"Take a Bow" is a song by American singer Madonna from her 1994 Studio album Bedtime Storiesand 1995 Compilation album Something to Remember. It is also Madonna's longest-running number-one hit in the United States. The song was released as a single in December 1994. Madonna performed "Take a Bow" with Babyface at the 1995 American Music Awards.

"Take a Bow", the second single from the Bedtime Storiesalbum, became Madonna's eleventh number-one single in America, remaining at the summit of the Hot 100 chart for a seven-week run, the longest of her career thus far. Co-written by Babyface (who also provides backing vocals), the ballad became the singer's first United States number one in almost three years and became the highest-selling single of 1995. Despite its success on the charts, Madonna has never played the song on any tour.

"Take a Bow" was featured in the final episode of the first season of Friends, "The One Where Rachel Finds Out", when Rachel goes to the airport to tell Ross that she knows he is in love with her. "Take a Bow" was also used for promos for the final season of Beverly Hills, 90210.

"Take a Bow" was a huge success for Madonna on the Hot 100 chart. It topped the chart for seven weeks and is her longest-running number-one single on this chart. "Take a Bow" became Madonna's fifth number-one single on the Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S., following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", "Cherish", and "I'll Remember". The song is also notable as Madonna's last single (to date) to make the top forty of the U.S. R&B chart. The single received the remix treatment from prominent DJ and record producer Steve Hurley. Madonna won Best Female Video honors at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.

Although the single was a major hit in the United States, garnering gold accreditation, it became one of only a handful of her releases not to reach the UK top ten and ended a ten-year run of thirty-five consecutive top ten hits. Sales, however, were buoyed by the Christmas period and "Take a Bow" still sold 102,739 copies which was more than several of Madonna's other top ten hits. In Canada the song topped the charts, becoming her twelfth number-one single in that country.

The music video (directed by Michael Haussman) was a lavish period-style piece filmed from November 3–8, 1994 in the bullring of Antequera, Spain. The plot sees Madonna as a bullfighter's (played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz) neglected lover, yearning for his presence. Others, however, see it as a statement on classism, as the bullfighter arguably feels threatened and angered by the aristocrat's station, resulting in his physically abusing and then coldly abandoning her. Madonna's 1995 single "You'll See" is considered a follow up to "Take a Bow" as the singer and Emilio Muñoz reprise their roles in the music video. Madonna requested that Haussman give the video a Spanish theme because, at the time, she was lobbying for the role of Eva Perón in the film version of Evita. She subsequently sent a copy of the video to director Alan Parker as a way of "auditioning" for the role.

This video was ranked number twenty-seven on VH1's 50 Sexiest Video Moments.

The video generated some controversy with animal rights activists who accused the singer of glorifying bullfighting. In Australia, music video program Video Hitsran a ticker along the bottom of the screen when the video was playing, stating that the producers of the program did not endorse the glorification of the sport portrayed in the video, while ABC TV video program ragesimply refused to play the video at all during their G-rated Top 50 program. No such protests seem to have been made, however, about the narrative showing a man physically abusing a woman, as the bullfighter does to the aristocrat portrayed by Madonna. The bulls that were used in the video were never harmed in any way and were sent to live out the rest of their lives on a farm.

US Promo CD

US Single

US /Australia Maxi-CD

UK / Australia / Europe CD

Japan Remixes