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Today in Madonna History: January 21, 2017

January 21, 2020 By in 2017, January Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

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On January 21 2017, Madonna participated in the Women’s March on Washington. In addition to delivering a powerful speech (watch the full video below), Madonna also performed Express Yourself and Human Nature.

Here is the full transcript of the speech Madonna delivered to over 500,000 people:

“Hello.

“Are you still awake out there?

“Are you sure about that?

“Can you hear me?

“Are you ready to shake up up the world?

“Welcome to the revolution of love. To the rebellion. To our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny. Where not just women are in danger but all marginalized people. Where people uniquely different might be considered a crime. It took us this darkness to wake us the fuck up.

“It seems as though we had all slipped into a false sense of comfort. That justice would prevail and that good would win in the end. Well, good did not win this election but good will win in the end. So what today means is that we are far from the end. Today marks the beginning, the beginning of our story. The revolution starts here. The fight for the right to be free, to be who we are, to be equal. Let’s march together through this darkness and with each step. Know that we are not afraid. That we are not alone, that we will not back down. That there is power in our unity and that no opposing force stands a chance in the face of true solidarity.

“And to our detractors that insist that this March will never add up to anything, fuck you. Fuck you. It is the beginning of much needed change. Change that will require sacrifice, people. Change that will require many of us to make different choices in our lives, but this is the hallmark of revolution. So my question to you today is are you ready? I said, are you ready? Say yes, we are ready. Say, yes we are ready. One more time: you’re ready.

“Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot of blowing up the White House, but I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair. As the poet, W.H. Auden once wrote on the eve of World War II: We must love one another or die.

“I choose love. Are you with me? Say this with me: We choose love. We choose love. We choose love.”

Today in Madonna History: January 20, 1996

January 20, 2020 By in 1996, January Tags: , , , 2 Comments

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On January 20 1996, Madonna’s You’ll See re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 at #10.

The lead single from Madonna’s Something To Remember ballads collection debuted at #8 on December 8, peaked at #6 on December 16, and in the following weeks fell to #9, #11, #12, #11 and then climbed back to #10.

Larry Flick had this to say about You’ll See:

Foster’s flair for musical melodrama inspires Madonna to turn in what is easily her most assured and full-bodied vocal performance to date. Amid a swirl of strings and Spanish guitars, she spews the song’s declaration of romantic independence with a theatrical verve that perfectly matches the stagey, potentially overpowering tone of Foster’s arrangement without flying over the heads of her youthful top 40 following. A stunning effort that could easily become the ‘I Will Survive’ of this generation.

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Today in Madonna History: January 18, 2020

January 18, 2020 By in 2020, January Tags: , , , 2 Comments

For the week ending January 18, 2020, Madonna’s I Don’t Search I Find climbs from #15 to #10 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart in the USA.

Today in Madonna History: January 17, 1996

January 17, 2020 By in 1996, January Tags: , , , 1 Comment

On January 17 1996, Madonna accepted David Bowie’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on his behalf.

During her speech, Madonna described how as a “normal, dysfunctional, rebellious teenager from the Midwest,” a David Bowie concert in June 1974 at Cobo Arena in Detroit changed her life for good:

“I don’t think that I breathed for two hours. It was the most amazing show that I’d ever seen, not just because the music was great, but because it was great theater. Here’s this beautiful, androgynous man, just being so perverse … as David Byrne so beautifully put it … so unconventional, defying logic and basically blowing my mind. Anyway, I came home a changed woman, as you can see, and my father was not sleeping and he knew exactly where I went, and he grounded me for the rest of the summer. But it was worth every minute that I sat and suffered in my house that summer.”

 

Today in Madonna History: January 15, 1996

January 15, 2020 By in 1996, January Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments

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On January 15 1996, Madonna appeared on the cover of People magazine, with the title: Madonna faces down her stalker in court.

Here’s an excerpt from the issue:

At first glance, it looked like any other Madonna-centric media event, with scrambling news crews and ogling fans swarming around her black limousine. But as soon as she entered courtroom 116 in the L.A. Criminal Courts Building on Jan. 3, it became clear that this was no ordinary Madonna performance. Inside, a jury listened intently as the normally flamboyant singer, 37, dressed with subdued elegance in a black, knee-length suit, soberly delivered testimony against a 38-year-old drifter accused of stalking and threatening to kill her. “He was there to take me away; he wanted me to be his wife,” she said in measured tones. “If he couldn’t have me [he told my secretary], he would slit my throat, from ear to ear.”

Madonna’s hour-long testimony may bring to some kind of conclusion an unsettling series of events that began when Robert Dewey Hoskins was first found hanging around the singer’s Hollywood Hills estate. Hoskins showed up at Madonna’s home last April 7, jumping a security wall before being ejected from the 3.5-acre grounds by a private guard. (Madonna was not home at the time.) Returning from a bike ride with her personal trainer the following day, Madonna encountered Hoskins at her gate. “He looked homeless, dirty; his clothes were wrinkled, and he had a crazy look in his eyes,” she testified. His stare, she said, was “creepy…deranged. It was scary.” Hoskins said nothing but left a note that said, “I love you. You will be my wife for keeps.”

The appearances by Hoskins were unsettling enough, Madonna says, to persuade her to sell the estate, once the home of gangster Bugsy Siegel. Seven weeks later, while Madonna was in Florida, where she also owns a home, Hoskins was back, this time carrying a four-inch wooden heart with the oddly misspelled inscription “Love To My Wife Madnna.”

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Today in Madonna History: January 14, 2010

January 14, 2020 By in 2010, January Tags: , 1 Comment

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On January 14 2010, Madonna sent her condolences to the people in Haiti:

“My prayers are with the people of Haiti. I can’t imagine the terrible pain and suffering they are experiencing. Sadly the depths of the tragedy are just becoming known and the need for our support grows more urgent with every passing moment. I have given a donation of $250,000 to assist Haiti’s earthquake victims through Partner’s in Health (www.pih.org) one of Haiti’s leading health care providers. I urge all of my friends and fans around the world to join me collectively to match my contribution or give in any way you can. We must act now. Thank you for your support.”

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Today in Madonna History: January 13, 2015

January 13, 2020 By in 2015, January Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

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On January 13 2015, Billboard revealed that Michael Keaton’ son, Sean Douglas, worked on Ghosttown, one of the songs to be featured on Madonna’s Rebel Heart album. The songwriter said that the track was written in three days, after Madonna had personally requested some studio time.

“Madonna liked ‘Talk Dirty,’ actually, and so they put me and [co-writers] Jason Evigan and Evan Bogart in with her and we had this great session. I was incredibly nervous for obvious reasons, but she showed up, was super personable and was ready to work. I basically checked it off my life bucket list.”

Douglas is a successful pop songwriter whose credits include Top 40 hits for Jason Derulo, Demi Lovato and Fifth Harmony, among many others.