Madonna‘s steamy video for her 1987 True Blue single “La Isla Bonita” has joined the YouTube billion-views club. The visual for the song featuring flamenco guitar, maracas and Latin percussion was helmed by prolific film (Pet Sematary Two, Best. Christmas. Ever!) and TV director Mary Lambert, known for her work on music videos for Janet Jackson (“Control”), Sting (“We’ll Be Together”), the Eurythmics (“Would I Lie to You?”) and a number of other notable Madonna clips (“Material Girl,” “Like a Virgin” and “Borderline”).
According to YouTube it is Madonna’s first video to rack up 10-digit viewership, despite the superstar almost single-handedly defining envelope-pushing music video art in the 1980s and 1990s with iconic visuals for songs including “Like a Virgin,” “Like a Prayer,” “Material Girl,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” “Open Your Heart,” “Vogue,” “Erotica,” “Justify My Love,” “Express Yourself” and countless others.
The story finds the singer playing two characters, a devoted young Catholic woman pining for a handsome street musician and a sultry flamenco dancer. “Last night I dreamt of San Pedro/ Just like I’d never gone, I knew the song/ A young girl with eyes like the desert/ It all seems like yesterday, not far away,” she sings over images of a beautiful sunset and the chaste woman staring longingly through a window at the guitarist as a single tear drips down her face.
In the next scene, the singer takes on a completely different look, her short blonde hair and simple white dress switched out for long auburn locks and a fire-red billowy dress she flares out while dancing seductively in a candle-lit room to the track co-written by the singer along with frequent collaborator composer/producer Patrick Leonard and composer/producer Bruce Gaitsch.
Mid-way through, a party breaks out on the street below, as fathers dance with their children and flamenco Madonna joins couples moving hip-to-hip to the Latin band’s performance in one of many Madonna clips to grapple with the push-and-pull of buttoned-up Catholic devotion and images of sensuality and lust.
Watch “La Isla Bonita” below.
The post “Madonna’s Sultry ‘La Isla Bonita’ Video Hits One Billion YouTube Views” by Gil Kaufman was published on 04/23/2025 by www.billboard.com