I was able to review the new documentary Madonna Move To The Music by EM Productions.
We have all seen a dozen or two documentaries on Madonna in the past decades, one more worth your time than the other. Move To The Music documents Madonna’s rise to stardom through file footage, press pictures, quotes, music video clips and interviews with music editors and journalists. A narrator tells Madonna’s story from her early days well up to the (still kind of) current Madame X era.
The “Like a Virgin” promotional campaign was massive and for collectors there’s a lot out there to hunt down.
As if there weren’t enough promotional adverts, let’s talk about the promotional posters and the variety in them! We have a total of 23 related (promotional) posters in our memorabilia section. They range from promotional posters from Japan, UK and the US to regular commercial posters.
In an Instagram post by Madonna where she advocates for gun control following multiple mass shootings across the United States, the 62-year-old pop star clapped back at a woman coincidentally named Karen.
“B***h I don’t have security or armed guards around me,” Madonna said in response to the comment claiming she had guns to protect her and her family. “Come see me and tell me to my face how not real the world is. I dare you.”
The comment quickly turned to racial issues regarding policing and the criminal justice system at large.
“The only criminals I see right now are the police who are paid to protect the people,” Madonna commented. “But the police are protected and the criminal justice system which is a joke because there is no justice if you are a person of color.”
Noticing the name of her troll, Madonna concluded her rant with, “Of course your name is Karen.”
Fans of the musician were elated to see Madonna’s response. One fan on Twitter wrote “Good job! The Queen of Pop a.k.a @Madonna.”
Even those who aren’t fans of the musical icon applauded Madonna’s response.
“At times I don’t like her, but @Madonna was on it,” the user tweeted.
It’s clear the negative political comments did not stop Madonna as the next day, she posted a three-minute CNN clip regarding the shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota.
Madonna: the Queen of Pop. Every tune, dance step and decision over four decades has shaped today’s contemporary musical landscape. Over a career that has lasted for decades, Madonna has ushered underground sounds and trends into the mainstream – she arrived at the dawn on the MTV music video era and utilised the medium to create a series of stylish, sexy clips that garnered her a reputation as a provocateur, whilst establishing the fledgling TV network as a hub for popular culture in the 1980s. Madonna is unstoppable, her impact on pop culture, undeniable, inspiring almost every other female act to come after her. Repeatedly re-inventing herself, she has changed the blueprint of how to be a successful woman in the music business in the process.
2021 – Documentary – 1 h 2 min – English audio – CC – Unrated
Did you get your copy of Polo Lifestyles with Madonna on the cover yet?
This highly collectible magazine in limited print is available through their website. Madonna photographed by Steven Klein was featured on the cover of their February 2021 issue, it became their most-read, most-downloaded and most-sold issue yet.
Never underestimate the power of a Madonna cover!
If you want to add this magazine (which for sure will become highly sought-after) to your collection you can order it online HERE
Realtor.com, ASSOCIATED PRESS; Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Seller The Weeknd
Buyer Madonna
Location Hidden Hills, Los Angeles, Calif.
Price $19.3 million
Year 2017
Specs 12,547 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 9 full and 2 half bathrooms
Lot Size 2.94 acres
She’s back! After a dozen years hopping around between New York City, the Hamptons and Lisbon, Portugal, Madonna has decided to set down some multimillion-dollar roots in Los Angeles.
While we are adding more and more “Like a Virgin” era magazine articles every day (check out the press section daily not to miss anything), there’s also the occasional press photograph or other related memorabilia we come across.
Madonna hosted Saturday Night Live in November 1985, it was her first time on the show but certainly not her last.
Take a look at this original press photograph of Madonna (as ‘Martika’) with Robert Downey Jr.
This has been added to the ‘memorabilia’ section of the “Like a Virgin” page, much more coming soon!
Madonna has covered the Belgium JOEPIE magazine quite often in the 80s, the magazine can easily be compared to Dutch Hitkrant as they often feature the same articles.
Joepie is however much harder to locate and includes some unique Madonna covers.
The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was released in 1994 after first airing on HBO (with some different camera angles). The Girlie Show was also professionally filmed in Fukuoka Japan but was never commercially released as the Australian recording was. The recording has yet to be released on blu-ray.
We have updated and restyled the videography page including a total of 17 items.
Unimedia/Shutterstock; Courtesy of Béatrice de Géa
The pop star’s 1989 video, which was banned by the Vatican, featured the singer dancing in front of burning crosses, experiencing stigmata and kissing a statue of a Black Jesus who comes to life in a church.
Lil Nas X’s video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” — with its glistening pole to hell and sexy satanic lap dance — has reignited the culture wars in ways not seen since the 1980s. Back then, Madonna’s video for “Like a Prayer” was the controversy to beat.
It featured the singer, then 30, dancing in front of burning crosses, experiencing stigmata and kissing a statue of a Black Jesus who comes to life in a church. (The “Saint,” as he was described in the script to appease production executives, was portrayed by actor Leon, who also plays a young man wrongly accused of a crime in the piece.) The video debuted on MTV on Feb. 23, 1989 and was the fifth that Mary Lambert had conceived and directed for the pop star.
“I wanted to explore the correlation between sexual ecstasy and religious ecstasy,” Lambert, 69, tells THR, adding that “the idea of a Black Jesus was scary to a lot of people.” That character “came from Madonna telling me she wanted to ‘fuck a Black guy on the altar,'” Lambert recalls. “I said, ‘Well, why not have it be a Black Jesus? Let’s just go all the way.’ She liked that.” The burning crosses evoked “the idea of appropriation,” Lambert continues, “that the Ku Klux Klan could take a cross, which is a holy symbol to a lot of people, and appropriate it in a way to instill fear and horror and promote race hatred. I wanted to turn that on its head.”
The backlash to the video was intense: The Vatican banned it, and Pope John Paul II encouraged fans to boycott Madonna in Italy. “I don’t remember anybody standing up for it,” she says. “Except the general public.” A far tamer Pepsi commercial set to the song (and made for four times the budget) was yanked fast. “I was very proud of that,” Lambert says.
As for Lil Nas X’s effort, Lambert is impressed, calling it “an amazing visual poem — a sort of folktale about fucking the devil, basically.”
This story first appeared in the April 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
After adding four new “Like a Virgin” promotional adverts from Australia, UK and USA to our dedicated “Like a Virgin” page, we now have a total of 19 promotional adverts for the lead single/album from 1984 online!
This is it for the “Like a Virgin” single for now as we are moving on to the promotional adverts for “Material Girl”
To check them all out in full (and the other promo adverts that were online already) click HERE
Did you know that Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” wasn’t her first ‘scented’ release? Decades later we are still smelling the patchouli.
According to various reports, the second single from the “Like a Virgin” album, “Material Girl” was scented with Chanel no.5!
The promotional advert as published in Billboard states: 12″ Maxi Single (Extended Dance Remix, Scented package) and an article from Smash Hits (February/March 1985) where they’re giving away “Material Girl” promotional posters they write:
In its full 12″ glory, it’s no ordinary record. It’s perfumed with the tres expensive scent of Chanel No.5. Pretty Groovy huh?
Check out all articles in full at the Like a Virgin page
I have sniffed at my promotional 12″ record of “Material Girl” (with press release) but other than it being musty with mothballs I could not locate any trace of Chanel no.5………
The 80s in pop music are considered the decade of superstars and the pop year 1985 is the pinnacle of that. Leo Blokhuis takes us back to the year in which Bruce Springsteen, Prince and Madonna dominate the charts. In addition, there is Band Aid, Live Aid and USA for Africa and Mick Jagger and David Bowie are number 1 with their version of the Motown hit Dancing in the street.
23:15 to 00:30
NPO 2 extra
Repeated on: April 8 (17.40), April 10 (13.00), April 11 (05.40), April 12 (07.35)
EW has confirmed Madonna and the Oscar-nominated Juno writer turned in a final draft of the script before the latter ‘moved on’ to a new project.
Reports swirled earlier this week that Diablo Cody had shown Madonna‘s self-directed biopic the power of goodbye, but EW can confirm that the pair turned in a finished, final draft of the script they spent months working on throughout 2020.
A studio source at Universal, where the film is gestating, tells EW that reports of the Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter’s “departure” from the movie have been exaggerated, and that Cody simply completed her work and moved on to her next project.
Cody and Madonna recently delivered a completed draft of the film to the studio, which is looking at developing the current version ahead of production. It’s unclear whether additional work will be done on the version the women turned in, as big-budget productions normally go through rewrites, treatments, and polishing before shooting begins.
The Sun first reported news of Cody’s alleged exit, indicating difficulties between the two reportedly leading to Cody’s decision to walk away. Representatives for Cody and Madonna didn’t respond to EW’s requests for comment.
After months of teasing a secret project with Cody throughout 2020, Madonna announced in September that they had indeed been working on a biopic about her life that she would direct herself, and further revealed extensive plot details that the writer-director pair had included so far in the unfinished draft’s first 107 pages.
Most of the film, Madonna said, would follow her “struggle as an artist trying to survive in a man’s world as a woman, and really just the journey,” which she described as a “happy, sad, mad, crazy, good, bad, and ugly” tale of the making of a superstar. Milestones Madonna and Cody discussed at the time included the pop icon’s rise through the entertainment industry in New York City, writing “Like a Prayer,” filming Evita, and her connection with Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza and Luis Xtravaganza, two members of New York City’s Harlem ballroom scene that played a monumental role in the success of her 1990 smash song “Vogue.”
Fans have since speculated as to who could portray Madonna in the film, with unconfirmed reports swirling that Oscar nominee Florence Pugh was considered for the part alongside Ozark‘s Julia Garner. 13 Reasons Why star Anne Winters made a public plea for the role late last year, donning a series of Madonna-inspired looks in an Instagram photo set.
The 62-year-old pop icon posted a series of selfies to her Instagram grid on Friday, which showed her wearing a collection of several necklaces — and seemingly not much else.
In the topless images, Madonna gazes at the camera with a serious expression on her face as her long blonde hair hangs down the front of her body, concealing her breasts.
“Why do I have to Explain Everything … 🐰,” she wrote in the caption.
While Madonna didn’t elaborate on the nature of her caption, she has been in the news as of late regarding her presence on social media.
In a video posted to her TikTok on March 10, Goldie shared a side-by-side image from a magazine that showed Madonna in an identical outfit and pose to hers, including a Joy Division T-shirt, houndstooth-pattern skirt and black platform heels.
“I [would] definitely laugh and say I’m flattered, but of course that I wish I was credited!” Goldie told Buzzfeed of how she’d respond if Madonna, whom she is a big fan of, ever reached out to her.
“I think if you’re going to play somebody else’s body off as your own, they deserve to be mentioned. But no hard feelings!” she added. (A rep for Madonna has not responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment, and the singer has not publicly addressed the allegations.)
On Thursday, the “Like a Virgin” hitmaker posted a series of sultry videos in which she seemed to be making her relationship with backup dancer/rumored boyfriend Ahlamalik Williams Instagram official.
In the videos, Madonna was wearing a purple hooded windbreaker over her long blonde locks, licking her lips seductively for what appeared to be a photo shoot with Williams, 26, as smoke billowed around the pair.
The two shared several steamy kisses throughout the footage, set to a background track of “Vanity” by Aftertheparty. At one point, Madonna even blew smoke into Williams’ mouth.
She also posted a shared of snapshots from the shoot, giving a closer look at her ensemble including large hoop earrings, a variety of necklaces, a wide-rimmed black hat, a low-cut black top — and, in one photo, a marijuana cigarette between her teeth.
While a rep for Madonna has not commented on the nature of her relationship with Williams, the two were spotted with his hands around her waist on her hotel balcony in Miami in December 2019. He’d been a fixture on her Instagram account since earlier that year, making appearances throughout the summer and fall, and has since popped up occasionally, including during her 62nd birthday trip to Jamaica in August.
Justify My Love was Madonna’s first ever video single. The music video was deemed unfit for TV and therefore it was decided to release it as a video single. In Europe the record company added the MTV performance of “Vogue” to the video single.
In the videography we have seven different pressings of the video for you to view. Most interesting is the European promo that is included, as this is the only copy I have ever come across.
Around 15 years ago on the mega record and CD fair in Utrecht I stumbled upon the VHS offered by a Dutch dealer. It caught my eye as I had never seen the video single in a full colour slipcase (same picture both sides), I was so intruiged by it I never thought of asking the seller more about it. Only thing he said to me was ‘interesting one hey?’, he asked 10 EUR for the tape.
The video is housed in a highly glossy thick cardboard slipcase, same picture printed both sides (same image as used on the sticker for the commercial video singles), the side and top have the title printed and the VHS has a sticker label with the title and mentions it is in PAL format. The tape is the length of the music video and stops right after it finishes. I have never come across another. Research has learned me that this is possibly a high security promo, hence so few around.
To check out all the pictures of this particular video and the others, check out our updated and restyled Justify My Love video page HERE
THERE is more drama going on in getting Madonna’s biopic made than you will see on screen.
I’ve learned that her writer Diablo Cody has quit the project after finding Madge too difficult to work with.
The pair spent weeks together last summer writing the movie, which is expected to take an in-depth look at the early years of her career.
But Diablo — who won an Oscar for screenwriting 2007’s Juno — and Madonna didn’t see eye-to-eye on the final version of the film.
When the Hung Up singer announced the project with Universal Pictures last September, she revealed she would be both co-writing and directing, but now her involvement is threatening to derail it.
She didn’t look too fussed today though, as she posted these photos of herself smoking a suspicious cigarette and snogging her boyfriend Ahlamalik Williams.
My movie insider said: “Madonna and Diablo spent weeks working on the screenplay and made good progress.
“But Madonna is understandably very particular about how she wants it to be. She’s a perfectionist and because it is about her life, she is being very careful about how things come across.
“Diablo needed more freedom to be able to make it work and ultimately decided she couldn’t contrib-ute any more.
“Universal Pictures knows it could be a massive earner for them, especially after the success of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, so are searching for a new writer.
“But Madonna doesn’t need the money and isn’t going to let a movie get made which she doesn’t feel is authentic to her experiences.”
When the film was announced, producer Amy Pascal said: “I can’t imagine anything more thrilling than collaborating with her and Diablo on bringing her true-life story to the big screen.”
However, they are not expected to formally announce her departure until a new writer is on board.
Brit Florence Pugh had been the most recent actress who Madonna was considering to play her, although casting is on hold until a script is ready.
Ozark actress Julia Garner was also in the running, while 13 Reasons Why star Anne Winters had put out a public plea to get the lead.
Whoever it is, they had better be prepared to put up with Madonna’s high standards.
