THEN & NOW: The Evolution of ‘Open Your Heart’ Live – Madonna

Madonna has resurrected her 1986 smash “Open Your Heart” as one of forty singles performed on her latest Celebration: 40 Years Of Hits Tour. It’s the first time since her MNDA tour of 2012 that the song has been included and the fourth time the classic tune has been featured on a world tour.

“Open Your Heart” was written by Madonna, Gardner Cole and Peter Rafelson for her 1986 album “True Blue“. It was released as the fourth single later that year and peaked at No.1 in America and No.4 in the UK, and is one of the standouts of the album with a deep 80’s production courtesy of Pat Leonard and Madonna herself. The song could so easily have formed the soundtrack to any box office movie of the time and would not have been out of place on films such as ‘Beverly Hills Cop 2’ or ‘Lethal Weapon’.

Madonna first performed the song live on her 1987 Who’s That Girl? Tour with full backing tracks to accompany her fifth US chart topper. “Open Your Heart” was back for her 1990 Blond Ambition Tour, but was all too briefly heard as an intro on both the Drowned World and Sticky & Sweet Tours of 2001 and 2008 respectively, before getting a full play at her 2012 MDNA world tour, with a new Latin-American twist to the musical accompaniment. The song was performed with French Basque group Kalakan along with their own composition, “Sagarra Jo!”.

Now 37 years after “Open Your Heart” became a worldwide hit, it takes its place along with 39 others to form the Queen of Pop’s biggest show yet covering her forty year career as Madonna takes to the stage in a reenactment of the video filmed for the song, complete with wooden chair and backing dancers, and it’s as if it were 1986 all over again. Don’t try to run!

“Open Your Heart” 1986