Lucky Star (1984): Madonna’s classic music video is a snapshot of the controversial pop diva when she was a fresh new face

It’s hard to believe, but Madonna turns sixty (something) on August 16^th. I had a theory that Madonna would be one of the few Gen X legends that would embrace their age with grace and maturity. Unfortunately, her haggard-looking appearance at this year’s Grammy Awards proved me wrong. Or maybe my reaction is proof that the music industry does not treat women very well. Let’s face it, most female singers are considered old and over the hill once they hit 30. And Madonna hasn’t done herself any favors by embracing extensive plastic surgery that’s made her look like a blow-up plastic doll. Just look at her Instagram feed for proof. 

So this made me turn back the clock 40 years and look at Madonna when she was a fresh new pop artist. Her first batch of videos from her 1983 debut consisting of Everybody, Burning Up, Borderline, and Lucky Star, show a singer hungry for fame and loving the camera. The new music video format was a perfect fit for the young diva, who, like Michael Jackson, would produce many influential clips that would shape the new medium. And who can forget her famous performance on American Bandstand in 1984, where host Dick Clark asked her what her dream was. Without missing a beat, Madonna answered, “To rule the world.” 

Lucky Star was the fourth single from Madonna’s 1983 self-titled debut album. After its initial release in July, the album was a slow burn as it took months for the singles Holiday and Borderline to receive radio airplay and ascent the Billboard charts. And then the slow burn exploded into a bonfire with Lucky Star, released over a year later, where Madonna had her first grade A top 5 hit. The synth-heavy dance song has a minor disco influence, with sexy wordplay lyrics comparing a lover’s body to the heavenly constellations in the sky. It’s pure 80’s pop bliss, and next to Borderline and Get into the Groove, this is one of Madonna’s most enduring early catalog tunes.

Arthur Pierson directed the Lucky Star video, and, interestingly, was filmed after Borderline, even though the single was released months before. I would say the music video contributed to the song’s sudden surge in popularity, as this video would cement her “boy toy” look. The spare, non-narrative clip has Madonna and two backup dancers mixing classical and club-style movements against a stark white backdrop, bookended by black and white shots of Madonna lowering her sunglasses. And the material girl is front and center, staring boldly into the camera interspersed with shots of her arching on the glowing dance floor. It also shows why Madonna has a deep catalog of club-ready songs. She’s claimed in many interviews that she got into music through dance and studied formally at the University of Michigan before relocating to New York. As a trained dancer, she understood how to craft great dance music, and this clip showcases her two loves perfectly.

Fun Fact: The male dancer is Madonna’s younger brother Christopher Ciccone, who would go on to write the memoir “Life with My Sister Madonna.”

The Lucky Star video is the final snapshot of Madonna’s early years of experimentation, where she was still rough around the edges and not yet defined by the controversy of her later sexually charged persona. And this is the video where Madonna embraced her early 80’s fashion of mesh crop tops, fingerless gloves, and dangling crucifixes, known as her “boy toy” look. If anything, Lucky Star served as a bridge to the pop diva’s follow-up album, Like a Virgin, released just a few months later in November 1984. This is where Madonna solidified her trendsetting pop culture status, unleashing the army of “Madonna Wannabes” onto the world. Even Hollywood would fall under her spell, with Madonna landing a supporting role in the feature Desperately Seeking Susan, a film that based its fashion on her iconic “boy toy” style. 

And it all started with a young dancer singing about her lover’s “heavenly” body with ambitions to rule the world.  Check out the video below and let me know your thoughts in the comments section.