- “Vogueing” was a dance craze popular in the gay community where dancers used elaborate hand gestures and frequently stopped to pose. This song brought the dance style to the mainstream and solidified Madonna’s standing as an icon in the gay community.
- Madonna’s best friend Debi Mazar first noticed the Vogue craze while they were out clubbing. She was fascinated by the way these men would “Strike a pose” while holding their bodies in strange positions. Madonna took the idea to the New York producer Shep Pettibone, who she had recently begun working with, and they wrote the song together. Pettibone was a DJ at Sound Factory, which is the club where Madonna saw the dancing.
- This song was originally written as the B-side to “Keep It Together,” a single release in America only. However, when Shep Pettibone played “Vogue” to the record company executives at Sire, they decided that the song was too good to waste on a B-side.
- Madonna mentions many glamorous actors and actresses in the lyrics, including Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Jean Harlow. Some of the mentions are a little forced: “They had style, they had grace, Rita Hayworth gave good face.”
- Lauren Bacall was the last surviving legendary actor or actress mentioned in this song. She passed away after a stroke on August 12, 2014. Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joe DiMaggio (the only non actor mentioned), Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, and Lana Turner all previously departed before the husky-voiced Hollywood icon.
