Today in Madonna History: September 4, 1987

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On September 4 1987, Madonna performed the second-to-last show of her Who’s That Girl World Tour at the Stadio Comunale in Turin, Italy. Broadcast live in Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Spain, the television special also aired at a later date in Australia and The Netherlands. The commercially released Ciao Italia! combined the Turin & Tokyo broadcasts with additional footage from the tour’s final concert in Florence, Italy.

Today in Madonna History: September 3, 2015

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On September 3 2015, Billboard announced the 50 Greatest Grammy Moments: 

#2 – Love Is All Around: Macklemore (January 26, 2014): Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert perform the gay-rights anthem Same Love with an assist from Madonna, while Queen Latifah makes history by performing a wedding ceremony for 33 diverse couples.

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Today in Madonna History: September 2, 1993

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On September 2 1993, Madonna opened the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards performing Bye Bye Baby.  She cavorted on stage with three scantily clad women in a brothel-style setting, dressed in tuxedos and top hats, in a choreographed, highly sexual routine.  According to choreographer Alex Magno, he wanted to do Justify My Love or The Beast Within on MTV, but Madonna decided that they might be too controversial for live television and abandoned the idea. Nevertheless, Bye Bye Baby was chosen and performed with the choreography they had been practicing for The Girlie Show World Tour, since it represented the whole idea behind the tour.  Louis Virtel from The Backlot ranked the performance at number eight on a list for Madonna’s 11 Greatest VMA Moments. He praised Madonna’s rendition of the song at the Video Music Awards, calling it “a hell of a VMA performance” and a “killer cinematic throwback”.

Today in Madonna History: September 1, 2012

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On September 1 2012, Madonna performed her MDNA Tour on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. A sold out crowd of 72,000 fans attended the outdoor event.

Today in Madonna History: August 31, 2006

On August 31 2006, Madonna was joined on stage by Lenny Kravitz during a performance of I Love New York at a concert in Paris, France. Kravitz had previously been spotted in the audience at several stops on The Confessions Tour and was clearly a fan of the show.

The appearance followed the pair’s 1990 songwriting collaboration, Justify My Love, and its pseudo-remix, The Beast Within. They also shared the stage during a performance of Ray Of Light at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.

Today in Madonna History: August 30, 1985

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On August 30 1985, Madonna’s Like A Virgin album spent a third week at #2 on the UK Albums Chart.

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Today in Madonna History: August 29, 1989

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On August 29 1989, the music video for Cherish – the third single from the album Like A Prayer – premiered in Canada.

The song was written by Madonna & Patrick Leonard and was one of the first tracks completed for the album. Madonna had been reading Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet during breaks from rehearsals for the play Speed The Plow, which inspired the lyrics for the song.

The video was filmed on July 22, 1989 at Paradise Cove Beach in Malibu, California. It marked the first time that late photographer Herb Ritts had crossed over to shooting and directing a music video, which he agreed to do reluctantly at Madonna’s insistence. He quickly became a highly sought-after music video director, winning numerous awards for his work within the medium.

“Cherish” hit the top of the charts in Canada on October 9th, spending two weeks at number-one. It went on to become the ninth best-selling single of the year with a total of seventeen weeks on the RPM Singles chart.

While no maxi-single was issued for Cherish in North America, the single included the previously unreleased Like A Prayer outtake Supernatural – another collaboration with Patrick Leonard.