Open Your Heart (Madonna Song) - Live Performances

Live Performances

"Open Your Heart" has been featured as a full song in the set lists of three Madonna tours – 1987's Who's That Girl World Tour, 1990's Blond Ambition World Tour, and 2012's MDNA Tour. It served as the opening song on 1987 Who's That Girl Tour. It started off with then young dancer Chris Finch, imitating Felix Howard from the video. Howard did not receive a working license for the tour hence Finch was taken for his part. He went on to become an integral part of most of the songs performed on the tour. After Finch, two other dancers are introduced, before Madonna herself appears on stage. She wore the same black pointy corset and fishnets as in the music video. She first sings the song alone, then Finch joins her again and they dance together till the song ends. Two different performances of the song on this tour can be found on the videos: Who's That Girl – Live in Japan, filmed in Tokyo, Japan, on June 22, 1987, and Ciao, Italia! – Live from Italy, filmed in Turin, Italy, on September 4, 1987.

On the Blond Ambition World Tour, "Open Your Heart" follows the opening number "Express Yourself". This time there's not a young boy but a hunky dancer watching from a distance as Madonna entered the stage with her hair stretched into a topknot and fake blond ponytail, which was replaced by short peroxide tangles in the European leg of the tour. She wore a double breasted suit with the outer jacket cut in slits so that the conical bra underneath could point through. Showing off the satin pink bodysuit and her monocle chain, Madonna proceeds to perform the song on a chair. Playing a dominatrix role, Madonna got on top of one of the dancers before carrying off an exhibitionist dance routine with the chair as a prop. Two different performances were taped and released on video, the Blond Ambition – Japan Tour 90, taped in Yokohama, Japan, on April 27, 1990, and the Live! – Blond Ambition World Tour 90, taped in Nice, France, on August 5, 1990.

The opening musical introduction of the song served as a brief twenty-six seconds musical interlude on the Drowned World Tour in 2001. As Madonna finished a performance of "Frozen" in the Geisha inspired segment of the show, she sat in a cross-legged position in front of the stage. The musical intro for "Open Your Heart" starts with a dancer in a Japanese costume dancing behind her on a raised podium. As the music ends, Madonna starts singing "Nobody's Perfect" from her 2000 album "Music". In 2008, Madonna sang the first verse and chorus for the first time in eighteen years at two dates – Las Vegas and East Rutherford – of her Sticky & Sweet Tour. Madonna forgot the lyrics at the Vegas show and refused to sing the song in Boston; she performed "Express Yourself" instead.

She also performed an excerpt of the song at the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show with Cee Lo Green and a large marching band. The song was reinvented and reworked for the MDNA Tour in which Madonna performed it in its full length for the first time in 22 years. It contains elements of "Sagarra Jo" by the trio Kalakan where Madonna danced in a black attire.