Today in Madonna History: November 13, 1984

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On November 13 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin video premiered on MTV.

Mary Lambert, the director of the video had this to say:

“For Like A Virgin I said ‘Lets do it in Venice!’ The idea of Madonna singing in a gondola was the most outrageous thing I could think of. And Madonna dug it, because she has the whole thing with the Catholic Church and her Italian heritage. It turned into a huge party.”

Madonna had this to say about shooting with the lion:

“The lion didn’t do anything he was supposed to do, and I ended up leaning against this pillar with his head in my crotch… I thought he was going to take a bite out of me so I lifted the veil I was wearing and had a stare-down with him and he opened his mouth and let out this huge roar. I got so frightened my heart fell in my shoe. When he finally walked away, the director yelled ‘Cut’ and I had to take a long breather. But I could really relate to the lion. I feel like in a past life I was a lion or a cat or something.”

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Today in Madonna History: November 12, 2002

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On November 12 2002, the Die Another Day soundtrack for the 20th James Bond film of the same name, was released by Warner Bros. Records. The title song for Die Another Day was sung by Madonna, who also had a small cameo in the movie as Verity, a fencing instructor.  The Die Another Day song was written and produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï.

What is your favourite James Bond theme song?

Today in Madonna History: November 11, 1985

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On November 11 1985, Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour was released on home video in the U.K. and France. The concert was filmed on May 25th, 1985 at Cobo Arena in Madonna’s home town of Detroit, Michigan. The concert film was directed by Daniel Kleinman and the music was produced by Madonna & Patrick Leonard.

At the beginning of the video Madonna declares:

“I went to New York. I had a dream. I wanted to be a big star, I didn’t know anybody, I wanted to dance, I wanted to sing, I wanted to do all those things, I wanted to make people happy, I wanted to be famous, I wanted everybody to love me. I wanted to be a star. I worked really hard, and my dream came true.”

The live performances of Like A Virgin and Dress You Up were released as music videos on MTV to promote the live video release.  Both videos were nominated for Best Choreography at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

Though it was also released on laserdisc in some countries, to date it has sadly not been officially reissued on DVD.

Today in Madonna History: November 10, 1986

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On November 10 1986, Madonna participated as a model in an all-star AIDS benefit fashion show at Barney’s (clothing store) in New York, which benefited the AIDS Research Clinic at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, New York.

Today in Madonna History: November 9, 1996

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On November 9 1996, Madonna’s You Must Love Me debuted at #24 on the Adult Contemporary Billboard chart in the USA.

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Today in Madonna History: November 8, 2011

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On November 8 2011, the demo version of Madonna’s Give Me All Your Luvin‘ (then titled Give Me All Your Love) was leaked, resulting in the arrest of a 31-year-old man from Spain for copyright violations.

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Today in Madonna History: November 7, 2014

On November 7 2014, Jennifer Lopez talked about how Madonna inspired her to work hard (this took place during J-Lo’s True Love book press conference):

“I still remember when I was a teenage girl and there was Madonna jogging in Central Park (New York) and I thought “wow! she’s famous, she’s rich, she has a lot of success and she’s a great performer; and she’s over there jogging…but she doesn’t need jogging because she’s perfect…but it’s what you MUST do, you MUST work hard. She’s on of my biggest influences and she inspired me a lot.”

Jay’s Note: I remember flipping through paparazzi magazines in waiting rooms as a kid. I loved to look through them because there was always a good chance that there’d be a candid photo of Madonna – and she was usually jogging with her trainer, Rob Parr.