It's just my opinion, and I know many here will absolutely BEG to differ, but I don't think Madonna's doing much that's very exciting these days. But in the 1988-1991 era, she was doing what she does best - entertaining, provoking, challenging ideas and ideals, and best of all having a lot of fun. For me, the embodiment of this was her 1989 MTV VMA performance of Express Yourself. She opened the show with it, and it remains not only my favorite VMA performance, but as I mentioned in another thread, my favorite Madonna performance of all (though the Blonde Ambition performance of Like a Virgin takes a not so distant second).

Granted, it's not like this is a long lost performance or anything, but I think anyone who is a fan should see it. The crowd is simply eating up everything she does. Pretty amazing given that, in her own words, she's not the best singer or dancer. This was pre-Vogue, but she's bustin' a few poses and does a really fun couple of dance breaks. She's even singing live, albeit over a vocal track. My favorite Madonna is when she's not taking herself seriously, and this show captures all of that. She's a little punky, especially at the end when she grabs her crotch and walks off stage.

Since it's not a commercially licensed performance, I don't think downloading it should cause any Org hassles. I've encoded it as an .avi DivX file, and you can snatch it here (get it...I said snatch...har har). It's not a small file - about 28,000 KB - because I didn't want to encode it so low that it wouldn't be worth seeing. For those who haven't the patience, desire or capacity to download the entire performance (it took me about 5 minutes on my work connection and less than that on cable at home), here are a few captures.





Look, she can bust out the Roger Rabbit!

I've never seen this performance, but it looks like a combo of Open your Heart from the WTG Tour and Express Yourself from BA Tour.

Her hair looks horrible

I love that performance too! My favorite part is when Maddy,Nikki and Donna stick their microphones between their boobs.Subtlety has never been Madonna's style

jayaredee said:

The Express Yourself performance from BA was virtually a copy of this. And this was not long after wrapping the filming of Dick Tracy. She was lettin' those roots show! I've never minded her with her dark roots showing.

DavidEye said:

Yep! That image still is in there.

I remember how much fun it was to be a Madonna fan during that period (1989/90).There was always so much going on,and Madonna was everywhere....on the radio,on every other magazine cover,all over MTV (remember those "Madonna marathons" they used to show,seeemingly every few weeks?lol).I still remember the night before the "Vogue" video premiered.Host Downtown Julie Brown gave fans an unexpected treat.She said...

"Tomorrow,we will have the exclusive world premire of Madonna's new "Vogue" video.But right now,we're gonna take you to the rehearsals that are going on for Madonna's upcoming "Blonde Ambition" tour!".They then showed a complete rehearsal of "Vogue",with Maddy and her dancers.


damn,I miss those days....so much excitement!

DavidEye said:

Yeah it's too bad it still can't be like that
but she's 46 now and has 2 kids, it's a lot different from the late 80s/early 90s era.
This was Madonna in her prime

jayaredee said:

Oh yeah...I understand that she's 46,married and has two kids.These days,she seems happier than ever,and that's all that matters.I still find great joy in being a fan.But when I think about the "old days",I really miss that period.

i don't know about you but for me the re-invention tour was exciting. sure, i miss that mtv didn't do a madonnarama weekend to prelude the tour and i miss the controversial hype that surrounded everything ol' girl did. i miss the sly and bitchy remarks madonna would make simply because, well, she was madonna. those things, to me at least, were just fun little additions to the madonna experience. i still love her music, i still get excited when she's got someting new out, i still look forward to tours. the only difference is that its not so much of a media hype anymore.

SassyBritches said:

I agree with what you're saying, and it's not like I'm totally soured on her music now. American Life is the only album of hers I don't own. I listened to a friend's copy a few times, and decided not to buy it.

I kind of feel like I have matured with M, though. I was five when I fell in love with her (Top of the Pops, "Like a Virgin", Pink wig and tremendously dodgy miming - *sigh*). So that's twenty years that I have had to enjoy her. Whilst I miss the old days in a kind of nostalgic way - I really feel like her music is moving more in the direction that I am moving now.

She is the only artist I can say that about and it's really a good feeling - growing old with Madonna.... hey that could be the title of my autobiography!

What I love most about that performance is how simple it was. No smoke and mirrors, no distractions, just Madonna and the girls tearin' it up. Only Madonna and a mic could open open a big show and hype up that audience as much as she did. I knew the night that show aired that Madonna was a certifiable bad a**.

npgmaverick said:

I love how she exits. A boring performer would have said "thank you". Madonna? "YEAH!"

VoicesCarry said:

I love that, too! Don't forget the crotch grab!

One thing about the 80s, even though pop stars like Madonna, Boy George, MJ, Prince, George Michael, etc... were plastered all over the TV and radio, they were actually making good music, so it wasn't really all that annoying.

i agree with everything said in the first post, madonna is best when she doesn't take herself seriously and does good, fun pop songs

The problem with Madonna is that she's gone way too far with her statements lately. The last interview I saw of hers was when Cynthia MacFadden was interviewing her for Re-invention and Madonna went on to say that back in the day she was an attention-grabbing shockmiester. Ok no secret there but Madonna always alluded to the conceit that she was pushing boundaries and opening up dialogue with her "art". For her to say that she questions her motives at this stage in her career is a slap in the face to her fans. It also gives ammunition to the critics who always dogged her with the tabloid-shock label. Who's that girl indeed.

I remember back before she blew up. Around the time of "Everybody", or maybe a little earlier, I saw a picture of her in the Village Voice. It was taken in the East Village. She was wearing a tweed coat with pajamas underneath it. I cut out the pic because I thought it would be a cool "I remember when" memento. Who knew that she'd want to "rule the world" and come pretty damn close to doing it.

UptownDeb said:

Another really good performance. I wish VH1 was still airing those old episodes of American Bandstand.

SassyBritches said:

MTV Hits actually did a 10 day Madonna marathon before the tour.