Althouse: Madonna is 50!

August 16, 2008

Madonna is 50!

Happy birthday, Madonna! Don't fear the five-o.

Let's watch her 27 greatest videos. Wow! So many great ones. Hard to say which is best. As you click through that set, each seems to demand first place. So let me feature one that I especially like that may be slightly more obscure than most of the others:

Celebrate Madonna! Pray for Madonna:

18 comments:

Zachary Sire said...: It still seems impossible that she's 50. It's the first time someone's turned an age that's made me say, "wow I feel old."

It's disgraceful that the woman who created MTV and VH1, and thus perhaps helped popularize cable television, isn't getting a single mention on those networks today! Not even 60 minutes of a video retrospective? Nothing!

Remember when a new Madonna video was an "event"? There are a lot of her videos where I can remember where I was and what I was doing when they premiered.

THIS is my favorite one...and it didn't make that EW list!; 8/16/08, 11:27 AM
Trooper York said...: Hey I have been blasting out Madonna songs all morning at the store on the Ipod. You haven't lived till you see a fat Irishman acting out Papa Don't Preach. Or Voguing.; 8/16/08, 11:29 AM
Zachary Sire said...: BTW that video has cameos from tons of her friends and underground club/performance artists. It was a love letter to her first days starting out in the scene. It also has Sofia Coppola, Debi Mazar, Udo Kier, and Chi Chi La Rue!; 8/16/08, 11:30 AM
TitusFosse!! said...: Absolutely amazing.

The bitch is still belting out the number one's.

I just went through all of those 27 videos. Each one of them reminds me of a time and place in my life. Friends, clubs, clothes, hair styles, jobs, etc.

I absolutely love her. Her concerts are amazing. All she needs to do is dance. I just love to watch her move.

Burning Up and Borderline and Holiday and many others were not even included in this list.

I don't have one favorite because most all of they are so fucking amazing.

I do like American Pie. I know she got raked over the coals for doing it but what is cool is it is very American. No other country can take our Madonna. She is our American girl.

And the bitch worked for all this, none of it was handed to her. She has major balls.; 8/16/08, 12:00 PM
Meade said...: Those Feministing feminister sisters would be well-advised to go back to their roots as expressed by the one who launched the Third Wave: absorb the joy, lose the bitter anger.; 8/16/08, 12:03 PM
TitusFosse!! said...: No Cherish, La Isla Bonita, Rain, Fever either.

Fever is one of my favorites. She is amazing in the Fever video.; 8/16/08, 12:08 PM
Palladian said...: G-A-Y.; 8/16/08, 12:15 PM
TitusFosse!! said...: I love her laughing and running out of the hotel in Justify My Love. Absolutely Perfect.

Her hands and legs when moving are incredible.

It would be interesting to know where some of the people that were in these videos are now today.

Specifically, the muscle guy in Express Yourself (whom she saw in a magazine and wanted him in her video); the queens in Vogue; the hot guy she does in Justify My Love; thhe black Jesus guy in Like A Prayer;

The white dancer in Vogue with the slicked back hair was incredibly hot. Baby. But when I saw her movie about that tour he was a big queen. Remember Oliver the straight dancer who didn't get along with all of the queens.

Her tits look amazing in the video Vogue. Love her hair in Beautiful Stranger and Ray of Light and I guess all of the videos.

What I love most about her is she really didn't give a shit.; 8/16/08, 12:16 PM
TitusFosse!! said...: Yes, it's gay Palladian.

Very, very gay.

I remember in 1990 I was in Boston at school and went to this huge club called Avalon and the dj played Vogue. The dance floor was huge and the entire club was dancing. I was in heaven.

Also, I had never seen hot gay men before. Boston was eye opening.

It was slim pickens in Madison; 8/16/08, 12:23 PM
Ann Althouse said...: hey, slim pickens wasn't so bad when he was young and wearing his hot cowboy outfit.; 8/16/08, 12:35 PM
integrity said...: Great post. Ms. Althouse is looking younger and sexier each day.

Happy Birthday Madonna! You're the best.

The work is too voluminous to even comment on, but for those with more libertine points of view I have a new recommendation: "The Making Of Sex". Apparently this is the video she gave to the guests at her "Sex" book party in 1992. I just got this last week from Madonna-Store.com and have been mesmerized by it. The candy-like B/W grainy footage set to vintage french music is an absolute revelation. This extremely playful, beautifully shot and edited montage puts the whole book in a different perspective. Madonna shines in this thing, as do all of her co-stars. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for Madonna's edgier material from the early 90's.

Thank you Madonna.

The "Human Nature" video is one of my faves as well.; 8/16/08, 12:40 PM
sonicfrog said...: I'm not a big Madonna fan (yes, I know Palladian, I'm a failure as a homosexual), but the one thing that I have always appreciated is the musical talent she surrounded herself with. Two musicians, Patric Leonard and Kevin Gilbert, went on to from the short lived Toy Matinee, which produced a brilliant album.

PS. Gilbert had a band in Pasadena that rehearsed every Tuesday night. One night he brought his girlfriend over to hang and sing. The girlfriend? Sheryl Crow. The band? "Tuesday Night Music Club". The rest is history.; 8/16/08, 2:22 PM
chuck b. said...: Wow, I've never even heard that song, Human Nature. What a video! My favorite has always been Ray of Light, but maybe I will reconsider.; 8/16/08, 4:47 PM
chuck b. said...: "always"--since I first saw it anyway.; 8/16/08, 4:51 PM
TitussaysRelax, dont do it, when you want to cum said...: Slim Pickens-that is funny. See I am so Wisconsin. My friends nail me all the time when I do something like this.

Slim Pickings!

Not fabulous of me.; 8/16/08, 6:00 PM
Palladian said...: "I'm not a big Madonna fan (yes, I know Palladian, I'm a failure as a homosexual)"

No, you're the best kind of homosexual. Madonna is annoying, derivative drivel.; 8/16/08, 6:27 PM
TitussaysRelax, dont do it, when you want to cum said...: Take that back now Palladian.

That hurts.; 8/16/08, 6:33 PM
knox said...: Blogginghead! Althouse v. Palladian on Madonna at 50.; 8/17/08, 9:02 AM