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How Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour Changed Pop Concerts Forever

1990's Blond Ambition took Madge's natural sense of showmanship to new heights.

By Jon O'Brien

Jon O'Brien

“I know that I’m not the best singer and I know that I’m not the best dancer. But, I can f—ing push people’s buttons and be as provocative as I want. This tour’s goal is to break useless taboos.” There was only one all-singing, all-dancing chart-topper who could get away with such a bold declaration at the turn of the ’90s, and it wasn’t Paula Abdul.

From the moment that she writhed around suggestively in a wedding dress at the 1984 MTV VMAs, Madonna became the live act that you couldn’t — and didn’t want to — take your eyes off. Singing in front of a traditional guitar-bass-drums trio was never going to cut it for the woman seemingly hellbent on shocking middle America.

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Then the undisputed Queen of Pop by quite a margin, Madonna had already toyed with the theatrical on 1987’s Who’s That Girl Tour, a whirlwind of glitzy costume changes, giant video screens and dramatic reenactments that she described as “Broadway in a stadium.” But 1990’s Blond Ambition — which kicked off 30 years ago — took Madge’s natural sense of showmanship to new heights.

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Madonna asked Jean-Paul Gaultier to create more than 60 costumes for the tour, an amount which the haute couture designer admits took  350 aspirins  to get through. Luckily, all this headache-inducing work paid off. The Frenchman’s conical bra creation, which was later sold at auction for $52,000 , became one of the defining fashion statements of the decade. And items such as the polka-dotted blouse, clip-on ponytail and mic headset all became a part of the chart-topper’s style legacy, too.

Unsurprisingly, Madonna was just as fastidious when it came to the tour’s choreography. “Wimps and wannabes need not apply” read the call out seeking “fierce male dancers” for the tour. Led by Vincent Paterson, the chosen army of six were put through boot camp-like rehearsals in preparation for a tour that spanned 57 dates, five months and three continents. And with its large hydraulic platform and multiple elaborate sets, Blond Ambition’s staging essentially cost the same as the GDP of a small country. Simply no one else could compete, not even the King to Madonna’s Queen of Pop. A few years prior, Michael Jackson’s Bad Tour had impressed many with its slick moves and dazzling lights – even the BBC’s cult hero John Peel hailed it as a “performance of matchless virtuosity.” But Madge’s elaborative high-concept, five-act production left it for dust.

Blond Ambition didn’t give fans a single opportunity to get bored or head for the bar. Every four minutes there was something new to digest. Take the opening ‘Metropolis’ section, inspired by the expressionist sci-fi of Fritz Lang, for example. Madonna simulates sex in that bra while performing “Express Yourself,” straddles a chair during “Open Your Heart” and belts out “Causing a Commotion” while playfully wrestling her two backing vocalists to the ground. And this was just the first quarter of an hour.

As you’d expect from an artist whose Pepsi commercial had been yanked amidst calls of blasphemy, the second ‘Religious’ section was even more attention-grabbing. Wildly rubbing her crotch in a red velvet bed, Madonna left little to the imagination on a sensual reworking of “Like a Virgin.” And on “Like a Prayer,” the track whose provocative video had caused the soft drink giants to bail, the star and her crew are kitted out as nuns and priests.

Of course, much of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation of Italy didn’t appreciate this type of cosplay. A second date at the Stadio Flaminio was called off after none other than Pope John Paul II implored citizens to boycott “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity.”

The controversial blend of religion and erotica also incurred the wrath of the Toronto police force, particularly the “lewd and obscene” display of “Like a Virgin.” But despite the threat of arrest, Madonna and her management team refused to bow down to authority. The star even referenced the furor during her second show at the city’s SkyDome, asking the crowd “Do you think that I’m a bad girl?… I hope so.”

Madonna famously described Toronto as a fascist state in Truth or Dare , the illuminating backstage documentary which further boosted Blond Ambition’s pop cultural cachet. Who can forget the scene where the star pretends to gag after Kevin Costner – then the biggest movie star in the world – summarizes 105 minutes of sense-assaulting, boundary-pushing entertainment as “neat”?

Thankfully, the sell-out crowds reacted to the tour with a little more enthusiasm, even the Dick Tracy section featuring several numbers that would have been unfamiliar at the time. The comic book adaptation, which co-starred Madonna as femme fatale Breathless Mahoney, hit the big screen half-way through Blond Ambition’s run. And the ever-astute star attempted to guide fans towards the cinema with a high-kicking third act dedicated to the trench coat-wearing detective.

But for sheer entertainment value, the ‘Art Deco’ segment is tough to beat. Sporting a pink bathrobe and curlers while seated under a beauty parlor hair dryer, Madonna performed the whole of “Material Girl” in a comical Noo-Yawk accent before throwing fake dollar bills into the crowd. “Cherish” saw the star take up the harp accompanied by (what else?) a troupe of dancing mermen. And following a West Side Story -inspired routine for arguably her finest pure pop moment, “Into the Groove,” she wrapped things up with a faithful recreation of the iconic “Vogue” video.

By the time each and every crew member bids an on-stage farewell during the Bob Fosse-meets- A Clockwork Orange encore of “Keep it Together,” it’s clear that you’ve just witnessed a spectacle of ground-breaking proportions. As dancer Luis Camacho said, Madonna “wanted to give the audience an experience, rather than them just going to a concert. She set the stage for concert shows and experiences that followed.” The tour even impressed Grammy voters, who were notoriously slow to recognize Madonna’s greatness. The video of the tour won the 1991 award for best music video, long form — Madonna’s very first Grammy Award.

Sure enough, no longer were audiences content to watch their pop idol simply play the hits. Elaborate production values and strong narrative arcs soon became just as integral to the superstar tour as the music itself. You only have to look at Michael Jackson’s Dangerous shows, complete with catapult stunts and ghoulish illusions, two years later to recognize the immediate impact Blond Ambition had. And it has continued to inspire pop’s A-listers ever since. Without Blond Ambition, it’s unlikely we’d have the gravity-defying acrobatics of P!nk, the candy-colored razzmatazz of Katy Perry or the formidable conceptual journeys of Beyoncé. And it goes without saying that its footprints were all over the various balls staged by Lady Gaga.

Madonna herself has refused to rest on her laurels, going even bigger and bolder on the likes of 1993’s The Girlie Show, 2004’s Re-Invention and 2008’s Sticky and Sweet. But nothing has ever changed the game quite like her extremely blond and incredibly ambitious 1990 world tour.

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Madonna: Blond Ambition World Tour Live

Madonna and her crew perform in Nice, France on the last day of the legendary Blond Ambition Tour in 1990 for the most watched HBO Special in its history and for an exclusive LaserDisc relea... Read all Madonna and her crew perform in Nice, France on the last day of the legendary Blond Ambition Tour in 1990 for the most watched HBO Special in its history and for an exclusive LaserDisc release. Madonna and her crew perform in Nice, France on the last day of the legendary Blond Ambition Tour in 1990 for the most watched HBO Special in its history and for an exclusive LaserDisc release.

• David Mallet
• Mark Aldo Miceli
• Donna DeLory
• 5 User reviews
• 2 wins & 2 nominations

Top cast 11

• Self - Background Vocals and Dancer
• (as Donna Delory)
• (as Niki Harris)

• Self - Dancer

• (as Oliver Crumes)
• Self - Dancer …

• (as Kevin Stea)

• Self - Guitar
• Mark Aldo Miceli (credit only)
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• Trivia The 1991 rock documentary "Truth or Dare (In Bed with Madonna") was filmed during this tour.
• Alternate versions When HBO reran the special on July 28, 1991, it was an entirely different edit of the exact same concert featuring alternate camera angles galore. Additionally, the end credits were changed to scrolling credits which roll over a black screen, as opposed to the original 1990 broadcast, which featured static credits imposed over a fireworks show.
• Connections Featured in The '90s Greatest: A New Generation (2018)
• Soundtracks Express Yourself Written by Madonna and Stephen Bray Performed by Madonna Contains a sample of "Everybody" Written by Madonna

User reviews 5

• Jun 1, 2006
• August 5, 1990 (United States)
• United States
• Madonna: Live! Blond Ambition World Tour '90
• Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France (Stade De L'Ouest)
• Dakota North Entertainment
• Sire Records Company
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 52 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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25 Reasons Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour Still Rules, 25 Years Later

A quarter of a century ago, cone bras ruled the world

Madonna kicked off her Blond Ambition World Tour on April 13, 1990, 25 years ago this week. Besides offering the world Madonna in her absolute prime – as a performer and as an all-around focus of attention – Blond Ambition changed the pop-culture landscape.

Fans might be surprised to learn that it’s not Madonna’s highest-grossing tour; Sticky & Sweet, MDNA and The Girlie Show each performed better. And it featured only 57 stops. But it’s still hugely important and might have done the most to define Madonna as a music icon – and here are 25 reasons for that.

(NSFW warning: The article features clips from Madonna in concert, and some of the language might not be work-appropriate. Hey, it’s Madonna.)

1. It reinvented the concert tour.

Today, most major pop tours are full-scale productions with costume changes, special effects, elaborate sets and a sense of drama that takes the experience beyond someone just singing into a microphone. It wasn’t always that way, however, and Madonna and choreographer Vincent Paterson specifically set out to elevate the concert.

As Paterson explained to PEOPLE in a 1990 interview, “The biggest thing we tried to do is change the shape of concerts. Instead of just presenting songs, we wanted to combine fashion, Broadway, rock and performance art.”

2. It has full-on acts

The fact that Madonna divided her performances into five thematic categories – Metropolis, Religious, Dick Tracy, Art Deco and Encore – suggests not only a level of creative planning unusual for concerts at the time but also the sheer volume of material Madonna had to work with – and at only 31 years old, no less.

3. It made a ton of money.

In the first two hours that tickets went on sale, a total of 482,832 were purchased, for a grand total of $14,237,000. By the end of the tour, Madonna had generated more than $62 million – that’s $113 million adjusted for inflation.

4. It helped cement the link between pop costumes and couture.

In addition to the vast majority of Blond Ambition’s many stage costumes, Madonna’s bullet bra was designed by haute couture legend Jean Paul Gaultier. In 2012, one of these very bras sold at a Christie’s auction for $52,000.

5. It gave us that iconic ponytail.

According to a 1990 edition of PEOPLE’s Style Watch, Madonna’s clip-on ponytail quickly became a look that fans copied when attending Blond Ambition stops. “Lots of women – and men – are showing up at her concerts with this hairdo,” remarked Warner Bros. Records publicity VP Liz Rosenberg. “It’s really catching on.”

You might think Madonna would do anything for a look, but that clip-on ponytail resulted from one specific need: she needed a style that wouldn’t get tangled in the headset she wears when she sings.

6. The title itself was a stand for independence.

Initially, it was to be the Like a Prayer World Tour, sponsored by Pepsi. Of course, the “Like a Prayer” video was met with a great deal of controversy, and Pepsi eventually backed out of a licensing deal with “The Donner.” Thus, Blond Ambition was born.

7. It overcame a rough start.

Blond Ambition kicked off on Friday the 13th – Friday, April 13, 1990, near Tokyo, Japan. Suitably, the weather was miserably wet and cold, and at one point Madonna slid across the wet stage and proclaimed, “You didn’t know you were here for an ice-skating show. Well, I’m Dorothy Hamill.”

8. It featured Madonna at her most perfectionist, for better or worse.

And according to the New York Times review of the concert , that meant the concert was more “live” than live. “Madonna has become so perfectionistic, and so athletic in her dancing, that she would clearly rather lip-sync than risk a wrong note,” the review notes. “With tickets priced at $30, concertgoers might expect a more live concert.”

9. It made Madonna confront "the fascist state of Toronto."

As documented in the 1991 behind-the-scenes movie Madonna: Truth or Dare , Toronto police threatened to arrest Madonna should her performance of “Like a Virgin” feature her miming masturbation. When the faux-Middle Eastern arrangement of the hit song played, however, Madonna did her usual dance, hand motions and all.

Ultimately the police opted not to arrest her on obscenity charges, but she still famously called the Canadian city a "fascist state."

10. It was condemned by the Vatican.

Not that it’s a good thing to earn the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church, but it speaks to what a big deal the Blond Ambition tour was that the Vatican’s official newspaper, Osservatore Romano , declared the show sinful – a more or less unprecedented decision.

11. "Don’t talk. If you talk, I will stop speaking, all right?"

Madonna’s response to the condemnation, however, was 100 percent Madonna. After commanding the Italian press to cease talking, she defends her performance. “Like theater, [Blond Ambition] asks questions, provokes thought and takes you on an emotional journey, portraying good and bad, light and dark, joy and sorrow, redemption and salvation.”

12. Every Blond Ambition performance began with a prayer.

Regardless of what the Pope may have thought of Madonna’s work, she felt she was on good terms with God, and Truth or Dare notes that she began every show with a group prayer.

13. She sang "Happy Birthday" to her dad at the tour’s Detroit show …

There’s been no shortage of kerfuffle about Madonna’s relationship with the rest of the Ciccone clan, but the tour featured a touching moment onstage with her dad, Silvio Ciccone, at her hometown show in Detroit.

14. Which means she performed all those naughty bits with her dad in the audience.

There’s a moment in Truth or Dare when she mentions that her dad watching the racier parts of the Blond Ambition tour is scarier than confronting the Toronto police.

15. It was a decidedly pro-gay show.

It’s notable that Madonna was up-front about the fact that six of her seven male backup dancers were gay men. Madonna, after all, had been outspoken about gay rights and gay people in general long before it became the norm among celebrities. In fact

16. Its final U.S. performance was dedicated to Keith Haring.

Madonna was good friends with the pop artist Keith Haring, who died of AIDS-related complications on Feb. 16, 1990. The Blond Ambition World Tour’s last American stop, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was dedicated to Haring’s memory, and the more than $300,000 the show made was donated to the Foundation for AIDS Research. (Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour used a Haring-inspired backdrop, seen in the above clip.)

17. It featured a gay Dick Tracy chorus line.

Skip forward to the 5:45 mark in this clip of the Blond Ambition performance of “Now I’m Following You” to see six dancing Dick Tracys pair off into three male-male pairs. It’s quite the spectacle, and it’s even more notable when you realize that most of the tour began before the 1990 Dick Tracy remake (in which Madonna starred) hit theaters, meaning this chorus line was the first glimpse fans saw of the reinvented Dick Tracy.

And no, none of those Dick Tracys were Warren Beatty , who played the title character and who was dating Madonna throughout the tour.

18. It was also pro-safe sex.

You have to hand it to Madonna: Encouraging the use of condoms was on-point in 1990, and every show had her introducing “Into the Groove” by saying, “You really never get to know a guy until you ask him to wear a rubber.”

19. It mocked the perception of Madonna as a dumb blond sexpot.

For the Blond Ambition take on “Material Girl,” Madonna sang the entire song in an accent that falls somewhere between dumb blonde, “Noo Yawk” housewife and gangster’s moll. Say what you will about Madonna taking herself very seriously, but most singers wouldn’t ever perform in curlers and a bathrobe.

20. It had grand cinematic aspirations beyond Dick Tracy .

The first act of the show is themed “Metropolis.” That’s not Superman’s city. That’s the 1927 German expressionist epic Metropolis , and you can see it in the retro-science-fiction aesthetic of the stage. Hey, if you were Madonna, you’d aim for high art.

21. There’s some Stanley Kubrick in there, too.

In a 1991 New York Times interview , Madonna described the Blond Ambition performance of “Keep It Together” as “Bob Fosse-meets- Clockwork Orange .”

“It’s the show’s ultimate statement about the family, because we’re absolutely brutalizing with each other, while there’s also no mistaking that we love each other deeply,” she said.

22. Kevin Costner thought the show was "neat."

There’s a famous scene in Truth or Dare in which Madonna parties with other celebs after a Los Angeles show. Among them is Kevin Costner, who tells Madonna he found the show “neat.” It’s an amazing moment, and Madonna is predictably incensed that Costner would use that adjective to describe her. “No one’s ever described me quite that way,” she tells him. Later, she decrees “Anybody who says my show was ‘neat’ has to go.”

Costner would forgive the diss in 2007.

23. Truth or Dare was a success, too.

The documentary about Blond Ambition was released in 1991. It cost $4.5 million to make. It earned $29 million. Sure, Madonna was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actress – for playing herself, no less – but she had piles of money with which to console herself.

24. It was parodied twice.

Truth or Dare – and by extension, Blond Ambition – were skewered two times, by Julie Brown in Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful and by English comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in In Bed with French and Saunders . We’d like to think Madge took it all in stride.

25. It essentially made The Immaculate Collection happen.

The tour concluded in August 1990. Everyone was all “Wow, Madonna has an amazing library of hits.” In November 1990, her first greatest hits collection, The Immaculate Collection , was released. You do the math.

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Pose Reaches Peak Madonna: a Visual History of the 1990 Blond Ambition Tour

Pose has finally done it: the series has reached peak Madonna, and there is no turning back. After heavily referencing the superstar on each episode of season two, the obsession finally reached an apex with episode five . In “What Would Candy Do?” Ricky and Damon (played by Ryan Jamaal Swain ) are on the rocks relation-ship wise, and are both auditioning to be backup dancers for the Blond Ambition tour. Going head to head in a dance-off is certainly not helping them in the love department, but we, as viewers, do get some insight into the importance of the backup dancers on the iconic tour. Over the past decade, critics have accused other pop stars—like Lady Gaga—of copying Madonna, but the show makes clear that the Material Girl also did her fair share of “borrowing.” It’s no secret now—especially not in the ballroom world of Pose — that Madonna brought voguing to the mainstream when she co-opted the moves. But the question of appreciation versus appropriation comes up here, with Blanca on one side of the argument (she sees the popularization of voguing as useful and empowering) and Pray Tell on the other (he’s fearful of the subculture being siphoned). Looking back at the real Blond Ambition tour, which was immortalized in the documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (and later in the 2016 doc Strike a Pose ), we can see that as much as that tour is known for Madonna’s famous Jean-Paul Gaultier cone bra , it was her dancers who made the whole spectacle culturally relevant. Pose aims to unpack that in this episode. If it weren’t for the queer men of color who danced on the tour, Blond Ambition would not have been as effective or as subversive. And neither would her music video for “Vogue”—a black-and-white David Fincher project that was as inspired by the ballroom scene as it was by Isaac Julien’s film Looking for Langston and the work of Bob Fosse . Here, a glimpse of what the tour looked like nearly 30 years ago—including scenes of backup dancers Luis Camacho, Oliver Crumes, Salim “Slam” Gauwloos, Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza, Kevin Stea, Gabriel Trupin and Carlton Wilborn.

Madonna poses with her backup dancers for Madonna: Truth or Dare . Photo courtesy Everett Collection.

Madonna performs with backup dancers in a Bob Fosse inspired bowler hat routine. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna with backup dancers during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Backup dancers rehearse in a scene from Strike a Pose , Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan’s 2016 documentary about the backup dancers of the Blond Ambition World Tour. Photo courtesy of Everett Collection.

Luis Camacho prepares for the stage in a still from Strike a Pose . Photo courtesy of Everett Collection.

Madonna performs with her dancers in the Blonde Ambition Japan Tour at Chiba Marine Stadium, April 13th, 1990, Chiba, Japan. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna and her dancers performing in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna performs another routine that pays homage to Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in the Blond Ambition World Tour. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna’s Blond Ambition World Tour 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna and her backup dancers, wearing mermaid tails, during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna plays the harp while her mermaid backup dancers surround her during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Not all of Madonna’s backup dancers were men. Two women support the singer on stage during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna wears the iconic Jean-Paul Gaultier cone bra during the Los Angeles leg of the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna and Salim Gauwloos have a Dick Tracy moment during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna shares the cone bra spotlight with a backup dancer during the Blond Ambition World Tour on June 30, 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna Wore At Least 3 Different Hairstyles on the Opening Night of Her Tour

Madonna is back, baby! The Queen of Pop just kicked off her massive Celebration tour in London, and in true Madonna fashion, she left absolutely no detail unnoticed, including her many hairstyles. (Oh, and she's also back to her signature bright blonde , so there's that too.)

As the name of the tour suggests, the show is a celebration of Madonna's entire career — the '80s pop tartlet, the '90s glam girl, the Ray of Light spirituality, and everything in between. The musician, who has long been known for her powers of transformation, switched up her hairstyles as a nod to some of those iconic eras and, once again, I'm left speechless by the power of backstage glam teams to make such big changes so fast. Let's check out the main looks from the Celebration tour, created by Madonna's longtime hairstylist Andy Lecompte , shall we? (Spoiler alert: If you're trying to avoid secrets from the show, do not scroll down!) 

Madonna opened the show with her Ray of Light song “Nothing Really Matters” and wore her hair in loose, free-flowing waves reminiscent of that era for a portion of the show. Her hair was parted in the center for a hippie-ish vibe with subtle dark roots and styled in easy waves down her back and shoulders, perfect for dancing. If you look closely, it appears she added a pop of yellow to the mid-lengths near her ears. 

Later, the Material Girl threw it back to her '90s Dick Tracy and Vogue period with a short, super-curly Marilyn Monroe-inspired bob , dramatically parted to one side and curled in big, fluffy ringlets. At one point in this segment, she had an intimate moment with a dancer who wore a high, braided ponytail reminiscent of the one Madge donned during her Blonde Ambition tour, as though in 2023 she was revisiting her past self.

As if the waves-to-curls, long-to-short change-up wasn't enough, there was yet another transformation in store: an extra-long, pin-straight blonde style with just the teeniest, softest hint of pink . When paired with a mirrored silver bodysuit, Madonna looked every bit the powerful, trailblazer she is.  Each style she wore onstage, as simple as they may seem, was a reminder of how influential she has been: Without her, would we even have the “eras” of today's pop girls? Of course, this is Madonna we're talking about, so there are probably more hairstyling surprises in store for the rest of the tour.

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Now, revisit some of the biggest beauty icons of the past 100 years:

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Blond Ambition World Tour

The Blond Ambition World Tour is the third tour by Madonna . It promoted her fourth studio album Like a Prayer (1989) and the soundtrack album I'm Breathless (1990), which was recorded for the movie Dick Tracy . The tour reached North America, Europe and Asia. It was a highly controversial tour, mainly for its juxtaposition of Catholic iconography and sexuality.

Background [ ]

Originally to be called the " Like a Prayer World Tour ", Sire Records announced the Blond Ambition World Tour in November 1989, following the success of Madonna's fourth studio album,  Like a Prayer , and Madonna's performance of " Express Yourself " at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards - considered as a tour preview. Initially, the tour was only to reach Japan and North America, as Madonna was considering roles in several films. By the end of 1989 plans were announced to bring the tour to Europe as well because of popularity and fan demand. In December 1989, when preparations for the tour began, Madonna herself announced during a pre-recorded interview on German TV channel ZDF, that she would tour Germany during 1990. In April 1990, additional dates in Europe were added. [13]  Stage preparations and dress rehearsals took place at the Disney Studios, Burbank, California, before the tour kicked off in Japan.

The tour incorporated as central themes, sexuality and Catholicism, a combination which engendered controversy. The catholic associations called for a boycott of the show in Rome, and one of three scheduled Italian dates was eventually canceled. The show has achieved a measure of cult status, with elements such as the bullet bra and false ponytail hairpiece becoming cultural icons in their own right.

Madonna herself called the concert "like musical theater" and choreographer Vincent Paterson stated she wanted to "break every rule we can... She wanted to make statements about sexuality, cross-sexuality, the church... But the biggest thing we tried to do was change the shape of concerts. Instead of just presenting songs, we wanted to combine fashion, Broadway, and performance art."

The show's explicit overtone caused problems. In Toronto, police were alerted that the show might possibly contain lewd and obscene content (particularly a masturbation scene) and threatened charges unless parts of the show were changed. The show went on unaltered, however, and no charges were made after the tour manager gave the police an ultimatum: "Cancel the show, and you'll have to tell 30,000 people why.

French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier designed the costumes for the tour, including the now-infamous cone brassiere inspired by Polish Art-Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. Additional costume pieces were designed by Marlene Stewart, who had previously worked with Madonna on the 1987  Who's That Girl World Tour .

Director Alek Keshishian captured more than 250 hours of film of Madonna and her troupe during the tour. This footage was edited and released to movie theaters as  Truth or Dare (In Bed with Madonna) .

Due to ongoing throat problems, six shows had to be canceled, bringing the tour down from 63 shows to 57; altogether, 125,000 tickets had to be refunded. The proceeds of the last American date in New Jersey, was donated to the Nonprofit organization amfAR and dedicated to her friend  Keith Haring  who died of AIDS, grossing over $300,000.

Setlist: [ ]

Act 1 - Metropolis

Act 2 - Religion

Act 3 - Dick Tracy

Act 4 - Art Deco

• 1 Ray of Light Photoshoot
• 2 Erotica Photoshoot
• 3 Carlos Leon

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• The World Tours

A bit of reflection on Blond Ambition Tour

By Kieran , June 22, 2014 in The World Tours

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Kieran 1,165.

Firstly, BA is obviously a pivotal, iconic moment not only in M's career but our culture. I have for many years loved the whole concept and 'in-your-face' Madonna. I think personally not having access to the full show for a good few years - until I tracked a VHS down on ebay in circa 2000, made this tour become some kind of holy grail to me. I still do love it. LAV - PDP section is truly M's live high point of me.

However, when I think of the more recent shows I am starting to think that they are more 'solid'. Yes, there are a few setlist issues, but reflecting on BA now, I find the whole Dick Tracy and Cherish parts a little cheap. They are certainly of their time, I know. But for those of us who did not get to see the show in person - or who became fans after the whole BA impact, did we allow the cinematic footage of TOD to 'skew' our perception of the show? When I watch MDNA, that is a show that I can watch in its entirety without skipping (perhaps Hung Up at a push). i don't think I could say that same about BA these days.

Is it just time that does this?

Can M's tours ever be compared to one another fairly?

• WhosThatBoy and Voguerista

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Halex 1,615

The last question is the keyword, IMO.

BA happened at a time when technology couldn't allow her to do what she did in 2012, therefore she had to rely on her actual performance a bit more than she had to in recent years. The Dick Tracy/Cherish segment may not be up to par with the LAV/LAP/PDP one, but the whole show still stands as one her finest, if not her best. 

These days, I don't think she'd choose to finish her show a capella, which she did then. BA is all about Madonna's charisma, and that Keep it together rendition (including that wonderful choreography and that ending) is an exclamation mark that perfectly defines what she was about at that time.

That'a a good point about closing acapella. Bold, brave yet intimate.

I think MDNA is the lovechild of BA and as you say the tech allowed her to take the elements of BA's style and magnify it. 

I think of MDNAT as the "lovechild" of BA too. Actually, when I was at the Stade de France (almost 2 years ago already !) I remember thinking how her spoken voice (after OYH) reminded me of BA ( Je suis la chef ! ) and I never had this feeling during the S&S concerts I attended.

• NowRadiate and Fighter

I have to say, seeing it live, it does change one's perspective and also being around during that time, helps put things in perspective. The whole section where she performs "Into The Groove", "Cherish" and "Material Girl" is obviously her very playful side. It reminds me of the Medley section from Who's That Girl Tour where she performed, "Dress You Up", "Material Girl" and "Like A Virgin".  Those sections were simply fun and her having fun. I didn't see anything "cheap" about it. At the time, there were very few artists who were putting on such theatrical shows and I think she was setting a standard with this show for others to follow in the future, including herself. It seemed bigger artists were putting on more grander shows and some were being quite theatrical.

In the end, the show is extremely enjoyable and was very fitting for the times. Before this tour, people were still just singing on a huge empty stage with a few props. Madonna extended that idea on this tour and made it more grander and theatrical.

Fighter 28,888

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds Cherish mega cheap. The other songs from that part are nice and playful, but Cherish......

I'm also glad I'm not the only one who sees MDNA Tour as lovechild of BAT! They are both incredibly theatrical and great conceptually. It's just that the music on BAT she had to sing was much better. lollllllll

Hopefully we'll continue to see theatrical performances from her. I loved S&S but it was just a dance tour.

madgefan 10,227

What can I add? The Blond Ambition World Tour represents Madonna's transition from a dancer who happened to sing to a dancer who sang and could even perform without talking that much. It's true that during this tour she became more political (and braver) and showed that every song had been chosen with a purpose. For me it's her 'greatest hits tour' par excellence. The fact that every act is so well defined woud make her pioneer in the matter of creating live shows. I'm not a expert on this but sure other females and even Michael Jackson would take her as a reference in the future.

I wish I had had the opportunity to see her with this show, in all her glory (#1s singles, heavy video rotation on music channels, the scandal with the Church, etc.) but I wasn't even born :Madonna011: And also, those exclusive video releases such as the laserdiscs and the Japanese vhs would make this concert probably one of the most difficult to find... I remember downloading a very LQ file of the Yokohama show from Kazaa, it was a striking experience. Now that we have more access to the internet and sharing websites getting any files is so easy.

• Daniel , Voguerista , WhosThatBoy and 1 other

Voguerista 12,921

IMO, the Blonde Ambition Tour is when she really stepped up her creativity. From the BA forward, her shows became more power filled, theatrical and detailed..and more of a "journey". 

Awesome post and comments! Now I want to go watch it again!

• WhosThatBoy and James19709

I'm so glad I was there during her rise to fame in the 80's. It definitely gives a fan a true perspective for the type of artist she's become. I think a lot of younger fans take for granted who Madonna is and what she does. Some put these werid expectations on her that make no sense to me. During the 80's and even early part of the 90's, we didn't expect shit. We just enjoyed it. We didn't over analyze the music and dissect it to death. We just enjoyed it. Seriously? This is Madonna's music. Much of her rise to fame are from songs that were fun and lively... with a touch of controversy that look like nothing today.

These days, Madonna is considered a saint to the media and the public. Back in the 80's and 90's, she was torn to shreds. It's nothing like you see today. Most people who go after Madonna today, are simply looking for attention, knowing mentioning her name will get them attention. Back in the day, Madonna's talent and purpose in the music world was always in question. She was considered nothing more than a tramp in the pop world. Still she was part of a time when music went through a new revolution. She was part of the music video explosion.

I don't get the talk about "Cherish" being 'cheap'??  It's a fun song and the way it was performed was fun. She took the idea of Mermaids and dressed men (as in the video) as Mermen. It's just another way for Madonna to turn the pages on sexism which was going on during her rise, and using women as sex objects.

Andymad 10,734

I think as a fan, aside from the music and videos, her tours really give us a chance to look deep into her artistic and creative thoughts. Making something her own and sharing it. I don't get that from her music. To be honest, I'm not too fond of the path in music she has taken. Lyric wise. I really don't enjoy her new material from MDNA... select fews that I really DO enjoy.  It's just a personal preference and I accept that. People grow, times change and I can't expect anything. But I haven;t let that stray me from my complete love of Madonna as an icon and artist.  She will always be #1 on my playlist.

Back on topic lol... I look back at the BAT and only think of growth.  In that time from the Who's That Girl Tour to the Blond Ambition Tour.  I suppose even from the Virgin Tour to the Who's That Girl tour, there was a MAJOR image change.  And I think that really excited people.  I was only 5 at the time but I think when people saw her appear on stage with that cone bra, it almost seemed like she was nude underneath that blazer! It was shocking if you were 6 or 7 rows back and couldn't see the monitors. My parents went and saw the show and that was what they could recall.  They thought she was nude and it excited people when she blasted into Express Yourself.  My dad remembers people holding their breath when she started to take off the blazer in the second verse.  Was she naked? He remembers seeing her light up and shine and when the light settled, she was wearing this sexy cone bra.  They didn't watch news reports on it, didn't see pictures.  They didn't know.  So seeing that for the first time was exciting and fresh and seeing Madonna movie into a different reinvention.

• wtg1987 , VanP92 and WhosThatBoy

I think as a fan, aside from the music and videos, her tours really give us a chance to look deep into her artistic and creative thoughts. Making something her own and sharing it. I don't get that from her music. To be honest, I'm not too fond of the path in music she has taken. Lyric wise. I really don't enjoy her new material from MDNA... select fews that I really DO enjoy.  It's just a personal preference and I accept that. People grow, times change and I can't expect anything. But I haven;t let that stray me from my complete love of Madonna as an icon and artist.  She will always be #1 on my playlist.   Back on topic lol... I look back at the BAT and only think of growth.  In that time from the Who's That Girl Tour to the Blond Ambition Tour.  I suppose even from the Virgin Tour to the Who's That Girl tour, there was a MAJOR image change.  And I think that really excited people.  I was only 5 at the time but I think when people saw her appear on stage with that cone bra, it almost seemed like she was nude underneath that blazer! It was shocking if you were 6 or 7 rows back and couldn't see the monitors. My parents went and saw the show and that was what they could recall.  They thought she was nude and it excited people when she blasted into Express Yourself.  My dad remembers people holding their breath when she started to take off the blazer in the second verse.  Was she naked? He remembers seeing her light up and shine and when the light settled, she was wearing this sexy cone bra.  They didn't watch news reports on it, didn't see pictures.  They didn't know.  So seeing that for the first time was exciting and fresh and seeing Madonna movie into a different reinvention.

You're so right. All this chatter beforehand never happened. Whatever she did, just happened. Of course, then it was talk around the 'water cooler'. That started quite early on in her career:

Like A Virgin (the song): I remember the lyrics and song title offended people or got people hot under the collar. Never before did pop radio air a song with the word "virgin" in it so blatantly as Madonna has done in this song. Also, at this time girls started dressing like her and the art of wearing/exposing your bras/underwear was popular. Oh the conservatives were just annoyed as hell.

Material Girl: I remember a lot of people gave her shit because they thought she was ripping off Marilyn Monroe, and that only esculated more when she released True Blue and came out with a new look, sporting plantinum blonde cropped short hair (much like Marilyn). She even started taking on this girly/ditsy persona (which coincided with the filming and release of Who's That Girl?)

Papa Don't Preach: By now, she had gotten a lot of negative press over her husbands legal issues and the filming of their film together. This song only esculated criticisms from both sides of the issues. Religious leaders were telling her to "don't preach" as well as those who support abortion. She couldn't win here. The relgious community had issue of her portraying a character having a child out of wedlock while those who support "free choice" to do with their bodies, took issue that she was preaching about "keeping her baby".

Open Your Heart: Sparked a lot of controversy over the video and gave us the first glimpse of the cone brazier. By now, people knew of her nude spread that appeared in Playboy a few years prior which only caused more criticism, and labeling her some very nasty names. Not only that, the fact she had a 12 year old boy in her video, hanging out at a strip joint, ruffled some feathers.

Like A Prayer: Became the icing on the cake. She was either one people love to hate or you just got on board and enjoyed the ride. A lot of heavy criticism came down on her at this time.

Express Yourself: Crotch grabbing, caused a lot of uproar and some were saying she was copying Michael Jackson.

Vogue: By this video she was in your face. The cone bras came out again and people were either laughing at her, or criticizing her.

Then comes BAT. People still loved her music. She either made you more of a fan or pissed you off and you hated her. By this time, people were wondering if she has gone too far. And this is before "Justify My Love", "Sex" and "Erotica" came out.

So yeah, a lot of people were constantly shocked at her antics during the 80's and 90's. No one was so in your face (especially overtly sexual) as Madonna had been. Today, a lot of people might think what she did was tame, but back then it wasn't. Much like when Elvis went on TV and thrusted his hips. You look at what he did, and think... "Um yeah? So what?" I know I did when I saw his older stuff, but back in his time, people just didn't do that on mainstream TV or in public. 

What was so enlightening about the whole RAY OF LIGHT era is that she took a hard turn and started acting the way people thought she should. (Though, even then she still did photoshoots where her tits were showing, etc). It was at this time, she earned her due respect. Though with Madonna, she doesn't necessarily like doing what the general public expects. A lot of people put so much expectations on her based on her age. They think that since she's 40, 45, 50, 55, that means she needs to cover up and start recording standard songs. Sorry, but Madonna has always been on the forefront of current music. So it doesn't surprise me, that she's still working with producers that are catered to the youth which is most popular. This idea that she should work with Patrick Leonard again is just silly because they will not bring the same magic they had back in the day. Patrick Leonard isn't cutting edge today.

Being we live in the digital/internet age, it's harder and harder to stay one step ahead of everyone. Now we have access to just about everything right at our fingertips. Most of us wouldn't even known who she was working with until the album was released. That's how it was before the internet. Little blurbs here and there like on MTV or in print would pop up, but still much of what she did was not known until it was released. Today, we know every little sneeze and shit she takes before she does it.

• 2 weeks later...

I'm so glad I was there during her rise to fame in the 80's. It definitely gives a fan a true perspective for the type of artist she's become. I think a lot of younger fans take for granted who Madonna is and what she does. Some put these werid expectations on her that make no sense to me. During the 80's and even early part of the 90's, we didn't expect shit. We just enjoyed it. We didn't over analyze the music and dissect it to death. We just enjoyed it. Seriously? This is Madonna's music. Much of her rise to fame are from songs that were fun and lively... with a touch of controversy that look like nothing today.   I don't get the talk about "Cherish" being 'cheap'??  It's a fun song and the way it was performed was fun. She took the idea of Mermaids and dressed men (as in the video) as Mermen. It's just another way for Madonna to turn the pages on sexism which was going on during her rise, and using women as sex objects.

I became a fan in 1995 but I can still massively appreciate the impact M had back before those days and the impact of that impact today (lol).

In saying that the Cherish part of BA was 'cheap' what I really meant was that within the context of the rest of the show, it falls a bit flat. Great, great show with brilliant opening, second act and ending - but with Cherish and Material Girl not being as powerful. I don't think these performances visually stand the 'test of time' whereas I think all the other performances do. Timeless stuff. I appreciate them for what they are - and of course there is always a need for the light, fun M.  I just think that it makes the BA show inconsistent - which you might be able to argue other shows didn't have. In spite of an arguably poorer setlist, visually and thematically it is very consistent. That is what I was meaning when I said maybe the shows can't be compared at all. Depends what way you look at it.

I don't like getting too analytical, as you say, but I always kind of wish Following You, Cherish and MG were replaced with stronger visual performances to make BA a 1000% great show! I adore the rest of it.

I became a fan in 1995 but I can still massively appreciate the impact M had back before those days and the impact of that impact today (lol).   In saying that the Cherish part of BA was 'cheap' what I really meant was that within the context of the rest of the show, it falls a bit flat. Great, great show with brilliant opening, second act and ending - but with Cherish and Material Girl not being as powerful. I don't think these performances visually stand the 'test of time' whereas I think all the other performances do. Timeless stuff. I appreciate them for what they are - and of course there is always a need for the light, fun M.  I just think that it makes the BA show inconsistent - which you might be able to argue other shows didn't have. In spite of an arguably poorer setlist, visually and thematically it is very consistent. That is what I was meaning when I said maybe the shows can't be compared at all. Depends what way you look at it.   I don't like getting too analytical, as you say, but I always kind of wish Following You, Cherish and MG were replaced with stronger visual performances to make BA a 1000% great show! I adore the rest of it.

I think you have to keep in mind, Madonna always added some sort of wacky performance to break up the monotony.  Prior to BA, on the Who's That Girl, there was the medley where she performed "Dress You Up", "Material Girl", "Like A Virgin" and "I Can't Help Myself".  On the Girlie Show, you could say that wacky section is when she performed "Bye Bye Baby", and "I'm Going Bananas".  On the Drowned World Tour, there was "The Funny Song (Oh Dear Daddy)".  No need to make every song so serious and "powerful" as you stated. It's fun to throw in a bit of craziness. Back then, she didn't have video interludes like she does now to break up the show. 

I wouldn't look at it so seriously and enjoy it for the fun time it was.

• 1 year later...

BlondAmbition 3,735

ma(x) 17,493

blond ambition : BEST TOUR EVER!

• wtg1987 , BlondAmbition and robder

there's nothing like the Blond Ambition Tour!!!

RUADJAI 15,871

Speaking from my personal experience, I was about 10 when I recorded the Blond Ambition Show off HBO. It was New Years Eve and I had to go to a baby sitters house and so I programmed the VCR to record it. I was determined! But for the next year of my life I got out of school and watched this tour over and over and over and over again. 

The reasons its so great to me;

1. Madonna's energy/personality Her jokes and humor. She used to give so much of herself. 

2. The best fucking setlist EVER with the small exception of Now Im following You. Its ok tho. 

3. The theatrics and how the stage and costumes morphed from song to song. Every song was a new world. 

ariosoperfumegirl 94

I really loved the high ponytail it was one of my fave hairstyles from her!

Semtex1 886

An empty black stage with a drum kit. Hours of sitting on the floor of Wembley in the heat of summer and huge inflatable balls being knocked around by the crowds. As the deafening crowd roared, the lighting and industrial steel sounds pounded and twisted whilst the drum kit parted. And boom..there she was. My idol. Bold and bolshy, larger than life in her power suit and corset, swearing and funny and so incredibly un-British and i loved every minute she was on stage. I,d never seen anything like it in real life. And as for Like a Virgin, it took me a while to realise that it was that song, was so shocking at the time, as were the guys with their pointy bras. Like a Prayer felt like a religious experience as you really felt it inside your rib cage with the bass, drums and lighting that came over the crowd from above. As for the Dick Tracy part, i remember the white curtain getting stuck that wouldn't come down. It was used by people to rush off to the loo. I always thought Cherish was a tribute to Bette Midler as she had used mermaids in wheelchairs in one of her shows. Anyway, if there was any show that gave gay people strength and courage was the Blonde Ambition Tour and all other stars should bow down to her just for giving us that

• wtg1987 , madgefan and robder

Guest ArthurBadin

Don't understand why people could even consider MDNA Tour as the "lovechild" of BAT. MDNAT is the "enfant terrible", in a bad way to say it, I mean, it's the ultimate inferior, faux-shocking and embarassing third copycat of BAT as RIT and S&ST were the first two.

Blond Ambition Tour is indeed the ultimate apex of Madonna's career. Not coincidentally, her ultimate peak of visibility, for good and for bad. It's the cherry cake in the golden trilogy of years 1989, 1990 and 1991. Never she would come to something like this again. Never.

The best tour ever for anyone with a minimal of good artistic taste and vision. Sorry anyone else.

Wish I could attend to it, but I was a 7-y.o. child who had another things in mind that time.

My mother is used to hate Madonna, but only watching KIT performance made her heart being conquered by the Queen.

Of course those early posts were made by 2014, when there wasn't a sign yet from Rebel Heart Tour, finally a tour which doesn't seem a pale, stupid, for-dummies version of BAT after years of expectations.

I really laugh at people telling MDNA Tour is something huge in M's career. After decades, Blond Ambition keeps the best of the best. About MDNA Tour, nor the "fantastic" screens, nor the "excellent" platforms which could become everything, even less the amount of cheap and bad extra-tour polemics, will last the next years, let alone the last decades. By the way, who's talking today about that swastika on Marine Le Pen's forehead? Or Interscope-sponsoring Gaga feud? Or the laughable Gang Bang performance? (Don't tell me it was art, it was a cheap and stupid Tarantino tribute as if he was just a blood-frenzy movie screenwriter and director.) But everyone still remembers with caress and pride the ponytail, the Gaultier costumes, the sections, the truly real and more perennial polemics etc.

And, by the way, Cherish could have only male mermaids and a harp, but even so it's more artistic and pure than any MDNA number by far. Michel Laprise did a catastrophic job that only M fans can applaud nowadays. But for everyone else it sounds like... cheap and attention-whoring.

And I don't want to start to make this topic a contender between BAT and MDNA Tour. I wish it was immaculate only with the memory of the glorious Blond Ambition Tour. Bring MDNA Tour to it was quite a sin. Sorry if I sound arrogant at all but I will always defend Blond Ambition with nails and teeth as a Christian defends the "truth" of the Holy Trinity. See you!

• 3 months later...

groovyguy 63,869

The 50 Greatest Concerts of the Last 50 Years

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-50-greatest-concerts-of-the-last-50-years-w478854/madonna-blond-ambition-tour-w485933

Madonna Blond Ambition Tour

As Madonna's career was taking off in the mid-Eighties, most of her tours were relatively straightforward affairs, based around her singing and dancing. But for the stadium blowouts that supported her 1989 classic, Like a Prayer, she wanted to up her game. In the process, she reinvented the pop megatour itself. "I really put a lot of myself into it," she said. "It's much more theatrical than anything I've ever done." That year, Madonna had caused a nationwide controversy with the video for "Like a Prayer," which daringly mixed sexual and religious imagery. Blond Ambition extended that provocation and upped the spectacle.

The show opened with Madonna climbing down a staircase into a factory world inspired by German expressionist filmmaker Fritz Lang. She sang in a giant cathedral for "Like a Prayer" and under a beauty-shop hair dryer in "Material Girl." And, most infamously, she simulated masturbation while wearing a cone-shaped bustier on a crimson bed during "Like a Virgin." "The Blond Ambition Tour was what really catapulted her into the stratosphere," says Vincent Paterson, the tour's co-director and choreographer.

Madonna took a hands-on approach to the show, working with her brother, painter Christopher Ciccone, to design sets, and creating the costumes with fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier. "I tried to make the show accommodate my own short attention span," she said. "We put the songs together so there was an emotional arc in the show. I basically thought of vignettes for every song."

Starting out in Japan in April 1990 and hitting the U.S. the following month, the tour grossed almost $63 million. But it didn't go off without any complications: Madonna had to ditch the blond-ponytail hair extensions she wore early in the tour because they kept getting caught in her headset microphone. And in Toronto, the masturbation sequence almost got her and her dancers arrested in what became a bonding moment for her entire crew.

Madonna's close relationship with her collaborators would be a major theme in the blockbuster 1991 tour documentary Truth or Dare, especially in memorable scenes where she invited her backup dancers into her bed. Today, Blond Ambition's over-the-top intimacy is a staple of live pop music, from Lady Gaga to Miley Cyrus. In 1990, it was a revolution. "It was a kind of turning point," says Darryl Jones, who played bass on the tour. "A lot of young girls were watching." Steve Knopper

• MadMark and MadonnaLove

wtg1987 10,617

I'm so jealous of anyone who saw this tour live ?i was 15 and living in the UK but i just didn't have the money or anyone old enough to go with :(( the memories i have of the summer of 1990 will always stay with me until i die ? it was back when Summers lasted forever and we would break up from school - happy times indeed - I remember everyday there were newspaper clippings about the tour which i used to collect (Before the internet of course) and i remember seeing the costumes and thinking wow shes really so unique and there was no one like her in the charts or popular culture at the time - then of course came the weekend of july 20 - London Wembley Stadium - i saw the film Dick Tracy on the friday(Was disappointed with it though and still to this day its not a patch on Batman but hey it looks nice on blu-ray) then saturday and wow - radio 1 broadcast the show live and it was amazing - i was hooked - the atmosphere even on the radio was so amazing  and of course the swearing was hilarious too - to this day its still my favourite tour(memory wise) athough the WTG tour just passes this by a hair mainly because i love the opening of that show so much plus la Isla bonita and the dancing in ITG is insane on that tour too - to me her tours post BA & GS are not the same calibre and thats mainly because shes too focused on the sound and visuals rather than anything else - i love live music and not backing tracks - oh and i can go on all day WHY we still have no official release of this either especially as we have so much interest in re-releasing pointless vinyls of her albums :(( 

• Enrico and NowRadiate
• 3 weeks later...

At that very moment you were listening to the radio 1 broadcast, I was in a taxi with my mates going from the pub in Bexley to a club, and the taxi driver had it on in the cab. I didn't want to get out. I had forgotten to record it and never thought I,d hear it again...until I found the bootleg LP

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• All setlist songs  ( 923 )

Years on tour

• 2024  ( 49 )
• 2023  ( 32 )
• 2022  ( 4 )
• 2021  ( 2 )
• 2020  ( 26 )
• 2019  ( 53 )
• 2018  ( 1 )
• 2017  ( 2 )
• 2016  ( 40 )
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• 2014  ( 3 )
• 2013  ( 1 )
• 2012  ( 89 )
• 2010  ( 1 )
• 2009  ( 27 )
• 2008  ( 61 )
• 2007  ( 1 )
• 2006  ( 62 )
• 2005  ( 11 )
• 2004  ( 56 )
• 2003  ( 11 )
• 2001  ( 48 )
• 2000  ( 10 )
• 1999  ( 1 )
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• 1995  ( 5 )
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• 1993  ( 42 )
• 1991  ( 1 )
• 1990  ( 61 )
• 1989  ( 2 )
• 1987  ( 39 )
• 1986  ( 1 )
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• American Life Promo Tour  ( 4 )
• Blond Ambition World Tour  ( 58 )
• Confessions Promo Tour  ( 3 )
• Confessions Tour  ( 60 )
• Drowned World Tour  ( 47 )
• Hard Candy Promo Tour  ( 3 )
• Madame X Tour  ( 75 )
• Music Promo Tour  ( 2 )
• Re-Invention Tour  ( 56 )
• Rebel Heart Tour  ( 82 )
• Sticky & Sweet Tour  ( 85 )
• The Celebration Tour  ( 81 )
• The Girlie Show  ( 39 )
• The MDNA Tour  ( 88 )
• The Virgin Tour  ( 41 )
• Who's That Girl  ( 39 )
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Average setlist for tour: Blond Ambition World Tour

Note: only considered 57 of 58 setlists (ignored empty and strikingly short setlists)

• Express Yourself Play Video
• Open Your Heart Play Video
• Causing a Commotion Play Video
• Where's the Party Play Video
• Like a Virgin Play Video
• Like a Prayer Play Video
• Live to Tell Play Video
• Oh Father Play Video
• Papa Don't Preach Play Video
• Sooner or Later Play Video
• Hanky Panky Play Video
• Now I'm Following You Play Video
• Material Girl Play Video
• Cherish Play Video
• Into the Groove Play Video
• Vogue Play Video
• Holiday Play Video
• Keep It Together Play Video

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Main set closers, show closers, encores played.

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The Amplifier

Madonna’s hits-filled celebration tour, dissected.

Hear five standouts from the set, and six we wish she’d played.

By Caryn Ganz

Dear listeners,

Lindsay is desperately seeking some time off this week, so I am the first of your guest playlisters: Caryn, the pop music editor. I’m going to tell you a secret — you could consider it one of my confessions on a dance floor. I saw Madonna’s Celebration Tour seven times; eight if you include the livestream from Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night, where the Queen of Pop wrapped her first-ever retrospective with a free show before an estimated 1.6 million people on Copacabana Beach.

Some have asked why, so a brief explanation: I believe Madonna is the most important and influential solo figure in pop history, and I don’t skip opportunities to see her onstage, where she has innovated and thrilled throughout her four-decade career. (If you’re wondering who was behind “ 60 Times Madonna Changed Our Culture ,” wonder no more.) I was too young to catch the Virgin or Who’s That Girl tours — and nobody took me to Blond Ambition or the Girlie Show (ahem, parents) — so my live history begins with Drowned World in 2001 and I have done my best to catch up.

The Confessions Tour from 2006 is the best I’ve seen in person, the Tears of a Clown revival at Art Basel in 2016 was the zaniest, and Celebration is the first one I’ve reviewed (on its U.S. leg’s opening night in October). Repeated viewings haven’t changed my initial critical overview, though some parts of the show grew on me, some vocal performances sharpened up, and some of the extemporaneous speeches Madonna gave during the two breaks each night designed for them were stunningly raw and moving. (See Bonus Tracks below for more on that.)

But the point of today’s playlist is to take a deeper (and deeper) look at the songs Madonna did — and didn’t — select for the tour. The first five tracks are my favorites from the show, which has a lot to do with how she staged them. The second six are songs that were sorely missed, so should you ever do a Celebration 2, M, please consider them official requests.

Crazy for you,

Listen along while you read.

1. “like a prayer”.

The Celebration Tour stage encompassed 4,400 square feet, including a spinning circular platform that was the focal point for several songs — including this standout, performed on a carousel that rose into the air as shirtless dancers in loincloths and masks draped themselves in crucifixion-like poses. The entire show was set to backing tracks rather than a live band, and for this 1989 hit, it was a remix featuring booming bass and a few seconds of Sam Smith and Kim Petras’s “Unholy” at the beginning and end. (The precise mix isn’t available, but the “7” Remix” edit gets you close.) Chills, I tell you! ▶ Listen on Spotify , Apple Music or YouTube

2. “Live to Tell”

Much has been written about the stunning performance of this 1986 song, which Madonna staged as a tribute to victims of AIDS. She floated above the crowd in a rectangular box gazing at black-and-white portraits of those lost to the disease (including many of her friends and collaborators) on massive screens around her, which multiplied to demonstrate the scale of the epidemic. Each night I saw the show, she had a genuine emotional response and delivered her strongest vocals here.

▶ Listen on Spotify , Apple Music or YouTube

3. “Nothing Really Matters”

Madonna started the show with this song from “Ray of Light” (1998), using it as a table setter before she went back in time and revisited the story of her career. It was a striking entrance: She held a few poses on the spinning platform at the base of the stage, and slowly rotated out toward the audience in a black kimono and halo headpiece. As a song choice, it was a pointed opening statement about maturing, life choices, different kinds of love, and beginnings and endings.

4. “Don’t Tell Me”

The videos for “Don’t Tell Me” and “Hung Up” feature my favorite Madonna choreography, and while I was extremely happy to get them both live on this tour, they were both abbreviated! (So were a lot of other songs, but these felt especially egregious.) Still: I love this one’s stubborn message, and it was a blast to see the group number recreated on the Celebration stage — and a reminder that Madonna, always ahead of the curve, went cowboy chic back in 2000.

5. “Open Your Heart”

The section of the show dedicated to Madonna’s early days in New York and her first hits underscored the grit it took to get noticed and the glee she took in escaping on the dance floor. “Everybody” and “Holiday” were delightful, but her live performance of “Open Your Heart” made me discover the song anew: beautifully constructed, simple and still dramatic in the best ways, a real piece of pop perfection.

OK, now for the requests: This 2000 song joined the set list for the finale in Rio, but it should have been there the whole time! It’s a statement of purpose that encapsulates Madonna’s entire career. It is electrifying heard over the speakers of an arena — we know this, because it was the centerpiece of her Confessions Tour, when she performed it as an ecstatic roller disco in a crisp white suit.

7. “Secret”

Personally, I would have traded “Human Nature” for this “Bedtime Stories” single, which has one of the more unusual chord progressions in the Madonna catalog — a satisfying blend of major and minor that actually sounds mysterious and alluring.

8. “Oh Father”

Motherhood was the defining theme of the Celebration show, a thread that ran from the opener “Nother Really Matters” through the many moments featuring Madonna’s children (four of them went on the road and appeared each night). She performed “Mother and Father,” a song about loss from her 2003 album “American Life,” with her son David, and it did grow on me as a result. (I would have preferred “Hollywood,” but that’s a whole other mood.) Still, I missed “Oh Father,” the dramatic ballad from “Like a Prayer” that was a highlight of Blond Ambition.

9. “Material Girl”

We had a lot of early hits in the show, so I get why it didn’t make the cut, but I will say this: Someone was playing this 1985 smash on a sound system outside of Barclays Center after the second show I saw in Brooklyn, and watching the crowd dance and shout along, I realized I missed this moment during the concert. Still a certified banger!

10. “Beautiful Stranger”

Some of Madonna’s best songs have arrived on soundtracks (that’s where we got “Vogue”!) and I have an enduring love of this kicky little tune from the 1999 album that accompanied “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”

11. “Frozen”

Madonna performed “Frozen” a handful of times on Celebration, subbing it in for “Rain,” but I got “Rain” all seven times and was thirsty for this “Ray of Light” track instead. It’s a masterpiece of downtempo electro with a beautiful vocal and ear-tickling synth flourishes. It brings the drama we crave! Next time, Madonna, please?

The Amplifier Playlist

“Madonna’s Hits-Filled Celebration Tour, Dissected” track list Track 1: “Like a Prayer” Track 2: “Live to Tell” Track 3: “Nothing Really Matters” Track 4: “Don’t Tell Me” Track 5: “Open your Heart” Track 6: “Music" Track 7: “Secret” Track 8: “Oh Father” Track 9: “Material Girl” Track 10: “Beautiful Stranger” Track 11: “Frozen”

Bonus Tracks

As I mentioned above, Madonna addressed the audience for two extended periods during each show. On Jan. 23 at Madison Square Garden, she spoke about AIDS in New York in the 1980s, singling out Ellen Matzer and Valery Hughes in the audience — two nurses, “heroes,” she said, on the front lines of the epidemic, working in wards where “there were no visitors.” She went on, describing her own stop in a hospital room where she encountered a young man on the brink of death. “I laid down on the bed next to him, and he held my hand and he said, ‘Mother, thank you for coming,’” she said, her voice starting to break. “And it just made me think, these women here tonight, they did this every [expletive] day. And they got no thanks. So please say thank you to them right now.” It was a moment of gratitude that had most of the arena in tears.

Also, Madonna used “I Don’t Search I Find” as the soundtrack to a spectacular video montage near the end of the show that captured what made her inescapable — and irresistible to the media — throughout her career. It’s the best song from her most recent studio album, “Madame X,” and I recommend it.

Caryn Ganz is The Times’s pop music editor. More about Caryn Ganz

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36 Of Madonna’s Most Unforgettable Stage Costumes

Madonna ’s approach to her image has never been anything less than creative over the course of her long career – and nowhere is this more evident than on stage. Long before the likes of Lady Gaga or Beyoncé were turning their tour wardrobes into works of wearable art, Madonna was courting couture designers – and quite often controversy too – while performing in front of vast crowds.

Frequently collaborating with fashion’s top names, Madonna’s working wardrobe runs the designer gamut from Jean Paul Gaultier and Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy , to Versace , Gucci and Jeremy Scott for Moschino . Her professional relationship with Jean Paul Gaultier has been the most fruitful of all, not least thanks to that show-stopping conical creation from the Blond Ambition tour in 1990. A truly iconic costume if ever there was one.

The corset, an ever-present weapon in her sartorial arsenal, has been reinvented almost as many times as Madonna herself. The 2014 Christian Lacroix version, bejewelled and blue, was worn with over-the-knee, lace-up boots, while Jeremy Scott reinterpreted it with “Material Girl”-era Swarovski crystals in 2009. It’s there too in her most recent incarnation, as Madame X. The queen of pop chose a bondage-style bodysuit, fishnet stockings, and an eye-patch studded with more of those Swarovski crystals for an MTV Q&A to mark the release of her comeback single “Medellín”.

This year, Madonna has made her long-awaited return to the grand stage with the Celebration tour, which will visit 38 cities across Europe and North America and cover four decades of her legendary music career. During the opening weekend, Madonna graced the London stage with her offspring in tow, marking a special moment to celebrate her eldest child Lourdes Leon’s birthday. She also shared the stage with her teenage daughter Mercy James, who skillfully played a rendition of “Bad Girl” on the piano.

As for the Celebration tour looks? There was a lace bustier ensemble by Vetements, a silver mirrored Versace bodysuit with pronounced shoulders, and two looks by Jean Paul Gaultier: an ethereal floor-length kimono paired with a jewelled halo crown, and that iconic cone bra reimagined as a handed-beaded black corset bodysuit.

Below, see Madonna’s most unforgettable onstage fashion moments throughout the years.

She wore a corset and fishnets on stage in New York during the Who’s That Girl tour.

A swift costume change into a kitsch gown with a matching hat during the Who’s That Girl tour.

A more wholesome look on the Who’s That Girl tour.

The Jean Paul Gaultier conical bra Madonna wore during the Blond Ambition tour became instantly iconic.

She wore a corset, shorts and knee pads by Jean Paul Gaultier in Tokyo on the Blond Ambition world tour.

In another of the elaborate Blond Ambition looks – this time polka dots and an extravagant ponytail.

This pink feathered ensemble worn on stage in Tokyo during the Blond Ambition world tour was another Jean Paul Gaultier number.

Performing “Vogue” at the MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna opted for a costume originally worn by Glenn Close in the 1998 film Dangerous Liaisons .

Causing a Commotion

4 SONGS • 27 MINUTES • AUG 25 1987

• TRACKS TRACKS
• DETAILS DETAILS

Madonna changed the trajectory of popular music not long after "Borderline" became her first Top Ten hit in 1984. Fusing post-disco dance with effervescent pop, the song was unexpected and fresh, a trick that soon became her signature. Over a career that lasted for decades, Madonna ushered underground sounds into the mainstream, specializing in trends percolating in dance clubs. As she arrived at the dawn of the MTV era, she seized the possibilities of music videos, creating a series of sexy, stylish clips that earned her the reputation of a provocateur while also establishing the network as the bastion for hip culture in the 1980s. Madonna recorded many of the pop anthems that defined that decade -- "Like a Virgin," "Material Girl," "Live to Tell," "Papa Don't Preach," "Open Your Heart," "Like a Prayer," "Express Yourself" -- and in the process she created the archetype of a modern pop star: one whose music was inextricably tied with its visual representation, and one who was loathe to trade upon past glories. As Madonna entered her second decade of stardom, she continued to take artistic risks; she delved into modern R&B for 1994's Bedtime Stories and electronica for 1998's Ray of Light. During the 2000s and 2010s, Madonna continued to be driven by that restless artistic spirit, a move helped put the entirety of her body of work into perspective, emphasizing the common threads and consistency that run throughout her music -- connections that were as evident on albums such as 2019's Madame X as they were on retrospectives like Finally Enough Love, a 2022 chronicle of her dance club hits.

She moved from her native Michigan to New York in 1977 with dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. She studied with choreographer Alvin Ailey and modeled. In 1979, she became part of the Patrick Hernandez Revue, a disco outfit that had the hit "Born to Be Alive." She traveled to Paris with Hernandez, and it was there that she met Dan Gilroy, who would soon become her boyfriend. Upon returning to New York, the pair formed the Breakfast Club, a pop/dance group. Madonna originally played drums for the band, but she soon became the lead singer. In 1980, she left the band and formed Emmy with her former boyfriend, drummer Stephen Bray. Soon, Bray and Madonna broke off from the group and began working on some dance/disco-oriented tracks. A demo tape of these worked its way to Mark Kamins, a New York-based DJ/producer. Kamins directed the tape to Sire Records, which signed the singer in 1982.

Kamins produced Madonna's first single, "Everybody," which became a club and dance hit at the end of 1982; her second single, 1983's "Physical Attraction," was another club hit. In June of 1983, she had her third club hit with the bubbly "Holiday," which was produced by Jellybean Benitez. Madonna's self-titled debut album was released in September of 1983; "Holiday" became her first Top 40 hit the following month. "Borderline" became her first Top Ten hit in March of 1984, beginning a remarkable string of 17 consecutive Top Ten hits. While "Lucky Star" was climbing to number four, she began working on her first starring role in a feature film, Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan.

Madonna's second album, the Nile Rodgers-produced Like a Virgin, was released at the end of 1984. The title track hit number one in December, staying at the top of the charts for six weeks; it was the start of a whirlwind year for the singer. During 1985, Madonna became an international celebrity, selling millions of records on the strength of her stylish, sexy videos and forceful personality. After "Material Girl" became a number two hit in March, Madonna began her first tour, supported by the Beastie Boys. "Crazy for You" became her second number one single in May. Desperately Seeking Susan was released in July, becoming a box office hit; it also prompted a planned video release of A Certain Sacrifice, a low-budget erotic drama she filmed in 1979. A Certain Sacrifice wasn't the only embarrassing skeleton in the closet dragged into the light during the summer of 1985 -- both Playboy and Penthouse published nude photos of Madonna that she'd posed for in 1977. Nevertheless, her popularity continued unabated, with thousands of teenage girls adopting her sexy appearance, being dubbed "Madonna wannabes." In August, she married actor Sean Penn.

Madonna began collaborating with Patrick Leonard at the beginning of 1986; Leonard would co-write most of her biggest hits in the '80s, including "Live to Tell," which hit number one in June of 1986. A more ambitious and accomplished record than her two previous albums, True Blue was released the following month, to both more massive commercial success (it was a number one in both the U.S. and the U.K., selling over five million copies in America alone) and critical acclaim. "Papa Don't Preach" became her fourth number one hit in the U.S. While her musical career was thriving, her film career took a savage hit with the November release of Shanghai Surprise. Starring Madonna and Penn, the comedy received terrible reviews, which translated into disastrous box office returns.

At the beginning of 1987, she had her fifth number one single with "Open Your Heart," the third number one from True Blue alone. The title cut from the soundtrack of her third feature film, Who's That Girl?, was another chart-topping hit, although the film itself was another box office bomb. The year 1988 was relatively quiet for Madonna as she spent the first half of the year acting in David Mamet's Speed the Plow on Broadway. In the meantime, she released the remix album You Can Dance. After withdrawing the divorce papers she filed at the beginning of 1988, she divorced Penn at the beginning of 1989.

Like a Prayer, released in the spring of 1989, was her most ambitious and far-reaching album, incorporating elements of pop, rock, and dance. It was another number one hit and launched the number one title track as well as "Express Yourself," "Cherish," and "Keep It Together," three more Top Ten hits. In April 1990, she began her massive Blonde Ambition tour, which ran throughout the entire year. "Vogue" became a number one hit in May, setting the stage for her co-starring role in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy; it was her most successful film appearance since Desperately Seeking Susan. Madonna released a greatest-hits album, The Immaculate Collection, at the end of the year. It featured two new songs, including the number one single "Justify My Love," which sparked another controversy with its sexy video; the second new song, "Rescue Me," became the highest-debuting single by a female artist in U.S. chart history, entering the charts at number 15. Truth or Dare, a documentary of the Blonde Ambition tour, was released to positive reviews and strong ticket sales in the spring of 1991.

Madonna returned to the charts in the summer of 1992 with the number one "This Used to Be My Playground," a single featured in the film A League of Their Own, which featured the singer in a small part. Later that year, Madonna released Sex, an expensive, steel-bound soft-core pornographic book that featured hundreds of erotic photographs of herself, several models, and other celebrities -- including Isabella Rossellini, Big Daddy Kane, Naomi Campbell, and Vanilla Ice -- as well as selected prose. Sex received scathing reviews and enormous negative publicity, but that didn't stop the accompanying album, Erotica, from selling over two million copies. Bedtime Stories, released two years later, was a more subdued affair than Erotica. Initially, it didn't chart as impressively, prompting some critics to label her a has-been, yet the album spawned her biggest hit, "Take a Bow," which spent seven weeks at number one. It also featured the Björk-penned "Bedtime Stories," which became her first single not to make the Top 40; its follow-up, "Human Nature," also failed to crack the Top 40. Nevertheless, Bedtime Stories marked her seventh album to go multi-platinum.

Beginning in 1995, Madonna began one of her most subtle image makeovers as she lobbied for the title role in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. Backing away from the overt sexuality of Erotica and Bedtime Stories, Madonna recast herself as an upscale sophisticate, and the compilation Something to Remember fit into the plan nicely. Released in the fall of 1995, around the same time she won the coveted role of Evita Peron, the album was comprised entirely of ballads, designed to appeal to the mature audience that would also be the target of Evita. As the filming was completed, Madonna announced she was pregnant and her daughter, Lourdes, was born late in 1996, just as Evita was scheduled for release. The movie was greeted with generally positive reviews and Madonna began a campaign for an Oscar nomination that resulted in her winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy), but not the coveted Academy Award nomination. The soundtrack for Evita, however, was a modest hit, with a dance remix of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and the newly written "You Must Love Me" both becoming hits.

In 1997, she worked with producer William Orbit on her first album of new material since 1994's Bedtime Stories. The resulting release, Ray of Light, was heavily influenced by electronica, techno, and trip-hop, thereby updating her classic dance-pop sound for the late '90s. Ray of Light received uniformly excellent reviews upon its March 1998 release and debuted at number two on the charts. Within a month, the record was shaping up to be her biggest album since Like a Prayer. Two years later she returned with Music, which reunited her with Orbit and also featured production work from Mark "Spike" Stent and Mirwais, a French electropop producer/musician in the vein of Daft Punk and Air.

The year 2000 also saw the birth of Madonna's second child, Rocco, whom she had with filmmaker Guy Ritchie; the two married at the very end of the year. With Ritchie as director and Madonna as star, the pair released a remake of the film Swept Away in 2002; the movie didn't fare well with critics or at the box office. Her sober 2003 album, American Life, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts but it didn't generate any hit singles in America, but it did produce two hit singles in the U.K., "Nothing Fails" and "Love Profusion." That same year also saw the release of Madonna's successful children's book, The English Roses, which was followed by several more novels in future years.

Confessions on a Dance Floor marked her return to music, specifically to the dance-oriented material that had made her a star. Released in late 2005, the album topped the Billboard 200 chart and was accompanied by a worldwide tour in 2006, the same year that I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, a CD/DVD made during her Re-Invention Tour, came out. In 2007, Madonna released another CD/DVD set, The Confessions Tour, this time chronicling her tour of the same name.

She inched closer to the completion of her Warner Bros. contract with 2008's Hard Candy, featuring collaborations with the Neptunes and Timbaland. As poorly received as it was, the bold album boasted a Top Five hit in "4 Minutes," and it was supported with the Sticky & Sweet Tour, which concluded in September 2009 (a month prior to her filing for divorce from Ritchie) and produced yet another CD/DVD package, released in 2010. It was her final Warner Bros. release and set the stage for her long-term recording deal with Live Nation.

Madonna began work on her 12th album midway through 2011, with the goal of releasing it early in 2012. The subsequent full-length, MDNA, featured production from French electronic musician and DJ Martin Solveig, as well as longtime collaborator Orbit. The album's title, an abbreviation of Madonna's name, appeared on the heels of her performance at the 2012 Super Bowl. Preceded by the Top Ten single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" (featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.), MDNA debuted at number one across the world, including the U.S. and U.K. Her MDNA Tour took up the rest of the year, as she performed in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. She filmed a concert special, and also released the live album MDNA World Tour in September 2013. At the beginning of 2014, Madonna announced that she was starting work on her 13th studio album. Taking to social media to capture the process, she revealed that recording sessions with the likes of Avicii, Diplo, and Kanye West had taken place. Excerpts from the sessions leaked toward the end of 2014, forcing Madonna to release a digital teaser EP by the end of the year. The full release of Rebel Heart came in March 2015; the album peaked at number two in the U.S. and U.K. She toured from the fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016, playing more than 75 dates in North America, Europe, and Asia.

In April 2019, Madonna began to issue singles leading up to the June release of her 14th album, Madame X, starting with "Medellín," a collaboration with Colombian reggaeton singer Maluma. The album featured co-production by Mirwais, Mike Dean, Diplo, and Jason Evigan, as well as collaborations with guest artists including Brazilian singer Anitta and rappers Swae Lee and Quavo.

Upon its June 14, 2019 release, Madame X debuted at number one in the U.S. and number two in the U.K., generating four number one Billboard Dance Club hits: "Medellin," "Crave," "I Rise," and "I Don't Search I Find." Madonna's remarkable four-decade run at the top of the Dance Club charts was chronicled on Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, a 2022 compilation that featured nearly all of her chart-topping dance singles. Finally Enough Love was the first release in a prospective reissue program by Warner, launched in 2022 to celebrate her 40th anniversary as a recording artist. This catalog series coincided with Madonna developing a biopic chronicling her own career, a film she planned to direct herself. In June 2023, she joined the Weeknd and Playboi Carti for the song "Popular" as part of the soundtrack to the Netflix drama The Idol. A month later, she embarked on The Celebration Tour, her first greatest-hits-themed live show. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Madonna's Sister Opens Up About Envy She Felt Over Her Sibling's Fame: ‘Everyone Wants Their Own Level of Success'

M adonna might be a material girl, but that doesn't necessarily mean the singer’s seven siblings are. And in a recent viral video featuring Paula Ciccone highlighted just how difficult growing up in her sister’s shadow was. 

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Paula says: "She wasn’t singing all the time, but she was always doing something to be the center of anything ." 

Madonna's sister also opened up about how having a famous sister made it hard for her to model. " It's hard because I’m putting myself in the same place she is," Paula said. 

When asked if she felt envious of her sister, Paula adds: "Well, yeah sure. Everyone wants their own level of success, whatever they're doing."

Paula is only one year younger than Madonna, but the two have had very different careers. Madonna herself has released over 50 songs, whereas her sister Paula tried to model and act with little to no success. 

Apparently, that success made it harder for the family to be around Madonna, with Paula remembering, "The power that they get outside of the family tends to come home with them. So whenever they come home, there’s always this barrier. You have to get through the barrier, and then you can start talking to them. And let’s face it: when you get in a situation where you’re being treated really well, it’s really hard to put it aside and just be a person. Yeah, it’s also hard to talk to that person as a person if they’re not willing." 

Currently, Paula is 65 years old and an award-winning winemaker at the Vineyard and Winery in Suttons Bay, Michigan, along with her sibling Joan and their father Silvio. 

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All about madonna's other siblings .

Aside from Paula, Madonna has seven other siblings-three sisters and TK four brothers.  One of them actually thinks that the singer’s fame helped break into the music industry. 

Says Mario Ciccone, "I was having a conversation with my sister on the phone one day, and she encouraged me to come to L.A. to check it out for a year and see if I could find some people to play with out there. I packed up all my stuff and, along with a drummer friend, moved to L.A."

Mario has since left music, though after not finding the success he thought he would. He now works in marketing at Maverick Records. 

"I love to make music, and I started to see how the industry worked, but I didn‘t want to be at the performer’s end of it anymore," Mario revealed. "I made a choice to be on the end that I am at now because I wanted to be involved in this industry for the long term, helping bands and breaking new bands."

All of Madonna's siblings have the same mother and father and were all born in Michigan.  Six of her siblings are still alive. The eldest - Anthony Ciccone - passed away at age 66 in 2023. 

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Madonna wrote at the time of his death, “ Thank you for blowing my mind  as a young girl and introducing me to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Buddhism, Taoism, Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, Jack Kerouac, expansive thinking, and outside the box. You planted so many seeds." 

The other famous Ciccone would be Madonna's younger brother Christopher, who was a featured back up dancer in her music video  "Lucky Star," and the artistic director of the 1990 tour Blond Ambition World Tour and the 1993 tour The Girlie Show. Now, he works as an interior designer for Miami luxury condos and Manhattan restaurants, which he developed a love for after designing Madonna's apartment. "She had just married Sean [Penn], and they had a two-bedroom apartment. She needed help buying some furniture, and that's where my interest began: filling a space , designing a room, and working with a client."

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