Tuesday Top Ten: MADONNA Day!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 1:22PM Madonna then'ish and now'ish.
Has anyone hogged more mental, academic, celebrity, music, sexual and pop culture real estate combined than Madonna over the last 25+ years? I think not. We salute the Queen today on her birthday. August 16th ought to be an international holiday. Make it happen, citizens of earth.
So herewith two top ten lists and one of them is catered specifically to The Film Experience so as to make this post more at home! Madonna has had a problematic journey with film, aside from three indisputable highlights: time capsule 80s comedy Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), the wondrous super quotable documentary Truth or Dare (1991) and her Golden Globe win as Evita (1996). Will she be able to add a fourth success to that list when her Oscar-seeking directorial effort W.E. (2011) comes out? [All previous posts on W.E.]
Top 10 Favorite Songs:
1] Like a Prayer 2] Erotica 3] Open Your Heart 4] Frozen 5] Ray of Light 6] Into the Groove 7] Nothing Fails 8] Vogue 9] You'll See 10 ] Hung Up.... but the list changes all the time past the top five.
10 Actors/Actresses in Madonna Videos
It'd be tough to come up with a top 10 best Madonna-acting list. So...actors IN her videos.
1] Debi Mazar "Music", "Justify My Love", "Deeper and Deeper", "True Blue" and "Papa Don't Preach"
She's practically the unofficial mascot of Madonna videos. They've been friends since the early 80s.
2] Tony Ward "Justify My Love", "Cherish" and "Erotica"
3] Udo Kier "Deeper and Deeper" and "Erotica"
4] Danny Aiello "Papa Don't Preach"
5] Christopher Walken "Bad Girl"
Isabella "Erotica", Udo "Deeper and Deeper", Goran "The Power of Goodbye" and Danny "Papa Don't Preach"
6] Isabella Rossellini "Erotica"
7] Sacha Baron Cohen "Music"
8] Goran Visnjic "The Power of Goodbye"
9] Mike Myers "Beautiful Stranger"
10] Leon Robinson "Like a Prayer"
runner up: it's sad that future Oscar winner Sofia Coppola is blink and you'll miss her in "Deeper and Deeper" because she looks hot in that video filmed soon after The Godfather III debacle and years before she took up a camera herself to follow in dad's footsteps.
Movie Stars Most Often Visually / Musically Referenced by Madonna
Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich frequently (and of course those cinematic shout outs to Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Grace Kelly in "Vogue")
Now go listen to your favorite Madonna record.
I'll get back to movies now.
What gif said.
Debi Mazar, Madonna, Sofia Coppola, Tues Top Ten, Udo Kier
Reader Comments (20)
Bette Davis we love you
Sofia eats a banana in unison with other girls
I've always felt that BAD GIRL is one of her best and most underrated videos! Happy Birthday Madonna!!! XOXOOX
I wish Madonna would still make event videos...nowadays it's just her dancing in front of a green screen. "Music" was her last great video.
Top Ten Madonna songs:
Like A Prayer, Holiday, Express Yourself, Material Girl, Vogue, Open Your Heart, Papa Don't Preach, I'll Remember, Jump, You'll See.
Can I do a list too?:
1. Secret
2. Sky Fits Heaven
3. Ray of Light
4. Into the Groove
5. Bedtime Story
6. I'll Remember
7. Vogue
8. Erotica
9. Oh Father
10. Drowned World/Substitute for Love
Agree about event videos, but I still think the quality is better than most.
Disagree that Music was her last great video. Die Another Day is one of her 5 best videos ever, IMHO.
THe person on the right in the top picture is Madonna? I honestly would not have guessed, she looks unrecognizable to me. Can I blame that on digital editing or has she messed with her face that much?
I don't know Nat, if I knew nothing else about Madonna, I would love her for A League Of Their Own anyway. That movie would definitely be in my top three Madonna movies, if not #1.
So excited for Madonnas new album! Can't wait!
I like any video where I don't have to see her grab her crotch anymore. Good Lord.
Songs:
Like a Prayer
Borderline
Into the Groove
Ray of Light
Take a Bow
Music
Dress You Up
Burning Up
Bad Girl
Paradise (Not for Me)
(I think).
So, DICK TRACY isn't a highlight (is that because it's not her film)? I have massive love for Madonna in EVITA, every time I see it I see her in it I see interesting new things she does with the character. Perhaps n exactly seminal, but then again - what is? I think because Madonna is not an "actress" I feel like I should be embarrassed about liking the performance so much. But, hell, she's in my top 5 of 1996.
On her music which is brilliant, I'd spend days trying to make a comprehensive top 10 list but off the top of my head: Take a Bow / Vogue / Frozen / Spanish Lullaby / Power of Goodbye / Like a Prayer/ Don't Tell Me / What It Feels Like For a Girl / Papa Don't Preach / More
Top ten list of epicness (this is really hard):
1. Ray of Light
2. Express Yourself
3. Frozen
4. Promise to try (makes me so sad)
5. Music
6. Drowned World (Substitute love)
7. Get Together
8. Don't Tell Me
9. Like a Prayer
10. Miles Away
+ (Nobody's Perfect, Secret, Love Profusion)
Nina -- you know what's weird when Ray of Light first came out i thought Drowned World / Substitute for Love was so weak... and now, i just love it. It's a moving song.
and you know what song i love that no one speaks of? Nobody Knows Me. gah.
i heart madonna so much. obvs. okay. i'll stop now.
RE: Nobody Knows Me. American Life as a whole is a highly underrated folk-fusion album. There is some wonderful work on there, including "Love Profusion."
Eric -- i like that whole record too. very weirdly hated upon its arrival. But i prefer it to some that were well received, like Bedtime Stories for example.
Bedtime Stories is her weakest album as a whole, but there are two individual tracks that I absolutely love - Secret and Bedtime Story.
Going back to videos, I would love to see her reteam with some of the directors whose careers she helped launch - like Fincher, Romanek or Chris Cunningham. And wouldn't it be super awesome if she hired Mary Lambert! I'm sure she will call on her recent favorite Jonas Akerlund.
Nathaniel -- Actually thought about including Nobody Knows Me. American Life is a great record, love the titel track, Nothing Fails and Love Profusion too. Generally I love it when artists go out on a limb and create something very experimental (Madonna's Secret Garden, Kylie Minogue's Impossible Princess). Often it results in great music. Madonna is always reinventing herself, think Ray of Light, American Life. She could have stayed in her comfort zone but she didn't. And I think that is how she stayed in the spotlights for so long.
But please Madonna, for the love of God, don't make a house music album.
favorite madge videos
1. vogue
2. express yourself
3. lucky star
4. bad girl
5. ray of light
6. hung up
7. rain
8. open your heart
9. justify my love
10. american pie
Nina, that's exactly it. She was not only ambitious but she had the curiousity of a true artist. Most people in her situatino would have gone straight to adult contemp around the time she made Ray of Light. But not Madge.
brandon -- thanks for playing. glad people are still playing a few days later.
Sawyer -- i would basically die if she reteamed with Fincher for videos for the new record. Think of the publicity. And really: he kind of owes her. (but maybe that's what "Bad Girl" was for, paying debts)