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1989 single by Madonna

"Oh Father" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her fourth studio album Like a Prayer (1989). It was released as the fourth single from the album on October 24, 1989, by Sire Records. The song was not released as a single in most European territories until December 24, 1995, when it appeared on the 1995 ballads compilation Something to Remember. Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, "Oh Father" concerns the presence of male authoritative figures in Madonna's life, most prominently her father, Tony Ciccone. Madonna's relationship with her father had soured after her mother's death in 1963 and his remarriage three years later. While developing the Like a Prayer album, Madonna was in an emotional state of mind due to her personal problems, which is reflected in "Oh Father". Musically, "Oh Father" is a baroque pop ballad. It was recorded at a studio in the Garment District of New York City. Leonard put together different types of chord progression and created the basic outline of a melody, which Madonna shaped and then wrote a lyric to fit the melody. She used a contrast of timbre while singing the song, which also featured instrumentation from strings, piano, violin and drums. "Oh Father" received positive reviews from critics and authors, but commercially was less successful than Madonna's previous singles. In most of the countries where it was released, the song failed to attain top ten positions, except in Finland, where it peaked at number six. It ended Madonna's string of 16 consecutive top five singles in the United States. The music video of the song was Madonna's attempt to embrace and accept her mother's death. Directed by David Fincher and shot in black and white, it shows a little girl playing in the snow as her mother dies. A grown up Madonna follows the child and sings the song as the child runs away from her abusive father. Described by reviewers as "autobiographical", the video was listed by Rolling Stone as one of "The 100 Top Music Videos". Scholars noted how Madonna's persona was split into the child and adult in the video, and one writer described a scene, involving the dead mother shown at her wake with her lips sewn shut, as one of the most disturbing scenes in the history of mainstream music videos; the scene was inspired by Madonna's memory of her mother from her funeral. "Oh Father" was performed only on the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990, where Madonna portrayed a woman trying to find her religion and her battle for it.

When Madonna was five years old, in 1963, her mother, Madonna Ciccone (whom Madonna was named after), died of breast cancer at the age of 30. Months before this, Madonna noticed changes in her mother's behavior and personality from the attentive homemaker she was, but did not understand the reasons. Madonna eventually learned to take care of herself and her siblings, and she turned to her paternal grandmother in the hope of finding some solace and some form of her mother in her. The Ciccone siblings resented housekeepers and invariably rebelled against anyone brought into their home ostensibly to take the place of their beloved mother. Terrified that her father, Tony Ciccone, could be taken from her as well, Madonna was often unable to sleep unless she was near him. Two years after her mother's death, her father married the family's housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. It was at this point that Madonna began to express unresolved feelings of anger towards her father that lasted for decades, and developed a rebellious attitude.

[[File:Lucy O'Brien 01. jpg|thumb|Author Lucy O'Brien referred to "Oh Father" as a dramatic, pretentious ballad, while comparing Madonna's singing to that of Courtney Love. Sharing the same view, Freya Jarman Ivens, one of the authors of Madonna's Drowned Worlds, declared "Oh Father" as a powerful statement regarding father daughter relationships. Allen Metz, author of The Madonna Companion, described the song as a "stark ballad with a serious string arrangement". O'Brien felt that the strings were dramatic and pretentious. She described Madonna's singing as consisting of "Courtney Love style rasp" and adding that Madonna "attacks the song with personal passion". Kevin Phinney from the Austin American Statesman called it the strongest and the most shocking song on Like a Prayer. Alan Jones from Music Week said, "It's a complex piece, not her easiest to love, with constantly shifting tempo, pseudo classical interludes and a strong vocal." Stephen Holden from The New York Times wrote that the orchestration of the song was "grandiloquent", while describing Madonna's delivery of the lines as an "angry triumph". Stewart Mason from Allmusic shared Holden's opinion, and described "Oh Father" as "[Madonna's] finest ballad performance ever". He added that the "upward modulation of the chorus, accompanied by some overdubbed self harmonies that feature a very controlled and effective use of Madonna's highest register, is sheer brilliance, giving the song a steely resolve that removes any taint of self pity from the verses." Music journalist J. D. Considine, while reviewing Like a Prayer for Rolling Stone, believed that despite the song's "lush" string arrangement, some of the lyrics contain a disquieting degree of pain. Hadley Freeman from The Guardian commented that the confessional nature of the lyrics of "Oh Father" was what appealed to her the most in the song. Negative reception for the song was given by Mark Browning, author of David Fincher: Films That Scar, who called it one of Madonna's weakest efforts, due to the verses sounding more like musical theater than a pop song. Entertainment Weeklys Chuck Arnold wrote that "[Madonna] has done other songs that deal with her family issues, but rarely better than this"; he listed "Oh Father" as the singer's 40th best single. Jude Rogers from The Guardian placed the track at number 28 of her ranking of Madonna's singles, in honor of her 60th birthday, writing: "Lush strings and bassy pianos on this classy 1989 primal scream. Hugely emo, parent baiting lyrics, but gorgeous in its execution". In August 2018, Billboard picked it as the singer's 64th greatest single, writing that "['Oh Father'] not only set the tone for Madonna's more contemplative, downtempo decade to come, it also provided an early model for the piano led power balladry of '90s singer songwriters like Tori Amos and Jewel".