The song's music video was directed by Mary Lambert; in it, Madonna portrays the girlfriend of a Hispanic man, to whom she returns after being enticed to pose and model for a white British photographer.

[3][9] He and the singer worked on "Borderline" while she was staying at artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's apartment; "I'd write songs and put them on a little cassette player [...] I'd ask Madonna if she liked them [...] I did the demos for 'Physical Attraction' and 'Borderline' [...] and we did what we did to them", the producer recalled.

[6] According to Rikki Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, the chord progression evokes Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (1974), while the inversions are similar to the sound of the 1970s, specifically disco, Philadelphia soul, and the work of Elton John.

For Rikky Rooksby, it's the "most harmonically complex track on the album", while Dave Marsh, author of The Heart of Rock & Soul, felt it was "too damn good to be denied, no matter whose value system it disrupts".

[26] From Slant Magazine, Sal Cinquemani deemed it "soulful", and Eric Henderson "tender", further adding: "Has there ever been an opening refrain more winsome and instantly nostalgic than that of Madonna's first Top 10 single?".

[27][28] While the staff of The Advocate described "Borderline" as an "enjoyable earworm", Pitchfork's Jill Mapes opined that it "helped [Madonna] resituate electronic dance-pop at Top 40’s apex".

[30] The Arizona Republic's Ed Masley deemed it the best song on the Madonna album, adding that, although it features "the same girlish pout as her other early hits, [she] invests with way more soul".

[31] This opinion was shared by Entertainment Weekly's Chuck Arnold and The Quietus' Matthew Lindsay; the former said the singer "has never sounded more genuinely soulful than on the divine 'Borderline'", while the latter also deemed it one of her "most enduring" songs.

[34] While reviewing The Immaculate Collection on its 25th anniversary, Drew Mackie from People opined it was "catchy", and a "promise of even better things to come" in Madonna's career.

[19] James Rose, from the Daily Review, referred to "Borderline" as an "insight to an emerging wordsmith, with a deeper sensibility married to her unerring aim on manufactured pop hooks".

[41] On Gay Star News' ranking, the single came in at number 12; Joe Morgan wrote: "[Madonna] may have done more complicated songs, and experimented more, but 'Borderline' is pure pop finery".

[42] Jude Rogers, from The Guardian, opined "Borderline" showcased "the young, untutored star at her most gentle and beseeching", and placed it at number 2 of her ranking of Madonna singles.

[44] Louis Virtel, writing for The Backlot, named "Borderline" the sixth best song of Madonna's discography, highlighting its "desire and unabashed innocence", and "phenomenal closing segment".

[46] On Pitchfork's ranking of the 200 best songs from the 1980s decade, "Borderline" was placed at 106: "four minutes of emotional helium [...] there's so much charisma, it's easy to see why it catapulted [Madonna] toward[s] being the biggest pop star in the world", read Jeremy Gordon's review.

[73][74] Production was in charge of Lambert, Bruce Logan, and Michele Ferrone; Simon Maskell was on art direction, Andrea Dietrich on cinematography, while Glenn Morgan did the editing.

[75] In the video, Madonna plays a young woman emotionally torn between her Hispanic boyfriend and a white British photographer, for whom she models and who publishes her pictures on a magazine cover.

[11] Throughout the clip, the singer is seen with her boyfriend and his "multiethnic break-dancing entourage", hanging out on rooftops; the scenes with the photographer depict a luxury sports car and take place in a "sanitized, colorless" private studio.

[84] "'Borderline' was significant not only because of its then-controversial representation of an interracial relationship and female sexual assertiveness [...] but because [it] played out -and with- struggles over immigration, gender roles, and multiculturalism that were at the forefront of US politics in the 1980s".

[85] He also noted how Madonna was starting to use fashion, sexuality and "the construction of image to present herself as both an alluring sex object and a transgressor of established borderlines", citing a scene in which she sprays graffiti all over classical sculptures as an example.

[85] In The Cultural Politics of U.S. Immigration, Leah Perry specified that the singer had painted over the statues' genitals, thereby creating a "female sexuality that was independent of patriarchal control [...] that defied rather than rejected the male gaze".

[85] From website This is Dig!, author Mark Elliott wrote that the clip "further fuelled the explosive impact of [Madonna's] first 18 months of fame", also adding that the singer played the same character from "Borderline" in the music videos for "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl" (1985) –which were also directed by Lambert– as well as in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985).

[86] Matthew Lindsay referred to "Borderline" as a "mini-movie", and compared it to the 1975 film Mahogany ―which also features an interracial romance― and to the work of director John Hughes.

[21] Eric Henderson considered "Borderline" to be the singer's 23rd greatest music video, deeming it "as simple and direct as the song's message: Be with me and you're going to have a really good time".

[87] Louis Virtel wrote: "Remember simpler times when Madonna could just spray graffiti and look jilted at a pool hall, and that would be enough for a beautiful video?

[90] In February 1984, Madonna appeared on The Dance Show and performed "Borderline", joined by her brother Christopher Ciccone, and dancer Erika Belle.

[92] Her wardrobe consisted of a crop top beneath a vest with a silver cross pattée, matching fringed gloves and miniskirt, leggings, low heel leather boots, and a crucifix earring in one ear.

[95] An arena rock rendition of "Borderline", with Madonna playing a purple Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, was performed on the Sticky & Sweet Tour.

[101] Finally, on June 9, the singer did a "slowed-down, souled-up" rendition of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she was joined by American band the Roots; the number was watched by the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

[102] In 2000, an electro-industrial cover of the song recorded by Canadian musician Nivek Ogre was included on Virgin Voices: A Tribute To Madonna, Vol.

According to Rolling Stone, this rendition "retains little of its original feel", being described as a "lilting waltz, with Shires' plaintive fiddle replacing the bubbly synthesizer hook".