Today in Madonna History: September 14, 1993

On September 14 1993, the official tour flyer for The Girlie Show World Tour was published in newspapers across the province of Quebec, advertising the upcoming Madonna concert to be held at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal on October 23. Ticket prices ranged from $29.50 to $39.50 with a very limited number of tickets for $49.50. In total, 52,000 tickets were made available for the show and the concert sold-out!

We want to thank Dominick Noel for sending us this scan of the flyer — THANK YOU! 

Today in Madonna History: September 13, 2009

On September 13 2009, Madonna opened the 2009 MTV VMA’s with a heartfelt tribute to Michael Jackson after his untimely passing a few months earlier.

Today in Madonna History: September 5, 1986

On September 5 1986, Madonna was honoured with the Video Vanguard Award for her visionary videos at the 3rd annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Palladium in New York City.

Madonna found immense popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Her videos depicted controversial subjects such as teen pregnancy, racism, religion, sex and violence.  She received the Video Vanguard Award for her contributions to the world of music video.

While there’s no denying Madonna was an early innovator in the art of music video, little did MTV – or those of us watching – know at the time that her most artistically groundbreaking work in the medium was yet to come.

Two things we did know at the time, however:

  1. Madonna’s insistence on sending Nikki Finn to collect awards on her behalf during this period was cute and everything, but mostly it just seemed…well…reductive.
  2. Madonna really liked that dress. But was it a dress?

Today in Madonna History: September 4, 2007

On September 4 2007, Madonna attended the GQ Men Of The Year Awards, at the Royal Opera House in London with friend David Collins. Madonna also met up with and hugged Elton John at the event.

Today in Madonna History: September 3, 1983

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On September 3 1983, Madonna’s first album debuted at #190 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart in the USA.

The album had a slow and steady climb, and peaked at #8 on the Billboard Top 200 on the week ending October 20 1984, more than a year after its release.

Madonna (the first album) would go on to sell 10 million copies worldwide.

Today in Madonna History: September 2, 1991

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On September 2 1991, Madonna had three releases on the Canadian Top 10 Long Form Music Videos chart: Justify My Love (#1), Immaculate Collection (#2) and Ciao Italia (#8).

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Today in Madonna History: September 1, 1990

On September 1 1990, Madonna’s Vogue spent its final week on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart at #40. The massive hit was present on the U.S. sales chart for a total of twenty weeks, including two weeks at #1 in May of 1990.

Vogue has been certified double-platinum by the RIAA for physical sales of over two million units. In terms of physical sales alone, it remains Madonna’s best-selling single in the U.S.