Happy 29th, True Blue!

groovyguy · June 30, 2015

Released on June 30th, 1986 by Sire Records,True Blue is Madonna's third studio album. She worked with Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard on the album while co-writing and co-producing all the songs. Deemed as Madonna's most girlish album, True Blue deals with her visions of love, work, dreams as well as disappointments, and was inspired by her then husband Sean Penn, to whom Madonna dedicated the album.

Musically, the songs on the album took a different direction from her previous endeavours, incorporating classical music in order to engage an older audience who had been skeptical of her music. The album features instrumentation from acoustic guitars, drums, synthesizers and Cuban musical instruments.

True Blue was an immediate global success, reaching number one in then record-breaking 28 countries across the world, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It spent 34 consecutive weeks at the top of the European Top 100 Albums chart, longer than any other album in history. It became the world's top-selling album of 1986, as well as the best-selling album of the 1980s by a female artist. With estimated sales of over 25 million copies worldwide, True Blue remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. All five singles released from the album reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", and "Open Your Heart" peaking at number one.

True Blue is credited as being the album which transformed Madonna to a musical icon of the 1980s, equaling Michael Jackson and Prince. The album's singles and their accompanying music videos have sparked debates among scholars and social groups. She became the first female artist to receive the Video Vanguard Award at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in recognition of her impact on popular culture. The album also gave her first appearance on the Guinness Book of World Records.

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