The 63 Best Madonna Lyrics Ever To Express Yourself In Your Instagram Captions

For nearly 40 years, Madonna has been the Queen of Pop. She has broken barriers, championed important causes, challenged what is deemed appropriate for mainstream musicians to wear or say, helped the world embrace a healthy attitude toward sexuality, and released hit after hit. Simply put, there is no one like Madonna, and yet one of her great talents is too often overlooked.

Sure, Madonna is known for her impressive stage presence, her magnetic quality during interviews, and her unforgettable fashion, but what about her songwriting chops? The superstar is credited as a writer on almost everything she’s ever released, which means she is responsible for not just singing the words we can’t get out of our heads, but also for coming up with them.

To celebrate Madge’s 63rd birthday on Aug. 16 (happy birthday, Madonna!), Bustle has compiled the singer-songwriter’s 63 best lyrics that make great Instagram captions. These lines appear across her 14 studio albums, and they encompass everything the world has come to love about the powerhouse performer, from her brash, unapologetic nature to her references about religion, celebrities, and bravery it takes for someone so scrutinized to be honest with the masses.

Madonna // 1983

• “Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight” — from “Lucky Star”
• “Do you wanna see me down on my knees? Or bending over backwards, now, would you be pleased?” — from “Burning Up

Like a Virgin // 1984

• “’Cause we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl” — from “Material Girl”
• “Like a virgin, touched for the very first time” — from “Like a Virgin”
• “Gonna dress you up in my love, all over, all over” — from “Dress You Up”

True Blue // 1986

• “But I made up my mind, I'm keeping my baby” — from “Papa Don’t Preach”
• “Couldn’t wait to get older, thought I’d have so much fun, I guess I’m one of the grown-ups now, I have to get the job done” — from “Where’s the Party”
• “Love means to understand” — from “Love Makes the World Go Round”

Like a Prayer // 1989

• “I’m down on my knees, I want to take you there” — from “Like a Prayer”
• “Let the choir sing!” — from “Like a Prayer”
• “This is not a love song” — from “Love Song”
• “The bruises they will fade away, you hit so hard with the things you say” — from “Till Death Do Us Part”
• “How many lives will they have to take? How much heartache?” — from “Pray For Spanish Eyes”

Erotica // 1992

• “I know I love you because I hate you, and now I’d rather haunt you” — from “Bye Bye Baby”
• “Every girl should experience eating out” — from “Where Life Begins”
• “Thinking about a friend of mine, he was only 23, gone before he had his time” — from “In This Life”

Bedtime Stories // 1994

• “I'll never be an angel, I’ll never be a saint, it’s true I’m too busy surviving” — from “Survival”
• “I could be your sister, I could be your mother, we could be friends, I’d even be your brother, but I’d rather be your lover” — from “I’d Rather Be Your Lover”
• “Express yourself, don’t repress yourself” — from “Human Nature”
• “Who needs the sun, when the rain’s so full of life?” — from “Sanctuary”
• “Let’s get unconscious, honey” — from “Bedtime Story”

Ray of Light // 1998

• “I traded fame for love without a second thought” — from “Drowned World/Substitute for Love”
• “Zephyr in the sky at night, I wonder” — from “Ray of Light”
• “Faster than the speeding light she’s flying” — from “Ray of Light”
• “Nothing really matters, love is all we need” — from “Nothing Really Matters”
• “I think I’ll follow my heart, it’s a very good place to start” — from “Sky Fits Heaven”
• “You’re frozen when your heart’s not open” — from “Frozen”
• “Freedom comes when you learn to let go” — from “The Power of Good-Bye”
• “God gave a present to me, made of flesh and bones, my life, my soul, you make my spirit whole” — from “Little Star”

Music // 2000

• “Music, makes the people come together, music, makes the bourgeoisie and the rebel” — from “Music”
• “This guy was meant for me, and I was meant for him, this guy was dreamt for me, and I was dreamt for him” — from “I Deserve It”
• “But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading ’cause you think that being a girl is degrading, but secretly you’d love to know what it’s like, wouldn’t you?” — from “What It Feels Like For A Girl”

American Life // 2003

• “I tried to stay ahead, I tried to stay on top, I tried to play the part, but somehow I forgot just what I did it for” — from “American Life”
• “I’ve lost my reputation, bad and good” — from “Hollywood”
• “It’s no good when you’re misunderstood, but why should I care what the world thinks of me? Won’t let a stranger give me a social disease” — from “Nobody Knows Me”
• “Sigmund Freud, analyze this” — from “Die Another Day”

Confessions on a Dance Floor // 2005

• “Time goes by so slowly” — from “Hung Up”
• “You’re not half the man you think you are” — from “Sorry”
• “Don’t explain yourself ’cause talk is cheap, there’s more important things than hearing you speak” — from “Sorry”
• “New York is not for little pussies who scream” — from “I Love New York”
• “There’s only so much you can learn in one place, the more that I wait, the more time that I waste” — from “Jump”
• “I’m not afraid of what I’ll face, but I’m afraid to stay” — from “Jump”
• “It’s funny I spent my whole life wanting to be talked about, I did it, just about everything to see my name in lights” — from “How High”
• “Cleopatra had her way, Mata Hari too, whether they were good or bad is strictly up to you” — from “Like It or Not”
• “Can’t have the femme without the fatale” — from “Like It or Not”

Hard Candy // 2008

• “Don’t pretend you’re not hungry, there’s plenty to eat, come on into my store, ’cause my sugar is sweet” — from “Candy Shop”
• “I want somebody to speed it up for me, then take it down slow, there’s enough room for both” — from “4 Minutes”
• “Sometimes I think what I need is a ‘you’ intervention” — from “4 Minutes”
• “As quiet as it is tonight, you’d almost think you were safe” — from “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You”

MDNA // 2012

• “And I’m going straight to hell, and I got a lot of friends there” — from “Gang Bang”
• “Now if you're gonna act like a bitch, then you’re gonna die like a bitch” — from “Gang Bang”
• “When did your name change from a word to a charm?” — from “I’m Addicted”
• “I’m a sinner, I like it that way” — from “I’m a Sinner”

Rebel Heart // 2015

• “You’ve broken my heart, but you can’t break me down” — from “Living For Love”
• “When it all falls, when it all falls down, we’ll be two souls in a ghost town” — from “Ghosttown”
• “It might sound like I’m an unapologetic bitch, but sometimes you know I gotta call it like it is” — from “Unapologetic Bitch”
• “Bitch, I’m Madonna” — from “Bitch, I'm Madonna”
• “Each time they write a hateful word, dragging my soul into the dirt, I wanna die, never admit it, but it hurts” — from “Joan of Arc”
• “Let me love you from the inside out” — from “Inside Out”

Madame X // 2019

• “Forgave myself for being me”— from “Medellin”
• “It’s a beautiful dream, but a dream is earned” — from “Dark Ballet”
• “Freedom’s what you choose to do with what’s been done to you” — from “I Rise”
• “I will not denounce the things that I have said” — from “Dark Ballet”