Today in Madonna History: February 27, 1991

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On February 27 1991, Madonna’s first greatest hits video collection, The Immaculate Collection video was certified double platinum (for sales of 200,000 units).

Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMusic) had this to say about the video collection:

If any artist exploited MTV and music video to its full extent, it was Madonna. Duran Duran may have been the first video stars, but Madonna was savvy enough to redefine her image with each video, not just each album. All of her major videos between 1983 and 1990 (with the exception of her first, Burning Up, and Justify My Love, which was one of the new tracks on the greatest-hits The Immaculate Collection) are included on the video edition of Immaculate. Images from the videos — the gondolas of Like a Virgin, the Marilyn Monroe homage of Material Girl, the faux-Blade Runner Express Yourself, the taboo-shattering Like a Prayer, the sleek, stylish Vogue — have not only become part of pop music history, but of pop culture, and that becomes apparent after watching this collection. It’s truly astounding to watch the videos back to back, as it confirms that Madonna always knew where she was going, visually and musically. The singles were benchmarks of pop music in the ’80s, and if anything, the videos are even more important. This is what mainstream pop was all about in the ’80s.

Today in Madonna History: February 26, 1987

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On February 26 1987, Madonna won Best Female Singer and Sexiest Female Artist in Rolling Stone magazine’s 11th annual Readers Poll.

Today In Madonna History: February 25, 2022

On February 25 2022, the digital single for Madonna’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from the film Evita, was released on streaming platforms. The EP featuring remixes by Pablo Flores and Javier Garza included the following 9 versions of the hit song:

  1. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Radio Edit)
  2. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Mix Edit)
  3. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Spanglish Mix Edit)
  4. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Mix)
  5. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Spanglish Mix)
  6. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Mix Alternate Ending)
  7. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Dub Mix)
  8. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Mix Instrumental)
  9. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Album Version)

Below you can watch the official music video for Madonna’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and also a video of Astor Piazzolla’s Francanapa, the source of the sample featured in the Flores and Garza remixes.

Today In Madonna History: February 17, 1998

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On February 17 1998, Madonna arrived in London, England to begin the European promotional tour for Ray of Light.

Today in Madonna History: February 16, 1990

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On February 16 1990, Madonna’s close friend Keith Haring died.

Madonna shared this memory of their friendship:

“We were two odd birds in the same environment. I watched Keith come up from that street base, which is where I also came up from. I’ve always responded to Keith’s art. From the very beginning there was a lot of innocence and a joy that was coupled with a brutal awareness of the world. The fact is, there’s a lot of irony in Keith’s work, just as there’s a lot of irony in my work. And that’s what attracts me to his stuff. I mean, you have these bold colors and those childlike figures and a lot of babies, but if you really look at those works closely, they’re really very powerful and really scary.”

Today in Madonna History: February 15, 1986

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On February 15 1986, the re-release of Madonna’s Borderline reached #2 on the UK singles chart (up from #3 the week before). And while Borderline climbed up the chart, Dress You Up enjoyed its 11th and final week on the chart, dropping to #68 from #61 the week before.

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Today In Madonna History: February 14, 1987

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On February 14 1987, Open Your Heart reached number-one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.