"Vogue" is a song by American singer Madonna from her soundtrack album I'm Breathless (1990). Written and produced by herself and Shep Pettibone, it was inspired by voguing, a dance popularized in New York City in the late 1980s. The song was released as the lead single from the album on March 20, 1990, by Sire Records and Warner Bros. Records. "Vogue" is a house song with influences of disco; it contains escapist lyrics describing the dance floor as "a place where no boundaries exist". Its middle eight features Madonna name-dropping several actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. "Vogue" was later included on three of Madonna's compilation albums: The Immaculate Collection (1990), Celebration (2009), and Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones (2022).
Upon its release, "Vogue" received positive reviews from music critics, who noted how it was musically different from the rest of the tracks on I'm Breathless; it was retrospectively seen as one of Madonna's career highlights. The song was commercially successful, topping the charts in a number of countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Vogue" became Madonna's biggest selling single at the time of its release, and has sold more than six million copies worldwide to date. It additionally received prizes at the 1991 Juno Awards and at the American Music Awards of 1991.
The accompanying black-and-white music video, directed by David Fincher, was shot within 16 hours, while she was rehearsing for her Blond Ambition World Tour. It leans on static iconography, including shots inspired by works by painter Tamara de Lempicka and several Hollywood photographers. The video has been retrospectively regarded by critics as one of Madonna's best. It received a total of nine nominations at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year. Madonna has performed the song on several of her concert tours – the most recent being the 2023–2024 Celebration Tour – and other occasions, such as the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show.
"Vogue" has been covered and sampled by several artists since its release, including Kylie Minogue, Beth Ditto, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Ariana Grande. It was also featured on the soundtrack of The Devil Wears Prada (2006), as well as in "The Power of Madonna" episode of the Fox show Glee in 2010. Writers and critics have noted the video and the song's influence in bringing an underground subculture into mainstream popular culture, as well as the way in which it followed a new trend in which house music enjoyed widespread popularity. Several publications have ranked "Vogue" among the greatest dance songs of all time.
Background and release By the end of the 1980s, Madonna had achieved a record-breaking 16 consecutive top-five singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, more than any other act in history. However, her single "Oh Father" broke the string as it reached number 20, becoming her first single to miss the top 10 since 1984. The singer and her record company Warner Bros. decided to create a new song to be placed as the B-side of her next release "Keep It Together" to ensure that it would fare better on the charts. The label's head of dance music, Craig Kostich, approached producer Shep Pettibone to record a new track, as he had remixed some of her singles previously. Pettibone wrote and recorded the basic music for the song with a budget of US$5,000, and then sent it to Madonna for her to write the lyrics. She flew to New York City two weeks later to record her vocals in a vocal booth in a 24-track basement studio at West 56th Street, in a booth that had been converted from a closet, writing most of the lyrics on the plane. According to Pettibone, Madonna was efficient in the studio, rapidly tracking all the verse and chorus vocals in order, in single takes. He proposed the idea of a rap to fill the middle eight, and suggested name-dropping classic film stars, so they quickly wrote a list of names and she recorded it immediately.
Around the same time, Madonna saw dancers voguing at The Sound Factory. This type of dance was combined with pantomime and modeling poses by the flamboyant dances of Las Vegas showgirls. Inspired by the dance, she decided to call the song "Vogue", which surprised Pettibone, as the dance was already "semi-passé" at that point in the underground scene. He changed certain things about the music to fit what she sang, adding piano and changing the bass lines in the verse to make them flow better, although Madonna did not want him to alter the production, as she already liked it the way it was. After presenting "Vogue" to Warner Bros. executives three weeks after Kostich's approach, all parties involved decided that the song was too good to be put on a B-side and should be released as a single. "The record company went bananas, her manager went bananas. Everybody said. This is a major hit smash record — we're not going to lose it as a B-side on 'Keep It Together'", Pettibone recalled.
"Vogue" was included on the album soundtrack I'm Breathless, which contained songs from and inspired by the film Dick Tracy, in which Madonna starred as Breathless Mahoney. The singer had been approached by director and co-star Warren Beatty to write a song that would fit her character's point of view, as she was "obsessed with speakeasies and movie stars and things like that", and the idea served as an inspiration for "Vogue". Madonna later altered some of the suggestive lyrics because the song was connected to Disney via the soundtrack. Although it was part of the album, the track was not featured on the film. "Vogue" was released as the lead single from I'm Breathless in Europe and Oceania on March 20, 1990; in the United States, it was set to be released on March 29, but as WQHT started playing the track two days ahead of its release, "Vogue" was serviced to most radio stations on the next day. In Japan, the song was commercially issued on April 25. Afterwards, the track was included on Madonna's compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990), Celebration (2009), and in a remixed form on Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones (2022).
Recording and composition
"Vogue" was written and produced by Madonna alongside Pettibone and recorded in New York City. Keyboards, bass, and programming were by Fred McFarlane, while drums and additional programming were by Alan Friedman. Pettibone also handled mixing for the track at Can Am Recording studios in Tarzana, California. Greg Kostich was its executive producer. The song was edited by Tony Shimkin. Goh Hotoda was cast as the mix engineer for the track, with engineering assistance by Curt Frasca. Madonna's backup vocalists Niki Haris and Donna De Lory, in addition to N'Dea Davenport, provided background vocals to the song. "Vogue" was mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Precision Lacquer in Hollywood, along with all tracks present on I'm Breathless.
"Vogue" is a house song with influences of disco. Reviewers also noted a "deep house groove", as well as a "throbbing beat" within its composition. Author J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote in his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography that the song was a "knockout pulsating track". According to author Jason Hanley, by listening to the arrangement musical form of the track, it is clear how "it was purposefully constructed for the dance floor", as the first verse does not start until a minute and a half into the song. It starts with synthesized string sounds, and then begins to build slowly with the addition of finger snaps, a pitched drum sound, and a deep pulsing bass. High strings persist throughout, and it has a "punchy" syncopated piano on the chorus. Set in the key of A minor, it is set in common time with a moderately dance groove tempo of 116 beats per minute. Madonna's vocals span from C4 to E5.
The song opens with Madonna asking, "What are you looking at" as "a way to establish the visual nature of the song lyrics". The escapist lyrics of "Vogue" allude to how important a "silly dance-floor ritual can be to its practitioners". On Encyclopedia Madonnica, author Matthew Rettenmund stated that the lyrics "baptize the dance floor as a place where no boundaries exist"; he described a dance floor as a place where "rebirth is possible, where a new life based on gesticulation can replace motionless and emotionless reality and anyone can become if only for the duration of a song – or of one's stamina – a 'superstar'"; it is further evidenced by the lyrics "It makes no difference if you're black or white, if you're a boy or a girl". Peter Robinson of Pitchfork viewed Madonna's belief in the dance floor as a "sacred space", as she sings: "When all else fails and you long to be something better than you are today, I know a place where you can get away – it's called a dance floor." According to NMEs Nick Levine, the phrase became "essentially a mantra for her entire career". In the middle eight, Madonna performs a rap name-dropping several actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood, stressing her affection for movie stars:
In 2012, Madonna and Pettibone were sued by VMG Salsoul based on the accusation that they had sampled a 0.23-second segment of horns from the song "Love Break" by the Salsoul Orchestra without permission. According to the plaintiff, portions of the song "are numerous but intentionally hidden" without permission by Pettibone, who they hired to mix "Love Break" before working on "Vogue"; they also claimed it took more modern technology to discover the alleged sample: "The unauthorized sampling was deliberately hidden by [Madonna] within 'Vogue' so as to avoid detection [...] It was only when VMG specifically looked for the sample, with the technology available to it in 2011, that the sampling could be confirmed", they continued. It was also claimed that VMG attempted to give notice of copyright infringement previously in July 2011 and again in February 2012. Pettibone's defense was that he recreated the horn sound, rather than sampling it. The case was decided in Madonna and Pettibone's favor; the judge found that "no reasonable audience" would be able to discern the sampled portions, as they were insignificant to "Vogue". That decision was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Critical response "Vogue" received acclaim from music critics. According to Newsdays Karen DeSantis, it was excellent and the best song on I'm Breathless, adding that "the song has her old-time style that will make a lot of kids buy this CD". Barry Walters of The San Francisco Examiner found the track "seductive" and "audacious", and stated that Madonna would "stay in vogue for a long, long time." Bill Coleman from Billboard magazine commented that "the starlet's pop/house homage to the underground (soon to be pushed very overground) fad pulls off its aims." He stated that it "maintains the flavor of Pettibone's past 'house' treatments with a bit of his classic 'Love Break' tossed in for good déjà vu measure." Ernest Hardy, a writer for Cash Box, also noted influences of "Love Break" and opined that Madonna's "pop savvy takes well to a house setting", adding that "based on the instant acceptance by radio and clubs, it's gonna be a Madonna Summer". Selects Andrew Harrison considered it a "crushing house" song, while for Adam Sweeting of The Guardian, the album is "topped and talled with its best tracks", respectively "He's a Man" and "Vogue".