Today in Madonna History: July 10, 2012

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On July 10 2012, Madonna’s MDNA World Tour stopped in Cologne, Germany. Madonna performed in front of a SOLD OUT crowd (14,489 fans) at the Lanxess Arena.

Check out the fantastic photos above, from the live performance of Revolver.

Today in Madonna History: July 9, 1998

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On July 9 1998, Madonna was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

David LaChapelle was the photographer for the photo shoot.

Today in Madonna History: July 8, 1993

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On July 8 1993, Madonna began rehearsals for The Girlie Show World Tour.

The original rehearsed set list included the following songs:

Erotica
Fever
Vogue
Rain
True Blue
Express Yourself
Deeper and Deeper
Why’s It So Hard
In This Life
The Beast Within
Like A Virgin
Bye Bye Baby
Live to Tell
La Isla Bonita
Holiday

Today in Madonna History: July 7, 1992

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On July 7 1992, Madonna contributed This Used To Be My Playground to the Special Olympics benefit CD, Barcelona Gold.

This Used To Be My Playground was the theme song to the hit film A League of Their Own, but it was not included on the film soundtrack. The soundtrack for the film was released by Columbia Records, while Barcelona Gold was released by Warner Bros., possibly the reason why Madonna’s hit single appeared on the benefit CD instead of the soundtrack.

Today in Madonna History: July 6, 1985

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On July 6 1985, Angel/Into The Groove reached number-one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the U.S., where it spent a single week. It was Madonna’s fourth release to top the Dance chart.

Due to the fact that both sides of the commercial single received a substantial amount of club play, the release charted as Angel/Into The Groove on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. This is despite the fact that Sire/Warner had actually promoted the single to clubs without Into The Groove, as the official U.S. promotional 12-inch single contained Angel on both sides.

In spite of the label’s apparent attempts to downplay Into The Groove, in the end its inclusion on the commercial single unquestionably helped to propel the release to the top of the Dance chart.

Today in Madonna History: July 5, 2010

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On July 5 2010, Madonna began filming W.E. The film locations included London, New York and France.

Madonna on her decision to direct W.E.

“I directed Filth & Wisdom to teach myself about filmmaking… And now, with this self-punishing process of being a producer and a writer and a director, I’m taking the next step.”

Today in Madonna History: July 4, 2009

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On July 4 2009, the Sticky & Sweet Tour‘s 2009 extension began with the first of two sold out dates at London’s O2 Arena.

In January 2009, following the completion of European, North American and South American legs of the massively successful 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour, it was confirmed that Madonna would extend the tour during the Summer of 2009 with a second European leg before concluding with two dates in Israel in September. The itinerary for the extension consisted largely of markets where Madonna either hadn’t previously performed or hadn’t visited in many years.

In a January 2009 interview with Billboard.com, Live Nation chairman Arthur Fogel commented on the extended run of the tour:

“It absolutely has not happened in the four tours I’ve been involved with, […] There has been talk [of extending] during each one, but it has never come to be. But with this one, she loves the show, she’s had a great time and she’s excited about playing new markets. […] We went to quite a few markets she has never played or hasn’t been to in 15-plus years. This [extension] is really a continuation of that in the sense of playing new and different markets. [The six-month break] is a long hiatus, but everybody was excited to continue. […] So we basically worked out the arrangements for all the performers, crew and equipment and we’ll be ready to go.”

The extension’s opening night and all subsequent dates featured three song changes to the original setlist: Holiday replaced Heartbeat, a guitar-heavy version of Dress You Up took the place of Borderline, and the non fan-favorite “rock version” of Hung Up was dropped in favour of a much more pleasing, club-ready mash-up of Frozen with I’m Not Alone by Calvin Harris (which also threw in snippets of Open Your Heart).

Madonna also included a special tribute to Michael Jackson during Holiday, as well as a quote attributed to him at the end of Frozen (the lyrics quoted from his song Man In The Mirror were in fact written by Madonna’s occasional backing singer, Siedah Garrett, if you want to get technical). At the time of his passing Jackson had been scheduled to begin a run of comeback concerts at the O2 Arena, beginning the week after Madonna’s shows at the venue.

(Thanks to Michael aka MykillICON for the video footage and pictures!)