Wishing you a joyous New Year filled with laughter, love, and unforgettable moments! May the upcoming year be adorned with good luck and happiness. Here’s to new beginnings and endless possibilities. Happy New Year from Justin and Jay! Cheers to a fantastic journey ahead! 🎉🥂
It’s time to give Madonna’s Santa Baby another spin! Merry Christmas from us to you. Have a safe holiday season.
Madonna’s French-Canadian roots trace back to the mid-17th century and some of the earliest European settlers to arrive in what was then known as New France. If you have French-Canadian roots dating back to the initial Acadian/Quebec settlement period, chances are you will find yourself related to Madonna.
After researching my own family tree, I was initially surprised to learn that I am Madonna’s 8th cousin through my mother, who is Acadian, and that we share several familial ties. But as it turns out, there is nothing unusual about this at all. Due to the small pool of early settlers – and the relative isolation of the ones who remained or returned to what is now Canada following the Great Expulsion of Acadians – French Canadians would remain relatively genetically isolated for the next several centuries.
This bottleneck period resulted in a situation in which it is now actually more rare for a French Canadian to find another French Canadian that they are not directly related to. More often than not, multiple direct relations will be shared.
A bit of Canadiana for all y’all! 😉
To current, former, aspiring and honorary Canadians, have a happy and safe Canada Day!
Justin & Jay
Happy New Year and thank you for your continued support of Today in Madonna History – we very much appreciate that you’re on this exciting journey with us!
Thank you for sharing our posts with your Madonna friends across the social media world.
These are our Top 10 Posts for 2019 (based on page views):
#1 – September 2, 1993 – Madonna performed Bye Bye Baby at the MTV Video Music Awards. Stunning!
#2 – May 4, 2019 – the Madame X Tour was announced.
Did you get to go? Are you waiting to attend a show in 2020? Thoughts? Are residency shows the future for Madonna? Or was this an experiment she had to get out of her system and now it’s time for a classic hits arena tour?
#3 – September 24, 1992 – Madonna went topless on the runway at a Jean-Paul Gautier fashion show. Gotta love a good boob!
#4 – July 8, 1993 – Madonna began rehearsals for The Girlie Show World Tour.
A remastered release of this tour with an audio CD component is due — let’s make it happen!
#5 – November 13 1997, the Rolling Stone magazine Women of Rock issue, featuring Madonna, Tina Turner and Courtney Love on its cover was released.
Imagine how difficult it was to get these three women in the same room? LOVE the photos!
#6 – April 17 2019, Madonna issued the press release for her forthcoming album, Madame X.
There were so many different releases for this album. Was it a collector’s dream or a collector’s nightmare? Did you get the BLUE Madame X on vinyl?
#7 – January 25, 1989, Pepsi announced they signed Madonna to a year-long endorsement contract, for which they would pay her $5 million. In return, Madonna would appear in a series of television commercials and Pepsi would sponsor the Like A Prayer World Tour, tentatively slated for later that year.
Imagine the set-list for a Like A Prayer World Tour? If you had to remove all the Dick Tracy songs and Vogue from the Blond Ambition Tour, what would you add in to fill the gaps?
#8 – February 19 2015, Living For Love became Madonna’s 44th #1 Billboard Dance Club hit in the USA.
Would you support a boxset release of Madonna’s Top Dance Club hits — full-on classic remixes that took the songs to the top? Or would you want NEW remixes? This could be a cheap and cheerful digital release with a limited edition vinyl Record Store Day boxset. Who’s in?
#9 – June 11 2015, a Rick Nowels interview was featured at songwriteruniverse.com in which he spoke about how he came to collaborate with Madonna for the Ray Of Light sessions:
“I always wanted to work with Madonna. I loved her voice, her songwriting, and the great records she made with Pat Leonard, Stephen Bray and Nile Rodgers. In 1997 I was in New York for the Grammys. I was up for Album of the Year (as one of the producers) for Celine Dion’s Falling Into You. I was in Barney’s (store) getting a tie for the Grammys and I saw Madonna there. I introduced myself, and I told her that she didn’t get the credit she deserved as a songwriter. Which is true, but it’s also an awkward thing to tell a huge superstar! She was very cool and gracious. I ended up getting a meeting with her in L.A. a few weeks later. We wrote nine songs together — three made the Ray of Light album: The Power of Good-bye, Little Star and To Have and Not To Hold. The Power of Good-bye was a number one song in U.K. and Europe. It was a career-changing experience for me. Before that I had always done my co-writing with friends. But working with Madonna…it was the first time I had ever written one-on-one with a great artist/writer. After that I changed gears a little, and now I mostly collaborate directly with artists.”
Check out another one of Justin’s amazing video posts. His remixes and remastered archival footage is second to none! THANK YOU JUSTIN – we all appreciate your mixes and videos – the amount of work you pour into these is clear — no short-cuts. Brilliant!
#10 – May 30th 1987, Breakfast Club scored their biggest hit as Right On Track peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Madonna became a member of Breakfast Club in late 1979, first as a drummer before branching out to keyboards and guitar, all the while sharing vocal duties (and living quarters) with her boyfriend, Dan Gilroy, and his brother Ed.
It’s funny how we think of guitar as a rather new instrument for Madonna, but she was rocking the guitar back in the late 70’s, along with many other instruments. Would you want to see Madonna do a drum solo on her next tour? I can HEAR YOUR EYES ROLLING from here! LOL ..
Happy New Year!
Wow!
Today we celebrate our fourth full year of sharing with you — and each other — what Madonna did today in her own career or personal history. Time goes so fast .. 4-years!
We want to thank you for sticking with us — sharing our page with your friends (please do if you haven’t already), LIKING our Facebook posts, re-Tweeting our Tweets — and commenting on our work.
We appreciate it all!
We look forward to another year of the same .. Many thanks, Justin and Jay
Cheers to the New Year, which will hopefully be full of good luck and happiness.
Happy New Year from Justin and Jay!
Happy New Year from Jay and Justin! Cheers!
Today In Madonna History 