Today in Madonna History: August 23, 1997

August 23, 2024 By sonicboy19 in 1997, August Tags: Evita, Soundtrack 1 Comment

On August 23 1997, Evita: Music from the Motion Picture (the highlights disc) debuted at #168 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart in the USA.

The highlights disc included 19 tracks from the film, and was released on July 29 1997 in North America to help promote the home video release. The single disc was released in select markets around the world in 1996 at the same time as the double disc complete soundtrack, but not in North America.

Evita: The Motion Picture Music Soundtrack featured all 34 tracks from the film, and was released on November 12 1996.

The highlights disc didn’t perform very well in the late summer of 1997 because it was released a full 8 months after the original release. No single was released to radio to promote it, and most die-hard fans had already secured an imported version of the single disc soundtrack the previous year. Why it was released at all in July 1997 remains a mystery. Why the single-disc set wasn’t released in North America in November 1996 is a better question. Why not release the double-disc set (expensive) and the single disc set (average price of a CD at the time) and appeal to the largest possible group of consumers? That was the approach around the world, but not in North America, we can’t help but wonder why? – Jay

Today in Madonna History: March 25, 1997

March 25, 2024 By sonicboy19 in 1997, March Tags: Academy Award, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Best Original Song, Evita, Kathleen Guerdo, Oscars, Review, Tim Rice, You Must Love Me 1 Comment

On March 25 1997, Madonna performed You Must Love Me at the 68th Academy Awards. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Kathleen Guerdo from Billboard said that “Madonna delivers what is by far one of the strongest vocal performances of her career, comfortably scaling to the song’s demanding soprano heights while infusing it with delicate, heart-rending emotion.”

Today in Madonna History: November 13, 1997

November 13, 2023 By sonicboy19 in 1997, November Tags: Arianne Phillips, Courtney Love, On the Cover of a Magazine, Peggy Sirota, Rolling Stone, Tina Turner 1 Comment

On November 13 1997, the Rolling Stone magazine Women of Rock issue, featuring Madonna, Tina Turner and Courtney Love on its cover was released.

The photoshoot took place on October 21, and according to Madonna, the ladies had fun figuring out what music to listen to during the shoot:

“There was a bit of a skirmish over who was going to play what. We finally agreed that every other CD was mine and every other CD was Courtney’s and we sort of went back and forth. But the ultimate song that we ended up dancing to all the time was the MC stereo remix of the Tricky song, which is a very good song to dance to.”

Tina had this to say about working with Madonna and Courtney:

“It was like working with kids. You know I’ve always had Ikettes for dancers, so they were pretending a few times that they were my dancers. They had all kinds of pretence going on, but it was always built around me being the mother of the two in some kind of way. In terms of ‘Tina is this and we are that,’ and I was laughing the whole time, honestly. If the photograph comes out with me really laughing seriously, it was because of their reaction to each other. It was wonderful.”

Madonna was introduced to longtime stylist, Arianne Phillips, at the photoshoot. Phillips had been working as Courtney Love’s personal stylist at the time and ended up styling both Courtney and Madonna during the shoot by photographer Peggy Sirota.

Today in Madonna History: October 27, 1996

October 27, 2023 By sonicboy19 in 1997, October Tags: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Billboard, Evita, Live Videos, Review, Single Release, Sticky & Sweet Tour, Tim Rice, You Must Love Me 1 Comment

On October 27 1996, Madonna’s You Must Love Me (the lead single from Evita) was released.

Kathleen Guerdo’s review for Billboard:

“Madonna delivers what is by far one of the strongest vocal performances of her career, comfortably scaling to the song’s demanding soprano heights while infusing it with delicate, heart-rending emotion. This bodes well for the creative potency of the rest of the soundtrack, which is due Nov. 14. Prepare for wall-to-wall airplay of this flawless ballad on pop and AC radio.”

Today in Madonna History: July 29, 1997

July 29, 2023 By Jay in 1997, July Tags: Buenos Aires, Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Eva Peron, Evita, You Must Love Me 1 Comment

On July 29 1997, the Evita: Music From The Motion Picture CD (highlights from the Evita soundtrack) was released in North America.

Today in Madonna History: July 12, 1997

July 12, 2023 By Jay in 1997, July Tags: Evita 1 Comment

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For the week ending July 12 1997, the EVITA soundtrack enjoyed its final week on the Official UK Albums Chart. After 36 weeks on the chart the hit film soundtrack sold 640,000 copies in the UK.