Madonna's most artistically assured album found her wrestling with Catholic guilt, familial trauma, and sexual agency over Patrick Leonard's sophisticated pop-soul arrangements. The title track's gospel choir and controversial video sparked Vatican condemnation and cost her a Pepsi deal, yet the commercial triumph proved unstoppable.

Express Yourself borrowed from Staples Singers funk to deliver her most forceful feminist anthem, while Oh Father confronted childhood wounds with rare vulnerability. Fifteen million copies sold, but more crucially, it legitimised pop music as a vehicle for genuine autobiography and spiritual reckoning.