Today in Madonna History: January 6, 1990

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On January 6 1990, Madonna’s Oh Father single peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and completed her run of 16 consecutive Top 5 singles in USA.

Two years after her mother’s death, her father married the family’s housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. At this point, Madonna began to express unresolved feelings of anger towards her father that lasted for decades, and developed a rebellious attitude. She explained in the May 1989 issue of Interview magazine:

That rebellious attitude really came, I think, when my father remarried. Because for the three years before he married, I clung to him. It was like, OK, now you’re mine, and you’re not going anywhere. Like all young girls, I was in love with my father and I didn’t want to lose him. I lost my mother, but then I was the mother, my father was mine. Then he got taken away from me when he married my stepmother. It was then that I said, OK I don’t need anybody. No one’s going to break my heart again. I’m not going to need anybody. I can stand on my own and be my own person and not belong to anyone.

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