SERENA WILLIAMS HOT PINK BODYSUIT

Author Susan McClary in Culture/power/history reviewed the song saying that, it was more upbeat than previous single "Live to Tell" and "the play with closure in 'Open Your Heart' creates the image of open ended jouissance—an erotic energy that continually escapes containment". Author Taraborrelli called it as one of her most "earnest" songs and compared it with Aretha Franklin's song "Respect" as well as Barbra Streisand's "A House is Not a Home". According to him "it was a tune people could understand and latch on to, which is what makes a pop song memorable". The New York Times writer Stephen Holden compared the song with sweeter post-Motown valentine songs. Houston Chronicle writer Joey Guerra called the song "perfect" for dancefloor strut. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it a perfect dance song with deepened dance grooves. Slant Magazine named the song as one of Madonna's most "robust" songs. Robert Christgau said of the song, "I'm not saying her flair is pleasureless—the generosity she demands in the inexhaustible 'Open Your Heart' is a two-way street and then some."

The song has a continuous percussion filled structure and a chorus sounding like Belinda Carlisle, according to author Rikky Rooksby in his book The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna. Lyrically, "Open Your Heart" is a simple love song. The song speaks of earnest innocent notions of boy meets girl kind of feelings. According to Professor Mavis Tsai, the phrase "Open Your Heart" is a metaphor for the act of being vulnerable that corresponds to the behavior involved in developing an intimate or close relationship. The following lines in the song, "Open Your Heart, I'll make you love me; It's not that hard, if you just turn the key" illustrate this metaphor vividly. The concept of the song places Madonna as a victim of love. The lyrics puts Madonna in a more direct position expressing her sexual desires for her man according to author Santiago Fouz-Hernández in the line "If you gave me half a chance you'd see; My desire burning inside of me." According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, "Open Your Heart" is written in the time signature of common time with a medium funk tempo of 112 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of F major with Madonna's voice spanning from A3 to B♭4. The song follows a basic sequence of F–E♭9–E♭/G–Gm7–F as its chord progression. Cole's manager Bennett Freed was working with Madonna's management and they were looking for new material for her album. Three of Cole's songs were chosen for reviewing, including "Open Your Heart". Madonna's manager Freddy DeMann overheard the song and thought it would be a hit for Madonna and he asked Cole to re-demo a female demo version. Her female backup singer, Donna De Lory was Cole's girlfriend and he immediately asked her to sing the demo. Despite the fact that it did not fit exactly with the choice and genre of songs Madonna was singing at that time, she nevertheless accepted it. Madonna recorded "Open Your Heart", altered the lyrics thus earning a co-writing credit, and along with Patrick Leonard added a bassline underneath the song which turned it into a rock-dance track rather than the original rock 'n roll genre. The song was the first recorded cut for the True Blue album in late 1985 and ultimately made it to the final released tracklist.

"Peter and I usually write very quickly. It's usually a day or two a song, but for some reason this didn't really hit us as a hit song. We didn't give up on it. We just kept working on it over the course of a year. Thank God we did. [...] It was the first song that was cut on the True Blue album. It made me nervous as a writer, because a lot of times the very first song that gets cut doesn't make it in the long run. But the song ended up making the album, which really opened up a lot of doors for me."

The song was well-received by critics who commended it for being a simple love song. It was also successful commercially, reaching the top-ten of the charts in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, also reaching the top of Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, thus making it Madonna's fifth US number-one single. The music video, however, portrayed a different concept of the song. Madonna played an exotic dancer in a peep-show club, who befriends a little boy and escapes from there. It was critically acclaimed for portraying a completely opposite perspective of "voyeuristic male gaze and object", and depicting innocence rather than sexual overtones, although the entry of a child in a strip club was negatively criticized. The video was an homage to actresses Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich.

"Open Your Heart" is a song by American recording artist Madonna. It was released as the fourth single from her third studio album True Blue on November 12, 1986, by Sire Records. It has since appeared remixed on the compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Celebration (2009). Written originally as a rock 'n roll song with the title "Follow Your Heart", it was written for singer Cyndi Lauper by songwriters Gardner Cole and Peter Rafelson, although it was never played to her. Since Madonna's management was looking for new songs for True Blue, she accepted it, and altered some of the lyrics, while changing the composition to suit the dance-pop genre. Lyrically "Open Your Heart" is a love song, talking about innocent feelings of boy meets girl romance and Madonna expressing her sexual desire.

"Open Your Heart" debuted at fifty-one the week ending December 6, 1986, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It had a gradual rise and subsequently peaked the chart on February 7, 1987 becoming Madonna's fifth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single also had its success on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart reaching number-one on February 14, 1987. The single was Madonna's sixth entry on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart where it reached a peak of twelve. In Canada, the song debuted at number eighty-three on the RPM chart on December 13, 1986, and reached a peak position of eight for the chart issue dated February 21, 1987. It placed at 68 on the RPM Year-end chart for 1987.