On October 4 2009, the media reported on the Saturday Night Live skit with Madonna and Lady Gaga from the night before.
Gaga was the musical guest and the show host was Ryan Reynolds.
Catfight!
Category Archives: 2009
Today in Madonna History: September 29, 2009
On September 29 2009, Madonna and Warner Bros. released Celebration: The Video Collection. The greatest videos DVD collection accompanied the Celebration greatest hits collection.
Celebration: The Video Collection continued on from Madonna’s other video compilations The Immaculate Collection and The Video Collection 93:99.
Celebration: The Video Collection debuted at the top of the Billboard Top Music Videos chart. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of 100,000 copies across United States.
The cover for Celebration: The Video Collection was created by street pop artist Mr. Brainwash who is best known for “throwing modern cultural icons into a blender and turning it up to eleven”.
The DVD collection was released in two different versions, both are double disc releases:
- Keep case — DVD size packaging
- DVD Digipak — CD size packaging
This video collection received mixed reviews from critics and fans when it was released. While the inclusion of videos that were left off her previous retrospectives were certainly appreciated, many felt that the set’s exclusion of several notable clips (with Oh Father, Bad Girl, Drowned World/Substitute For Love & Nothing Really Matters among its most glaring omissions) kept it from being the definitive overview it was touted to be.
Another point of contention was the use of cheaper single-layer versus double-layer DVD’s, the latter of which would have allowed for the inclusion of the three additional clips noted above (which would have rounded out the total number of clips to a nice even fifty) and corrected the compression issues that marred the image quality of many videos. Indeed, the varying picture quality from clip to clip and minimal effort given to ensuring overall quality control left the product with a distinctly “budget” feel that had some fans wondering whether the grainy, test-pattern-infused artwork for the set was perhaps a bit too fitting.
Surely, Madonna’s pioneering work in the medium and the perfectionist spirit that helped make these works so compelling deserve a comprehensive retrospective of the highest quality.
Did you feel this release was worthy of celebration or would you have made changes to it? With recent innovations in digital distribution, would you appreciate an official reissue of Madonna’s entire music video catalogue – from her first clip, Everybody, through to her latest, Batuka – as high quality digital downloads? Clips could be sold individually for a few dollars each or bundled into era sets that could be downloaded through Madonna’s official website, with proceeds benefiting one of her charities. Would you support such an initiative if the highest quality control standards were met and no corners were cut? Perhaps this would prove to be an ideal avenue for her to finally market long-requested, definitive versions of her previously unavailable or out-of-print live concert films as well.
Today in Madonna History: September 26, 2009
On September 26 2009, Celebration became Madonna’s 40th number-one song on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart in the US.
The remixes by Benny Benassi in particular were so well received that Madonna chose to use his version for the song’s music video instead of the Oakenfold produced album version. During her 2012 MDNA Tour, Benassi’s remix of Celebration was featured again when it was used for the show’s closing number.
Following in the tradition of Shep Pettibone and William Orbit, Benassi was promoted from remixer to co-songwriter/producer status when Madonna agreed to collaborate with him on several tracks for her MDNA album, including the set’s second single Girl Gone Wild.
Today in Madonna History: September 13, 2009
On September 13 2009, Madonna opened the 2009 MTV VMA’s with a heartfelt tribute to Michael Jackson after his untimely passing a few months earlier.
Today in Madonna History: August 22, 2009
On August 22 2009, Madonna scored her 55th Billboard Hot 100 hit with Celebration. The lead single from Madonna’s career spanning greatest hits collection of the same name debuted at #71.
Celebration was written and produced by Madonna, Paul Oakenfold and Ian Green, with additional writing from Ciaran Gribbin.
Billboard reviews Celebration:
Madonna’s latest single won’t start any new trends, but it does return the singer to her dance-floor roots. “Come join the party … ’cause everybody wants to party with you,” she sings on Celebration, the title track and one of a reported two new songs on her best-of set that’s due September 29. A notable assist comes courtesy of trance DJ/producer Paul Oakenfold, who co-wrote and co-produced the buoyant stomper. He supplies a surging beat that could easily have been lifted from the star’s Confessions On A Dance Floor period (Hung Up, Sorry) but can be traced even further back to her 1992 hit Deeper And Deeper. The melody, meanwhile, recalls her last single, 4 Minutes, in its urgency. Consider Celebration a score for Madonna’s retro-futuristic fan base and a nice bookend to her collection of chart glories.
Today in Madonna History: August 6, 2009
On August 6 2009, Madonna performed her Sticky & Sweet Tour in Helsinki, Finland. Madonna performed for a sold-out crowd of 85,354 fans, generating $12,18,455 in ticket sales.
Did you like the changes made to the 2009 version of the tour?
Today in Madonna History: April 14, 2009
On April 14 2009, Steven Meisel was featured in Vogue magazine, and the article described him as the man that taught Madonna about re-invention.
In the article, Madonna shared some nice thoughts on Meisel:
Even Madonna agrees that there is, indeed, “a great sense of mystery” about Meisel – so much so that after all these years she feels she still doesn’t really know him very well. “I know that I love him,” she says. “You get sucked into his aura. He knows things.”
She learned this from one of their first collaborations, which was for the cover of Like A Virgin. “Before I worked with Steven,” says Madonna, “I just showed up in the clothes I was wearing, stood in front of the lights, and got my picture taken. With Steven, a team of people descended on me, started to undress me. Someone grabbed my hair, another grabbed my face, another started helping me try on various bits of clothes, and they all seemed to be speaking a language I didn’t understand – the language of Steven Meisel.”
To hear Madonna talk about working with Meisel is like being let in on a long-held secret. She goes on, “Steven had a vision. He had done his research. He had very specific references. I really respected the care that he took with his work, how seriously he approached it, but at the same time he has a great sense of irony. He made me feel like I was part of something important. He treated each photo shoot like it was a small film and insisted that we create a character each time we worked but then would make fun of the archetypes we created. He was the first person to introduce me to the idea of reinvention.”
Today In Madonna History 