Madonna: Open Your Heart (1986) watch online HD

The music video for "Open Your Heart" features a story line completely different from that of the song. In it, Madonna plays an exotic dancer in a peep-show club who befriends a little boy and subsequently escapes. It was critically acclaimed for subverting the male gaze, but the plot point of a child entering a strip club was criticized. The video is an homage to actresses Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich.

"Open Your Heart" is a song by American singer Madonna from her third studio album True Blue (1986).

The song was released as the album's fourth single in November 19, 1986 by Sire Records.

Originally a rock and roll song titled "Follow Your Heart", it was written for singer Cyndi Lauper by songwriters Gardner Cole and Peter Rafelson.

Looking for new songs for True Blue, Madonna accepted it. She rewrote the song and, along with Patrick Leonard, changed the composition to suit the dance-pop genre.

The song was successful commercially, reaching the top-ten of the charts in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, thus making it Madonna's fifth number-one single in the US.

The music video is an homage to Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich.

"Open Your Heart" was the first recorded cut for the True Blue album in late 1985 and ultimately made it to the final released track list.

Lyrically, "Open Your Heart" is a simple love song.

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 New York Times writer Stephen Holden compared the song with sweeter post-Motown valentine songs.

"Open Your Heart" debuted at number 51 the week ending December 6, 1986, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It had a gradual rise and subsequently topped the chart on February 7, 1987, becoming Madonna's fifth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.

The single had success on Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart, reaching number-one on February 14, 1987.

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.

The video was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards in 1987.

MTV had some reservations initially before airing the video, which was later resolved after a meeting with Warner Officials.

The track has since appeared remixed on the compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Celebration (2009).

"Open Your Heart" is an innuendo-laden love song where Madonna expresses her sexual desire.

"Open Your Heart" has been performed by Madonna in three of her world tours - Who's That Girl World Tour (1987), Blond Ambition World Tour (1990), where Madonna wore her infamous conical bra during the song, and The MDNA Tour (2012).

"Open Your Heart" has been covered a number of times by different artists, and appeared in the Britney Spears film, Crossroads (2002).

According to Billboard, "Open Your Heart" is "brimming with sexual innuendo".

"Open Your Heart" is written in the time signature of common time with a medium funk tempo of 112 beats per minute.

The song is composed in the key of F major.

Author Susan McClary in 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".

Houston Chronicle writer Joey Guerra called the song "perfect" for dance-floor 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 pleasure-less-the generosity she demands in the inexhaustible 'Open Your Heart' is a two-way street and then some."

It became Madonna's sixth entry on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart where it reached a peak of number 12.

In Canada, the song debuted at number 83 on the RPM chart on December 13, 1986, and reached a peak position of number eight for the chart dated February 21, 1987.

The track placed at number 68 on the RPM Year-end chart for 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 number four on December 13, 1986. The single was on the chart for nine weeks in total.

The song was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on December 1, 1986.

According to the Official Charts Company, the song has sold 195,000 copies in the UK.

The track peaked at number four in Europe, thus becoming the only single from True Blue not to top the Eurochart Hot 100.

In Australia, it only reached a peak of number 16, breaking a run of nine consecutive top ten singles for Madonna in that country.

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.

In music video Madonna portrays an exotic dancer who befriends a young boy, played by child actor Felix Howard.

The video was produced by David Naylor.

In the Best Female Video category, "Open Your Heart" lost to another Madonna video, when the music video for "Papa Don't Preach" won the award.

The video has been ranked at number 35 on VH1's "50 Sexiest Video Moments" of all time.

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 World Tour.

The video is similar in thematic content to Mötley Crüe's video for the single "Girls, Girls, Girls".

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".

Socio-critic Mary Harron in her book McRock: Pop as Commodity said that the underlying message in the video is that though Madonna sells sexuality, she is free.

The video is acclaimed for reviving and re-creating the hard glamour 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.

Maura Johnston from Rolling Stone found influences of the work of Italian film director Federico Fellini and American musical theater choreographer Bob Fosse. Johnston added, "'Open Your Heart' was gorgeous, from the paintings of art deco artist Tamara de Lempicka on the club exterior, to the colorfully cold cast of characters." She noticed that at one point in the video, Madonna titled her head to re-create the Herb Ritts shot album cover for True Blue.

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.

Madonna performed an excerpt of the song at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in 2012, where she was joined by Cee Lo Green and by a large marching band.

Madonna forgot the lyrics at the Vegas show and refused to sing the song in Boston.

On January 26, 2014, Madonna performed "Open Your Heart" and "Same Love" at the 56th Grammy Awards along with Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert, in support of gay and lesbian rights.

During the Manchester stop of the Rebel Heart Tour, in December 2015, Madonna performed an a cappella version of the song.

On July 27, 2017, Madonna made a special appearance at Leonardo DiCaprio's annual fund-raising gala, which took place on Saint-Tropez, France, and performed "Open Your Heart".

Despite being originally written in English, a Spanish version of the song titled "Abre Tu Corazón" was recorded by Venezuelan rock singer Melissa, who released it in March 1986 on her "Melissa III" album.

A euro-dance version was recorded by the group Mad'House for the album "Absolutely Mad".