with reported sales exceeding 620,000units. The song was successful across Europe as well, topping the charts in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. "La Isla Bonita" also topped the European Hot 100 Singles chart the week of June 20, 1987. It reached the top five in Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden, and the top ten in Spain. Music video Background and synopsis The music video for "La Isla Bonita" was directed by Mary Lambert, who had previously worked with Madonna in the videos for "Borderline" and "Like a Virgin" (1984). Filming took place in downtown Los Angeles in March 1987, and lasted four days; over 500 extras of Hispanic descent, including a then-unknown Benicio Del Toro, who was paid $150, participated in the shooting. According to Sharon Oreck, in her book, Video Slut (2010), it was a very simple shooting. In the visual, Madonna plays two characters: a short-haired Catholic woman and a "flamboyant" flamenco dancer. As the flamenco dancer, she is dressed in a voluminous red Andalusian-style dress; for the shy, pious Catholic character, she dons a simple white dress. The video starts as several Latin people dance in a Spanish barrio while Madonna, as the Catholic woman, watches them from her window; she sheds tears in her room and reluctantly ignores their invitation to join them. At one point, she is shown using a rosary to pray, bowing before an altar full of Catholic imagery. The "passionate" flamenco dancer Madonna dances inside a bright red room with red candles and candelabra and, towards the end, leaves to join the dancers in the streets. "La Isla Bonita" had its world premiere on MTV on March 6, 1987, and became the most requested video in the channel's history for a record-breaking 20 consecutive weeks. In Europe, it was the year's most heavily rotated clip on television. It can be found on Madonna's video compilations The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Celebration: The Video Collection (2009). Analysis and reception According to Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens, authors of Madonna's Drowned Worlds (2004), the "austerity and the passivity" of the Catholic character contrasts vividly with the "passion and activity" of the flamenco dancer. In The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory (1998), authors Ramona Liera-Schwichtenberg, Deidre Pribram, David Tetzlaff and Ron Scott argued that although the settings suggest that both of Madonna's characters live in the barrio and may be Latina