Madonna’s song featuring references to sixteen icons from the 1920s through the 1950s is “Vogue.” The 1990 dance hit’s spoken middle section name-checks stars including Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Joe DiMaggio, James Dean, Grace Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Bette Davis.
“Vogue” was written and produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone. Its lyrics celebrate glamour, self-expression, and escape on the dance floor, while the celebrity names evoke Hollywood’s Golden Age. The song was released as part of the promotional campaign surrounding the film Dick Tracy and appeared on Madonna’s album I’m Breathless.
The accompanying black-and-white video was directed by David Fincher and draws on classic Hollywood photography and fashion imagery. It also helped bring voguing, a dance style rooted in New York’s Black and Latino LGBTQ ballroom culture, to a worldwide pop audience. “Vogue” topped charts in more than thirty countries and remains one of Madonna’s defining singles. The sixteen names are in the song’s lyrics, not a literal cast list in the video.