Songful Style Link Party #42: “Who’s That Girl?” by Madonna

Another month has flown right by us making it time for another round of song-inspired outfits from me and my musically stylish friends.

About Songful Style

Songful Style is a style challenge series hosted by Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha of Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette.

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song.

It was my turn to choose our song for September. I can’t believe that in 3 1/2 years of this songful series, we have never featured Madonna…a style icon in her own right! After Marsha had chosen artwork featuring the Madonna (Mother Mary) for a recent Style Imitating Art challenge, it inspired me to choose a Madonna song for our next round. 

The problem was picking the song. All of Madonna’s music videos have amazing sartorial inspiration and I love so many of her old songs. I think I stopped listening to her music in the early 1990s, but her 80s styles are the best anyway! So first, I narrowed my choices to 6: “Express Yourself” (1989), “Borderline” (1984), “La Isla Bonita” (1986), “True Blue” (1986), “Who’s That Girl?” (1987), and “Into the Groove” (1985).

Then I watched each video multiple times, read all the lyrics to each song, and still couldn’t decide which song to choose. All of them are great songs and all of the videos have wonderful outfit inspiration. I finally settled on “Who’s That Girl” from the 1987 film of the same name. I loved that movie and I love the song. In fact, it has been ear worming me for weeks. The video features clips from the film so there were plenty of outfits to inspire us!  

The Video

The Lyrics

Who's that girl?
Who's that girl?

When you see her, say a prayer and kiss your heart goodbye
She's trouble, in a word get closer to the fire
Run faster, her laughter burns you up inside
You're spinning round and round
You can't get up, you try, but you can't

¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)
¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)

You try to avoid her, fate is in your hands
She's smiling, an invitation to the dance
Her heart is on the street, tu corazon es suyo
Now you're falling at her feet
You try to get away, but you can't

¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)
¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)

Light up my life, so blind I can't see
Light up my life, no one can help me now

Run faster, her laughter burns you up inside
He's spinning round and round
You can't get up, you try, but you can't

¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)
¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)

Light up my life, so blind I can't see
Light up my life, no one can help me now

Who's that girl?
Now, who's that girl?
Now, who's that girl?
Now, who's that girl?

¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)
¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)

¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)
¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)

¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)
Señorita más fina (who's that girl?)
¿Quién es esa niña? (Who's that girl?)

About the Artist and the Song

Since Madonna reached international stardom nearly 50 years ago and has become known as “The Queen of Pop” for decades, I am fairly certain that almost every human being who has been alive since the 1980s must surely know who she is. And since I have been dreadfully ill this past week, I am going to keep this section of my post as short as I can. If your interest has been piqued and you wish to read more about this extraordinarily prolific singer/songwriter/producer/actress, there is abundance of literature easily available online.

She was born Madonna Louise Ciccone on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan, the third of six children, to Roman Catholic parents Madonna Louise (née Fortin) and Silvio Anthony “Tony” Ciccone. She has Italian ancestry on her father’s side and French-Canadian ancestry on her mother’s side.

When Madonna was just five years old, her mother passed away from breast cancer on December 1, 1963. In 1966, Madonna’s father married the family’s housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. The new couple had three more children together and remained married for 58 years until Joan’s death in 2024.

Madonna’s early education began in Catholic grade schools where she was known for her exceptionally high grade point average as well as her unconventional behaviors which included doing cartwheels and handstands in the hallways between classes and lifting her skirt to reveal her panties during classes. A hard working student who just wanted to be good at something, her father eventually enrolled her in piano lessons. She soon convinced him to let her take ballet lessons instead where she was persuaded to pursue a career in dance.

A straight-A student and member of the cheerleading squad, Madonna graduated from Rochester Adams High School in January 1976, receiving a dance scholarship from the University of Michigan. However, in 1978, she dropped out of college and moved to New York City with $35 in her pocket. She worked all sorts of jobs in New York City during those early years, eventually signing with Gotham Records in March 1981. The first singles she released were dance songs which reached top spots on Billboard magazine’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart. She followed this success with the release of her debut album, Madonna, in 1983. And the rest, as they say, is history.

As of 2025, Forbes has estimated her net worth at $850 million, making her one of the wealthiest musicians in the world. Guinness World Records has recognized her as the best-selling female music artist of all time, with 18 albums certified multi-platinum in multiple countries. Her list of awards and nominations as well as her records and other achievements are too extensive to cover in my short post.

“Who’s That Girl?” is from the 1987 soundtrack for the film of the same name which starred Madonna in the lead role of Nikki Finn, a street-wise girl who is wrongfully accused of killing her boyfriend. It was her third motion picture. The title song was written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard and was released in Europe and the United States in June 1987 to both positive and mixed reviews from critics. It became her sixth single to top the Billboard Hot 100, making her the artist with the most number one hits of the 1980s.

About My Outfit

The music video begins with Madonna entering a park and dancing around with some children with clips from the movie interspersed throughout. In the park scenes, Madonna is wearing an oversized gray blazer on top of a black bustier and short pants with a gray fedora atop her brown spiky hair. That outfit was my initial inspiration for this style challenge.

I recently purchased a gray fedora for Ralph (he has started his own fedora collection) and decided that would be the start of my Madonna-inspired outfit. However, the hat is a tad small for my big noggin, but I jammed it on my head anyway! Then I began building the rest of my outfit, taking inspiration from multiple Madonna outfits in the video.

I started with a gray blazer but mine is not oversized so I needed to wear it with the front open as it was too tight to properly close. There are clips in the video where Madonna is wearing a red tulle skirt with a black leather jacket which inspired the rest of my outfit. Since I don’t have a short red tulle skirt, I wore my black midi tulle skirt with a thrifted red tank top. In true 1980s Madonna fashion, I added some edgy accessories with a black chain belt, black studded ankle boots, fishnet stockings, big tassel earrings, a newly thrifted necklace, and piles of bracelets up both my arms.

While this is definitely not my current style aesthetic or anything that I would wear anywhere except maybe a costume party, I had fun with this style challenge. And sometimes, a little round of playing dress up is good for the soul!

I hope you will check out how my songful friends have styled their looks inspired by this Madonna hit.

• Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
• Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #41: “Time Waited” by My Morning Jacket

If you enjoyed our musically inspired outfits for this round, please come back on October 27, 2025, to see how we style Suzy’s next song choice, “I Put A Spell On You”, performed by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy in the 1993 Halloween film Hocus Pocus. These style challenges are such a great way to learn new music or revisit old songs and to view your wardrobe from a totally different perspective. If you are feeling in the Halloween spirit and want to have some good old fashioned dress up fun, won’t join us for this round?

Happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee