On May 1, 1990, Madonna was a guest on the Arsenio Hall Show. During her appearance, Madonna promoted Dick Tracy and made Arsenio sweat about Paula Abdul, etc.
Category Archives: 1990
Today in Madonna History: April 11, 1990
On April 11 1990, the Keep It Together single was certified gold for sales of 500,000 units in the USA.
Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, the main inspiration behind Keep It Together was Madonna’s relationship with her family—whom she dearly missed after her divorce from actor Sean Penn.
Keep It Together became the last Madonna single release to feature a collaboration with Bray—a partnership that had begun romantically when Madonna & Stephen were college students at the University of Michigan. Madonna later persuaded Bray to join her in New York where he became the drummer for her band, Emmy. After briefly falling out over Madonna’s decision to work with more established producers after signing to Sire Records in 1982, the pair quickly made amends and went on to write and produce some of Madonna’s most memorable 80’s hits.
A final collaboration between Madonna & Bray, Get Over, was reworked by Madonna and Shep Pettibone for possible inclusion as one of the new tracks on The Immaculate Collection, but was instead given to Warner Bros artist Nick Scotti to record in 1991. Although Madonna’s background vocals are featured prominently in Scotti’s versions of the song, a full Madonna vocal version has yet to surface.
Today in Madonna History: December 24, 1990
On December 24 1990, Madonna In Concert (taped at Olympic Stadium, Barcelona, Spain on August 1, 1990) was broadcast on BBC2-TV and other select stations across Europe.
Today in Madonna History: December 7, 1990
On December 7 1990, Madonna’s Justify My Love was released as the first-ever video single, priced at $9.98.
The music video was considered too sexually explicit for MTV and was banned from the network. Madonna responded to the banning: “Why is it that people are willing to go and watch a movie about someone getting blown to bits for no reason at all, and nobody wants to see two girls kissing and two men snuggling?”
On December 3, 1990, ABC’s Nightline played the video in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video’s sexual content and censorship. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on MTV, she appeared impatient and answered, “Yeah, so? Lucky me.” She also expressed during the interview that she did not understand why the video was banned, while videos containing violence and degradation to women continued to receive regular airplay. The video was then released on VHS, and became a bestselling “video single” of all time.
The Justify My Love maxi-single was an especially memorable one, featuring remixes by future songwriting collaborators William Orbit and Andre Betts, a Q-Sound mix, a remix by Madonna & Lenny Kravitz titled The Beast Within which featured Madonna reciting passages from the Book of Revelations, and a new Shep Pettibone remix of Express Yourself.
A second Justify My Love remix by Andre Betts, titled The English Mix, was sadly shelved but eventually surfaced on bootlegs and the internet, in varying degrees of quality.
Today in Madonna History: December 1, 1990
On December 1 1990, Madonna was named one of the 10 Women Of The Year by Glamour magazine.
The cover photo was taken by Patrick Demarchelier.
Madonna was furious that Glamour removed the gap between her teeth without first asking for her permission.
The gap between Madonna’s front teeth is iconic. Wouldn’t you be annoyed if someone removed your freckles, or changed your eye colour without asking you?
Today in Madonna History: November 27, 1990
On November 27 1990, the MTV network announced it had banned Madonna’s Justify My Love video due to extremely strong displays of sexuality.
“We respect her work as an artist and think she makes great videos,” said MTV executives in a statement about the clip. “This one is not for us.”
“When I did my Vogue video…I’m wearing a see-through dress and you can clearly see my breasts,” Madonna told ABC’s Nightline in 1990. “MTV told me that they wanted me to take that out, but I said I wouldn’t and they played it anyways. So I thought that once again I was going to be able to bend the rules a little bit.”
Today in Madonna History: November 6, 1990
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.
Today In Madonna History 