"
Take a Bow" is a song by American singer
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
from her 1994 album
Bedtime StoriesBedtime Stories is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on October 25, 1994 by Maverick Records. In 1995, it was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Vocal Album category. The RIAA certified it Gold and Platinum on January 5, 1995, and triple platinum on...
. It is also Madonna's longest-running number-one hit in the United States. The song was released as a
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
in December 1994. Madonna performed "Take a Bow" with Babyface at the
1995 American Music AwardsThe 22nd Annual American Music Awards were held on January 30, 1995.-Pop/Rock Category:-Soul/R&B Category:-Country Category:-Adult Contemporary Category:-Rap/Hip-Hop Category:-Alternative Category:-Heavy Metal Category:...
.
"Take a Bow", the second single from the
Bedtime Stories album, became Madonna's eleventh number-one single in America, remaining at the summit of the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart for a seven-week run, the longest of her career thus far.
"
Take a Bow" is a song by American singer
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
from her 1994 album
Bedtime StoriesBedtime Stories is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on October 25, 1994 by Maverick Records. In 1995, it was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Vocal Album category. The RIAA certified it Gold and Platinum on January 5, 1995, and triple platinum on...
. It is also Madonna's longest-running number-one hit in the United States. The song was released as a
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
in December 1994. Madonna performed "Take a Bow" with Babyface at the
1995 American Music AwardsThe 22nd Annual American Music Awards were held on January 30, 1995.-Pop/Rock Category:-Soul/R&B Category:-Country Category:-Adult Contemporary Category:-Rap/Hip-Hop Category:-Alternative Category:-Heavy Metal Category:...
.
Song information
"Take a Bow", the second single from the
Bedtime Stories album, became Madonna's eleventh number-one single in America, remaining at the summit of the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart for a seven-week run, the longest of her career thus far. Co-written by Babyface (who also provides backing vocals), the ballad became the singer's first United States number one in almost three years and became the highest-selling single of 1995. Despite its success on the charts, Madonna has never played the song on any tour.
"Take a Bow" was featured in the final episode of the first season of
FriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolved around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by...
, "The One Where Rachel Finds Out", when
RachelRachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends , played by Jennifer Aniston, who received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her performances.-Background:...
goes to the airport to tell
RossRoss Geller, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends , played by David Schwimmer. The character is noted for his geeky, lovelorn demeanor.- Personality :...
that she knows he is in love with her. "Take a Bow" was also used for promos for the final season of
Beverly Hills, 90210Beverly Hills, 90210 is a prime time television drama series that aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
.
Chart performance
"Take a Bow" was a huge success for Madonna on the
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart. It topped the chart for seven weeks and is her longest-running number-one single on this chart. "Take a Bow" became Madonna's fifth number-one single on the
Adult ContemporaryThe Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
chart in the U.S., following "
Live to Tell"Live to Tell" is a pop ballad by American singer-songwriter Madonna. Originally written by Patrick Leonard for the soundtrack of the film Fire with Fire, the song was shown to Madonna, who decided to use it for then-husband Sean Penn's film At Close Range...
", "
La Isla Bonita"La Isla Bonita" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was released as the fifth and final single from her third studio album, True Blue, on February 25, 1987 by Sire Records. Originally written as a lament, the song was first offered to Michael Jackson before Madonna accepted it and...
", "
Cherish"Cherish" was the third single by American Madonna from her fourth studio album Like a Prayer and was released on August 1, 1989 by Sire Records. It has since appeared in a shorter form on the 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection and the two-disc edition of her 2009 compilation of hits...
", and "
I'll Remember"I'll Remember" is a song by American recording artist Madonna. It was released on March 8, 1994, by Warner Bros. Records as the soundtrack single of the 1994 film With Honors...
". The song is also notable as Madonna's last single (to date) to make the top forty of the U.S.
R&BR&B/Hip-Hop Songs, formerly the Black Singles Chart, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues...
chart. The single received the
remixA remix is an alternative version of a song, different from the original version. This name is also used for any alterations of medias other than a song ....
treatment from prominent DJ and record producer Steve Hurley. Madonna won
Best Female VideoThe MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video is one of the original general awards that has been handed out every year since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, however, the award was briefly renamed Female Artist of the Year, and it awarded the artist's whole body of work...
honors at the
1995 MTV Video Music AwardsThe 1995 MTV Video Music Awards aired live in September 7, 1995, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1994 to June 15, 1995. The show was hosted by Dennis Miller at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.-Video of the Year:...
.
Although the single was a major hit in the United States, garnering gold accreditation, it became one of only a handful of her releases not to reach the UK top ten and ended a ten-year run of thirty-five consecutive top ten hits. Sales, however, were buoyed by the Christmas period and "Take a Bow" still sold 102,739 copies which was more than several of Madonna's other top ten hits. In Canada the song topped the charts, becoming her twelfth number-one single in that country.
Music video
The
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
(directed by
Michael HaussmanMichael Haussman is a celebrated American music video, motion picture and television advertisement director, writer and producer. He currently lives in Rome, Italy....
) was a lavish period-style piece filmed from November 3–8, 1994 in the bullring of
AntequeraAntequera is a city and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" because of its central location between Málaga, Granada, Córdoba, and Seville...
, Spain. The plot saw Madonna as a bullfighter's (played by real-life Spanish bullfighter
Emilio MuñozEmilio Muñoz , is a Spanish bullfighter and actor who has appeared in two Madonna videos "Take a Bow" and its sequel "You'll See" and movies such as The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca....
) neglected lover, yearning for his presence. Others, however, saw it as a statement on classism, as the bullfighter arguably felt threatened and angered by the aristocrat's station, resulting in his physically abusing and then coldly abandoning her. Madonna's 1995 single "
You'll See"You'll See" is a song by pop singer Madonna. It was the first single taken from the 1995 ballads compilation Something to Remember and was released on October 28, 1995 by Warner Bros. Records.-Song information:...
" is considered a follow up to "Take a Bow" as the singer and Emilio Muñoz reprised their roles in the music video. Madonna requested that Haussman give the video a Spanish theme because, at the time, she was lobbying for the role of
Eva PerónMaría Eva Duarte de Perón was the second wife of President Juan Domingo Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952...
in the film version of
EvitaEvita is the 1996 film adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical based on the life of Eva Perón. It was directed by Alan Parker and starred Madonna, Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce...
.
This video was ranked number twenty-seven on
VH1VH1 is an American cable television network based in New York City...
's 50 Sexiest Video Moments.
- Director: Michael Haussman
- Producers: Paul McPadden, Donnie Masters
- Executive Producer: Roberto Cecchini
- Director of Photography: Harris Savides
- Editor: Robert Duffy at Spot Welders
Spot Welders is a film and television editorial house. Spot Welders was established in Venice, California in 1993 by editor Robert Duffy and producer David Glean.-Works:...
- Production Company: The A+R Group
Critical reception
The video generated some controversy with animal rights activists who accused the singer of glorifying
bullfightingBullfighting also known as tauromachy , is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, some cities in southern France and in several Latin American countries, in which one or more bulls are ritually killed in a bullring as a public spectacle...
. In Australia, music video program
Video HitsVideo Hits may be the name of a television series devoted to music videos:* Video Hits * Video Hits...
ran a ticker along the bottom of the screen when the video was playing, stating that the producers of the program did not endorse the glorification of the sport portrayed in the video, while ABC TV video program
rageRage is a popular all-night Australian music video program broadcast on ABC1 on Friday and Saturday nights. It was first screened on the weekend of Friday, April 17 1987...
simply refused to play the video at all during their G-rated Top 50 program. No such protests seem to have been made, however, about the narrative showing a man physically abusing a woman, as the bullfighter does to the aristocrat portrayed by Madonna. The bulls that were used in the video were never harmed in any way and were sent to live out the rest of their lives on a farm.
Track listings
- "Take a Bow" [Indasoul Remix] - 4:58
- "Take a Bow" [Indasoul Instrumental] - 4:58
- "Take a Bow" [Album Version] - 5:21
- "Take a Bow" [Instrumental] - 5:21
- "Take a Bow" [Silky Soul Mix] - 4:12
- "Take a Bow" [Silky Soul Instrumental Mix] - 4:20
Official versions and remixes
- Album Version (5:21)
- Album Version - Edit (4:31)
- Album Version - Instrumental (5:21)
- In Da Soul Remix (4:57)
- In Da Soul Remix - Edit (4:02)
- In Da Soul Remix - Instrumental (4:57)
- Silky Soul Remix (4:10)
- Silky Soul Remix - Instrumental (4:10)
Charts
| Chart (1994/1995) |
Peak
position |
| Australia ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
|
15 |
| Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart. Airdate is Friday on Hitradio Ö3. It contains the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart...
|
22 |
| Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....
|
1 |
| Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the pirate radio channel Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the pirate radio channel was forced to stop. Joost den Draaijer was the initiator of...
|
34 |
| French SNEP The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organisation which protects the interests of the French record industry...
Singles Chart |
25 |
| German Singles Chart The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband der phonographischen Wirtschaft...
|
18 |
| Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data...
|
17 |
New Zealand RIANZThe Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists in New Zealand. Membership of RIANZ is open to any record label operating in New Zealand.-Piracy:...
Singles Chart |
9 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...
|
13 |
| Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Grammofonleverantörernas förening. Since late 2006 the chart has included legal downloads.-The radio show:1976-2006 the sales chart was...
|
19 |
| Swiss Singles Chart The Swiss Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:*Singles Top 100...
|
8 |
| UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
|
16 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
|
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, formerly the Black Singles Chart, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues...
|
40 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary The Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
|
1 |
Chart procession and succession
Cover versions
- Philippine bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music popularized by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto. Bossa nova acquired a large following, initially by young musicians and college students...
singer SittiSitti Navarro or simply Sitti ,"Queen Of Bossa Nova" is a Filipino bossa nova singer. She is of Maranao descent.-Early life:...
recorded a cover of this song for her second album My Bossa NovaMy Bossa Nova is the second studio album of Philippine bossa nova singer Sitti. Unlike her previous studio effort Café Bossa, the album focused on more recent songs and had very few "traditional" bossa nova songs...
.
- Korean rock band Jaurim
Jaurim is a rock band from Seoul, South Korea. They operated on indie scene before 1997, and became major with their first released song 'Hey Hey Hey'. They have released seven full-length albums, two unofficial albums, two original soundtracks, and one concert album...
covered the song on their album "The Youth Admiration".
- Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Originally discovered by Garth...
and Babyface covered the song on CMT "Crossroads" airing September 21, 2007.
- Melissa Totten did a Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG is high-tempo disco music , as well as a more specific, derivative genre of electronic dance music that achieved mainstream popularity in the mid to late 1980s...
cover for her 2008 dance album Forever Madonna.
External links