Nancy Erlick from '' Billboard '' said that the song felt like " Madonna The pin-up girl in character ; part saucy , eager to please . " Alex Henderson from Allmusic , commented that " Rodger 's gift for sleek , seductive dance music is evident on such gems as ' Dress You Up ' . " Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic , called " Dress You Up " an excellent , standard-issue dance-pop . Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens , authors of '' Madonna 's Drowned Worlds : New Approaches To Her Cultural Transformations '' , commented that Madonna sounded like a " sex-kitten " in the song . Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine called the song irresistible . William McKeen , author of '' Rock and roll is here to stay '' , said that the melody of " Dress You Up " was insistently chugging . Debby Miller from '' Rolling Stone '' said that " Despite her little-girl voice , there 's an undercurrent of ambition that makes her more than the latest Betty Boop . " While reviewing the album in 1995 , Dave Karger from '' Entertainment Weekly '' commented that the song came off as a bit repetitious and immature . Jim Farber from the same publication commented that " the song was built to transcend the Dynasty era . " While reviewing '' The Immaculate Collection '' , Alfred Soto from Stylus Magazine commented : " '' Like A Virgin '' s Top Five absentees ' Dress You Up ' and ' Angel ' do a better job than the two big singles of delineating the boundaries of Madonna 's determined shallowness , an act that confounds Philistines today and made the appreciation of her musical skills a lot harder than it took these critics to dismiss Cyndi Lauper as the real charlatan . " In 2003 , when fans were asked to vote for the top twenty Madonna singles of all time , by '' Q '' magazine , " Dress You Up " was allocated the eighth spot . The video was nominated at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards , in the category for Best Choreography , but lost to " Raspberry Beret " by Prince and The Revolution
1986 MTV Video Music Awards
1986 MTV Video Music Awards
Dress You Up