Today in Madonna History: January 25, 1989

January 25, 2023 By Jay in 1989, January Tags: Blond Ambition World Tour, I'm Breathless, Like A Prayer (Album), Pepsi, Vogue 1 Comment

On January 25, 1989, following eight months of negotiations, Pepsi announced that they had signed Madonna to a year-long endorsement contract, for which they would pay her $5 million. In return, Madonna would appear in a series of television commercials and Pepsi would sponsor the Like A Prayer World Tour, tentatively slated for later that year.

Pepsi was undaunted by Madonna’s image in the tabloids. “Her appeal is in her music and her acting. That’s where people’s interests are,” announced Pepsi spokesman Tod MacKenzie.

If the Like A Prayer World Tour had gone ahead as planned, do you think it would have been drastically different from Blond Ambition? What would have changed? Vogue and all the songs from Dick Tracy (or I’m Breathless) would have been omitted. What else?

Today in Madonna History: September 19, 1990

September 19, 2022 By Jay in 1990, September Tags: Al Pacino, Certification, Dick Tracy, Hanky Panky, I'm Breathless, Picture Disc, Spanking, Warren Beatty 1 Comment

On September 19 1990, Madonna’s Hanky Panky was certified gold (for shipment of 500,000 units) in the USA.

During an interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna talked about getting a good “spanky”:

The spanking thing started because I believed that my character in Dick Tracy liked to get smacked around and that’s why she hung around with people like Al Pacino’s character. Warren Beatty asked me to write some songs, one of them, the Hanky Panky song, was about that. I say in the song ‘Nothing like a good spanky’, and in the middle I say, ‘Ooh, my bottom hurts just thinking about it’. When it came out everybody started asking, ‘Do you like to get spanked?’ and I said: ‘Yeah. Yeah, I do’.

Today in Madonna History: September 6, 1990

September 6, 2022 By sonicboy19 in 1990, September Tags: David Fincher, I'm Breathless, MTV Video Music Awards, Vogue 3 Comments

On September 6 1990, Madonna performed Vogue at the 7th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California. Vogue won for Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Cinematography.

Greta Garbo, and Monroe
Deitrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine

Grace Kelly; Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen
Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
Ginger Rodgers, dance on air

They had style, they had grace
Rita Hayworth gave good face
Lauren, Katherine, Lana too
Bette Davis, we love you

Ladies with an attitude
Fellows that were in the mood
Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it
Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it

Vogue

Today in Madonna History: August 25, 1990

August 25, 2022 By sonicboy19 in 1990, August Tags: Canadian Singles Chart, Hanky Panky, I'm Breathless, Music Videos 1 Comment

On August 25 1990, Hanky Panky peaked at #18 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles chart (RPM). At the time it was Madonna’s lowest charting Canadian single since Borderline‘s peak of #25 in September, 1984. A handful of later releases would subsequently peak lower on the same chart, however, including Bad Girl (#20 – 1993), Bedtime Story (#46 – 1995) and Human Nature (#64 – 1995).