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…’Even Madonna, who presented dancer and protégé Lil Buck with an award, remarked at the interesting mix. “This is really weird. Only for you [Lil Buck],” said the megastar, who delivered a charming, yet quirky speech. “The light is strange here because I can’t see my speech. I’ll just stand here and you can guess what I’m thinking. ‘I wish I had more Champagne. I wish the podium was shorter. I wish I had eaten dinner and I don’t have that shaky feeling I have right now.’ OK, comedy over.”

But the comedy was just beginning. Equating Lil Buck to her “little brother,” she then instructed the audience when to applaud.

“I’ll show you when there are applause moments. I can see you need help. This is a museum audience,” she deadpanned. “Applause moment.”

Her antics continued, as she talked to Lil Buck and audience members. “How did I meet you at a Smirnoff contest? That’s pretty weird. I think you should put your phone down, sir,” she said, then continued her monologue about how she discovered Buck.

“Everyone knows I have an affinity for dancers — that’s not an applause moment,” she laughed, before the dancer came to the stage, wowing the crowd with a heartfelt acceptance speech and a dance performance that drew a standing ovation.

Taken from an article by WWD

Madonna managed to boss around the entire crowd at MoMA on Wednesday night — even instructing guests including Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany, Grace Coddington, Doutzen Kroes, David Chang and Jimmy Iovine on when to put their hands together by barking, “Applause moment!”

Madge was at the museum to present a WSJ Innovator Award to dancer Lil Buck, 26, whom she discovered in a contest and brought on tour.

But when the Material Girl — looking sexy at 56 in Miu Miu — didn’t get the glowing reception she apparently wanted at the beginning of her remarks, she finally sighed, “I’ll tell you when there are applause moments. You need help. This is a museum crowd.”

She then peppered her presentation with the “applause moment” command, which effectively coaxed clapping. She also warned Valentino’s partner in the audience, expert Instagrammer Giancarlo Giammetti, to “please put your phone away, sir.” And she poked fun at her predilection for seducing backup dancers by saying with a wink, “Everybody knows I have an affinity for dancers — a sympathetic nerve, so to speak.”

Buck then made a gracious, heartfelt speech and brought the house down with his moves.

Iovine and his Beats Electronics partner Dr. Dre were given an award by reclusive rapper Eminem, who explained, “Dre and Jimmy are a force of nature . . . They got me to fly here all the way from Detroit to speak publicly. And I really hate public speaking. My palms are sweaty.”

Connelly presented an award to Louis Vuitton designer Nicolas Ghesquière in front of guests Joan Smalls and Karlie Kloss and the night’s host, WSJ magazine editor Kristina O’Neill.

Guests were later invited to tour MoMA’s hot Matisse exhibition upstairs, where honoree Kara Walker, fresh from her own acclaimed Domino Sugar Factory show, briefly took off her towering heels and walked about the works in bare feet, with LA MOCA director Philippe Vergne.

Lil Buck was last seen in an intense dance-off at a Doubles after-party.

Taken from an article by Page Six

….’Highlights of the night included Madonna’s delightfully unhinged, meandering speech in honor of dancer Lil Buck. Equal parts irritated mom and supportive mentor, the queen of pop complained, “Buck shows up uninvited at my house for dinner all the time,” but went on to praise his tenacity, grace, and talent. Midway through her speech, she scolded a man in the audience for taking a photo of her at the podium. None of that mattered once Lil Buck took the stage and performed his now-famous “Swan” dance. He received both the Performing Arts Innovation award and a standing ovation from the crowd.’

Taken from an article by NY Mag

Editor in Chief WSJ. Magazine Kristina O’Neill, dancer Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and Madonna attend WSJ. Magazine’s “Innovator Of The Year” Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York City.

Madonna attends WSJ. Magazine’s “Innovator Of The Year” Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York City.

Madonna speaks at WSJ. Magazine’s “Innovator Of The Year” Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York City.

Dancer Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and Madonna attend WSJ. Magazine’s “Innovator Of The Year” Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York City.

In We’re No. 1, The A.V. Club examines an album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music, and how that concept has changed over the years. In this installment, we cover Madonna’s Like A Prayer, which went to No. 1 on April 22, 1989, where it stayed for six weeks.

As 1989 dawned, it seemed like business as usual for Madonna. Her movie career continued to chug along: She was in throwback starlet mode in the forgotten Bloodhounds Of Broadway and gearing up to play the coquettish caricature Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy. Meanwhile, her personal life was attention-grabbing tabloid bait. Her tumultuous marriage to Sean Penn finally ended in divorce and she was making Pepsi gunshy about their endorsement deal, because people mistook the edgy “Like A Prayer” video—which featured burning crosses, among other things—for part of its ad campaign. (In reality, the Pepsi clip’s main emotional tug was rather innocuous black-and-white footage of Madonna as a beatific child.)

All of this turmoil overshadowed the fact that as a musician and songwriter, Madonna was looking to deviate from the formula that made her famous. For 1989’s Like A Prayer, that meant a serious musical upgrade from popcorn-flick dance-pop fluff and faux-retro Top 40 cuteness. Working again with Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard (who had helped her take baby steps toward maturity on 1986’s True Blue, including the trembling ballad “Live To Tell” and the strident hit “Papa Don’t Preach”), Madonna debuted a more sophisticated approach. “In the past, my records tended to be a reflection of current influences,” she told Rolling Stone. “This album is more about past musical influences. The songs ‘Keep It Together’ and ‘Express Yourself,’ for instance, are sort of my tributes to Sly & The Family Stone. ‘Oh Father’ is my tribute to Simon & Garfunkel, whom I loved.”

Click HERE for full article by AV Club

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 30: Kanye West and Madonna attend Keep A Child Alive’s 11th Annual Black Ball at Hammerstein Ballroom on October 30, 2014 in New York City. (Photos by Kevin Mazur/Child2014/WireImage)

Madonna has carved her own niche as a style chameleon, and on Thursday she resorted to a look that started it all.

The 56-year-old Material Girl was draped in a dress that screamed 1980s as she hit up Keep A Child Alive’s 9th annual Black Ball in New York City on Thursday.

Madonna’s frock featured a tight-fitting bustier with sheer lace details showing off her overflowing cleavage, along with a lace skirt that fluttered to her shins.

Even her accessories were a clear nod to her Desperately Seeking Susan character in the 1985 cult flick who clothes herself in various designs picked up at second hand stores.

Black leather lace-up booties by Givenchy and black lace mitts were a dressy touch, and a heavy crucifix pendant adorned her throat.

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2815311/Madonna-56-goes-punk-rock-days-black-bustier-dress-Child-Alive-gala.html#ixzz3HhpRWiYl

Ahead of MTV’s first Music Video Awards, broadcast Sept. 14, 1984, the network was having difficulty booking top talent. Co-hosts Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler were in their 30s, old for the MTV crowd, and ZZ Top had refused to play — until the network pulled the band’s videos and manager Bill Ham relented.

MTV did, however, secure a largely unknown singer whom MTV’s Chip Rachlin recalls “was a bit difficult.” Madonna wanted to sing a new song, “Like a Virgin,” to a full-grown, white Bengal tiger. The big cat was nixed. Instead, she decided to emerge from a 17-foot tall wedding cake and sing the song in a white wedding dress, a bustier and a BOY TOY belt buckle — a classic Madonna mixed message. But as she descended, one of her white stilettos slipped off. “So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just pretend I meant to do this,’ and I dove on the floor and I rolled around,” she later said. “And, as I reached for the shoe, the dress went up. And the underpants were showing.”

Read full article at Billboard