As a tribute to nearly four decades of entertainment and inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of her greatest music videos. The Queen of Pop and this modern medium both rose to prominence in the early 1980s, and her contribution to the form is arguably unmatched. In ascending order, these are Madonna’s 21 most unforgettable music videos of all time. Jump in. It’s a celebration.
Best Madonna music videos of all time
- Erotica (1992) Madonna saw the harshest backlash of her career in 1992. Her fifth studio album Erotica was released three weeks after her coffee table book Sex divided critics, many saying the artist had simply gone too far. Erotica suffered commercially as a result, the lowest-selling studio album of her career at the time. Today, the jazzy, dark Erotica is recognized as one of the best, most daring pop LPs of the 1990s, and its influence is undeniable in the work of artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, P!nk,Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera and Nicki Minaj. The video tied in with the coffee table book, featuring risqué visuals and guest appearances by Isabella Rossellini and Naomi Campbell. It was deemed too racy by MTV and banned from broadcast on the network.
- Living For Love (2015) Oh, what a joy it was for Madonna fans when in 2015, more than three decades into her career, The Queen of Pop dropped one of her best tracks ever. The lead single from Rebel Heart is a triumph about perseverance and keeping an open heart, even if it’s been broken. The production is a marriage of gospel choir and a deep bass EDM beat only Madonna could pull off, with Alicia Keys on percussion and piano. The arresting video uses a matador theme and Madonna’s love of dance to convey a message about overcoming darkness and demons. Some of Madonna’s critics say she is calculating. But just look at her artistic output, what she’s saying and how she says it. Her body of work could hardly be more humane, exuberant and spirited. Living For Love signaled that she’s not slowing down—and that we don’t want her to. 19. Don’t Tell Me (2001) Half a decade before the cultural leviathan that was Brokeback Mountain, Madonna subverted the ultimate symbol of old-school masculinity (the American cowboy) in a minimalist, primally sexy line dance. The song remains one of her catchiest, a defiant and rebellious stripped-down anthem. 18. Material Girl (1985) Most scholars and critics agree Like a Virgin is the moment that cemented Madonna as a pop culture legend. The video for the album’s lead single, which saw the singer suggestively slinking through the canals of Venice, was of course phenomenally popular–but ultimately the follow-up video, “Material Girl,” proved even more iconic. The catchy-as-all-get-out tune is set to imagery that pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe’s performance of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Madonna most recently performed this track on her Rebel Heart Tour, staging something of an homage to the video. 17. Live to Tell (1986) This is generally cited as Madonna’s finest ballad. She wrote all of the lyrics, co-composing and co-producing the emotional track about childhood scars and the will to survive. Madonna softened her image, with wavy golden locks like GraceKelly’s and a simple floral dress, for the video that tied directly into the haunting thriller At Close Range, starring then-husband Sean Penn. Madonna’s performance of “Live to Tell” on her Confessions Tour, the last time she performed the song live, incited uproar and critical praise in equal measure for its use of provocative religious imagery. 16. Bad Girl (1993) Another track from Madonna’s most underrated album, Erotica, features a characteristically graceful appearance by Christopher Walken. Perhaps you’ve heard: Walken is an incredible dancer, and here he plays Madonna’s toe-tapping guardian angel. Madonna can be such a brilliant actor, and her performance as a broken, unhappy woman whose self-destructive behavior gets her killed is one of her best. This video is the first of several collaborations between Madonna and director David Fincher on this list. The sad, disturbing “Bad Girl” clip lingers in the memory long after you’ve seen it—like all of the director’s best work from Se7en to Zodiac. 15. Papa Don’t Preach (1986) Madonna’s fourth No. 1 U.S. single was controversial for its depiction of teen pregnancy. The video was directed by James Foley, who also directed Sean Penn in At Close Range. This is the mistress of reinvention’s first head-to-toe image makeover; she flaunts a lean, muscular body in the dance breaks, with an edgy, gamine look inspired by Jean Seberg, Audrey Hepburnand Shirley MacLaine. 14. Open Your Heart (1986) No list of Madonna’s most memorable videos is complete without this sexy, clever and hilarious dance-heavy clip. In fact, many consider this a defining event in the Queen of Pop’s career: playing a peep show performer reminiscent of Liza Minelli in Cabaret and Marlene Dietrich, “Open Your Heart” is the moment Madonna subverted the male gaze. In its nascence, this track was written as a rock n’ roll number called “Follow Your Heart,” originally intended for Cyndi Lauper or The Temptations. 13. Take a Bow (1994) The R&B-infused Bedtime Stories era gave us some of the most memorable Madonna videos, from the triumphantly unapologetic “Human Nature” (always one of Madonna’s best live tracks), to the mysterious, tantalizing “Secret,” but the biggest hit from her 1994 follow-up to Erotica was this ballad. This was Madonna’s eleventh No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and with it she replaced Carole King as the female artist who’d written the most songs to top the chart. The video, filmed in Ronda, Spain, sees an elegant Madonna preparing to take on the role of Evita onscreen. Here she plays the lover of a bullfighter, played by real-life matador Emilio Muñoz. The video for Madonna’s 1995 track “You’ll See” is a direct sequel. 12. Oh Father (1989) “Oh Father” is the biggest tearjerker from what many consider to be Madonna’s best album, Like a Prayer. Another visually stunning collaboration with David Fincher, this was Madonna’s most autobiographical clip up to that point, maybe ever. “Oh Father” sees an adult Madonna finding grace with her dad; their relationship was strained ever since her mother died when Madonna was 5 years old. This video holds lump-in-the-throat emotional resonance for anyone who’s had a strained relationship with a parent. 11. Music (2000) Madonna’s first track of the new millennium gave her the daunting task of living up to Ray of Light, the biggest commercial and critical success of her career. And she didn’t disappoint. The funky title track from Music is one of Madonna’s most anthemic. The video is a hip-hop party, filled with comedy and gender-swapped stereotypes (Madonna plays a pimp), co-starring Sacha Baron Cohen’s notorious white rapper Ali G (this is six years before Borat). Madonna was pregnant with son Rocco at the time of filming, so she spends much of the video flaunting bling in the back of a limousine with real-life pals Debi Mazar and Niki Harris, before an animated interlude. Word has it Ali G cracked Madonna up so much that she had trouble keeping a straight face during filming. Fun fact: this actually isn’t the first time Madonna got animated. The video for “Dear Jessie,” a children’s lullaby from Like a Prayer, featured Madonna embodying a Tinkerbell-like fairy.
Top 10 Madonna music videos of all time
10. Cherish (1989) Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, who collaborated on “Live to Tell,” this Motown-inspired track never fails to captivate. Breathtaking black-and-white Herb Ritts photography of Madonna bathing in the sea with gorgeous, muscular mermen makes the video similarly entrancing. This stands tall as one of the most uplifting pop songs of all time, exuberant yet deeply romantic. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Madonna the artist with the most consecutive top five hits in history, with 16. 9. Hung Up (2005) Following the critical and commercial disappointment of American Life (the accompanying Re-Invention Tour was a runaway success), Madonna plunged headfirst into an all-dance sound, creating Confessions on a Dance Floor. “Hung Up” was Madonna’s 36th top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100, tying her with Elvis Presley as the artist with the most ever. The song samples ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” and this is only the second time ever that the Swedish pop group allowed another artist to touch their catalogue. The video is Madonna’s personal tribute to John Travolta, and more generally to dance and disco. It will entertain you into submission. 8. Frozen (1998) This enormous, melancholic electronica ballad was the first single from Ray of Light, announcing the singer’s radical new sound. The lyrics of the song are deeply haunting, exploring the emptiness one feels when unwilling to connect and be vulnerable. From Terminator 2 to Titanic, the mid-to-late 1990s were a golden age for special effects. CGI was brand new, and only used sparingly, when absolutely necessary, often to awe-inspiring effect. Such is the case with the effects in Frozen that made Madonna shapeshift on a desert floor. Frozen won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Visual Effects. 7. Express Yourself (1989) This brassy ode to female empowerment is Madonna at her most soulful (“Come on, girls! Do you believe in love?”), and the Fincher-directed video, inspired by Fritz Lang’s silent sci-fi masterwork Metropolis, is a massively scaled tale of oppression, freedom and control. At the time, its $5 million budget was the biggest ever for a music video–and every penny of it is on the screen. Kelly Clarkson auditioned for the first season of American Idol with a full-bodied take on this classic feminist anthem…and the rest is history. 6. Justify My Love (1991) It’s a sign of Madonna’s eminence that a single used to promote her first greatest hits collection is now considered a signature track. This sexy hotel party was too steamy for MTV, becoming Madonna’s first video banned on the network. She used this to her advantage, selling the video as a single on VHS (the first music video ever sold in this format). It was hugely successful. These days, the Justify My Love video honestly looks fairly tame—not to mention tastefully, artfully photographed. 5. Bedtime Story (1994) This seductive, mind-bending synth track is the only collaboration between Madonna and Björk, who co-wrote it. The video carried a $5 million price tag and was eclectically inspired by surrealists, futurists and even ancient Egyptians. It received a limited release in movie theaters. One of the key factors in Madonna’s unrivaled longevity is her willingness to experiment, over and over and over. This clip is a testament to that. A jaw-dropping cinematic achievement, it’s like walking around inside a Salvador Dali painting. “Bedtime Story” is one of few music videos in history to be permanently displayed at the Modern Museum of Art. 4. Vogue(1990) Madonna started the decade off with a bang via the world’s best-selling single of 1990. The unforgettable Fincher-directed video brought an underground movement into the mainstream. The clip is shot in timeless black-and-white, suitable for the bridge that name-checks classic Hollywood giants: (“Greta Garbo and Monroe/ Dietrich and DiMaggio/ Marlon Brando Jimmy Dean/ On the cover of a magazine/”). Almost as popular as the video itself was Madonna’s electrifying, sumptuous Marie Antoinette-inspired performance of the song at the 1990 MTV Awards. 3. Ray of Light(1998) This exhilarating, ethereal masterpiece of the form represents a day in the life of the world as we neared the end of the twentieth century. Madonna so admired Jonas Åkerlund’s work on The Prodigy’s controversial-yet-acclaimed, subversive “Smack My B— Up” clip that she pursued him to direct the video for Ray of Light’s title track. They proved an inspired pair, and this is the first video by Madonna to win Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. “Ray of Light” also won two Grammys, for Best Short Form Music Video and Best Dance Recording. Madonna underwent extensive vocal training in preparation for the lead role in 1996’s Evita, and this track is her greatest vocal ever. The song has been covered dozens of times by artists all over the map. Probably the best is Natasha Bedingfield’s stunner from 2007. She noted how difficult the song is to sing. 2. What It Feels Like For A Girl (2001) Madonna’s most underrated talent has always been her gifts as a songwriter, and “What It Feels Like For a Girl,” lyrically barbed but sonically soothing, is one of her best, most radical tracks. The song and video both explore the brutal reality of being a woman in a man’s world. The clip, directed by then-husband Guy Ritchie, contains violent and disturbing content. It was banned from airing on MTV—even though more violent clips by male artists, like Eminem’s “Stan,” were deemed OK. In light of the #MeToo movement, this song and video feel brand new—proving once again that Madonna is and has been ahead of her time. What It Feels Like For A Girl is near the top of this list because it might be the Madonna video that hits the hardest on a purely emotional level. 1. Like a Prayer (1989) By now the story is entertainment industry legend: Madonna had signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Pepsi, just in time for a network TV commercial. That commercial aired once. The next day, Madonna released this video, which proved highly controversial. In the face of uproar, Pepsi canned the sponsorship deal, but not before Madonna walked away with a cool $5 million. Madonna shocks and provokes; that’s part of her job. But lesser artists who haven’t seen the staying power or influence of the Queen of Pop merely push our buttons on a surface level, without having much to say or leaving us with much to chew on. Once the shockwaves wear off, you can savor the artistic value and meaning of Madonna’s work. At the heart of this legendary clip, beneath all of Madonna’s expertly engineered, admittedly shocking theatrics, lies a message about civil rights that’s lost none of its relevance nearly three decades later. “Like a Prayer” deserves its reputation as one of the greatest music videos of all time. Do you agree with our list of Madonna’s greatest videos? Think we missed one? What is your all-time favorite Madonna moment? Let us know in the comments! Honorable mention: God Control (2019) On this six-minute banger, Madonna delivers a message about gun control with an inspired, violin-heavy retro disco sound. The video became her most controversial and headline-grabbing in a minute, with graphic violence that’s genuinely shocking. It feels—erm—reductive—to say “she’s still got it.” For about forty years now, Madonna has always been it. Next, check out our timeline of how Madonna became the ultimate LGBTQ icon.
