On March 21 1994, Madonna’s I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors) music video premiered on MTV.
The video was directed by Alek Keshishian. The androgynous portrayal of Madonna in the video, was appreciated critically for breaking gender barriers.
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Today in Madonna History: March 20, 2012
On March 20 2012, Madonna’s Girl Gone Wild video was released.
The black-and-white music video was directed by Mert Alan and Marcus Piggott. The video featured Madonna and a number of male models in different looks, dancing with the Ukrainian group Kazaky. It received critical acclaim for the editing and the visuals, while reviewers noted that it took inspiration from several past videos released by Madonna, such as Erotica, Justify My Love, Human Nature and Vogue.
Artur Gaspar from Kazaky recalled:
“By the end of the day on set, our feet were bleeding and we had blisters… But if Madonna can repeat the dancing for the 50th time, why can’t we?”
Today in Madonna History: March 19, 1996
On March 19 1996, Madonna’s cover of Rose Royce’s Love Don’t Live Here Anymore was released as the fourth single from her Something To Remember greatest ballads collection.
The song originally appeared on the Like A Virgin album.
The idea to cover the song was Michael Ostin’s (head of the A&R department at Warner Bros. Records).
In author Warren Zane’s book Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records, the First 50 Years, he recalled:
“I had the good fortune of finding material that Madonna really responded to, Love Don’t Live Here Anymore for instance, which was the old Rose Royce record. I was driving into work one day and heard it on the radio, I called producer Nile Rodgers and Madonna, they were in the studio. I said, ‘I have an idea, you know the old Rose Royce record, ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore‘? Why don’t you try and record a version of it for Like a Virgin?” Initially both Rodgers and Madonna were apprehensive of tackling an already well-known ballad, but in the last minute they decided that if Madonna wanted to bring diversity to the album, there could be no better song than ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’.
Today in Madonna History: March 16, 1995
On March 16 1995, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection was certified 6x platinum (6 million units) in the USA.
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com):
On the surface, the single-disc hits compilation The Immaculate Collection appears to be a definitive retrospective of Madonna’s heyday in the ’80s. After all, it features 17 of Madonna’s greatest hits, from Holiday and Like a Virgin to Like a Prayer and Vogue. However, looks can be deceiving. It’s true that The Immaculate Collection contains the bulk of Madonna’s hits, but there are several big hits that aren’t present, including Angel, Dress You Up, True Blue, Who’s That Girl and Causing a Commotion. The songs that are included are frequently altered. Everything on the collection is remastered in Q-sound, which gives an exaggerated sense of stereo separation that often distorts the original intent of the recordings. Furthermore, several songs are faster than their original versions and some are faded out earlier than either their single or album versions, while others are segued together. In other words, while all the hits are present, they’re simply not in their correct versions. Nevertheless, The Immaculate Collection remains a necessary purchase, because it captures everything Madonna is about and it proves that she was one of the finest singles artists of the ’80s. Until the original single versions are compiled on another album, The Immaculate Collection is the closest thing to a definitive retrospective.
Today in Madonna History: March 15, 2014
On March 15 2014, Madonna attended a Purim party dressed as Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, a fictional character from the Game of Thrones television series.
Madonna shared some photos of her costume on Instagram.
The cast from Game of Thrones reacted this way:
Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen):
“Oh my goodness. It’s insane. I thought I was asleep, I thought I was dreaming. It’s a huge moment. And, damn! She looks good.”
Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth):
“I got really, really excited. Madonna’s always been a favorite of mine. I love her strength and her transformative nature and the idea that she might be dressing up as a brilliant character in the TV show I’m in is pretty exciting.”
Kristian Nairn (Hodor):
“I kind of freaked out, slightly. That’s kind of a sign how big ‘Game of Thrones’ has got. The Queen of Pop is wearing a Daenerys costume. I completely freaked out.”
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly):
“She looks delighted, doesn’t she? Look at that. Things like this are just amazing. It’s when you know that you’re really kind of pressing the right kind of cultural buttons.”
Today in Madonna History: March 14, 2008
On March 14 2008, the cover for Madonna’s Hard Candy album was revealed on People.com. The photo was taken by longtime collaborator Steven Klein.
Today in Madonna History: March 13, 2000
On March 13 2000, Madonna was featured on the cover of People magazine.
Here’s an excerpt of the article about Madonna as a mother:
With the Sexcapades, Scandals and Wild Times Behind Her, Pop’s Former Boy Toy Tackles the Roles of Adoring Mother and Mature Woman in Love.
“This is Lola,” Madonna announces as Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon bounds into the sitting room of her mother’s four-story mansion, a reported $15,000-a-month rented home in Kensington, London, where the singer is currently recording her 13th album.
“No,” the wide-eyed 3-year-old declares. “I’m an alien.” Madonna scoops up Lourdes (whom she always calls by her nickname, Lola) for a kiss and a hug and joyfully enters her world of make-believe. When Lourdes tells Madonna she’s wearing “alien gloves” with magic powers, Mom uses them to turn her daughter first into a princess, then a frog, then back into a princess. Madonna now wants her little girl to return the favor: “Can you turn me into something?” she asks.
By most accounts she already has. Lourdes, whose father is Madonna’s ex-lover Carlos Leon, has transformed Madonna into her most fulfilling role yet—adoring single mother—after 17 years of restless shape-shifting across the pop-culture landscape. At 41, her body—in a clingy, black Chloé T-shirt and teal-blue Maharishi cargo pants—is supple and taut from Ashtanga yoga, and she radiates serene contentment.
“She’s so much calmer, so much more centered than she used to be,” says talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, a friend of Madonna’s since the two starred in the 1992 comedy A League of Their Own. And while Lourdes is one reason for Madonna’s joyful reinvention, the other may be the singer’s boyfriend, British director Guy Ritchie. According to O’Donnell, the bonds with Lourdes and Ritchie are hardly unrelated. “Madonna fell in love with her daughter, and that taught her how to fall in love for real,” she says. “When you’re ready, it comes to you. She’s definitely ready. I’ve never seen her happier. Lola has helped her to become more grounded, to leave the star part behind.”
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