Today in Madonna History: November 2, 1987

wallpaper trueblue parker images 1920x1200 madonna eva+longoria

On November 2 1987, Madonna’s True Blue won International Album Of The Year at the 17th annual Juno Awards at the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

Today in Madonna History: October 27, 1991

m-smash-oct-28-a m-smash-oct-28-b

On October 27 1991, Madonna won Best Female Solo Singer and Most Fanciable Female at the 4th annual Smash Hits Awards in London, England.

Vanilla Ice was with Madonna (at her home) when she accepted the award via satellite.

Today in Madonna History: September 5, 1986

On September 5 1986, Madonna was honoured with the Video Vanguard Award for her visionary videos at the 3rd annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Palladium in New York City.

Madonna found immense popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Her videos depicted controversial subjects such as teen pregnancy, racism, religion, sex and violence.  She received the Video Vanguard Award for her contributions to the world of music video.

While there’s no denying Madonna was an early innovator in the art of music video, little did MTV – or those of us watching – know at the time that her most artistically groundbreaking work in the medium was yet to come.

Two things we did know at the time, however:

  1. Madonna’s insistence on sending Nikki Finn to collect awards on her behalf during this period was cute and everything, but mostly it just seemed…well…reductive.
  2. Madonna really liked that dress. But was it a dress?

Today in Madonna History: May 26, 1990

madonna0761zjjf1ve0

On May 26, 1990, Madonna is honoured with Pop Artist Of The Decade, Dance Artist Of The Decade and Dance Single Of The Decade (for Into The Groove) in Billboard magazine’s Music Of The 80’s Poll.

Today in Madonna History: May 15, 1995

madonna-ill-remember-sheet-music-0 madonna-ill-remember-sheet-music-1

On May 15 1995, Madonna’s I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors) was honored as one of the Most Performed Songs Of 1994 at the 12th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

Today in Madonna History: December 31, 1999

eyourselfvideo-1Ray-Of-Light-Music-Video-madonna-19531143-854-480likeaprayer

On December 31 1999, the following Madonna videos were included in the Much Music: Top 100 Videos Of The Century includes Express Yourself #3, Ray Of Light #8 and Like A Prayer #47.

Happy New Year! 

Today in Madonna History: December 9, 2001

turner prize_550

On December 9 2001, Madonna presented the Turner Prize to artist Martin Creed at London’s Tate Britain gallery.

Madonna half-seriously plugged her greatest hits album, GHV2, before explaining her feelings of ambivalence towards the merit of awards in relation to the artistic process.

“Art is always at its best when there is no money, because art has nothing to do with money and everything to do with love. Like love, it can be inspiring, inexplicable, provocative and sometimes infuriating. Nevertheless, we can not live without it, so that is why I’m here – not because I think one artist is better than another, but because I want to support any artist who not only has something to say, but has the balls to say it. In a time when political correctness is valued over honesty, I would also like to say – right on motherfuckers! – everyone is a winner.”

Channel 4 unsuccessfully attempted to censor the speech during the live broadcast, and later issued an apology for Madonna’s choice of words, which aired prior to the 9pm watershed. Madonna later explained that she had not intended to use profanity until the producers asked to review the content of her speech prior to the broadcast, sparking her defiance.