On April 12 1998, the television special Madonna Rising premiered.
Produced as part of the promotional activities for the Ray Of Light album, the special featured Madonna reminiscing about her formative years in New York with pal Rupert Everett as they visited some of her pre-fame dwellings and hang-outs. Interview segments with Nile Rodgers, Debi Mazar, Seymour Stein, Maripol and others were also included for good measure.
On April 11 1990, Madonna’s Keep It Together single was certified Gold by the RIAA for shipment of over 500,000 units in the U.S.
Keep It Together was Madonna’s last 7-inch single to be issued with a picture sleeve by Warner Bros. Records in the U.S. until the release of a 4 Minutes/Give It 2 Me double 7-inch set eighteen years later.
On April 10 1988, Madonna won a Razzie Award for Worst Actress in Who’s That Girl at the 8th annual Golden Raspberry Awards at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Blossom Ballroom in Los Angeles, California.
On April 9 2015, Madonna performed Bitch I’m Madonna on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Madonna also made her stand-up debut and performed Holiday with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots (using classroom instruments).
On April 8 1999, American TV newsmagazine Entertainment Tonight (aka ET) revealed the title of the new song Madonna had recorded for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack: Beautiful Stranger.
Beautiful Stranger launched to radio in mid-May and quickly became a sizeable summertime hit along with the Maverick Records issued soundtrack album which landed in North American record stores on June 1st, 1999.
On April 7 2015, it was announced that the Ghosttown music video would premiere on the Meerkat mobile app that enables users to broadcast live video streaming through their mobile device:
“When it all falls, When it all falls down, I’ll be your fire when the lights go out…” Join us on Meerkat at 10am PST tomorrow for the world premiere of the full Ghosttown video!!”
Jay’s comment: Why Madonna’s management decided to premiere her video through Meerkat instead of a more widely used distributor, I’ll never understand. The distribution for this video was a disaster. Advertised as premiering at 10am on April 8 — it never appeared on screen. By 1pm, Meerkat was still trying to figure it out. The video ended up premiering the following day.
Madonna’s management seriously needs to review Madonna’s core fanbase and realize that we’re not 14-18 year olds using every brand new gimmicky social media application. We’re 35-60 now — and getting older by the day. Her hardcore fans were turned off by this method of release. Her casual fans were annoyed by the perplexing release strategy. Was there a kick-back that served to pay for the video? Is that why Guy allowed this disaster to proceed? As a long-time fan — and after so many unacceptable hiccups in the Rebel Heart era, I’m surprised Madonna wasn’t asking for his resignation. It was her strongest video in years, her best song/single in years — and it was treated as if it were Jimmy Jimmy — Baffling! Madonna – you can do better — you DESERVE better!
On April 6 1998, an exclusive studio performance of Frozen was broadcast during the Hey! Music Awards II on Fuji-TV in Japan. Madonna was also honoured with an award during the ceremony, and offered the taped performance and acceptance speech in lieu of attendance.
