Songfacts®:

• Madonna sings here about the pressures of fame. The world expects the American songstress to be a superhero like Joan of Arc but she has her moments of fragility like the rest of us. "Even hearts made out of steel can break down," the superstar sings. Madonna told Billboard magazine: "Even people we look up to have their moments where they are fragile, vulnerable, scared, fearful, not sure, hurt. You can't be a superhero unless you have the other side."
• Asked by Rolling Stone what drew her to Joan of Arc's story, Madonna replied: "More than anything, drawn to her commitment to what she believed in. In the face of death, she did not back down. And that is a theme that resonates with me."
  
  "And women need female role models like that.," she added. "There's not a lot. I mean, she was burned at the stake after leading her country to victory, after defeating the English. I mean, the idea that instead of celebrating her, they called her a heretic because she was dressed like a boy, and how could this person, this one girl, be so victorious and so clever to have the strategy and knowledge to wage, and win, a war? There must be something wrong with her. OK, she's a witch. Now we have to destroy her. And she didn't back down, and I admire that."