Madonna is one of the world’s most beloved female pop stars. Her music has sold over one billion albums worldwide and she has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career.
With her latest album, Rebel Heart, Madonna has returned to her signature style of songs that explore love and unrequited emotions. This collection includes some of her greatest hits from throughout her career.
2. Open Your Heart
Many people struggle with opening their hearts. This could be due to past emotional pain or negative beliefs about others that cause them to close theirs. Yet opening your heart to love is an essential step towards genuine connection and growth.
To truly open your heart, it’s important to embrace all emotions – even the difficult ones. Doing this will make you more secure in yourself and enable you to let go of negative ones that keep you from expressing true feelings. By allowing your soul’s guidance – your inner self – into full awareness, the guidance of your inner self becomes all that’s required for genuine connection.
Keep your heart open by taking steps toward cultivating self-love, emotional flow, integrating wisdom from the past, breathing deeply and seeking support from others. Doing these things will enable you to be more vulnerable and make it easier for others to see how generously you truly feel.
Opening your heart to love can be a challenging journey, but the rewards are immense. You gain access to the most powerful force in existence – Love. The more you practice opening your heart, the stronger this force becomes within you; although it may feel overwhelming at first, this knowledge will bring more happiness and joy than you could ever imagine. Not only that, but this power also has the potential to transform lives and encourage others to do the same.
3. Like a Prayer
Like a Prayer is the album that made Madonna famous and one of her most emotional releases. Recorded during her turbulent marriage to Sean Penn, this record featured songs about her mother’s passing as well as some of Madonna’s most daring and experimental material ever released.
With a blend of old-school psychedelic rock and synth pop, her album marked an important turning point. She was striving to exorcise some demons and was more interested in progressing as an individual than becoming a pop star.
The lead single, “Like a Prayer,” was an inspiring spiritual ballad that quickly rose to become one of the album’s signature tracks. Written with producer Patrick Leonard’s help, and featuring a choir accompaniment, it achieved huge success, reaching #1 on both Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Charts as well as several other international charts.
This song was controversial for several reasons, yet it also proved hugely successful commercially for Madonna. Although the Vatican condemned the song and religious groups protested against it, millions of copies of her album were sold anyway – proof that even controversial songs can have commercial success!
Another single from the album, “Till Death Do Us Part,” explored Madonna and Sean Penn’s turbulent marriage. The song delivered an intensely personal message that resonated with fans.
This song was an enormous hit for the queen of pop, becoming her biggest single ever. It topped the charts around the world and was included on her 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection.
4. Rain
Madonna’s songs in the early ’90s were often overtly sexualized. This may explain why her Erotica album was such a major success, but there were also some beautiful ballads amongst all that overt sensual music. One such gem is “Rain,” released as the fifth single from Erotica.
Though the song may seem thin and lack a vocal that drives its message, it’s still an impressive piece of pop that will remain popular over time. With delicate instrumentation and delicate harmonies, this track manages to keep everything in balance.
Objectively, this record may be her most self-aware and reflective pop record to date. She doesn’t hesitate to explore the intimate details of her personal life with confidence, making this one of her key anthems.
Though sometimes overshadowed by more popular peers, Madonna’s single “Open Your Heart” is truly remarkable. It demonstrates her natural talent as both a songwriter and performer. Although darker than her Like A Virgin singles, it remains just as catchy and relatable.
“Papa Don’t Preach,” her most powerful ballad to date, was a daring statement when it tackled the taboo topic of teenage pregnancy. It has become one of her iconic songs both culturally and artistically; marking an important turning point in her career as an artist.
Ray Of Light, Madonna’s most celebrated album, had as its underlying message one of growing up and finding one’s identity. To that end, it needed to be an intricate yet nuanced project; none more so than “Nothing Really Matters,” the most straightforward dance song on the record with delicate piano accompaniment and backing vocals to keep things relaxed while giving Madonna space for her sweetest, self-aware lyrics.
5. Vogue
Vogue is one of the oldest and most renowned fashion magazines worldwide, having been published for over a century and featuring iconic models, photographers and writers from around the globe. Headquartered in New York City, Conde Nast publishes Vogue monthly.
Vogue was established in 1892 and has become the world’s biggest selling and most admired fashion magazine. It also provides articles about style, beauty and culture which have served as an inspiration to countless designers around the world. Not surprisingly, celebrities and style enthusiasts worldwide flock to this beloved publication for inspiration!
In 1905, Conde Nast purchased Vogue magazine and began transforming it from a publication for high society to one focused on fashion. It quickly gained notoriety for its iconic covers that often featured iconic images that paid homage to art of the past while simultaneously being contemporary and forward-looking.
Cover shots were an integral part of Vogue’s success. They often featured fashion trends and pioneered colour photography on their covers – marking a new era in its designs. This marked the start of many groundbreaking cover designs throughout history.
It was also the first magazine to feature a cover star who wasn’t a model – Kim Kardashian on the cover wearing her then-fiance Kanye West’s strapless Lanvin wedding dress in 2014. At the time, this caused quite a stir but was ultimately seen as an indication of progress for the publication.
Though its cover may not be as eye-catching or iconic as it once was, this magazine has still managed to leave an indelible mark on the world. It’s had a major influence on fashion and featured works from numerous models, actors and musicians alike.