1991 Madonna

1983


In 1983, an upcoming singer had just scored her first international hit, ‘Holiday’. Determined to be more than a one-hit wonder, she contacted Freddy DeMann, manager of the world’s most successful pop star – Michael Jackson. In fact, Jackson had recently hired a new manager, which left DeMann free to devote his attention to the lesser-known, but fiercely ambitious Madonna. Madonna, Smashits, 1984: “I thought, who’s the most successful person in the music industry and who’s his manager? I want him.”

Madonna, The 100 Greatest Entertainers 1950-2000, Entertainment Weekly


“The thing that struck me right away about her was that she said she had no heroes,” says Reggie Lucas, the producer-guitarist who wrote “Borderline” and produced her 1983 debut Madonna.

“When I pressed her for influences, she said ‘Michael Jackson,'

Madonna:like an icon., Lucy O’Brien


It was during this trip that Sounds writer Sandy Robertson did one of the first British interviews with the nascent star.

‘I thought “Everybody” was a good pop record. She’d evolved a commercial dance thing that was not considered unhip,’ he recalls.

‘She was staying with her dancers in a poky, tiny little place in Primrose Hill, north London. She came to the door in a gold dressing gown. I thought she was very short and sort of dumpy, with short, short hair. She seemed glad to have press.

She was bustling around, making me tea with honey. She wasn’t as confident as you’d expect — she was quite reserved, but friendly.

She said she wanted to be a female Michael Jackson.’

Madison Square Gardens, Victory Tour, 4 August, 1984


Michael and Madonna had first met in 1984, when she watched his Victory Tour at Madison Square Garden, New York. Pictures of Madonna from that night:

Madonna, interview during filming of Desperately Seeking Susan, 1984


Mark – Will there be a video album?

Madonna – Yes, for Christmas. Borderline, Lucky Star, and the new video, Like A Virgin. I just made the deal a couple of weeks ago. Borderline is my favorite video so far and in Lucky Star, none of the dancing was planned – I just did it! Or the black-and-white section in Borderline, and the part in Burning Up when I’m on the road. None of that was planned.

I don’t have MTV. I do see videos, I go to Private Eyes (a video club on West 21st Street ). I haven’t seen any good videos lately. I like Sheila E’s video (Glamorous Life). The last video I went crazy over and wanted to see over and over again was Billie Jean (Michael Jackson). The director (Steve Baron) did my first video, Burning Up.

Madonna, Smash Hits Dec 30 1987/Jan 12 1988


NEIL: Was there anyone you aspired to be like?

MADONNA: Well, when I was younger I really liked girl singers like Lulu and those kind of innocent, angelic voices, Marianne Faithfull and that kind of stuff, plus Diana Ross and all the girl groups of the ’60s like the Motown girl groups. Then when I got older my idols shifted ‘cos there weren’t really any female singers I could aspire to be like. From then on I went through an “I want to be like Michael Jackson” phase. I can do everything he can do only I’m a girl! I still idolise him above any performer. He transcends almost every level, appeals to everyone.

NEIL: Is that what you want to do?

MADONNA: Yeah.

[...]

NEIL: How did you get to be managed by Michael Jackson’s manager (in those days) Freddy DeMann?

MADONNA: I thought “I must have a manager.” I thought ‘Who’s the most successful person in the music industry and who’s his manager? I want him.” I went out to L.A. to meet him and at the time he was Michael Jackson’s manager. He came out to New York and saw a show at Studio 54 (famous disco club in the early ’80s) I did for Fiorucci and I was so nervous because Michael Jackson’s so incredible live and I thought “If he thinks Prince is terrible — which he did — what can I do?” Then he liked the show.

The Man In The Mirror, MSG 1988


The three circus-like nights Michael performed at Madison Square Garden brought the biggest names in show business. Whitney Houston, U2, Brooke Shields, Bon Jovi, Hall and Oates, Madonna and New York mayor Ed Koch. Backstage, Brinkley complimented Michael’s sister, Janet, on her hair. ”I just love it.” Miko Brando scurried to locate a block of seats so Janet and LaToya could sit together, and Madonna, waiting until the lights went off before taking her seat, talked about how excited she was to see the show. ”Its crazy out there,” noted the material girl.

Madonna, Song Talk, Summer, 1989


Interviewer: You, Prince and Michael Jackson were all born in the same year, 1958–

Madonna: I know. Isn’t that weird? And I think Michael’s birthday is right near mine, in August…there are so many Leos in my life. I’m August 16.

Interviewer: The three of you have had such an enormous effect on popular music. Yet recently it seems that both Prince’s and Michael Jackson’s connection with the world has weakened while yours has strengthened and become more intimate and personal. Do you feel that?

Madonna: Yes. I think because I stay in touch with the world, and I think that Michael Jackson and Prince have really isolated themselves. And they live very isolated lives. There’s so much fearfulness and so much inhibition that comes with when you become a celebrity and you’re in the public eye all the time; I think you really have to fight that temptation to go into hiding and surround yourself with people who protect you and keep life out from you. I don’t want to live that way. I don’t want to crawl into a hole. I don’t want to go around with six bodyguards, you know?

US Magazine, June 12 1989
http://madonnascrapbook.blogspot.com.au/2009/01/us-magazine-june-12-1989-madonna-so-hot.html


On The Possibility of Dancing With Michael Jackson:
“I’d love to, but I don’t think he’d like it. I think he has a shyness when it comes to women. He’d probably rather die than dance with me.”

Crotch Grabbing, 1984/1989





Michael had started to use the crotch-grab as a dance move during the 1984 Victory tour but it became infamous when he incorporated it into his Bad video in 1987. Two years later Madonna used it in her Express Yourself video and again in following tours.

“When Madonna did it in her music video for the aptly titled song, “Express Yourself,” critics were shocked by the “crude” and “obscene” move, even calling it “unladylike.” (Come on, people, we’re talking about Madonna!) Madonna herself would counter that Michael Jackson did it first. Her point — women should be allowed, even empowered, to do anything men could.”

Ivy Restaurant, March 15, 1991


Michael & Madonna go dining together at the Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles.



























Press:









Magic and Madness, J Randy says:


According to JRandy Michael has said,”‘I had my sunglasses on,’ he told J. Randy Taraborrelli, recalling their first ‘date’. ‘And I’m sitting there, you know, trying to be nice. And the next thing I know, she reaches over and takes my glasses off. Nobody has ever taken my glasses off…And, then, she throws them across the room and breaks them. I was shocked. ‘I’m your date now,’ she told me, ‘and I hate it when I can’t see a man’s eyes.’ I didn’t much like that.’

Madonna’s version: “We drove to the restaurant in my car. It was dark out, but he was still wearing sunglasses. I said, ‘Michael, I feel like I’m talking to a limousine, do you think you could take off those glasses so I could see your eyes?’ He paused for a moment, then he tossed the glasses out the window, looked at me with a wink and a smile and said, ‘Can you see me now, is that better?’

“In that moment, I could see both his vulnerability and his charm.”

March 16, 1991


”We’re at the Ivy, and Madonna and Michael Jackson are there together. It was me and Greg Deguire, and an AP [Associated Press] guy,” recalls photographer Vinnie Zuffante. We wait for her to come out, and we hear she’s with Michael Jackson, we didn’t believe it. So we see them and they’re walking out and the maitre d’ says no wait I don’t want them getting any pictures”

Both Madonna and Michael said, ‘It’s OK — no problem.’ He said, ‘No, not at myrestaurant.’ He takes Michael Jackson’s hand, walks Michael Jackson to his limo. He goes back, gets Madonna, walks Madonna to the limo. He has the waiters come out, and the busboys, holding up tablecloths, and putting menus in our faces, so that we couldn’t get pictures. So I hit him in the head twice with the camera — the maitre d’. Madonna says, ‘ It’s OK, you don’t have to do this,’ and the maitre d’ is saying, ‘Not in front of my restaurant.’ He’s hitting me, I hit him in the head With the camera. Madonna starts laughing.
It was crazy.”

Mar 18, 1991


Madonna and Michael Jackson are seen in separate photos as they leave the Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles after dining together Saturday night. The two pop stars caused a commotion when restaurant employees battled with photographers.

Jamie Foster on the Joan River Show about the Ivy date


She stated that at the time when MJ and Madonna were at the Ivy restaurant, MJ was sitting at the table staring at Madonna’s boobs. This was the only did he thing, he just sat there staring at Madonna’s boobs. Madonna wondered, “What’s up with him and these boobs?” So she took MJ’s hand and placed them on her breast. Jamie says MJ was shocked by this.

The ‘Englishman in New York’ who was in LA that week said the following night he went to her place


He said that MJ and Madonna had met up at the Ivy and that he’d invited her to Nevvy the following night. The source told him they had started watching movies and then moved on to poker. The radio guy said that Madonna upped the stakes by saying they should play for clothes and it turned into a game of strip poker. At 3am the bodyguards were asked to leave and take Bubbles with them. The source behind the story said that were seen chasing each other around the house in the nude and that afterwards (still nude) they snacked on popcorn and watched old films until daylight.

March 20, 1991


Madonna and Michael Jackson have decided to mix their professional magnetism. “They’re working on a musical project,” say Madonna’s spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg. Record? Video? Concert? “I can’t elaborate,” Rosenberg says. They don’t even know if they’ll work for her label, or his.

They have been friends for a long time, Rosenberg says, but the decision to mesh musicalities was “fairly recent.” Saturday night, the duo was spotted having dinner together at Los Angeles’ Ivy restaurant Jackson is “just finishing” his long-overdue album, says his manager Bob Jones, who expects it in stores by June. Could Madonna be in there? “If (he) comes up with something great, it could be” Jones says.

Fresno Bee, March 22, 1991


Why were Michael Jackson and Madonna dining together the other night? It was strictly professional – they are planning to record together.

Academy Awards, March 25, 1991


Michael & Madonna attend the Academy Awards ceremony together.















According to People:
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20292703,00.html


When he went to the Oscars with Madonna, “it was pouring rain, the limo door opened and Michael got out first,” she told PEOPLE. “I got out right after him, and my bodyguard leaves with Michael under the umbrella. I was left standing in the rain. It was so fascinating to see how people responded to him.”


Madonna biography, Blonde Ambition, Mark Bego:


According to Vinnie Zuffante, although they were both already on the premises,the superstar couple was originally going to stage their arrival for the cameras, but that move was nixed by ceremony organizers. Says Zuffante, “Madonna and Michael wanted to make the entrance, but they were warned by the Academy not to. They had all the security. What the Oscars did was tell all the fans they can’t have any signs, they can’t have any cameras, and they can’t have any binoculars. They were doing that for security reasons, and mainly because Michael Jackson and Madonna were going to go through. But the Academy realized that Madonna and Michael were going to get more publicity than anyone else going there, and they didn’t want that to happen. They weren’t nominees. If Madonna and Michael walked through the front every magazine would have had that picture on page one, instead of Kevin Costner with his Oscar.”


A seat filler talks of her night with Michael:


People actually do this? That’s often the response when you tell someone about seat fillers. Yes, at every televised awards show from the Oscars to the People’s Choice, there are grown men and women whose sole purpose is to wait in the lobby until, say, Richard Gere gets up to receive an award. At that moment, a seat filler scurries down to take his seat. When Gere comes back, the filler retreats.

Hollywood’s awards season lasts from September to March, encompassing more than a dozen shows that salute everything from soap operas to rap music. Seat fillers are just as varied.They range from college students to retired people, from secretaries to physicians. Most of them want to see celebrities. “For a poor working girl, getting the chance to rub elbows with stars is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Doris Hemphill, a 47-year-old switchboard operator.

But some fillers prefer to watch the frantic directors and switching cameras. Others enjoy the performances, especially at American Music or Soul Train awards.It’s not too difficult to get into the smaller shows. To work to the Academy Awards, you have to go through ABC and a gentleman named Joseph DiSante, who has gathered and supervised the fillers for the last 19 Oscar nights.

“Last year I used 300 for the Emmys, and I turned away at least that many,” said Deborah McCormick, a Fox network official.

“The Emmys, the Oscars-it’s a closed society. This is the only way other people get to go.”

And for every sob story, there is a seat filler’s triumph. For Beth Anderson, who has worked about a dozen Academy Awards shows, that moment finally arrived last year. “Madonna did a number at the beginning,” Anderson said. “They told me I was going to sit in her seat in the front row. They told me the other seat was for her escort, but I didn’t know who that would be.

“Two seconds before the show started, Michael Jackson sat down,” the aerospace worker said.

“I looked at him. He looked at me.”

The two of them ended up chatting for half an hour until Madonna returned. “He asked me what I thought about this and that,” she said.”

When Madonna came back to her seat, I got up and she said, `Hey, thanks for keeping my seat warm.’

The queen of seat fillers, [Beth Anderson], will make another Oscar appearance. Chances are, she won’t get the front row next to [Michael Jackson] again. But if she is stuck in the lobby, Anderson knows enough to check the bar.”The stars get bored and hang around down there,” she said. Like being inside a bottle of Champagne-that’s how Anderson describes being at the Oscars. “The whole effervescence of the evening,” she said. “Every year I say I’m not going to do it. I say I’m going stay home and watch on television. But then I think about it. “And the smell. The perfumes of some of these stars, I couldn’t afford them in my dreams. It smells gorgeous.”


Press: