Today in Madonna History: April 25, 1998

For the weeks of April 25, and May 2, 1998, Madonna’s Frozen was the #1 dance single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.

Today in Madonna History: April 24, 1993

On April 24 1993, Fever/Bad Girl hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart in America. It remained at #1 for two weeks.

Despite being marketed as Bad Girl, the release charted as Fever/Bad Girl on the Maxi-Singles Sales chart due to its b-side being the primary focus of the release in terms of content. Wisely, Bad Girl was left off of the accompanying promotional single that was serviced to clubs (on beautifully pressed transparent red vinyl), allowing it to top the Hot Dance/Club chart solely as Fever.

Today in Madonna History: April 23, 2015

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On April 23 2015, Tori Amos came to Madonna’s defense when questioned about the ageist undertones on social media – and by the media at large – in reaction to her “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2015 Brit Awards:

Madonna is an entertainer. There are very few people who could’ve gotten up off that floor. It wasn’t because of her that she fell, but it was because of her that the performance carried on. Some of the vilification comes from women as much as men. She’s making choices and she’s able to do things physically that a lot of people 25 years younger can’t; she got up and refused to allow that to shame her. I think people want her to be shamed into a role that they find acceptable for her age. It makes me sad that we can’t embrace Madonna and say, Wow, this is an artist who’s expressing herself in a certain way.”

— Tori Amos

Tori often incorporates one or two cover songs by other artists into her live shows, but there are only a handful of artists whom she has covered multiple songs, and Madonna is one of them. She has performed both Live To Tell and Like A Prayer at numerous concerts, with the most recent Madonna composition to join her live repertoire being Frozen, which made its debut in Amsterdam in 2014.

(Many thanks to YouTube user LittleQueenbee77 for the great live footage of this performance!)

Today in Madonna History: April 22, 1989

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On April 22 1989, Madonna’s Like A Prayer album and single reached #1 simultaneously in the USA.

The album stayed at the top of the charts for 6 weeks, while the single stayed at the top of the Hot 100 for 3 weeks.

Today in Madonna History: April 20, 1991

On April 20 1991, Rescue Me peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart after making its debut at #4 the previous week. It slid to #5 in its third week before falling out of the Top 10.

Rescue Me was the third single release from The Immaculate Collection in the UK, where it was issued in between re-releases of Crazy For You and Holiday.

Because the photo on international pressings of Rescue Me had already graced the cover of the Crazy For You reissue, Warner UK chose to market the single using an alternate shot taken from Jean-Baptiste Mondino’s June 1990 spread in Harper’s Bazaar. Ironically, the international Rescue Me cover photo was snapped on the set of the Mondino-directed music video for Justify My Love, although not by Mondino himself. It was instead photographed by another (future) Madonna music video director, Stephane Sednaoui.

Today in Madonna History: April 19, 2008

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On April 19 2008, Madonna’s eleventh studio album, Hard Candy was released by Warner Bros. Records.

Hard Candy was Madonna’s final album with Warner Bros., marking the end of a 25-year recording history together.

Madonna started working on the album in 2007, and collaborated with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Pharrell and Nate “Danja” Hills.

Tracklisting:

Candy Shop
4 Minutes
Give It 2 Me
Heartbeat
Miles Away
She’s Not Me
Incredible
Beat Goes On
Dance 2night
Spanish Lesson
Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You
Voices

Today in Madonna History: April 18, 1985

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On April 18 1985, Desperately Seeking Susan hit number-five at the U.S. box office, bringing its total U.S. gross to $8,488,528 to date at the time (it would eventually earn over $27,000,000 at the box office). The film had screened in 760 theaters across the country for the week ending April 18th.