Call Me Madam is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.

A satire on politics and foreign affairs that spoofs America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to needy countries, it centers on Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed socialite widow who is appointed US Ambassador to the fictional European country of Lichtenburg. While there, she charms the local gentry, especially Cosmo Constantine, while her press attache Kenneth Gibson falls in love with Princess Maria.

The musical was inspired by the 1949 appointment of Washington, D.C. hostess and Democratic Party fundraiser Perle Mesta as the Ambassador to Luxembourg, although the Playbill distributed at each performance humorously noted that "neither the character of Mrs. Sally Adams nor Miss Ethel Merman resemble any person living or dead."

After a tryout period in New Haven, Connecticut, the Broadway production, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, opened on October 12 1950 at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 644 performances. The original cast included Ethel Merman, Paul Lukas, Pat Harrington, Sr., Russell Nype, and Lilia Skala. Merman's understudy Elaine Stritch later starred in the national tour.

In a highly unusual situation, two LP albums of the score were released simultaneously. The recording rights had been granted to RCA Victor, but Merman was under contract to Decca Records, which refused to allow her to record the original cast album. As a result, the RCA recording replaced her with Dinah Shore, while Merman was featured with Dick Haymes on a Decca release on which she sang not only her songs, but those written for other characters as well. A 1995 Broadway concert cast album, featuring Tyne Daly, Lewis Cleale, Christopher Durang, Ken Page, and Melissa Errico, is available on the DRG label.

Merman, Ethel recreated the role that she had originated in the original Broadway production.

Due to the expiration of Fox's music rights the movie was completely withdrawn from public showings (TV and theatrical) for nearly 20 years and the only public showing of the movie in nearly 20 years (with special permission from Irving Berlin (I)) was at a 100 year tribute at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the '90s. It was finally released on DVD at the end of April 2004 after the rights were renewed.

Before recording the song "You're Just in Love", 'Donald OConnor felt that it would produce better effect if he sing the song with Ethel Merman in the studio with the orchestra. Alfred Newman agreed and let them sing together. It turns out that Merman's singing voice was too deafening for O'Connor. In the end, they had to record the song with O'Connor in the isolation booth. When filming the musical number, O'Connor had to wear ear plugs.

This is the only full film musical that George Sanders (I) made, despite his appealing singing voice.

The pairing of 'Donald OConnor and Vera-Ellen was very well received, due to their complimentary dancing styles and personalities. However, attempts to re-team them were unsuccessful, most notably White Christmas (1954), where Danny Kaye replaced O'Connor at the last minute due to his sudden and severe illness. Coincidentally, Danny Kaye was mentioned in this film as a joke.

In all but one scene in this movie Vera-Ellen's neck is covered. She suffered from anorexia and her neck and throat were thin and wrinkled.