#thevirginera

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KCBS News Los Angeles

USA March 29th 1985

Madonna was briefly interviewed at the Desperately Seeking Susan Premiere

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The Virgin Tour

Madison Square Garden New York City, NY June 10th 1985

SOLD OUT

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Desperately Seeking Susan Lobby Cards

These cards were in display in most cinemas showing the movie.

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Heibon Punch

Japan February 11th 1985

Madonna was shot exclusively for Japan, these pictures were never published outside of Japan. 

Photo Credit: Hiro Itoh

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The Palladium

New York City, NY June 11th 1985

Madonna and crew partied at Steve Ruebell’s Palladium nightclub to celebrate the end of The Virgin Tour.

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The Virgin Tour

Apr 10th 1985 - June 11th 1985

Madonna’s debut tour was a resounding success. While critics may not have all agreed, reviews were generally favourable, if not begrudgingly so. Most critics agreed Madonna had presence and the ability to handle herself on stage. It would soon become apparent that Madonna was not just a fad.

The tour broke records, selling out the Pacific Ampitheatre in Costa Mesa in 70 minutes, Radio City Music Hall in 34 minutes, the UIC Pavillion in Chicago sold 18,000 tickets in one day and in Philadelphia a record breaking 31,000 tickets were sold in under four hours. 

After a massive sell out at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, Madonna was moved to arenas, by the time she got to New York, demand was so great, two shows at Madison Square Garden were added.

Madonna had originally intended Bronski Beat to be the opening act, but later decided upon The Beastie Boys, she would say later that she loved them, but they were hated and booed off stage at almost every show.

Of 40 dates, only 21 were reported with a revenue of $3,272,084, though based on the fact all shows were listed as sell outs and taking an average ticket price of $15, the tour revenue was mostly likely around $5.6 Million. Tour merchandise sold even faster.

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The Virgin Tour

The Spectrum Philadelphia, PA May 29th 1985

SOLD OUT

Promoter: Stephen Star/The Concert Co. Attendance/Capacity: 15,551/15,551 Ticket Price: $15.50/$13.50 Gross: $237,047

Madonna: Lucky Star Live It Up

By Jonathan Takiff (Philadelphia Daily News)

She’s the special delight of teenage girls who emulate her pop tart look with their own dangling “Lucky Star” earrings, lacy gloves, sequined halter tops, bare midriffs, short skirts ad pointy high heels.

She’s also the scourge of enlightened feminists, who despise her “Boy Toy” philosophy, her flaunting, come-and-get-me sexuality and her self-centred, materialistic bent.

And last night at the Spectrum, near the tail end of her debut “Like a Virgin” tour, Madonna Louise Ciccone gave all the opinion makers exactly what they were looking for, and maybe even more.

She pulled off a well paced, precision stage show ripe with street wise terpsichord and flashy costuming (Paisley punk for starters, then all black, then white wedding style); plus lurid sexuality; sly bits of humor and fluid lighting and rear projections.

Oh yeah, there was also a long stream of Madonna’s bubble funk hits, from “Holiday” to “Borderline” to “Like a Virgin,” though at times the music did seem to take a back seat to all the other production distractions.

I found myself enjoying Madonna much more than I had anticipated. She certainly has a lot more going for her than just an alluring bellybutton. However, I had some gripes with the show’s lack of spontaneity. It was polished to such perfection that I was often compelled to ask, “So is this live or is it Memorex?”

One can certainly understand why Madonna would want to line up all her cards “just so.” Discovered first in 1982 by the tastemakers of urban contemporary radio (who now seem to have abandoned her, judging by the severe shortage of black faces at last night’s show), and then embraced by white teen-age America through the power of her riveting video clips, Madonna has chalked up a remarkable seven Top 20 records in a period of just 16 months. (Note, strictly for comparison’s sake, that it took Barbra Streisand 16 years to achieve the same number of hits.)

Yet, prior to last night, Madonna had never performed live in Philadelphia on any kind of stage. And many cynics were predicting she’d fall flat on her face - that she was a phenomenon who wouldn’t last till lunchtime.

So, starting out here at the top before a sold out (in 45 minutes) arena crowd numbering about 18,000 surely took guts and lots of rehearsing. And Madonna did prove that she could carry a 75 minute show - relying on material from her two solo albums and her two movie soundtracks - “Visionquest” and “Desperately Seeking Susan.”

She moves in concert every bit as confidently as she does on screen, and even steamier - with lots more of the strip queen inspired hip shakes, dry humping and groveling on all fours than the TV censors will allow. For support, Madonna comes equppied with a pair of step mimicking male dancers. Their one girl/two guys dance routines are actually an old-style nightclub performances conceit; very Mitzi Gaynor-ish, very Ann-Margaret, merely updated with some new moves.

What especially floored me (and also made me a bit suspicious) was the fact that her near constant choreography never once took Madonna’s breath away! Amazing. She’s hardly more than a gurgly wisp of a singer (vocalizing came as an afterthought to her dance training), and yet Madonna belted them out in concert last night with exactly the same smoothness and electronic voice thickening effects that she and her record producers take months to methodically create in the studio.

I’m certain that at least some of the backing vocal tracks heard last night at the Spectrum were pre-recorded on tape - when Madonna was heard harmonizing with herself. As for the surprising strength in her own lead parts, I can only conclude that madonna is either an entertainer with the hearty constitution of a horse, or an extremely good lip-syncher.

High points of the show included Madonna’s incendiary version of “Burning Up” and her tambourine tossing and boom box straddling accompaniment to “Into the Groove.” For laughs, nothing could top the segue from “Like a Virgin” into Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” - a song Madonna and company often have been accused of plagiarizing.

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The Virgin Tour

St. Paul Civic Center St. Paul, MN May 21st 1985

SOLD OUT

Madonna concert fails to shed light on extent of her talents

By Jon Bream (Star Tribune)

 Madonna is the hottest female figure in show business at the moment.

She's been on the cover of Rolling Stone twice in 26 weeks and also on the cover of People. Her songs are all over the radio and her videos are all over MTV. In the past 16 months, she has placed seven songs in the Top 20 on Billboard's pop chart. Her first major motion picture, "Desperately Seeking Susan," ranks among the five best-grossing films of the spring. And her maiden concert tour -- dubbed the Virgin Tour -- has meant instant sellouts in every city.

However, many people wonder if Madonna is a genuine talent or simply a well-put-together package that will become passe as quickly as she has ascended.

After seeing her concert Tuesday night at the St. Paul Civic Center, it's hard to tell. It was no better or worse than my expectations. The program didn't challenge her artistically or suggest that she might be in the same league as Prince, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen, rock's premier stage performers; she knows her limitations and her strengths and she tailored her performance accordingly.

Madonna's 70-minute show was tightly choreographed, well-paced and generally entertaining. She mixed singing with dancing (with two male dancers), threw in some costume changes, projected slides of her photogenic face on huge screens behind her and talked like the heartless tart that so many people think she is. Ultimately, she came across like a punk Ann-Margret giving a flashy, sexually teasing, contemporary burlesque-like performance that would have been right at home in a Las Vegas showroom.

More than anything else, Madonna is a personality, an icon who blends glamour sleaze, mock innocence and raw sexuality in a way that appeals mostly to teen-age girls and boys.

Not only does she have flair, presence and an unforgettable face, but she has terrific business instincts and surrounds herself with all the right people. Her first album was produced by Reggie Lucas and Jellybean Benitez, two of the hippest producers at the time, and then late last year she hooked up with Nile Rodgers, who had been on a roll with Chic, Diana Ross and David Bowie. 

She also turned her career over to the firm that used to manage Michael Jackson, and a couple of the members of her crack touring band played behind Jackson and his brothers on last year's Victory Tour. In short, Madonna is no lucky star, she's a very smart one.Madonna Ciccone, 25, always thought she was going to lead a special life. As a teen-ager in the Detroit area, she fell under the spell of an older dance instructor who introduced her to the world of the arts. She shucked a college scholarship to move to New York with $35 in her pocket. There she studied with famed choreographer Alvin Ailey, then moved to Paris to become a singer during the disco era. She returned to New York, joined a band, met a disc jockey at a disco who helped her get a record deal.Her 1983 debut album, "Madonna," yielded three hits and has sold more than 2 million copies. Her second album, "Like a Virgin," has produced two hits thus far and sold twice as many copies as her initial LP. With her songwriting and her producers' fashionable framing of her material, Madonna has fit right in the dance clubs and on pop and soul radio stations. There are as many Madonna naysayers as there are worshipers. To many she is a give-the-boys-what-they-want bimbo, an early Marilyn Monroe transformed to the concert stage. Others say the sizzling siren doesn't have much of a voice. Both criticisms seemed valid Tuesday.Madonna just didn't play it camp enough, except on "Material Girl," and some of the impressionable, unsophisticated young people in the audience may get the wrong idea about the role of women. Moreover, her voice seemed thin, shrill and generally emotionless and soulless. The only time she sang as if she meant it was on the current hit ballad, "Crazy for You."The rest of the program was upbeat dance numbers. Madonna bumped and ground, did the swim and chorus-line kicks to the music, though her miniskirt limited her movements. But, to her credit, she was able to dance energetically and sing at the same time, no small feat for 70 minutes. The predominantly female crowd of 16,799 was equally energetic. The young girls came dressed up like Madonna with teased hair covered with gel, lots of lace, bracelets and necklaces and bare midriffs. And when dealing with a red-hot idol like Madonna, dressing up and being there is sometimes the most important thing.

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The Virgin Tour

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Portland, OR April 15th & 16th 1985

SOLD OUT

At the beginning of ‘Holiday’ Madonna almost called out Seattle, but stopped herself, got confused as to where she was, and finally realised it was Portland.

Madonna’s a new kick

By John Wendeborn (The Oregonian)

The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall looked like a high-tech videodrome Monday night, a reflection of the importance of the visual impact on rock ‘n’ roll in the 80′s, but none of the effects could compete with the star of the show, an energetic, agile - and sensual - Madonna.

This young dancer turned pop star has moved to the front of the line with stunning videos, good music and an image that’s basically punk puberty, although she’s 24 years old. Her latest LP is “Like a Virgin” and many of her songs have a seductive message. She’s scorched MTV with the hottest videos seen on the cable channel, but her live show definitely cuts deeper.

The 75 minute program was complete with several costume changes and a tight band that played the funky new wave material with choreographed precision. But, as in an increasing number of pop acts, the star and her image took precedence over the music. The “show” was the thing and in Madonna’s case, the music was an added treat.

She opened with an attention-getting outfit: purple lace topped with a green miniskirt and paisley-type multi-colored (and flashy) jacket with purple bra underneath the midriff-baring top. Ankle high old fashioned shoes completed the outfit, save for the cross that dangled.

A circus of lighting effects agitated the scene as Madonna and two dancers (who also served as background singers, if briefly) came down the flight of steps that took up the middle of the stage. Dancing was a very important part of the show throughout as Madonna proved her early training as a ballet and modern dancer could be put to good use in 1985.

“Celebrate” was a typical bit of technological funk with the six-piece band involving three keyboardists and dynamic drummer. Just about all the sound emanated from those multiple keyboards, including synthsizers, but also augmented by computers. Madonna’s vocals were drowned out for the first tune or two but the mix improved and her voice came out with a strength that matched the instrumental energy.

On virtually every song, she worked hard between dancing, singing and undulating around the stage. The dance routines were exciting with the music, but they were nothing too new if you have seen Las Vegas acts like Ann-Margaret or Suzanne Somers, singers who utilize two (or more) man dancers in routines.

She worked all of her hits into the show, including “Borderline,” “Starlight,” “Crazy for You” (with a lot of fog giving the scene an erie effect as she knelt for the finish) and “Like a Virgin.”

The show concluded with her most recent hit, “Material Girl,” done in another white outfit topped off with glittering stones and a white fur stole.

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THE BOOT

The clothes Madonna wore were always popular, with young and older women everywhere imitating her. So it made sense to put on sale Madonna’s clothes from Desperately Seeking Susan as well.

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The Virgin Tour

Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA May 28th 1985

SOLD OUT

Promoter: DiCesare-Engler Productions Attendance/Capacity: 15,600/15,600 Ticket Price: $15 Gross: $219,210

Madonna: Real Life Music Video

By Pete Bishop (Pittsburgh Press)

Lady Madonna, children at your feet. It’s no wonder how you manage to make ends meet.

See how they run - see how they ran, actually, to gobble up tickets for last night’s Civic Arena concert. Every one was gone in a matter of hours. And when a few more seats became available yesterday afternoon, they too were sold pronto, putting total attendance at 15,600.

For this concert, you see, starred Madonna, like Duran Duran a living tribute to the image making power of music videos.

That image is an update of Bette Midler’s “trash with flash, sleaze with ease,” an image that inspired at least some of the would-be “Boy Toys” in the predominantely young audience: miniskirts, black fishnet hose and wraps; gaudy jewelry; bra straps exposed (but most navels covered); white, fingerless, lace gloves.

On the other hand, there also were plenty of standard slacks, jeans, shorts, skirts, dresses and casual tops - some men even wore coats and ties. For there was a curiosity value about Madonna among the people who’ve never seen her videos or bought her records. A lot of those 15,600 clearly were well out of their teens, and not all of them were chaperoning small children.

The woman of the hour herself chose a multi-colored, almost psychadelic jacket and miniskirt over a spangled black top and what looked like black bike-racing shorts; enough make-up that it could have been applied with a towel; fingerless green gloves; a pair of those hideous, black, high top “witch” shoes, and a sad stringy harido more befitting Medusa than Madonna - in short, “Girl George.”

Trasy indeed, But it’s all for show. What she said, sang and did belied the image.

Yes, she offered one double entendre, but that was nothing compared to Miss Midler’s frequent use of this word, that word, you know what word and dirty jokes at the Stanley Theatre two years ago.

Madonna’s dancing was nothing more than go-go moves from 20 years ago, not lascivious bumping and grinding.

Even her crawling through and around the legs of her two male dancers during “Burning Up” was no racier than what you can see every week on “Solid Gold.”

And her songs? Forget it. There’s one line in “Material Girl” that could be construed as naughty (”Some boys try and some boys lie, but I don’t let them play. Only boys that save their pennies make my rainy day”).

Madonna Louise Ciccone basically is harmless fun, which is in perfect keeping with her music. It’s mostly happy, dance-beat music that her bandsmen, whom she didn’t identify, played very well and she sang well enough.

She doesn’t have a great voice. It can carry a tune accurately but lacks character and is inherently nasal, meaning it can get shrill and tinny. As far as power, she’s no match for two women heard earlier this month at the Syria Mosque, Teena Marie and district jazz singer Michele Bensen, but on “Angel,” where she was lower in her register, her voice had more richness.

Then again, most songs weren’t very challenging. Easy dance beat numbers aren’t, and she did a slew of them: “Everybody,” “Angel,” “Borderline,” “Lucky Star” and “Like a Virgin,” for which she’d changed into a short white wedding dress complete with white shoes and bouquet.

Far better were the livley hard driving “Gambler” from the “Vision Quest” sound track; the more feral beat “Burning Up”; “Over and Over,” which blended today’s techno-pop with surf sound and the spunky, catchy “Material Girl” with its calypso undertones.

Madonna also did a good job with the ballad “Crazy For You” which she began singing while curled up on the main staircase that bisected her stage set. It wasn’t the equal of torchy “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” from her “LIke a Virgin” album, but maybe she’ll do that one next time around.

Making it all better was a big stage show that included well more than 100 overhead lights on trusses, flown speakers, black light, dry ice smoke and white balloons imprinted “Dreams Come True” that showered fans on the floor during “Angel.”

Not only was it nice that Madonna gave her fans that much extra for their concert dolars, it was smart. and Madonna, who earned honor roll grades high enough to win a four year scholarship to the University of Michigan, is no dummy. She knows that images and fads are gossamer at best and that relying on them, no matter how bizzare, can mean “Toot-Toot-Tootsie Goodbye” sooner than expected.

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The Virgin Tour

USF Sun Dome Tampa, FL May 9th 1985

SOLD OUT

Promoter: Fantasma Productions Attendence/Capacity: 8,400/8,400 Ticket Price: $15 Gross: $125,415

Madonna a ‘rock-out’ at Sun Dome

By Ray Rudolph

Nobody has to tell her she has it, and certainly nobody has to show her how to flaunt it. Madonna knows. As rock’s trashy new party doll, she knocked them out cold Thursday night, after teasing and cooing for an hour and 15 minutes during her concert stop at the University of South Florida Sun Dome in Tampa as part of her first national tour.

Madonna, at 25, now is selling everything she fought for all her life, and the sold out crowd of 8,000 bought it all - her street wise pin up image, her blatantly sexy and indulgent lyrics delivered in a girlish, even coquettish voice and animated with peep-show antics. All this was backed by a powerful six-piece band and two equally gritty male back up singers and dancers. Quite a package.

Madonna has gotten more media exposure lately than any other star, pop or otherwise. She had her film debut in Desperately Seeking Susan, she’s on the cover of the current people magazine, and her two latest albums, Madonna and Like a Virgin, have gone platinum. Young girls everywhere clone themselves with Madonna’s lacy lingeried look in fishnet, belly-baring costumes. In the audience Thursday night, even girls with braces on their teeth were decked out in lace tops and dangle earrings. Outside, lines swelled around souvenir stands, where Madonna T-shirts sold as fast as you could turn your head. Girls grabbed for color booklets of their idol, while boys, just as much in attendance, hugged full size posters. There even were a few mothers and daughters dressed alike.

But she can sing, if not yet stretch her voice, and her songs last night mostly were aimed at dancing feet. She hit her mark. No one sat during the whole concert. Often she shoots from the hip and intentionally aims below the belt, as she did in her opener when she proclaimed to each one she wanted to Dress You Up With My Love.

She appeared atop a platform with two descending ramps in black stockings and see-through bra, a tight purple skirt and matching bow in her hair. Oh, yes, black boots, too, and a mutli-colored (maybe we can resurrect the word psychedelic) jacket she quickly discarded.

She performed a few tightly choreographed numbers from her first album, but by the time she got to her sixth song, Borderline, her midriff was covered in perspiration. She saved her best material for later in the show, but now was enticing her fans by telling everyone to “Get up and do your thing.”

When she got to Lucky Star and Over and Over, she had changed to black tights and a halter top with a see-through crucifix. And when the crowd could wait no more, she quickly disappeared to return Like a Virgin in sewed on lace pants, white halter and yards of netting.

She closed the show with Material Girl, which rose to No.2 on Billboard magazine’s charts. Dressed in furs, she threw fake money to the crowd.

Though there is a similarity to most of her songs, she was intoxicating as she got into it. Her best number was the slower and imploring Crazy For You.

She sang with no breaks, the only distraction being video screens that were lowered behind the band to show bare-bottomed babies, a picture of James Dean and a 60′s peace symbol. Actually, that was a nifty juxtaposition for this 80′s urban vamp, who is just fine out of the studio and on stage. Her 11 songs added up to one statement from Madonna - that women and rock always have gone together.

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The Virgin Tour

Dallas Convention Center Dallas, TX May 3rd 1985

SOLD OUT

Promoter: Pace Concerts Attendance/Capacity: 8,717/8,717 Ticket Price: $15 Gross: $130,755

Dallas News

By Mikel Longoria

Some say she's trendy; others say she's trashy. After seeing Madonna at the Dallas Convention Center Arena Friday night, I say she's terrific. This may be her first concert tour, but Madonna Louise Ciccone - and her entire show - sure didn't look Like a Virgin. The production was near perfect. And Madonna's voice (so often the source of criticism) sounded so strong that halfway through the show I began to suspect that she was singing with pre-recorded tapes.

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Sound-Check

San Diego April 19th 1985

Madonna puts the boys through their paces, making sure her first open-air gig goes perfectly. Madonna’s sound checks would become infamous over the years.

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KIRO Channel 7 Eyewitness News

Seattle, WA April 10th 1985

Madonna’s innaugral concert was featured on the 11pm local news in Seattle.

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The Virgin Tour

Paramount Theatre Seattle, WA April 10th 1985

SOLD OUT

Madonna Seduces Seattle

By Michael Goldberg (Rolling Stone)

Her first show features all the hits and more

Just how successful Madonna’s first full fledged concert was depends on how much you like to look at a pretty girl. Kicking off her U.S tour in front of nearly 3,000 screaming teeny boppers at Seattle’s ornate Paramount Theatre, Madonna was a sweaty pin-up girl come to life. She wiggled her tummy and shook her ass. She smiled lasciviously and stuck out her tongue. She rolled around on the stage and got down on her knees in front of a guitarist. And when she raised her arms, her scanty see-through blouse also rose, revealing her purple brassiere. Oh yeah, she also sang.

Musically, the seventy-minute, thirteen-song performance was a satisfying, if unspectacular, re-creation of Madonna’s records. She sang the hits (”Lucky Star,” “Holiday,” “Borderline,” “Like a Virgin,” “Crazy For You,” “Material Girl”), soundtrack songs (”Gambler,” from Vision Quest, “Into the Groove,” from Desperately Seeking Susan) and hot album cuts (”Burning Up,” “Everybody”) in the same thin, sometimes squeaky and always tempting voice that by now you either love or hate. And her recently assembled band - a drummer, two guitarists, three synthersizer players - faithfully reproduced the exquisite disco sound of her records. One doesn’t expect musical revelations from Madonna - and one doesn’t get any.

What Madonna is really about is sex, and there was plenty of that. The show began with glamorous close-ups of her projected onto five large screens that hung behind the band. Madonna then made her appropriately melodramatic entrance: a pink silhouette of her appeared on one of the screens, which rose, revealing the star, who descended a white staircase to the front of the stage, belting out “Dress You Up.” Wearing a kind of neopsychadelic outfit - a coat embroidered with yellow-and-green and white-and-orange designs, a turquoise micro-miniskirt, a lace top, purple tights and black high-heeled boots - she looked like Susan, the character she plays in Desperately Seeking Susan.

Madonna’s clumsy dance steps, funky costumes and camped-up come-ons made her appealing and - surprise - likable. She’s not some perfect, unattainable sexual icon; she’s a real person, like her fans. (At least eighty percent of the girls in the crowd had done their damnedest to mimic their idol’s looks, from bleaching and tousling their hair to wearing such Madonna-associated items as see-through blouses, fingerless gloves and crucifix earrings, which were on sale for twenty dollars in the lobby.)

“Will you marry me?” Madonna asked the enthusiastic crowd when she returned for the encore. As the audience screamed “Yes!” she sang a spirited version of “Like a Virgin” that included a bar or two of “Beat It” stuck in the middle.

Afterward, at a small celebration in her manager’s hotel suite, Madonna was aglow. Sipping champagne, laughing about some writer who’s written that she has set women back thirty years, she looked like a very happy star. “I was excited,” she said of her first concert. “Excited and nervous.”