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.
On July 2 1990, Madonna was featured on the cover of People Magazine with Warren Beatty to promote Dick Tracy.
“Tell me you want me,” Breathless Mahoney implores to Dick Tracy in the wide-screen moonlight. “Tell me you want it all.”
On June 22 1990, the second and final single from Madonna’s I’m Breathless album, Hanky Panky, was released in North America.
Greg Sandow, from Entertainment Weekly, called the song a “delightful challenge to censorship”.
On June 14 1990, Madonna’s Vogue was certified platinum (for shipment of one million units) in the USA.
On June 9 1990, Madonna performed her Blond Ambition World Tour at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland.
On June 1 1990, Madonna was controversially featured grabbing her crotch and breast on the cover of Interview magazine.
Madonna was interviewed by Glenn O’Brien at the Disney Studios, where she was rehearsing the Blond Ambition Tour. Here’s a snippet from the interview:
Glenn: Let’s talk about your show.
Madonna: Let’s not. Today was a horrible day. That was the worst rehearsal.
Glenn: Well, I liked it, but I haven’t seen it when you thought it was good. I loved the number where you’re lying on the piano singing a torch song.
Madonna: You saw only one segment of the show. I’ve created five different worlds, and the set is all based on hydraulics. One is going down and another is coming up. The world changes completely. I think of it more as a musical than as a rock concert. There is a straightforward Metropolis section, like my Express Yourself video – that set with all the gears and machinery; it’s very hard and metallic. That’s the heavy-duty dance music. Then the set changes and it’s like a church. We call it the temple ruins. It’s all these columns, trays of votive candles, a cross. I do Like a Virgin on a bed, but we changed the arrangement, so it sounds Indian. Then I’m being punished for masturbation on this bed, which is, as you know, what happens. Then we do the more serious, religious-type material – Like a Prayer, Papa Don’t Preach… Then it changes to what you saw, this Art Deco ’50s-musical set. That’s when we do three songs from Dick Tracy, and then after that we do what I call the camp section. Then it gets really serious again and we go into our Clockwork Orange cabaret set.
On May 15 1990, Brenda Lee was quoted in the LA Times, talking about how Madonna got her involved in the Dick Tracy soundtrack:
“Madonna asked specifically that I sing the songs–which are brand-new numbers. I had no idea she was a fan of my singing, but I’m delighted she is.”
Brenda recorded two songs for Dick Tracy, but only one made the final cut: You’re in the Doghouse Now, written by Ned Clafin, Mike Kernan, Jeff Lass and Andy Paley.
Brenda is best known for Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (recorded when she was just 13).
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