On November 6 1990, Madonna’s Justify My Love single was released as the first single from The Immaculate Collection, Madonna’s first greatest hits collection.
In the United States, Justify My Love peaked at number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. It also topped the Billboard Top 40 Tracks and Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts.
On October 2 1990, Madonna attended the opening night of Martha Graham’s 180th ballet Maple Leaf Rag at the City Centre in New York.
Madonna sat with Martha Graham, Kathleen Turner, Eartha Kitt and Calvin Klein.
On October 1 1990, Madonna was named the top-earning female entertainer of 1990 by Forbes magazine with an annual income of $39 million.
Here’s an excerpt from this issue:
By Matthew Schifrin with Peter Newcomb
October 1, 1990
SHE HAS JUST FINISHED a rigorous song and dance routine in Nice, France. Madonna Ciccone, the 32-year-old bleached-blonde pop star, walks across the stage and pretends to rough up her background vocalists. Clad in an ivory-colored bustier and trousers from a business suit, Madonna then looks out at the crowd of 35,000 fans, grabs her crotch, raises her fist and yells, “I’m the boss around here.” The crowd roars.
This routine was repeated at almost every Madonna performance this summer, but it’s more than play-acting. She is the boss. She is the president and sole owner of a multi-million-dollar corporate organization that in peak season has hundreds of employees and operates through nearly half a dozen entities, including Boy Toy Inc., Siren Films and Slutco.
Congratulations, Madonna. The critics may attack you, but you are one heck of a moneymaker. The nation’s top-earning female entertainer for 1990, Madonna brought in an estimated $39 million in pretax earnings. She has staying power, too. While performers like Whitney Houston and Cyndi Lauper rise fast and fade fast, Madonna has stayed near the top for all five years FORBES has compiled its list of America’s highest-earning entertainers. Since 1986 Madonna has earned at least $125 million.
On September 25 1990, the photo shoot for the cover of the Justify My Love single was photographed by Patrick Demarchelier.
On September 19 1990, Madonna’s Hanky Panky was certified gold (for shipment of 500,000 units) in the USA.
During an interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna talked about getting a good “spanky”:
The spanking thing started because I believed that my character in Dick Tracy liked to get smacked around and that’s why she hung around with people like Al Pacino’s character. Warren Beatty asked me to write some songs, one of them, the Hanky Panky song, was about that. I say in the song ‘Nothing like a good spanky’, and in the middle I say, ‘Ooh, my bottom hurts just thinking about it’. When it came out everybody started asking, ‘Do you like to get spanked?’ and I said: ‘Yeah. Yeah, I do’.
On July 25 1990, Warner-Pioneer released Madonna: Blond Ambition Japan Tour 90 on VHS and laserdisc, exclusively to the Japanese market.
The release captured one of Madonna’s performances in Yokohama, Japan in April, 1990 and had previously been broadcast live on Japanese television. Due to heavy winds, no curtains were lowered to hide set changes during this particular open-air concert.
On July 20 1990, Madonna performed the first of three Blond Ambition Tour concerts at Wembley Stadium in London. She also performed on July 21 and 22.
BBC Radio 1 broadcast the full July 21 show, live from Wembley Stadium with no time delay, which led to controversy over the amount of swear words Madonna uttered live on air and the BBC had to issue an apology. Madonna said the F-word 24 times.
Highlights of the show were later aired after the 1992 interview with Madonna and Simon Bates.
