Who’s that girl still climbing the charts with songs she released decades ago? B*tch, it’s Madonna!
That’s right, this past week, the Queen Of Pop had a surprise resurgence on the Billboard charts with her 1987 hit “Who’s That Girl.” The track already went to #1 back in the day, but now makes its debut at #9 in Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales, her eighth Top 10 on these specific charts.
Is it really that surprising though? We’re talking Madonna, here—her hits are timeless! And this song’s second life can likely be attributed to the fact, earlier this month, she revealed her self-directed biopic is back on with a new title: (you guessed it) Who’s That Girl.
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The funny thing is, there’s already a Madonna movie with that name, and it’s the very one that spawned the song “Who’s That Girl” to begin with. Are you following the who’s who of “Who’s That Girl”? Let’s take a trip back in time to unpack the track’s legacy…
By the mid-’80s, Madonna was already a bona fide music superstar, cemented by her second studio album Like A Virgin becoming a smash hit in 1984. Never shy about her silver-screen dreams, she parlayed that success to land her first proper leading film role in the 1985 comedy Desperately Seeking Susan, which effectively solidified her as the It Girl of her generation.
However, her follow-up flick, 1986’s ambitious adventure romance Shanghai Surprise, struggled to connect with audiences in the same way. So, when it came time to find her next film project, Madonna knew she wanted to return to a traditional comedy, and with a role a bit more in her wheelhouse.
Excited by a script that came her way then called Slammer—about a street-smart woman wrongfully sent to prison, who enlists an uptight lawyer to help prove her innocence—Madonna became very hands-on with the project, eager to shape her next box-office hit. That meant hiring on her friend John Foley as director, who had previously helmed her videos for “Live to Tell” and “Papa Don’t Preach,” but had yet to tackle a production of this scale.
That also meant she would be the leading voice in the movie’s soundtrack, bringing on writers Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray—who she collaborated with on the 1986 album True Blue—to write both uptempo and downtempo original songs for the film.
Leonard was specifically tasked with writing a more upbeat number that could capture the spirit of Madonna’s tough-talking character, Nikki Finn. While he worked on a demo, she focused on the melody and lyrics, but found herself hitting a wall while trying to find the right words to rhyme with the title “Slammer.”
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When that didn’t work out, she pivoted, changing the song’s title to “Who’s That Girl”—and effectively changing the movie’s title to Who’s That Girl, too. That’s just the power of Madonna!
A synth-driven pop number, it incorporates a bit of a Latin music sound and even some Spanish-language verses (like “señorita más fina”—lady most fine), elements she had previously explored on the ’86 hit “La Isla Bonita.” The lyrics fittingly paint a picture of a beguiling woman whose allure is impossible to ignore.
Suffice to say, Who’s That Girl—the movie!—was a pretty major bomb. Panned by critics, it only earned a little over $7 million at the box office. It was nominated for a number of Golden Raspberry Awards (a.k.a The Razzies), and Madonna was even named “Worst Actress” that year, a title she had just won for Shangai Surprise, and would go on to win five times in total (the record, by the way).
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“Making movies is such an effort,” Madonna said afterwards. “I have sort of let it go.”
But Madonna got the last laugh—and then some—because “Who’s That Girl” (the song!) became her sixth #1 single on the Billboard charts, breaking several records. It also went on to earn a Best Original Song nod from the Golden Globes, and was among the nominees for “Best Song Written for Visual Media” at the Grammys, too.
As for Who’s That Girl (the soundtrack!), it received a mixed response from critics, yet also became a commercial success, reaching the Top 10 of U.S. album charts. While many fans don’t actually consider it a “Madonna album”—considering she only sings of four of its nine songs—Warner Bros. records does technically classify it as such.
“Who’s That Girl” lives on, one way or another, 37 years later. Its return to the Billboard charts this summer only confirms the sway Madonna has over her loyal fans, and the song will likely have real staying power as anticipation for her long-awaiting auto-biopic continues to build.
The decision to give her movie the same title as her panned star vehicle from the ’80s might suggest she’s ready to sweep that past flop under the rug, and so be it! But when it comes to Madonna, we’ll never forget: “Who’s That Girl.”
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Our 15 favorite cover versions of Madonna songs
In celebration of Pride Month—and Madonna’s all around rockstar LGBTQ+ advocacy– the following is a list of her most impactful songs covered by other musicians.
tominchicago
I liked “Who’s that girl”. Kind of a.throwback to the screwball comedies of the 30s. Griffin Dunne… what’s not to like?
powersthatbe
M already has precedent for using a title multiple times. She released 2 songs both called ‘Forbidden Love’, the first on 1994’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ and the second on 2005’s ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’. Both are very different in their tone, genres and message. Go check them out. This woman doesn’t need to explain herself to anyone.
Gabby
True story – Who’s that Girl is one of my favourite movies,
Claytonisahobo
Saw it in the theatre when it came out. Loved it then, love it now. Soundtrack is excellent and Madonna is fantastic in this. Very funny.
nitejonboy
I don’t care who called it a flop, I loved that movie back in the day, and had a big crush on Griffin Dunne. Madonna was great in it, compared to certain other movies. It was fun. It wasn’t high art, but it was a fun cute movie, and the song is still in my top 5 of her best songs ever. It was a lot more fun to watch than that chaotic ” Desperately Seeking Susan ” ( which, though she was the title character, she was Not the lead, that was Rosanna Arquette ), ” Susan’s ” only saving grace was it’s music ( from Madonna ), a pretty fun performance from an early Laurie Metcalf, and of course that sex bomb Aidan Quinn.
SmashMonkey
I was 19 when the film came out and saw it with a good friend of mine who was also a huge Madonna fan. We both loved it. I still do to this day. I remember the theater being packed and everyone laughing throughout the movie. It’s a great screwball comedy.
Davy
Causing A Commotion was released as the 2nd single from the soundtrack reaching number two on the Billboard Top 100 and number 1 on the Billboard Dance chart. A third single, The Look of Love, was released in the UK where it also reached the top ten (#9) but was ultimately not released in the United States.