Madonna
1983
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VIDEO by Steve
Barron
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“Burning Up” was the second
single release from Madonna’s self-titled debut album.
Like “Everybody”, the song
climbed all the way to #3 on the Club Play chart but failed to
chart at all on the Bubbling
Under or Hot 100 chart. Once again, the
song failed to catch
on with the mainstream public
and Madonna continued to be a basically unknown artist.
The song itself, much better
stylistically and musically than her debut single, gave listeners
a glimpse into the future of
Madonna’s career with both the lyrics and the video. The
lyrics “unlike the others
I’ll do anything, I’m not the same, I have no shame, I’m on fire”
foreshadowed the rebellious attitude and shameless
charisma that would later make
Madonna the most famous and
successful female singer in the history of popular music.
The video, although
undoubtedly considered cheesy today, was actually very good for the
music video standards of 1983
MTV.
Directed by Steve Barron, the video features Madonna with a bad dye job,
writhing around shamelessly on an asphalt road at night. The song and video
were both a huge step toward the development of Madonna's “boy toy” image, soon
to take the world by storm.
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