"Like a Virgin" is a song by American singer Madonna from her second studio album of the same name (1984). Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and produced by Nile Rodgers, it was released as the album's lead single on November 6, 1984. Steinberg conceived the lyrics after emerging from a difficult relationship and beginning a new one, drawing on the sense of renewal he experienced at the time. Musically, "Like a Virgin" is a dance-rock song built around a synth-bass groove, guitar and drums, with an arrangement drawing on Motown and the sound of Rodgers' band Chic. Lyrically, it uses virginity as a metaphor for the emotional renewal of a new relationship, while its double entendres and ambiguous wording allow for both romantic and sexual interpretations.
Initial reviews of "Like a Virgin" ranged from positive to mixed, with Madonna's vocals drawing both praise and criticism, Rodgers' production receiving praise, and some reviewers criticizing the lyrics. It became Madonna's first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for six consecutive weeks, and also topped the charts in Australia, Canada and the European Hot 100, while reaching the top ten in numerous other countries. Worldwide, it has sold more than six million copies. The accompanying music video, directed by Mary Lambert and filmed primarily in Venice, depicts Madonna alternating between a sexually assertive woman and a bride dressed in white, incorporating religious and erotic imagery as well as the recurring presence of a lion. The video has been interpreted as playing with traditional ideas of virginity, sexuality and female purity.
Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" at the inaugural 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, appearing in a wedding dress and rolling across the stage. The performance became a defining moment of her career and has since been regarded as one of the greatest and most important in the ceremony's history. She has subsequently featured the song on eight of her concert tours, the last being the Celebration Tour (2023–2024). "Like a Virgin" has been credited with challenging traditional attitudes toward female sexuality and virginity and expanding representations of women's sexual autonomy in popular music, while also provoking a conservative backlash. Widely covered, parodied and referenced in popular culture, the song helped propel Madonna to superstardom. It has since been regarded as one of the defining recordings of the 1980s and among the greatest and most important pop songs of all time.
Background
"Like a Virgin" was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Steinberg came up with the lyrics one day in 1983 while driving through his father's vineyards in the Coachella Valley, after ending a bad relationship and beginning a new one. He said his writing process was "stream of consciousness [...] I just get out my pen and my pad of paper and I just start writing". The expression "like a virgin" came from the sensation of feeling "shiny and new" and adapting how his new relationship was making him feel in comparison to the last one. Steinberg then brought the lyrics to Kelly without having a melody in mind. Kelly initially wanted to focused on the lyrics' earnest qualities and approached the song as a ballad, but Steinberg felt that the phrase "like a virgin" did not work in that setting.
After experimenting with different approaches, Kelly began playing a bass line inspired by the Motown music he and Steinberg admired and singing in falsetto; Steinberg immediately felt they had found the appropriate sound. Kelly, a session singer known for "this powerful high-range rock voice" was hesitant about using falsetto, but the pair ultimately recorded a "very simple but very effective" demo with him on lead vocals and Steinberg providing backing vocals. The song initially met resistance because of its title. Steinberg recalled that multiple A&R executives turned it down despite finding the song catchy, believing that its title was "bizarre" and would not suit any artist. He refused to change it, considering the phrase "the whole core" of the song. He also recalled Smokey Robinson's "Virgin Man" (1974) as an earlier example of the word being used in a song.
Although Kelly was unfamiliar with Madonna at the time, Steinberg already knew her music through his girlfriend, an aerobics instructor who frequently played "Burning Up" (1983) in her classes. The pair had yet to find a proper artist for "Like a Virgin" when Warner Bros. A&R executive Michael Ostin encountered it while listening to a selection of Kelly's demos in Los Angeles. After Steinberg and Kelly told him about the song and their difficulty finding a suitable performer, Ostin—who was due to meet Madonna the following day to discuss her forthcoming second studio album—played it for her. She was particularly drawn to its wordplay, later recalling: "How can you be like a virgin? I liked the play on words, I thought they were clever. They're so geeky, they're cool". To Steinberg's surprise, Madonna decided to record the song; he later described learning that it would also serve as the album's first single as "the happiest moment of my life, at least of my musical life".
Recording and release
Producer Nile Rodgers was initially less enthusiastic about "Like a Virgin" than Madonna. He did not consider the title phrase a particularly strong hook or an "all-time catch phrase", and initially opposed recording the song. Four days later, however, Rodgers realized that the song was still stuck in his head and, after apologizing to Madonna, suggested that they record it after all. Recording took place in April 1984 at the Power Station studios in New York City. Rodgers sought a tougher, more "streetwise" sound than Madonna's previous dance-pop recordings, assembling a rhythm section with himself on guitar, his Chic bandmate Bernard Edwards on bass, and former Chic drummer Tony Thompson on drums.
Jason Corsaro, who served as recording and mixing engineer, recalled that Madonna had chosen Rodgers specifically because she wanted the "Chic kind of approach". She was closely involved in the sessions' musical direction; when Rodgers wanted to experiment with a different guitar style, Madonna instead asked him to reproduce the sound of his work with Chic. She also drew closely from Steinberg and Kelly's original demo when recording her vocals. Steinberg was particularly struck by her decision to retain Kelly's ad-libs at the end of the song, recalling: When Madonna recorded it, even as our demo faded out, on the fade you could hear Tom saying, "When your heart beats, and you hold me, and you love me..." That was the last thing you heard. [She] must have listened to it very, very carefully because her record ends with the exact same little ad-libs that our demo did. That rarely happens that someone studies your demo so carefully that they use all that stuff. We were sort of flattered how carefully she followed our demo on that. Corsaro persuaded Rodgers to record the sessions digitally, using a Sony 3324 24-track DASH recorder and a Sony F1 PCM adaptor for the stereo mix. Madonna recorded her lead vocals in a small wooden piano room adjoining Studio C, where Corsaro surrounded her with gobos and used an AKG C24 tube microphone with a Schoeps preamplifier and a Pultec equalizer. He recalled that Rodgers was particularly demanding about vocal pitch, but described Madonna as highly professional throughout the process. After the rhythm tracks were completed, Robert Sabino added keyboards, primarily using a Prophet-5, along with Rhodes and acoustic piano, while Rodgers also played a Synclavier. Madonna remained present throughout the recording and mixing sessions, with Corsaro recalling that "Nile was there most of the time, but she was there all of the time. She never left".
"Like a Virgin" was released as the parent album's lead single on November 6, 1984. Madonna had been eager to release the song, and recalled being "irritated" that the renewed success of "Borderline" meant she had to wait to put it out. Rodgers initially favored "Material Girl" as the lead single, although "Like a Virgin" was ultimately chosen instead; Madonna later admitted that she did not know why they settled on the latter, as she considered it "quite controversial". "Like a Virgin" was later included on Madonna's compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990), Celebration (2009), and Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones (2022). An extended remix of the song was included on the Japan-exclusive extended play (EP) Like a Virgin & Other Big Hits!
Composition Musically, "Like a Virgin" has been noted a dance-rock song built around a synth-bass groove, guitar and drums. The song opens with two hooks: a three-note bass motif reworked from the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" (1965), and a chordal guitar stab derived from Chuck Berry. The bass is doubled by synthesizer, creating what Spin magazine described as the foundation of the song's "disco-funk groove". Ed Masley of The Arizona Republic pointed out to similarities between the bassline and that of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (1983). Rodgers' guitar enters with four sharp strums of the same chord across two measures.
The song remains on its opening chord for nearly 20 seconds, through the introduction and first four measures of the verse, before shifting upward and returning. Ahead of the chorus, the harmony changes again as Madonna repeats "you made me feel", building toward the title refrain. Thompson contributes brief drum fills before later choruses, while Madonna introduces a falsetto "Hey!" in the second chorus. Her youthful vocals remain at the forefront of the arrangement, supported by Rodgers' guitar and the synth bass. The song closes with a prolonged fade-out of breathless ad-libs. The commercial twelve-inch version was remixed by John "Jellybean" Benitez.
Lyrical meaning Lyrically, "Like a Virgin" uses virginity as a metaphor for the feeling of renewal brought about by a new relationship. The song opens with Madonna declaring that she "made it through the wilderness", describing herself as having been lost until finding a new lover. Stereogum characterized this imagery as conveying a "lovestruck euphoria", with the relationship leaving her feeling "shiny and new". In the refrain, she compares this emotional renewal to feeling "like a virgin" and "touched for the very first time".
Robert Matthew-Walker noted the song's use of double entendres, citing lines such as "Your love thawed out what was scared and cold" and "Feels so good inside when you hold me". While this new relationship does not literally make the narrator a virgin again, it recreates that feeling. Author Rikky Rooksby similarly identified the word "like" as central to the song's ambiguity, interpreting the lyrics as applicable both to someone anticipating a first sexual experience and to someone more experienced for whom a new relationship recreates those feelings. By his part, Matthew Rettenmund interpreted the song as equating virginity with the purity of romantic and sexual love. Madonna herself rejected a literal sexual interpretation, explaining that the song "isn't really about being a virgin, but of a feeling instead", with "virgin" referring to a sense of "newness".