Frozen

Lenny Kravitz and Madonna '98

Ray of Light Euro Promotion

1978/1998

I was looking at the posts on August 5th and they so resembled one another - I stuck them together. Dig.

Ines Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin Do Madonna

Spin 1998

Nocturnal Enchantress

February 14, 1998 - The Ice Ball Gig @ The Roxy - Ray of Light

In her first club performance in 14 years, Madonna delivered a Valentine we will never forget by premiering 3 new tracks off her highly anticipated album Ray of Light at the Roxy. One didn't even have to be there to feel it for its aftershocks would be felt all around the world. She started with Sky Fits Heaven, went into Shanti/Ashtangi and finished off with a 10 plus minute version of Ray of Light.

Putting things in perspective, for those of us who had been following her career since the beginning, prior to Frozen and this engagement, these were unsure times. This is territory that hadn't been covered before in pop. Would the next album be a Streisand/Celine? We had just come off Something to Remember, Evita and the birth of her first child and she was turning 40. A lot of new fans came into Madonna during this Evita time and loved all that shyt because she was on blast in the media and a magazine cover girl for the last 2 years. In retrospect, all that's fabulous because it was part of the evolution of the greatest star that ever lived but then it was extremely uncertain. You can't see the forest from the trees.

However, as usual, Madonna did not disappoint with Ray of Light. In fact, she shined so brightly and changed so drastically, that the entire music industry would eventually move right along with her. In every genre of music. You could even hear an electronic blip and bubble at the Grand Ole Opry. It was so fantastic that she emerged from the depths of that adult contemporary hell with Ray of Light. We could never have envisioned that sonic or visual transformation. And for that alone, we will forever be grateful. And because Something to Forget was of the past and not the reality hardcore music fans feared, it could then be appreciated and viewed truly as Something to Remember.

Moral of this long winded boring story? Never count Madonna out because she will fuck the living shyt out of your mind, body and soul.

BLAST THIS SHYT!!!

Ray of Light Billboard Magazine Promo

Ray of Light promo pic on back cover of Billboard Magazine. Loved how there was no name or title just March 3. Fantastic.

Madonna Thinks Back to Making the Like a Virgin Video in Venice, Italy

And what the Italians thought of her.

Multishow 'Frozen' Live Canal 5 1998 Interview

Love the whole thing, watch it all.

Madonna Golden Globes 1998

Red Carpet Interview with Joan Rivers and presenting Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Here is Madonna and ex-husband Ingrid leaving the awards. They run into Ellen and Anne Heche.

Your Favorite Madonna MTV Music Video Award Performance

In 1984, at the inaugural MTV Music Video Award show - Madonna - singing the never before heard title track from her highly anticipated Like a Virgin album, was the bride in heat. Singing, moaning and slithering down that cake like a serpent. Virtually ignoring the audience - aside from kicking off her shoes and chucking her bouquet in their faces - the sex drenched lioness prowled that stage, searched and hit each camera man as if they were prey. This was the very first live televised performance of her career.

Madonna ruled MTV in the 80's but Express Yourself was only Madonna's second live appearance on the award show in 1989. This was the prototype of the version we would eventually see on The Blond Ambition Tour. It is also the first time we see Madonna vogueing. Although they were on the Who's That Girl Tour in 1987, this is also the first time we see Niki Harris and Donna DeLory as her primary background singers and dancers. Something that would last until The Drowned World Tour in 2001.

Fresh off the Blond Ambition Tour, Madonna returned to the MTV Music Video Awards stage in 1990 performing Vogue as we had never seen before - Madonna donning Marie Antoinette garb. This highly influential and phenomenal performance set the bar on what we would see singers do at award shows and concerts till date.

In 1993, after The Sex Book and Erotica backlash, Madonna had been rehearsing for her 4th tour, The Girlie Show. That September before she hit the road, she gave a preview of Bye Bye Baby at the 10th annual MTV Music Video Awards.

It had been 5 years since Madonna had performed live on MTV. In 1998, she returned with her highly acclaimed Ray of Light. She started this performance with the album track Shanti/Ashtangi. Lenny Kravitz joined her onstage playing the guitar.

Later that year, Madonna went to Milan and performed the Power of Goodbye from her Ray of Light album at the Euro MTV Music Video Awards.

A few months after the birth of Rocco, Madonna performed Music at the 7th annual Euro MTV Music Video Awards on November 16, 2000. She would then embark on the Drowned World Tour in 2001, her first tour since The Girlie Show.

In 2003, Madonna kicked off the MTV Music Video Awards with an echo of her first ever MTV performance, however, this time she would emerge from the cake as the groom singing Hollywood from her American Life album. Her two brides - Britney Spears and Christina Aguliera - performed Like a Virgin. Missy Elliot also joins this lezbatonical mash up while a sour pussed Mary J Blige, Justin Timberlake and a host of others watch in awe. The Infamous Kiss from this performance spread around the world like wildfire.

In 2005, after being written off by the critics and some of her fan base, Madonna came back to the MTV Music Video Awards with a bang, slaying her competition and stealing the show with Hung Up from her album, Confessions on a Dance Floor.

It's been said time and time again who put the M in MTV. As for live performances on the MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna set the standard and left her contemporaries eating her dust.

What is your favorite performance and why?

9th annual Fire and Ice Ball

Madonna, Rupert Everett, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, and Goldie Hawn on December 9th, 1998 at the 9th annual Fire & Ice Ball.

Madonna, Santo Versace and Rupert.

Italian "Ray of Light" Interview

Madonna sits down with Fabrizio Frizzi and discusses Ray of Light and the ill-fated version of Chicago that she and Goldie Hawn were to star in. Which should have been the follow up to Evita.

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda.

EAT IT!

February 21, 1998 - “Frozen” on BBC1-TV’s National Lottery Show

Where's Katy Grin and Twiggly?

No Laughter in the Dark

Carnegie Hall - Rock for the Rainforest

Madonna sings Frozen on April 27, 1998 at the Rainforest Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Dead or Alive - Pete Burns - "Why's It So Hard" Live

In 1999, a Madonna tribute album was released called Virgin Voices. There were 14 covers. Of those, my favorites were: Boy George, James Hardway and Amanda Ghost's cover of Bad Girl, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black's Burning Up, and Dead or Alive's cover of Why's It So Hard from Erotica.

Here's the incomparable and brilliant Pete Burns performing that version live at London Astoria in 1998.

Ultra Sound - The Making of Ray of Light

Part 1

Part 2

NME - '84 & '98

Taken from Portrait of The Artist As a Consumer - NME February 4, 1984 and extract from an Interview with Sylvia Pattterson - NME March 7, 1998