Olympian Goddess: Best Madonna Concert Ever?

I’m still coming down from the high of Madonna’s concert at The Olympia in Paris on July 26^th, 2012, a day that will live on in history as one of Madonna’s most important contributions to the arts. In fact, I'm still stunned that it's over. 

Madonna's new single: the PERFECT opener to a PERFECT show!

The first half of the show was Madonna at her most human. There were minor glitches which I noticed but can’t remember, and a sense of “first time out” nervousness that typically arises on the opening night of any Madonna tour but which is usually absent from her most polished TV performances. I LOVED her speech to the audience, where she was at her most revealing in admitting that she doesn't actually want to create enemies. Madonna loves to stir it up onstage, but I don't think the human being offstage is nearly as confrontational when she's not holding a microphone. Then we were treated to that stunning "Justify My Love" interlude, which I am convinced was partly inspired by Behind The Green Door and which was exquisite in a club setting. Then, the black-and-white, filmed Madonna transitioned into the real woman for "Vogue", and without losing an ounce of Old Hollywood star quality. Madonna's look during this number in The MDNA Tour is my favorite Madonna look EVER, and seeing those famous eyes of Bette Davis staring at me from my screen when she sang "Bette Davis, we love you" was utterly thrilling. 

Nothing brings out my inner child quite like a STUNNING new rendition of "Vogue"!

At first I thought it was a condensed version of The MDNA Tour in an improved setting. I couldn't believe how much more audience-engaging these numbers seemed at The Olympia than they did in the stadium footage on YouTube, and I was positively ecstatic by how fueled Madonna was by the French audience when she performed that sizzling "Candy Shop"/"Erotica" number with Brahim Zaibat. Actually, I was kind of distracted by him--for a twenty four year old, he sure has a worldliness when he dances that matches her youthfulness. It makes their age difference non-existent, and their chemistry is overwhelming. I expected her to segue into "Like A Virgin", but then she blew my mind by giving us all the performance of "Beautiful Killer" we'd been waiting for--AND THEN SOME! My mind was slightly cluttered by all the potential UK & US tabloid headlines about Madonna's insensitivity in putting guns in her show. In fact, I hate to admit that imagining uninformed TV pundits claiming she was using last week's tragedy to stir up controversy nearly blotted out the music I was hearing and loving. Thankfully those screaming fans in Paris and that Goddess on the stage distracted me from all that. Like she said, the enemy is within, and Madonna kicked its ass. When she sang“Je t'aime… moi non plus”, I thought I might die: it was as though she was performing a duet with the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg, and gave one of the best acting performances of her career. When that number ended, I was preparing for her to return with "Like A Prayer" or "Celebration", assuming the show would end as the tour does. When it didn't, I was even MORE stunned by the last two songs--bravo to my favorite living artist for leaving those last images burned into our mind like the final frames of a great (FRENCH) movie. 

The 9-minute, 2-song finale: among the greatest highlights of Madonna's entire career.

Madonna has promoted her new music with club gigs since 1998’s Ray of Light prompted that legendary 2:30 AM mini-concert at The Roxy in New York, and since 2000’s Music she’s streamed many of these club gigs on AOL or MSN. Her MDNA mini-concert streamed on YouTube and marked the first time that such a performance came four months after the release of the related album and two months after the launch of a world tour. It was a truly unprecedented gig akin to her 2005 hints at having The Confessions Tour accompanied by club appearances around the USA.  Staging The Olympia Show after The MDNA Tour has already become enmeshed in her career history underlined the widely held opinion that Madonna’s performances definitely work best in small venues. Six of the greatest hours of my life were spent seeing Madonna in stadiums, and I’m certainly not suggesting that her arena and stadium shows are somehow inferior to what we all just saw at The Olympia. But there’s no denying that the innate theatricality of everything Madonna does, especially when she’s holding a microphone, is best appreciated the closer you are to her.

The 2012 re-invention of "Open Your Heart" plays BEAUTIFULLY in a smaller venue!

In light of recent events in Colorado, I’m inclined to think Madonna’s performances of “Beautiful Killer/Die Another Day” and “Je t'aime… moi non plus” will be controversial for a few weeks. But I’m more certain that they will go on to be remembered among the finest performances of her career. Future Madonna fans won’t be caring about how many records MDNA sold--or, I should sadly say, didn't sell. They’ll just wish they could turn the clock back and see the show that we all just saw when it was live and current and being watched by fans all around the world all at the same time. When I was screaming and jumping in my living room as loud and as high as the crowds in France, I was not the only one involuntarily putting on a separate show entirely. In fact, there were probably screaming complaints in every major city during those glorious minutes when Madonna refused to let the media terrorists win by giving the performance of "Beautiful Killer" that every fan has been dreaming of. “American Life” could have hurt Madonna’s career if the wildly violent and utterly brilliant original video had been broadcast. But I refuse to believe it would have done any more damage than what was done when she pulled it, in turn disappointing a number of fans who look to her to be ever-defiant. I truly believe she did this to protect her then-husband’s career more than her own. Without that concern at The Olympia, she could be as audacious and brilliant as we wanted her to be. And boy, was she EVER.

"BEAUTIFUL KILLER": The Madonnarama edit of Madonna's CLASSIC number!

Addendum, 07/28/12: 

Well, it turned out to be controversial.....but not for the reasons I expected. I won't link to footage that's all over YouTube of fans hurling obscenities and empty water bottles onstage after the show ended. I sympathize with fans who paid close to $400 for tickets without realizing they were only getting a fifty minute show, especially as I'm STILL saving up my pennies for Madonna's upcoming tour stop in Boston this September. I'll comment on that infamous audience reaction in an upcoming post closer to Madonna Day 2012, but for now I'll leave you with the final performance of the show. I hope this isn't pulled from YouTube any time soon, because I think it's one of Madonna's finest hours. I don't consider Madonna "The Queen of Pop" because of all the money she's made or the records she broke in the process. I consider her "The Queen"--we can drop the "of Pop" bit in RobWorld--because she is not only capable of creating great works of art but also of creating great works of FUN. I have watched this over and over because it is as ridiculously entertaining as it is mentally stimulating. It's more like the final scene of the movie that I have always dreamed Madonna and Dario Argento would make together, not the closing number of one of her concerts. It certainly put the French audience over the edge--no wonder they were so inclined to riot! I'm well aware that I am A.) biased and B.) don't have money to throw around, but I'm still inclined to believe these 4.5 minutes alone were worth the price of admission.

Madonnarama's edit of Madonna's unbelievable take on "Je t'aime...moi non plus"

07/29/12 Update: Madonna's response to her legendary night at l'Olympia.* (I know I'm not the only one who thinks Marine Le Pen played a role in this...) 

*Thank you GangsterSaysRelax!!

08/06/12 Double Update: 

1.) Madonna speaking to her fans to address the l'Olympia controversy when she brought The MDNA Tour to Vienna several days after the Paris club show. 

2.) The full-length show is finally BACK ON YOUTUBE in an HD "Director's Cut" version that has been personally approved by Madonna!!

(Psst! You can also download the whole performance thanks to Madonnarama!;) 

To Be In Love With Her Masterpiece

Remember when Madonna's American Life album was (mostly) attacked by U.S./U.K. critics and (mostly) ignored by U.S./U.K. listeners but went on to become one of her most celebrated albums in France? Critically and commercially, Madonna’s “W.E.” has already bombed in the U.S. and U.K. But, upon having finally seen it myself at an unintentionally private screening in Boston, I am left convinced that French audiences will love it as much as I did.

After much anticipation and a secretly massive dose of skepticism, I am so very happy not to be lying when I say that I absolutely LOVED “W.E.”. I can’t possibly write a review because it will come off as a studio plant’s phony attempt to coax people into seeing it. The people who need to see “W.E.” will discover it and the people who don’t will probably avoid it like the plague. Besides, I’m so high off of my own satisfaction, and especially my pride for Madonna, that I could not possibly care less about what people think of it or how much money it makes. It’s not like me to think that way about any aspect of Madonna’s career, what with my desire for her to always be on top and smashing records as she gets there. But the euphoria I get from seeing a movie which I truly adore, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks, supersedes my most cynical impulses. And I truly adored “W.E.”.

I’ve been awaiting this film for several years, and like many Madonna fans, I was slightly frustrated that her music career was put on hold by such a risky project. But I knew it was a worthy risk, for I’d dreamed of “Madonna, the filmmaker” for years and years—in spite of her occasionally promising but mostly unfulfilling pseudo-debut, Filth And Wisdom. I didn’t think that that was a terrible film, despite what I’d feared from excerpted clips, but it felt more like a long lost film student’s project than a proper debut. “W.E.” is that proper debut. As is the case with Madonna’s albums, videos, and stage shows, I relish its imperfections as much as its strengths, and I’m sure that generations of fans will come to as well—I suspect that the film is destined for greatness as a minor cult classic thanks to its deeply spiritual themes and bold defiance of conventional narrative form. Adherence to a rigid three act structure is replaced by a loose, deliberately planned yet seemingly haphazard journey through time and space. As a movie lover, I was delighted by the opportunity not to know what was coming next.  As a screenwriter, I was reminded of how much the cinematic instincts on display in Madonna's music has affected me; here it is her musical instincts that are being put to use on film. I speak of not only the rhythmic editing of multiple film stocks, but also the jarring spatial and thematic shifts that keep the pace from dragging or the proceedings from sinking into sappiness. If anything, I thought the film could have used a bit more sap—when Edward tells Wallis he’ll abdicate the throne for her, my heart was craving an instrumental prompt of Madonna's “Masterpiece”. 

In spite of her romantic tendencies, avoiding pop sentimentality is clearly Madonna’s taste as a film fan, and in turn she stands by this as a filmmaker—after all, Madonna, unlike me, was not particularly enamored with James Cameron’s Titanic. But slickness and uptempo pacing are not the only attributes ported over from Madonna’s music career. The assembly of scenes feels more like the arrangement of a concept album than an outline to a contemporary Hollywood screenplay. I applaud her decision to flex her creative muscles as a director instead of surrendering to a widely accepted mindset shared by the people who would come to negatively review her film. 

   

I put up my “Vogue Boy” video in anticipation of the world premiere of “W.E.” because I dreamed that someone would ask Madonna about my video while she walked the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival. I followed the film’s trek from Venice to Toronto to New York to LA and back to New York for its American premiere and proper release. All the while, I was committed to seeing the film in Boston, where I’d previously seen every single one of Madonna’s films since Four Rooms in 1995. Prior to that, seeing Dick Tracy on the big screen made me a lifelong Madonna mega-fan. Seeing A League of Their Own sparked my inner commitment to making films that appealed to audiences the way that WWII Era “women’s films” did. No Madonna movie-going experience could be quite as epic as the night I saw Evita, but all of my first Madonna movie viewings have special significance, and "W.E." was among the top highlights. 

  

  

Attending a Monday night show was not a surefire bet for a packed house, particularly considering the film’s poor business in limited release. But I did not expect that I and my sister Jennifer Jeffrey, who like Madonna is a budding female filmmaker, would have the whole auditorium to ourselves. We did, and it made for a more relaxed viewing: minus the insecurities of how the audience was reacting to more daring filmmaking choices allowed me to appreciate the movie as an admittedly flawed but totally fulfilling work of art-as-entertainment. I suppose the inevitable sadness I should have felt for the lack of an audience dissipated instantly as a result of the lights going down as soon as we took our seats. With only two tickets having been sold, the theater didn't bother to show more than three minutes' worth of coming attractions. Either that, or someone in the projection booth timed the start of the film with our arrival. It’s a shame that so few people will end up seeing it on the big screen, because it’s gorgeous to look at and stunning to listen to: Abel Korzeniowski’s truly exquisite score is a powerhouse in surround sound, and an invaluable asset to the film. The big screen setting also captures the oppression that dominates both Wally (Abbie Cornish) and Wallis (Andrea Riseborough), and the ever-moving camera makes it difficult to look away. The script may not be rock-solid, but Madonna’s talent as a director matches her talent as a stage performer, and thus the overall impact is similarly “WOW”-inducing. After seeing it for myself, I’m honestly glad that it won’t be labeled “an Oscar film”. It IS a shame that such a promising debut should be mercilessly slaughtered by critics and ignored by audiences, but the initial rejection by the masses does add to the rebel quality of a film that refuses to cater to the crowd that it would appear to be appealing to—much like Wallis Simpson herself.

   

Thanks to its upcoming home video release and today’s announcement that the film will be streaming on Netflix instead of premium television, I look forward to it being discovered by young women who are feeling frustrated by a repressive society and looking for mentorship from those who have broken free. The decision to so brazenly depict the concept of a spirit guide speaks to Madonna’s own spiritual beliefs and her adamant refusal to downplay such convictions—even, and most especially, when it threatens the very commercial success that she is ever gauged by. In this regard, the film is as shameless as anything Madonna has ever done, and her commitment to every single aspect of its execution, good or bad, speaks to her belief in the message she has built it upon. Its message is deeply spiritual, and quite literal, and should survive the test of time to rise above the cries of critics. “W.E.” made me feel so happy and optimistic when I came home from seeing it that I had to immediately write my thought  down, lest I ever forget the sensation of satisfaction following years of anticipation and months of bad press. I know it will continue to inspire that response in surprised viewers for the rest of time.

   

My Love Letter To "Give Me All Your Luvin'"

Like many of you, I am sick of the ageism being hurled Madonna’s way for the last, oh, say, twenty years. Megaforce’s “Give Me All Your Luvin”, Madonna’s first video of the new decade, is an affront to that ageism. 

It’s not the defiantly and effectively youthful quality of Madonna’s (fabulous) song that makes the most powerful statement about the triviality of a performer’s age. It’s the ripe-at-fifty-three sexuality on display in the video. Madonna's sexuality isn’t dark or intense in this video, as in Jean Baptiste Mondino's “Justify My Love" or Madonna's SEX book. Rather, it’s colorful and silly and fun and frothy, just like the song itself. It’s Madonna affecting positive change the way she does best: not with an overt political statement, but rather by being herself, without any hint of shame. Physical beauty will always be subjective and societal. But sex appeal is irrefutable and eternal. Madonna is sexier than ever at fifty-three, and she seems to be having more fun than ever, too. I don’t love this simply because I love Madonna. I love many women in their 40s and 50s who are sexy and funny and have many decades of living ahead of them. Their uniquely earned glory is being celebrated by Madonna, and in turn by the millions of people who are watching this video. After all, the young should be jealous of the experienced—NOT the other way around. 

I think that this is Madonna’s best work in music videos since the one-two punch of Johan Renck’s “Hung Up” and Jamie King’s “Sorry”, the former of which might be her best video and the latter of which might be my personal favorite. I also think that “Give Me All Your Luvin’” is her most important video since Guy Ritchie’s “What It Feels Like For A Girl”. Both are works of pop art meant to evoke “oohs” and “aahs” amongst the loyal fans who are bound to love seeing Madonna achieve the impossible in a music video fantasy world. But they’re also both chances for Madonna to express her frustration with the rules handed down on her, not as Madonna herself but as a representative of two overlapping demographics that she belongs to. “What It Feels Like For A Girl” was about the restrictions that are commonly and universally placed on women from birth to death, and the violent extremes to which one might go in rebelling against those restrictions. In “Give Me All Your Luvin’” Madonna lashes out at the constraints that society places on women over fifty. “What It Feels Like For A Girl” makes a statement through the glamorization of violence being committed by a woman against all men. Madonna’s similarly in-your-face approach in “Give Me All Your Luvin’” takes the exact opposite form: it is a display of adoration of an older woman by hordes of younger men.  There are many women who can and do attract the adoration of younger men, but few of them are celebrated for it. In fact most of them, like Madonna, are scorned for it, publicly and privately, by gay and straight men and by gay and straight women.

I haven't emphasized the invaluable contributions of M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj to the song and video because they will inevitably (and involuntarily) be credited with bringing young people to the clip. This is not to undermine their own brilliance as artists, nor the edginess and self-definition which prompted Madonna to see herself in them. Thankfully, there’s a sign on YouTube that the "Give Me All Your Luvin'" video is already making an important impact on young people, separate from its M.I.A./Nicki appeal. Special thanks to my friend Nelson for showing me a video that fills me with optimism. After all, nothing trumps ageism quite like brilliant teenagers.

Madonna’s career as an artist has coincided with her contributions as a liberating icon, and her comfort with her own sexuality has been at the center of her positive and vital impact on feminism and gay rights. Now, at the dawn of a new era in her career, I hope that Madonna will continue to shatter Western society’s concepts about aging. All people, male and female, reach a certain age at which they’re expected to act a certain way, dress a certain way, and restrict themselves a certain way. Madonna is saying NO to that "certain age"/"certain way" mode of thinking. The more her message reaches the masses, the better chance we all have of living in a world that is rid of the prejudices that shape our conscious and unconscious perceptions of people. 

I have actively followed Madonna's life and career since 1990, and I have witnessed the world's perception of my sexual orientation changing dramatically since then. Madonna’s once radical views on gender and sexuality have become absorbed into the mainstream in the two decades since her most famously progressive works of art achieved commercial success and media saturation. But there’s a new terrain for her to conquer, and that warpath is the world’s intense resistance towards women who do not age quietly.

And who better to change the world than the woman who rules it?

Top 15: My Madonna Summer Wishlist

For the past few years, I and my fellow fans were explaining to the naysayers that Madonna hadn’t disappeared from the pop landscape, she was merely gearing up for the biggest chapter of her career. We were right.

Over the next five days, Madonna will release a new single, a new music video, a new movie, a new soundtrack album, and make appearances on daytime and late-night television.  In seven days, she’ll play the Super Bowl Halftime Show, giving the most anticipated performance of her thirty year career.

Two days after the Super Bowl, Madonna is expected to officially announce her first world tour of the new decade. Fans have been offering up suggestions for songs worthy of inclusion this time out, and I thought I’d offer my own dream list of what I’d most LOVE to hear live this summer. The chances of hearing some of these would be incredibly slim, but, as Madonna would say, “a girl CAN dream, can't she?". 

Here is my Tour 2012 Wish List, in (sort of) reverse chronological order: 




"CELEBRATION" (2009)

The title track of her 2009 Warner Bros career retrospective, Madonna’s most recent worldwide hit spent just one week in the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to healthy sales upon its debut before becoming Madonna’s 40^th #1 single on Billboard’s Dance/Club Play chart. In doing so, Madonna became the first female artist to achieve 40 #1s on any Billboard chart and the first non-country artist to achieve 40 #1s on any Billboard chart. Sampled on the 2009 leg of The Sticky & Sweet Tour, it has never been given a proper performance, and would make a fabulous finale for just about any tour—especially this one. 

"REVOLVER" (2009)

The first collaboration between Madonna and Lil Wayne and the very last single Madonna ever released for Warner Bros was unceremoniously dumped onto the market sans a music video, promotion, or radio airplay. It bombed like no other Madonna single, cracking the Top 20 only in Italy and Finland, while failing to chart in the Top 100 in the USA or United Kingdom. In the US, it even failed to top the Dance/Club Play Chart, where Madonna typically reigns at #1, despite David Guetta’s popular remix. But that shouldn’t mar the reputation of what is arguably one of Madonna’s sexiest, coolest, most polished recordings—it fits in flawlessly after “Justify My Love” and “Erotica” on the Celebration LP and it deserves to finally be immortalized onstage this summer. 

"BROKEN" (2009)

One of the most popular Madonna songs ever to be omitted from her albums, "Broken" was originally recorded as a folk-y song for American Life before it was radically reworked and re-recorded by Madonna and Paul Oakenfold in 2009 for the Celebration compilation. It didn’t make the cut, but in 2010 it leaked and in 2012 it is finally being released as a limited edition 12” vinyl for members of Madonna’s fanclub. I accidentally let my membership expire before I had a shot at owning the song that was my theme through 2011, and I’ve been kicking myself ever since. But it sure would soften the blow if Madonna performed it live! After all, this is a timeless empowerment anthem worthy of comparison to "Give It 2 Me",  “Jump”, and “Express Yourself”.

"IT'S SO COOL" (2009)

"It's So Cool" is another song originally recorded for American Life and re-rerecorded for Celebration with the masterful collaboration of Paul Oakenfold. I love every version of this song (one of the 2002 demos featured guest vocals from Lola Leon!) but this one is my personal favorite: the pro-love message of the track is perfectly hammered home with Oakenfold’s fabulous beats. Only ever released as part of the iTunes special edition of Celebration, it might be a long shot for the setlist, but would still be fabulous with a stadium full of fans.

"LOVE PROFUSION" (2004)

Best known for its gorgeous music video filmed by Luc Besson, the last major single from American Life peaked in the UK Top 10 and topped the U.S. club charts, but was sorely absent from 2004's The Re-Invention Tour and didn’t fit into subsequent tours. Rumor has it that an electric guitar-heavy version of the 'Headcleanr Rock Mix' of "Love Profusion" was rehearsed for "Re-Invention". Like many of you, I’m still waiting to hear that incarnation on the stage!

"AMAZING" (2000)

"Amazing" is one of many masterful creations by Madonna and William Orbit. This album track from Music is also one of the gems that was conspicuously absent from 2001's The Drowned World Tour--rumor has it that a single release meant to coincide with the tour was scrapped at the last minute. It’s rock-y, it’s dance-y, and it’s an intense ode to the power of unrequited love. In other words, it’s a classic Madonna song, and it would make for an AMAZING Madonna performance, no matter the era. (I know, I know, my pun was lame.)

"SKIN" (1998)

A surreal love story and a throbbing dance track: this acclaimed album cut helped to define  the sound of Madonna and William Orbit’s Grammy-winning Ray of Light LP. Back in 1998, I was CERTAIN that "Skin" would be released as a single, and “Nothing Really Matters” would be its B-side. Alas, that never happened. “Skin” was never filmed as a video either, nor was it among the many Ray of Light cuts that made it onto the The Drowned World Tour setlist. I’m sure I’m not the only fan who has awaited its inclusion in a tour ever since.

"INSIDE OF ME" (1994)

An absolute fan favorite! This lush album cut could be interpreted any number of ways by any number of listeners, but "Inside of Me" was written about Madonna’s eternal relationship with her mother. Some have suggested that it would have been a hit single had it been the follow-up to “Take a Bow” and “Secret”, and I don’t doubt it—it is possibly my favorite track from Bedtime Stories, her first LP ever to be nominated for a “Best Pop Album” Grammy.

"THIS USED TO BE MY PLAYGROUND" (1992)

Madonna supposedly hates "This Used To Be My Playground", but I’ve NEVER met a fan who didn’t LOVE her 10th U.S. #1 single. It is Madonna the songwriter at her most mature, and Madonna the vocalist at her most empathetic. It’s tough to say if it would work onstage anywhere but at the 1993 Academy Awards, and perhaps its failure to be recognized as an Oscar-nominated song is why she's had no interest in singing it. But that doesn’t mean hearing it wouldn’t make millions of concert-goers’ dreams come true. 

"KEEP IT TOGETHER" (1989) 

"Keep It Together" hasn’t been performed since it was the closing number of both The Blond Ambition Tour and subsequently Truth or Dare. Its prominent display in both visual mediums is fitting since it was never given a music video. It was also not featured on The Immaculate Collection or Celebration, so I’m guessing it was considered a minor chart disappointment for making the US Top 10 but not The Top 5—how I miss those days in Madonna/Billboard history! With the internet having truly connected Madonna’s fanbase like a family since the 1990s, it seems that “Keep It Together” would be a pleasant surprise, and most fitting for the millions of loyal ticket-buyers who have made Madonna’s the world’s most popular touring solo artist. 

"CAUSING A COMMOTION" (1987)

The 2nd single from The Who’s That Girl Soundtrack went to #2 in the U.S. and it has not not been performed since The Blond Ambition Tour. Inspired by the animation that accompanied it in the film Who’s That Girl, "Causing a Commotion" remains endlessly listenable, and is one of the few Madonna singles from her first decade that, for better or worse, positively screams “80s!”. It felt conspicuously absent from the oldies-heavy Re-Invention World Tour—not to mention the Immaculate Collection and Celebration compilations. Could it finally enjoy an overdue second life on Madonna’s upcoming tour? 

"OPEN YOUR HEART" (1986)

"Open Your Heart" was a #1 single in America and remains one of Madonna’s most massively popular songs in every country. The fourth single from True Blue was also featured on The Immaculate Collection and Celebration, and it was sampled in both 2001’s The Drowned World Tour and the 2009 leg of The Sticky & Sweet Tour, and some lucky audiences got to enjoy its inclusion as the sing-a-along number on the 2008 leg of Sticky & Sweet. It’s not been afforded a proper performance since 1990's Blond Ambition, and I strongly suspect this greatest of singles will make its long awaited return to the stage in 2012. 

"ANGEL" (1984)

"Angel" was only ever performed on The Virgin Tour in Summer 1985, the same time that it peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was one of three songs conspicuously omitted from the home video version of The Virgin Tour, adding to its "lost classic" status, and it remains to this day my favorite song from the Like A Virgin LP. More than any other cut from her first two albums, I think it demonstrates in Madonna a vocal sincerity that would come to define her subsequent True Blue LP.  It’s also a timelessly delicious morsel of pop craftsmanship, and it is the ONLY one of her pre-1986 singles not to have been performed on tour or at a promo concert during the last eight years. 

"TRUE BLUE" (1986)

Like “Angel”, "True Blue" is one of Madonna’s most beloved songs, and like “Angel”, it gave her another Top 5 entry—peaking at #3 in the U.S. and #1 in the U.K. It was the title track of the bestselling studio album of her career, and a highlight of The Who’s That Girl Tour, but the musical love letter to then-husband Sean Penn hasn’t been performed since. Knowing Madonna and Sean have remained great friends, and acknowledging the worldwide celebration of True Blue’s 25^th Anniversary in 2011, is it possible that one of Madonna’s most ebullient, romantic tracks will finally make a live comeback? 




"WHO'S THAT GIRL" (1987)

A #1 single in the U.S. and U.K. that provided the theme for the movie Who’s That Girl and the inspiration for The Who’s That Girl Tour. Despite its era-defining success, Madonna never performed the song after the Summer of 1987, and until 2009’s Celebration it never appeared on a Madonna compilation. Could the 25^th anniversary of the song, video, tour, and film FINALLY give fans the gift of hearing it live again? 

I know I speak for many when I say that, more than ANY other song, “Who’s That Girl” would be THIS fan’s 2012 Madonna Summer dream come true!