On April 29 1989, Madonna’s Like A Prayer album entered its second week at #1 on the Canadian album charts.
Hitting number #1 on April 22 1989, Like A Prayer would remain at the top of the Canadian album charts until the week of June 3 1989.
Today In Madonna History: April 28, 2013
On April 28, 2013, Sir Elton John told Extra that his decade-long feud with Madonna had ended.
“We were in a restaurant in France in the summertime,” he explained. “She came in, and I sent over a note. She was very gracious. I apologized profusely because what I said should never have appeared in public.”
Their altercation began in 2002 when John had choice words over Madonna’s song for the James Bond Die Another Day film. He remarked that it was “the worst Bond tune ever.”
If that weren’t enough, the “Candle in the Wind” singer accused Madonna of lip syncing during her Re-Invention Tour in 2004 and deepened that speculation when he said, “Make sure you lip-sync good” before her Super Bowl performance.
Even John’s husband David Furnish insulted the Queen of Pop when he said “I like Madonna’s music, but not her movies,” while attending the 2012 Golden Globe Awards. Even more, Furnish said “she should stick to what she is good at,” when Madonna beat John for the Best Original Song (Masterpiece).
Now the couple’s attempt to extinguish the drama seems to have been well received by M.
“She accepted our apology, and then we bought her dinner,” John said. “That’s over and done with. She was fantastic. She was just like, ‘Okay, let’s get a move on.’”
Furnish added, “We don’t believe in putting negativity out in the world, both of us were embarrassed when all that stuff came out. But you’ve got to put all that behind you and just go forward with the positivity.”
Today in Madonna History: April 27, 1985
On April 27 1985, Madonna’s Angel single was briefly reviewed in Billboard magazine as it entered the Hot 100 at #48.
The Angel 12-inch single would be issued commercially in North America in late May. It included an extended dance mix of the titular track, but let’s be real, people bought it for Into The Groove on the flip – it being the only North American home for the classic dance floor gem until a remixed version appeared on You Can Dance in 87. In Canada, young cassette-loving buyers’ interest in the b-side prompted Warner Canada to issue the first Madonna cassette maxi-single, as the format would eventually be known.
Today in Madonna History: April 26, 2003
On April 26 2003, Madonna’s American Life single spent the first of two weeks at #1 on the Soundscan Canadian Singles chart.
American Life was the last physical Madonna two-track single issued by Warner Music Canada, while production of CD maxi-singles would continue domestically until the 2006 release of Jump.
Today in Madonna History: April 25, 1998
For the weeks of April 25, and May 2, 1998, Madonna’s Frozen was the #1 dance single on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
Today in Madonna History: April 24, 2007
On April 24 2007, Liz Rosenberg posted an article on Madonna.com remembering Madonna’s very first single that started it all:
It may seem like only yesterday but 25 years ago on April 24, 1982, Sire Records honcho Seymour Stein released a single called Everybody on Warner Bros. Records by an unknown singer from Rochester, Michigan by the name of Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. To say the world would never be the same is an understatement. The song went on to become a huge dancefloor hit and was heard all over the radio in the Summer of 1982. That little girl from Michigan would go on to become one of the most famous entertainers and cultural icons in history – selling close to 200 million records and remaining a star of enormous magnitude and influence for the next 25 years. She’s just getting started. Long Live the Queen and Happy Anniversary to Madonna.
The announcement came as a surprise to many fans who had always understood the release date of Everybody to be October 6, 1982. While the erroneous April date was likely just a simple mistake on Liz’s part, the lack of any official retraction/correction to the post has led to much confusion about the single’s release date in the years since, with the press often assuming the April date to be factual given its reputable source. However, the sequencing of the catalogue numbers for both the promotional and commercial releases of Everybody, as well as its charting chronology, offer clear evidence that its originally reported release date of October 6, 1982 is in fact the accurate one.
Today in Madonna History: April 23, 2015
On April 23 2015, Tori Amos came to Madonna’s defense when questioned about the ageist undertones on social media – and by the media at large – in reaction to her “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2015 Brit Awards:
Madonna is an entertainer. There are very few people who could’ve gotten up off that floor. It wasn’t because of her that she fell, but it was because of her that the performance carried on. Some of the vilification comes from women as much as men. She’s making choices and she’s able to do things physically that a lot of people 25 years younger can’t; she got up and refused to allow that to shame her. I think people want her to be shamed into a role that they find acceptable for her age. It makes me sad that we can’t embrace Madonna and say, Wow, this is an artist who’s expressing herself in a certain way.”
— Tori Amos
Tori often incorporates one or two cover songs by other artists into her live shows, but there are only a handful of artists whom she has covered multiple songs, and Madonna is one of them. She has performed both Live To Tell and Like A Prayer at numerous concerts, with the most recent Madonna composition to join her live repertoire being Frozen, which made its debut in Amsterdam in 2014.
(Many thanks to YouTube user LittleQueenbee77 for the great live footage of this performance!)
Today In Madonna History 