Madonna's "most perfect" songs. For Lucy O'Brien, True Blues "sense of romantic thrill" is reflected in songs like "La Isla Bonita". Writing for the New York Times, Jon Pareles said it was one of the singer's "friendlier" love songs. From the Houston Chronicle, Marty Racine considered it one of the album's standout tracks, opining that it is "almost romantic, even if smacks of an overnight fling, where being true-blue is not so difficult". Author Maury Dean felt it was a "tough tune for most males to shrug off". "La Isla Bonita" was referred to as "spunky" by John Leland for Spin, while Jan DeKnock from the Chicago Tribune said it was "charming". For Entertainment Weeklys David Browne, "a 30-ish urban sophisticate [...] making Carmen Miranda-does-MTV moves ought to sound ridiculous. With the help of collaborators like Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard, though [...] [it] turns into a perfectly conceived pop record". Retrospective reviews have been positive. "La Isla Bonita" came in at number 20 of The Tabs ranking of Madonna's singles; author Harrison Brocklehurst compared it favorably to "Holiday" (1983), and referred to it as "sunset in a song". It is Madonna's 40th and 30th best song for the staff of Rolling Stone and The Guardians Jude Rogers, respectively. Entertainment Weeklys Chuck Arnold named the song Madonna's 19th best: "this island-breezy ditty is certainly one of the loveliest tunes that [she] has ever done", Arnold wrote. For the staff of Billboard, it was the artist's 14th best song. Bianca Gracie said it was "one of the most romantic songs in her catalog", and applauded her "mature, lush vocals". Nick Levine from NME also named it one of her most romantic, as well as a "shimmering Latin pop gem that’s [...] ever so slightly melancholic". "La Isla Bonita" was named Madonna's 10th and 11th best song by PinkNews Mayer Nassim, and The Backlot's Louis Virtel, respectively; the former called it the "ultimate holiday romance", and the latter, one of her "most timeless tracks [...] As a romance, it’s touching, and as a personal reflection, it’s beautiful". Despite naming it one of her best singles, the HuffPosts Matthew Jacobs opined that "you have to be in the right mood for this one – its middling tempo can feel like a slog". On a similar note, Gay Star News Joe Morgan said it was a "divisive" classic. Commercial performance On March 21, 1987,