True Blue (1986)

True Blue is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on June 30, 1986, by Sire Records. Madonna had greater control over the creative direction of True Blue than on her second studio album, Like a Virgin (1984), as she attempted to establish herself as a serious artist and appeal to a broader, more mature audience.

Madonna recorded the album in 1985 and 1986 and collaborated with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray on both writing and production. She had previously worked with the latter on Like a Virgin. True Blue marked the first time she co-wrote and co-produced every track on an album. Its themes—primarily love, romance, marriage, and devotion—draw in part on her personal life and her marriage to actor Sean Penn. Musically, True Blue is a pop and dance-pop album with a soundscape characterized by synthesizers, strings, guitars, drum machines, and backing vocal arrangements, influenced by the Motown sound, girl groups, and Latin pop.

Madonna promoted True Blue with the Who's That Girl World Tour, the second highest-grossing female concert tour of 1987. Five singles supported the album: the US Billboard Hot 100 number-ones "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", and "Open Your Heart", as well as the top-five entries "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita". An immediate global success, True Blue topped the charts in a record-breaking twenty-eight countries worldwide and received multi-platinum certifications across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia–Pacific region. In the United States, it remained atop the Billboard 200 for five consecutive weeks and was certified septuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

On its release, music critics acclaimed True Blue; they particularly praised Madonna's maturity as a vocalist, songwriter, and producer. Retrospectively, the album has been regarded as an archetype of popular music from the 1980s. It is credited with solidifying her position as the most commercially successful female pop superstar of the decade and establishing her credibility as an artist. Globally, True Blue was the best-selling album of 1986 and the best-selling album of the 1980s by a female artist. It remains Madonna's best-selling studio album and one of the best-selling albums of all time, with sales exceeding 25 million copies worldwide.

Background

American singer and songwriter Madonna released her sophomore album, Like a Virgin, in 1984. She selected all of the songs herself, five of which she wrote or co-wrote. It became her first number-one album in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All four of its singles reached the top five of the US Billboard Hot 100, with the lead single and title track, "Like a Virgin", becoming her first chart-topper; the second single, "Material Girl", reached number two. It has sold over 21 million copies globally, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. However, the album was not as successful critically as it was commercially; Madonna's vocals were criticized, though Nile Rodgers's production was acclaimed.