On April 5 1999, Madonna was voted the Most Positive & Influential Sexual Voice Of The Past 35 Years in a USA Today online survey.
Today in Madonna History: April 4, 1998
On April 4 1998, Madonna’s Frozen hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.
Frozen was the first single released from Ray of Light.
Today in Madonna History: April 3, 1993
On April 3 1993, Fever entered the UK Singles Chart at its peak position of number-six. Without the support of a proper music video at the time of its release (Warner UK instead issued a rarely seen compilation video of previous clips), the single spent only six weeks on the UK charts, dropping to number-seven the following week.
Strangely, Madonna did eventually decide to film a video for the song in late April – nearly a month after its release in Europe. By the time the video premiered during the second week of May, Fever was spending its final week on the UK Singles Chart.
In North America the remixes for Fever had been issued commercially on Madonna’s previous international single, Bad Girl. Fever was also serviced to clubs as a promotional single in its own right, but it was not promoted to radio despite the video being added to into rotation on MTV and MuchMusic. While the release of the music video managed to coincide with Fever’s single week atop the Hot Dance/Club Play chart, its number-one status had already been confirmed several days prior to the clip’s debut, making the video’s intended purpose and the timing of its release all the more puzzling.
Today in Madonna History: April 2, 2012
On April 2 2012, the third single from Madonna’s MDNA album, Masterpiece, was released in the United Kingdom.
Masterpiece was composed by Madonna, Julie Frost and Jimmy Harry and produced by Madonna and William Orbit.
When Madonna was directing her film W.E., her manager Guy Oseary persuaded her to compose a song for the soundtrack. Frost was living in Los Angeles at that time and was assessing her priorities in the music world, and wanted to collaborate with a number of artists, Madonna being the first. “She is an icon”, Frost said, “But most importantly she has some of the best Pop songs in the history of music… so yeah it’s always a dream to work with people like her.” Orbit, who was working with Frost and Harry on an assignment, contacted them for collaborating with Madonna on Masterpiece. He had heard Frost’s initial composition of the song and knew that Madonna would love it. According to Frost the theme explained to them was about bittersweet love and the hardships felt being in a relationship. Madonna, Frost and Harry sat together with this idea and brainstormed and came up with the lyrics and the melody. Over time, Madonna changed the structure of the song and the final version was ready for recording.
Madonna recalled:
“Guy harangued me for the entire time I was filming and editing my movie to write a song. And I said, ‘Please, Guy, I’m trying to focus on being a director and I want people to pay attention to the film and I don’t have time.’ So then I finished the film and I started making my record and somehow magically and miraculously the song emerged, ‘Masterpiece,’ so thank you, Guy Oseary, for being so irritating.”
Today In Madonna History: April 1, 2000
On April 1 2000, Madonna’s cover of American Pie hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart in the USA.
Today in Madonna History: March 31, 2004
On March 31 2004, the first teaser ad for Madonna’s upcoming Re-Invention World Tour appeared in London’s Evening Standard newspaper.
The first ad got readers wondering if Vogue would be performed in the show. Additional ads for Like A Prayer and Music also appeared in the paper.
Today in Madonna History: March 30, 2010
On March 30 2010, Live Nation and Warner Bros. released Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour on DVD, Blu-Ray and CD. From the Live Nation press release:
“Sticky & Sweet”, which was produced by Live Nation, was the most successful tour by a solo artist in history and was seen by over 3.5 million fans in 32 countries around the world. The show, which will be distributed by Warner Bros Records, will be available on DVD, Blu-Ray and CD and will include many of the Material Girl’s hits from the course of her unprecedented career including, “4 Minutes,” “Like a Prayer,” “Hung Up” and “Ray of Light”. Filmed in Buenos Aires, over four days to a crowd exceeding 256,000 fans, the concert also includes a show stopping moment when Madonna performs a historic “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” to a thunderous audience response from her Argentine fans. Also included are several hits from the multi-Grammy winner’s most recent CD “Hard Candy” which debuted at No. 1 in 37 countries. The DVD also includes 30 minutes of exclusive footage filmed behind the scenes during the course of the tour.
“Part concert, part block party and all fun, there is still only one Madonna,” raved the Oakland Press in their review of the “Sticky & Sweet” Tour. “A night of triumph and defiance… A two hour multi-media juggernaut,” glowed the LA Times. “Our lady of perpetual motion…This may be the best tour she’s ever stitched together,” claimed the NY Post.
Today In Madonna History 