Today in Madonna History: November 3, 2005

hung-up-euro-2005-4-600 hung-up-euro-2005-3-600

On November 3 2005, Madonna opened the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, Portugal with her first live performance of Hung Up.

Less than three months after suffering several broken bones in a horse riding accident, Madonna’s performance was triumphantly received by fans and the press – not to mention the very enthusiastic audience who attended the show in Lisbon.

Today in Madonna History: November 2, 1992

On November 2 1992, Madonna appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine, with the headline: The Selling of Sex – The New Voyeurism.

Here’s a snippet of the article inside, written by John Leland:

What if Madonna gave a sexual bonfire and nobody came? In the quiet before the inevitable storm a few weeks back, NEWSWEEK asked Madonna about the possibility of failure or, more grievous, inconsequence. What if she released “Sex“—her explicit coffee-table book of erotic photos and writings, celebrating sadomasochism, homosexuality, exhibitionism and other pansexual delights-and the public merely yawned? “If everybody yawned,” she said, armed for this and other contingencies, “I’d say hooray. That means something happened.”

It was one of those neat identity makeovers for which Madonna is justly renowned: after coloring the last nine years with her determination to engage our attention at all costs, here she was, Florence Nightingale, dutiful erotic night nurse, content to slip into the shadows once her services were no longer needed, the patient cured. Now that’s what you call spin.

But for Madonna and for the rest of us, this was no lark. A deft little way to make some money and grab some spotlight, “Sex” also promised our first barometric reading of a turbulence boiling in American culture. Call it the new voyeurism: the middlebrow embrace, in the age of AIDS, of explicit erotic material for its own sake. From Mapplethorpe to MTV, from the Fox network to fashion advertising, looking at sex is creeping out of the private sphere and into the public, gentrified by artsy pretension and de-stigmatized out of viral necessity. Canny marketers exploit it; alarmed conservatives, joined by many feminists, are trying to shut it down. In many ways, as Pat Buchanan asserted at the Republican convention in August, there really is a cultural war going on. “Sex” stood to claim the battlefield. Advance cover stories on the book in Vanity Fair, Vogue and New York Magazine heralded hot like you’ve never seen before.

And from the looks of things last Wednesday morning, “Sex” measured up. Dismissive reviews, splashed across the tabloids like news of Pearl Harbor, couldn’t stop the ambush. Bookstores, record stores, anybody who carried it got swamped. Priced at $49.95 and packaged in a Mylar bag that warned ADULTs ONLY!, the book sold 150,000 copies on the first day, out of 500,000 printed for American distribution. Who says we’re in a recession? Laurence J. Kirshbaum, president of Warner Books, called it “review-proof.” Many stores pre-sold their shipments before they arrived. Others couldn’t restock fast enough to keep pace with demand.

Today in Madonna History: November 1, 1997

On November 1 1997, Buenos Aires peaked at #3 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart.

The promo-only set of remixes by Madonna, Pablo Flores & Javier Garza were serviced to clubs by Warner Bros. Records to promote the home video release of Evita. Produced in the summer of 1996 during the same sessions that yielded the hit remixes for Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, the percussion-heavy Buenos Aires club mixes again featured re-recorded vocals by Madonna and additional harmonies provided by Donna De Lory & Niki Haris.

Today in Madonna History: October 31, 1987

On October 31 1987, Madonna’s Causing A Commotion reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart in the USA.

I’ve got the moves baby, you got the motion 
If we got together we’d be causing a commotion 

Today in Madonna History: October 30, 2006

On October 30 2006, Madonna appeared on the cover of People magazine with the headline: Madonna’s Adoption Drama.

Here’s a snippet of the article:

Bringing Home David By Karen S. Schneider

As Madonna and Her Husband, Guy Ritchie Welcome Home Their New 13-Month-Old Son from Malawi, Local Human Rights Groups—and Some of the Boy’s Relatives—Raise Questions Over the Legality of the Adoption.

Madonna had only seen a snapshot of David Banda and had learned only basic information about him when she and her husband, Guy Ritchie flew to the African nation of Malawi on Oct. 3. But when the singer arrived at the Home of Hope Orphanage Centre and met the 13-month-old boy, says Madonna’s spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg, “It was love at first sight.” Adds a witness: “The look of pure joy on her face was beyond words, not unlike when her children [Lourdes, 10, and Rocco, 6] were born.”

About a week later—even as a storm of controversy was brewing over the planned adoption—Madonna’s happiness was echoed in a dimly lit room of the High Court in the Malawian capital of Lilongwe. The pop superstar, 48, and her director husband, 38, met, for the first time, with David’s dad, a farmer named Yohane Banda. Through a translator who spoke Banda’s Chichewa language, “she asked lots of questions,” says Banda, 32. “How old I am, what I do for a living, everything.”

Madonna also made promises—to provide Banda’s only child with a loving home, and to bring him back to Malawi to visit. For the singer, the face-to-face with Banda marked a turning point in an almost year-long effort to adopt a child from an impoverished nation where she helps fund six orphanages. (She has also pledged to sponsor improvements through the Millennium Promise program.) For Banda—who ekes out a living farming onions and cabbage, and placed David in the church-run Home of Hope when his wife died—it was a chance to give his son, he tells PEOPLE, “a brighter future.” Adds David’s grandmother Asineti Mwale, 56: “God has heard our prayer. May he bless this kindhearted woman abundantly.”

Today in Madonna History: October 29, 2013

On October 29 2013, photographer Richard Corman announced the release of an exclusive photographic book, Madonna NYC 83, devoted to the photo shoot he created with Madonna back in 1983, a few months before the release of her first studio album.

“As a young photographer in 1983, I had the opportunity to capture a series of images with Madonna as she was on the verge of releasing her debut album,” said Richard Corman. “The rebellious energy of the East Village was the backdrop to showcase Madonna’s style, spontaneity and pioneering attitude. She consistently conveyed an attitude of fearlessness and fierce determination.”

In conjunction with the U.S. book launch, Milk Gallery in New York City hosted a special exhibition featuring images from Madonna NYC 83 which ran from November 15 – December 15, 2013.

Today in Madonna History: October 28, 2012

madonna-nola-obama-1 madonna-nola-obama-2 madonna-nola-obama-3 madonna-nola-obama-4 madonna-nola-obama-5 madonna-nola-obama-6

On October 28, newswires reported that Madonna was boo’d  for praising President Barack Obama during her (October 27) MDNA Tour stop in New Orleans.

Madonna asked the crowd, “Who’s registered to vote?” and then followed with, “I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.”

After the boo’s, Madonna went on to say, “Seriously, I don’t care who you vote for. Do not take this privilege for granted. Go vote.”