“When I lived in New York for so many years I was constantly listening to salsa and merengue. I mean, that stuff was constantly blaring out of everybody’s radio on the street.”
– Madonna
La Isla Bonita (The Beautiful Island) is my favourite song by Madonna; in fact it’s the only song I recall I like by Madonna. And ever since I saw the accompanying music video (approaching 1 billion views) as a young tacker I found her latín inspired ‘presentation’ in the video very passionate and provocative. Madonna with her short hair slicked back in her one piece undergarment (as a young Catholic woman) really did it for me as well her transformation into a beautiful traditional flamenco dancer.
La Isla Bonita was originally written for Michael Jackson about the mythical island of San Pedro, and was re-worked by Madonna into her first of many Latin-inspired hits. As her comment above alludes, this track reflects the multicultural mix of New York that Madonna experienced when she was starting out. She also described the song as her tribute to the “beauty and mystery of Latin American people”. According to her “Latin rhythms often dominate our uptempo compositions. It’s like we’re possessed. We both think that we were Latin in another life.”
[Intro]
¿Cómo puede ser verdad? (How could it be true?)
[Verse 1]
Last night I dreamt of San Pedro
Just like I’d never gone, I knew the song
Young girl with eyes like the desert
It all seems like yesterday, not far away
[Chorus]
Tropical the island breeze, all of nature wild and free
(Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah)
This is where I long to be, La Isla Bonita
And when the samba played, the sun would set so high
(Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah)
Ring through my ears and sting my eyes, your Spanish lullaby
[Verse 2]
I fell in love with San Pedro
Warm wind carried on the sea, he called to me
Te dijo, “Te amo”
I prayed that the days would last, they went so fast (Read the remainder here)
The following is cherry – picked from the wikipedia below:
La Isla Bonita is a song from Madonna’s third album True Blue. Patrick Leonard and Bruce Gaitsch created it as an instrumental demo and offered it to singer Michael Jackson, who turned it down. When Leonard met Madonna to start working on True Blue, he played the demo for her. Madonna came up with the title, wrote the lyrics and produced the song with Leonard. It is her first song with Latin influences. Its instrumentation features flamenco guitar, Latin percussion, maracas, and includes four lines sung in Spanish. It was commercially successful, becoming her eleventh top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and second Adult Contemporary number one.
References:
1. La Isla Bonita – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
While I didn’t own any albums by Madonna, I listened to her a lot during my teenage years growing up in Germany. It was easy. All you needed to do was to switch on the radio and you would soon hear a Madonna song. Somewhat comparable to Phil Collins who was heavily exposed and ended up being overexposed, in my view. Along with “Borderline” and “Like a Prayer”, “La Isla Bonita” is my favorite Madonna song as well. I like the positive vibe, which makes you feel you’re on some beautiful tropical island.
I was a big fan of Madonna’s from 1984-98, and this is one of my favorites of her many songs.
I applaud you for your courage admitting that. I’m just kidding Jeff.
Hey, I’m not ashamed to admit I was a fan of hers, nor anyone else who some consider to be uncool or whatever. As you know, we all like what we like for a myriad number of reasons that may seem unfathomable to others. For example, though I know I’m in the minority, I’ve never understood the huge appeal of KISS.
You shouldn’t be ashamed. Like I shouldn’t be about my obsession with Christina Perri who almost noone ‘gets’. It is what it is.
My parents possessed gold coins of ‘Kiss’ which I was fascinated by as a youngen. That’s as far as my knowledge about them went.
Nancy and I just went 15 rounds on Springsteen, but it was amicable and a great learning experience. Horses for courses.