Today in Madonna History: April 6, 1985

On April 6 1985, Material Girl peaked at #4 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles chart by RPM magazine.

Today in Madonna History: April 5, 1999

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On April 5 1999, Madonna was voted the Most Positive & Influential Sexual Voice Of The Past 35 Years in a USA Today online survey.

Today in Madonna History: April 4, 1998

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On April 4 1998, Madonna’s Frozen hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.

Frozen was the first single released from Ray of Light.

Today in Madonna History: April 3, 1993

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On April 3 1993, Fever entered the UK Singles Chart at its peak position of number-six. Without the support of a proper music video at the time of its release (Warner UK instead issued a rarely seen compilation video of previous clips), the single spent only six weeks on the UK charts, dropping to number-seven the following week.

Strangely, Madonna did eventually decide to film a video for the song in late April  – nearly a month after its release in Europe. By the time the video premiered during the second week of May, Fever was spending its final week on the UK Singles Chart.

In North America the remixes for Fever had been issued commercially on Madonna’s previous international single, Bad Girl. Fever was also serviced to clubs as a promotional single in its own right, but it was not promoted to radio despite the video being added to into rotation on MTV and MuchMusic. While the release of the music video managed to coincide with Fever’s single week atop the Hot Dance/Club Play chart, its number-one status had already been confirmed several days prior to the clip’s debut, making the video’s intended purpose and the timing of its release all the more puzzling.

Today in Madonna History: April 2, 2012

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On April 2 2012, the third single from Madonna’s MDNA album, Masterpiece, was released in the United Kingdom.

Masterpiece was composed by Madonna, Julie Frost and Jimmy Harry and produced by Madonna and William Orbit.

When Madonna was directing her film W.E., her manager Guy Oseary persuaded her to compose a song for the soundtrack. Frost was living in Los Angeles at that time and was assessing her priorities in the music world, and wanted to collaborate with a number of artists, Madonna being the first. “She is an icon”, Frost said, “But most importantly she has some of the best Pop songs in the history of music… so yeah it’s always a dream to work with people like her.” Orbit, who was working with Frost and Harry on an assignment, contacted them for collaborating with Madonna on Masterpiece. He had heard Frost’s initial composition of the song and knew that Madonna would love it. According to Frost the theme explained to them was about bittersweet love and the hardships felt being in a relationship. Madonna, Frost and Harry sat together with this idea and brainstormed and came up with the lyrics and the melody. Over time, Madonna changed the structure of the song and the final version was ready for recording.

Madonna recalled:

“Guy harangued me for the entire time I was filming and editing my movie to write a song. And I said, ‘Please, Guy, I’m trying to focus on being a director and I want people to pay attention to the film and I don’t have time.’ So then I finished the film and I started making my record and somehow magically and miraculously the song emerged, ‘Masterpiece,’ so thank you, Guy Oseary, for being so irritating.”

Today In Madonna History: April 1, 2000

On April 1 2000, Madonna’s cover of American Pie hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart in the USA.

Today In Madonna History: April 30, 2006

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On April 30 2006, Madonna made her festival debut at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California.

Madonna performed six songs in front of one of the largest crowds ever to witness an artist at the event. The set featured her latest hit single Hung Up, Get Together, I Love New York, Ray of Light, Let It Will Be and the vintage Everybody. The show served as a warm-up for the May 21 kick-off of her Confessions Tour in Los Angeles.