On February 5 1985, Madonna’s Like A Virgin was certified 3x platinum (for sales of 3 million units) in the USA.
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Today in Madonna History: February 4, 2018
On February 4 2018, Vulture.com reviewed every Super Bowl Halftime Show since 1993, and ranked them from worst to best. Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl Halftime performance ranked #2, behind Prince’s 2007 performance.
Here’s what Brian Moylan (Vulture.com) had to say about Madonna’s Halftime Show:
A year after the halftime show embraced its pop sensibilities with the Black-Eyed Peas, Madonna arrived as a Greek goddess on a giant litter carried by a legion of Spartan soldiers, showing all the kids exactly how it’s done. There was so much on the LED-lit stage at any given time: From the swirling dancers and the gospel choir to the slack-line performer, it was almost too much. Madonna offered new arrangements of her old songs, like a drum-corps version of “Open Your Heart” sung with Cee Lo Green and an LMFAO mashup of “Music” with “Party Rock Anthem.” While she loses points for devoting significant time to the lackluster single “Give Me All Your Luvin,” at least that featured Nicki Minaj and a bird-flipping MIA. Madonna successfully moved through several modes in rapid succession, collaborated with other big artists, and made it all look effortless, as if being at the swirling center of 200 performers is what she does every Tuesday. Maybe because it is.
Read the entire list here.
Today in Madonna History: February 2, 1998
On February 2 1998, the April issue of Spin magazine with Madonna featured on the cover hit stands across North America.
From the issue:
Thirty-nine-year-old Madonna Louise Ciccone could easily have hacked out an album of Babs-and-Celine-style schmaltz and laughed all the way to the ashram. Instead, says Barry Walters, she delivered Ray Of Light, the riskiest, most revealing record of her career. Photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.
Today in Madonna History: February 1, 1999
On February 1 1999, a geisha-inspired Madonna was featured on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine in the USA, with photos by Patrick Demarchelier.
Today in Madonna History: January 31, 2005
On January 31 2005, BBC Radio-One asked fans to vote for the Greatest UK Number One Single to celebrate the 1,000th number-one hit in the country. Madonna was the most voted for female artist with two songs in the top ten:
- Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
- Iron Maiden – Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter
- Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
- Madonna – Like A Prayer
- Madonna – Vogue
- Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock
- Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger
- Abba – Dancing Queen
- Mariah Carey – Without You
- John Lennon – Imagine
What do you think of the results of the poll?
Today in Madonna History: January 30, 1993
On January 30 1993, Madonna’s Deeper & Deeper hit number-one on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club chart in the USA. Deeper & Deeper was Madonna’s 14th number-one hit on the chart.
Jose Promis (AllMusic) had this to say about the single:
Deeper and Deeper was the second single released from Madonna’s Erotica album. The song, in its regular album form, is a dance epic. The single includes seven versions, which are all club mixes of a song that was a club hit to begin with. This single begins with an edit of the album mix, followed by two stripped-down house mixes (featuring a sample from Vogue where “Greta Garbo, Greta Garbo” is repeated throughout the song). The fourth mix is a basically the extended album version, which, in the breakdown, substitutes piano for the Spanish guitars. The fifth and sixth versions are dub mixes, while the seventh is little more than a few extra minutes of bonus dub beats, which, in the long run, wind up being somewhat indistinguishable from one another. The mixes don’t stray too far from the original’s winning recipe, but, with nearly 45 minutes worth of dance beats, one can hardly say this single doesn’t satisfy.
Today in Madonna History: January 29, 2014
On January 29 2014, Miley Cyrus’ MTV Unplugged concert aired on MTV.
Madonna and Miley teamed up for a Country-Western mash-up of Don’t Tell Me – one of Miley’s favourite Madonna songs – and her own hit, We Can’t Stop.
The performance was recorded in Los Angeles on January 28.
Today In Madonna History 