DOWNLOAD THE SONGSHEET
La Isla Bonita (WORD)
La Isla Bonita (PDF)
To play in the same key as the video in GCEA tuning, put your capo on the 4th fret. Thanks to Chris Hill and Heather Bromberg for bringing this song to BUG!
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's her first song with Latin influences. Its instrumentation features flamenco guitar, Latin percussion, maracas, and includes four lines sung in Spanish. The lyrics talk about an island named San Pedro, whose location has been debated. Madonna said the song was her tribute to Latin Americans. It was commercially successful, becoming her eleventh top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and second Adult Contemporary number one. "La Isla Bonita" has often been cited as one of Madonna's best singles.