicitly brought out by 1987's Who's That Girl Tour. The
video is structured as a cinematic peep show and voyeurism that
portrays Madonna as a stripper. It starts with a little boy
trying to go inside a peep show where Madonna is the star
performer but getting rebuffed by an old man at the ticket
booth outside. Inside Madonna starts singing the song from the
center of a carousel that revolves to display her to the gaze
of the customers who are sitting safely in their cubicles.
Madonna is dressed in a black bustier, spike heels, fishnet and
a black wig which she subsequently removes to reveal her
slimmed down body at that time. The lighting is bluish and
dark. Her look is a mix of actresses Marlene Dietrich in the
movie
The Blue Angelas well as Liza Minnelli as the character
Sally Bowles in the Bob Fosse-directed film musical "Cabaret".
The dancing is restrained with a single prop: that of a
solitary chair. At one point in the first segment of the video,
she is filmed dancing but the camera is almost still and the
motions of the dance are confined within the small range of the
camera. As the screens inside the viewing booths open and
close, the camera slices the shots of Madonna each with its own
angle and duration. The same imagery is exhibited by the little
boy outside who tries to frame Madonna's play ball image into
different angles. There are four other men in the booths who
are made of wood with paintings of artist Tamara De Lempicka on
them. Madonna at one point takes off her gloves like Rita
Hayworth in
Gildaand points towards one of the wooden paintings. It
collapses and she blows on her finger.
The video is similar in thematic content to Motley Crue's
video for the single "Girls, Girls, Girls". But in contrast,
this video tells the story from Madonna's point of view. She
looks down into the cubicles to make eye contact with the men
but they are unable to return it. She also looks assertively
into the camera, making eye contact with the viewer. With these
scenes Madonna portrays her holding power over the men and the
ability to pursue them. Madonna represents an assertive woman
searching for a lover who can accept her as a human being.
Author Bruce Forbes notes that the men in the cubicles are
proved unworthy of her and there is an undertone of mockery
when Madonna addresses them as 'baby' while shaking her body.
By the end of the video the isolated and sad men depart with
the doors closing on them. As the final chorus breaks into
dance grooves, Madonna comes out of the theater and gives the
boy a quick kiss on his lips. Both are clad in loose-fitting
gray suits, which gives Madonna an androgynous look. They
stroll away playfully in the sunrise, reminiscent of Charlie
Chaplin and Jack Coogan in
The Kidwith the old boss pursuing them and shouting
"Come back, come back, we still need you" in Italian. The
tension between the visual and the musical dimensions of the
video is extremely unsettling according to author Nicholas B.
Dirks. Only when she disappears from the carousel and reappears
to run away from her patriarchal boss with the young boy, then
the music and visuals become comparable.
Feminist writer Susan Bordo gave a negative review of the
video, saying that the leering and pathetic men in the cubicles
and Madonna's escape with the boy is "cynically and
mechanically tacked on [as] a way of claiming trendy status for
what is just cheesecake - or, perhaps, pornography". MTV also
had some reservations initially before airing the video, which
was later resolved after a meeting with Warner Officials.
However socio-critic Mary Harron in her book
McRock: Pop as a commoditysaid that the underlying
message in the video is that though Madonna sells sexuality,
she is free. There is no overt representation of anything
besides friendship with the boy. Their escape together avoids
Madonna the sexual overtones that would have been stronger if
she would have escaped with an adult male. This, according to
author
Richard Dienst, seems to suggest a repudiation of the
adult labor of the stage in favor of childhood, androgyny,
authenticity and nomadic play. The video is also acclaimed for
reviving and re-creating the hard glamor of the studio-era of
Hollywood stars and also for representing women as the dominant
sex. Author Donn Welton pointed out that the usual power
relationship between the "voyeuristic male gaze and object" is
destabilized by the portrayal of the male patrons of the peep
show as leering and pathetic. At the same time, the portrayal
of Madonna as porno queen object is deconstructed by the escape
at the end of the video.
"Open Your Heart" has been featured as a full song in the
set lists of two Madonna tours - 1987 Who's That Girl Tour and
1990 Blond Ambition Tour. It served as the opening song on 1987
Who's That Girl Tour. It started off with then young dancer
Chris Finch, imitating Felix Howard from the video. Howard did
not receive a working license for the tour hence Finch was
taken for his part. He went on to become an integral part of
most of the songs performed on the tour. After Finch, two other
dancers are introduced, before Madonna herself appears on
stage. She wore the same black pointy corset and fishnets as in
the music video. She first sings the song alone, then Finch
joins her again and they dance together till the song ends.
On the Blond Ambition Tour, "Open Your Heart" follows the
opening number "Express Yourself". This time there's not a
young boy but a hunky dancer watching from a distance as
Madonna entered the stage with her hair stretched into a
topknot and fake blond ponytail, which was replaced by short
peroxide tangles in the European leg of the tour. She wore a
double breasted suit with the outer jacket cut in slits so that
the conical bra underneath could point through. Showing off the
satin pink bodysuit and her monocle chain, Madonna proceeds to
perform the song on a chair. Playing a dominatrix role, Madonna
got on top of one of the dancers before carrying off an
exhibitionist dance routine with the chair as a prop.
The opening musical introduction of the song served as a
brief twenty-six seconds musical interlude on the Drowned World
Tour in 2001. As Madonna finished a performance of "Frozen" in
the Geisha inspired segment of the show, she sat in a
cross-legged position in front of the stage. The musical intro
for "Open Your Heart" starts with a dancer in a Japanese
costume dancing behind her on a raised podium. As the music
ends, Madonna starts singing "Nobody's Perfect" from her 2000
album "Music". In 2008, Madonna sang the first verse and chorus
for the first time in eighteen years at two dates - Las Vegas
and East Rutherford - of her Sticky and Sweet Tour. Madonna
forgot the lyrics at the Vegas show and refused to sing the
song in Boston; she performed "Express Yourself" instead.
Despite being originally written in English, a Spanish
version of the song titled "Abre Tu Corazón" was recorded by
Venezuelan rock singer Melissa (originally born in Peru,
Melissa moved to Venezuela at an early age), who released it in
March 1986 on her "Melissa III" album. Considering Madonna
first released the song on the "True Blue" album three months
afterwards, Melissa's "Abre Tu Corazón" can be considered the
first released version of the song, although it is possible
that Madonna's version (for which she received a co-writer's
credit) was recorded first. The Madonna tribute compilation
Virgin Voices: A Tribute To Madonna, Vol. 2contained a
cover by the late Israeli singer Ofra Haza. An eurodance
version was recorded by the group Mad'House for the album
"Absolutely Mad". A hi-NRG dance version was recorded by Who's
That Girl for the album
Exposed, released through Almighty Records. In 2004
Platinum Blonde NRG, Vol. 2: Nrgised Madonna Classics, a
hi-NRG cover is performed by In-Deep. The song appears in the
opening of the 2002 film
Crossroads. Britney Spears' character lip syncs to the
song in her room with a brush in her hand, pretending it's a
microphone. A Madonna poster is visible during the scene.