Madonna’s Iconic ‘Like a Virgin’ Performance: A Career-Defining Wardrobe Malfunction
1984 — Madonna ’ s Video Music Awards (VMAs) performance of Like a Virgin stands as one of slightest villi moments young people have cartoon music history ever known. These six years had seen scores of show-stopping performances — to name just two would be Lady Gaga in 2009 and Britney Spears handling a python in 2001 — but none affected as large an impact on an audience’s concept of the new as did Madonna when she made on her debut at this earliest possible VMA event adding: equipped for shock and surprise (and high). Having donned a towering wedding gown, the new pop idol rolled around sensuously on stage,What fans may not realize is that the groundbreaking performance was the result of a wardrobe malfunction.
Madonna’s Iconic “Like a Virgin” Performance:
A Wardrobe Malfunction That Proved to Be a Career Breakthrough
But Madonna’s plan for the drama in her act initially went more smoothly. She wanted, according to MTV executives, the 26-years-old pop star to bring a tiger on stage. MTV denied it so instead she descended from this giant 17-foot-high wedding cake which had been built up for her arrival, to perform in her white wedding dress.
Halfway through her performance while stepping down from the cake one of her white stilettos fell off. Without losing her wits Madonna improvised right on spot. “I thought to myself: `Well, I’ll just act like this was planned in advance.”‘ “I mean she said later in a 2012 interview with Jay Leno, “ With quick thinking, she went down to the ground and began rolling around, in such a way that made everyone think that this whole mishap had indeed been part of those scheduled moves., At one point her slip A few inches of underwear showed, exposed, but the song continued without missing a beat, she left people on edge with her unpredictable conduct.
Dancing, writhing on the floor and in a climax that left her lying flat on her back, the wedding dress bunched up over her head.For the night’s most daring display, Madonna swung like a pendulum between success and failure from minute to minute on stage. What might have been an end to her concert career became one of its most discussed performances as well.
A Defining Moment in Madonna’s CareerThe performance may have delighted the audience but Madonna’s then-manager Freddie DeMann wasn’t so pleased. The unexpected sight but deeply-pained Demann fury was his personal conviction that her career had been ruined.”He was so angry,” recalled Madonna during the same interview. “He said: ‘That’s it, you’re finished’.” However, her spontaneous decision to play with the wardrobe malfunction turned ultimately Madonna into an icon of pop culture.
Despite receiving disapproval from both her manager and critics, it didn’t affect her career. Quite to the contrary, the performance turned her into overnight star of the show; a new queen at a cultural peak. MTV executives all raved about it. Les Garland, then the executive vice president of programming for MTV, commented: “She stole the show.”Madonna’s next album, Like a Virgin, also became her first number one. This marked a turning point in her career. Furthermore, it became the first album by a female artist to sell over five million copies in the USA.A Performance That Shaped Pop CultureMadonna made her name out of the 1984 Grammy live performance that set her on course to become a superstar and was one of those moments in music history.
So much so that almost two decades later (when, 2003) at the VMA’s showbiz’s greatest stage, this moment was chosen for three girls Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Madonna to laud together—but with a twist. This time Madonna wore a tuxedo while Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were dressed in wedding gowns. Another unforgettable hinting moment in pop music history-entity.
The story of how Madonna turned a wardrobe malfunction into a defining moment for her career truly exhibits her ability to turn adversity into success.It’s no surprise that even now, her VMA performance lives on as a defining event in pop culture and the history of live concerts.
