Two days ago Madonna performed as the halftime show at the Super Bowl.  Meanwhile, 25 years ago today, Madonna rose to number 1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart when “Open Your Heart” grabbed the top spot.  “Open Your Heart” was the fourth single–and third number 1 single–from her 1986 album True Blue.  It was also Madonna’s fifth number 1 single overall.

Since it’s release, the video, which you can see above, has been the subject of a significant amount of discussion about the kinds of messages about gender that it reflects.  Some see it as clear representation of the sexual objectification of women, while others argue that it challenges that objectification.  Whatever you believe about what it represents in terms of gender, it’s hard to argue that by soliciting that discussion, it’s very representative of Madonna’s career.

Exactly 25 years ago today, Madonna celebrated her 28th birthday.  Among her birthday presents, she reached number 1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for the fourth time in her career as “Papa Don’t Preach” climbed to the top for the first week of a two-week run. 

It’s hard to call the song and/or its video Madonna’s most notable or memorable ones, as “Like A Virgin,” “Like A Prayer,” and “Justify My Love,” among others, would have possible claims to that distinction.  However, the treatment of the subject of teen pregnancy by the song and its video certainly puts “Papa Don’t Preach” in the discussion.  Where would “Papa Don’t Preach” rank for you among Madonna’s songs?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0PvggdjkKE

I was waiting for this mash-up and I finally found it! Madonna and Lady Gaga together on “Alejandro de la Isla Bonita”.

Tunesmate is compiling the top 10 Madonna songs. Is “Borderline” worthy? What are your top 10 Madonna tunes of all-time?

What do you get when you cross the Who with Madonna? Like A Virgin was Madonna’s big hit from 1984 and Baba O’Riley is the Who’s 1971 masterpiece. How do you like them together?

Madonna is going on forty years in the music business and she has constantly reinvented herself to maintain her popularity. However for over the last ten years her music style has remained the same, electronic dance music. In 2008 she released Hard Candy, a musical direction of hip-hop music, but it ushered her lowest selling album to date. However Madonna did score her thirty-seventh top-ten hit with “4 Minutes” which went to number three, breaking her tie with Elvis Presley for the most Top Ten hits on Hot 100 chart.

Has Lady Gaga now officially dethroned Madonna as queen of dance music? Can Madonna change her sound again and top the charts?

Continuing our Sen-tune game this week is Madonna. Once again, the object of the game is to take five song titles of the same artist and compose them into a sentence or what we like to a call a sen-tune.

Here’s my attempt at the first Madonna sentune:
Hung up 4 minutes frozen, live to tell everybody.