Papa Don't Preach - Critical Response

Critical Response

"Papa Don't Preach" was lauded by pop music critics. Davitt Sigerson from Rolling Stone magazine in a review of the album True Blue said that if there is a problem with the album "it's the lack of outstanding songs", adding that "only the magnificent 'Papa Don't Preach' has the high-profile hook to match 'Like a Virgin', 'Dress You Up' and 'Material Girl'." In its review of True Blue, Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that "she is using the music to hook in critics just as she's baiting a mass audience with such masterstrokes as 'Papa Don't Preach'." Robert Christgau in a review for The Village Voice felt that "she doesn't speak for the ordinary teenaged stiff any more", adding that the "antiabortion content of 'Papa Don't Preach' isn't unequivocal, and wouldn't make the song bad by definition if it were, the ambiguity is a cop-out rather than an open door, which is bad."

Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine said that "with songs like 'Papa Don't Preach', Madonna made the transition from pop tart to consummate artist, joining the ranks of 80s icons like Michael Jackson and Prince." David Browne from Entertainment Weekly in a review of her first compilation album The Immaculate Collection, commented that "in theory a 30-ish urban sophisticate singing in the voice of a pregnant teen, sounds ridiculous", but added that "with the help of collaborators like Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard, though, turns into a perfectly conceived pop record". Blender's Tony Power said that the "baroque faux strings and abortion dilemma of 'Papa Don’t Preach' herald a new, less querulous Madonna, girlishly in love with Sean Penn and bolstered by writer-producer Pat Leonard." In 2005, the same magazine placed the song at number 486 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". In 1987, the song was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 29th Grammy Awards, but lost to Barbra Streisand's The Broadway Album.