On December 10 2002, Madonna’s West End debut in Up For Grabs at the Wyndham’s Theatre was nominated for the Planet Hollywood Theatre Event of the Year at the Theatregoers’ Choice Awards.
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Today in Madonna History: December 9, 2001
On December 9 2001, Madonna presented the Turner Prize to artist Martin Creed at London’s Tate Britain gallery.
Madonna half-seriously plugged her greatest hits album, GHV2, before explaining her feelings of ambivalence towards the merit of awards in relation to the artistic process.
“Art is always at its best when there is no money, because art has nothing to do with money and everything to do with love. Like love, it can be inspiring, inexplicable, provocative and sometimes infuriating. Nevertheless, we can not live without it, so that is why I’m here – not because I think one artist is better than another, but because I want to support any artist who not only has something to say, but has the balls to say it. In a time when political correctness is valued over honesty, I would also like to say – right on motherfuckers! – everyone is a winner.”
Channel 4 unsuccessfully attempted to censor the speech during the live broadcast, and later issued an apology for Madonna’s choice of words, which aired prior to the 9pm watershed. Madonna later explained that she had not intended to use profanity until the producers asked to review the content of her speech prior to the broadcast, sparking her defiance.
Today in Madonna History: December 7, 1996
On December 7 1996, You Must Love Me spent its final week on Billboard’s Top 40 Mainstream chart.
The song spent a total of six weeks on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, peaking at #23 during the week of November 23rd.
Today in Madonna History: December 6, 2016
On December 6 2016, Rhino Records reissued Madonna’s Music and American Life albums on 180 gram vinyl in North America. Some markets received the reissues on December 2.
The double vinyl release of American Life corrects the spelling of Nothing Fails (misspelled on previous releases).
The reissued Music includes American Pie (previously excluded on the North American releases of the album).
Previous Madonna vinyl reissues released by Rhino in 2016:
- Madonna (The First Album)
- Like A Virgin
- True Blue
- Like A Prayer
- Erotica
- Bedtime Stories
- Something To Remember
- Ray Of Light
Do you collect Madonna vinyl?
Today in Madonna History: December 5, 1994
On December 5 1994, Madonna began filming the music video for Bedtime Story at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, CA.
The video marked her second collaboration with director Mark Romanek and featured cinematography by Harris Savides. To assist in the process of developing her ideas for the video into something more tangible, Madonna again turned to storyboard artist Grant Shaffer, who had previously collaborated on her videos for Deeper And Deeper and Rain.
Madonna recalled the inspiration for the video in an interview with Aperture magazine:
“My Bedtime Story video was completely inspired by all the female surrealist painters like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. There’s that one shot where my hands are up in the air and stars are spinning around me. And me flying through the hallway with my hair trailing behind me, the birds flying out of my open robe – all of those images were an homage to female surrealist painters; there’s a little bit of Frida Kahlo in there, too.”
The effects-laden video was shot over six days and has been noted by Madonna as being one of the more grueling video shoots of her career. Filming of a scene that featured Madonna bathing in blue-coloured water yielded unexpectedly colourful results; when Madonna emerged from the water, she later recounted, it quickly became apparent that her skin had been temporarily stained blue.
Fortunately any on-set difficulties were not evident in the final product. Following several months of post-production work, the video’s stunning surrealist imagery was enthusiastically received by viewers upon its release in March, 1995.
A very special thank you to artist Grant Shaffer for generously sharing a selection of his original storyboards used in the development of the Bedtime Story video! We’d like to invite readers to check out more of Grant’s art on his official website – including his sketches for Deeper And Deeper, Rain and Madonna’s Japanese Takara commercial.
Today in Madonna History: December 4, 2007
On December 4 2007, Warner Bros. released Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis on CD and DVD. The CD included Madonna’s Hey You, while the DVD included her La Isla Bonita performance with Gogol Bordello.
The CD/DVD was released internationally on November 26 and December 4 in North America. Proceeds from the CD/DVD were directed to the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Madonna performed the following songs during the benefit concert:
- Hey You
- Ray Of Light
- La Isla Bonita
- Hung Up
Today in Madonna History: December 3, 1990
On December 3 1990, ABC’s Nightline played the banned music video for Justify My Love video in its entirety followed by a live interview with Madonna by Forrest Sawyer regarding the video’s sexual content and censorship.
When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on MTV, she half-jokingly answered, “Yeah, so lucky me!”
She also expressed that she did not understand why the video was banned when videos containing violence and degradation to women continued to receive regular airplay.
Today In Madonna History 