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On May 2 2019, Hello Magazine published a glowing review of Madonna & Maluma’s live performance of Medellin at the Billboard Music Awards (which aired on May 1). Here’s a snippet of the review: Madonna made a comeback like no other on Wednesday night as she broke boundaries once again on stage at the Billboard Music Awards. The American pop sensation took to the stage as she performed her new single Medellin with singer Maluma. Halfway into the performance, the pair were joined by four life-like holograms of Madonna, which appeared alongside them before quickly vanishing in puffs of smoke. Each hologram was wearing one of the costumes Madonna modelled in the music video for Medellin, and appeared again later in the performance, continuing to dance alone on the stage as Madonna and Maluma made their way into the crowds. The holograms were created by world-leading volumetric and 3D capture studio Dimension. This was Madonna’s first performance at the Billboard Music Awards in over four years, and Maluma was only too happy to be sharing the stage with her. This was the Colombian star’s first-ever performance at the prestigious awards, and told E! on the red carpet how their collaboration came about. He said: “It was crazy, I went to the VMAs. I met her [Madonna] over there, then I was touring in Europe and in London she called me and she said she had a song for me called Medellín. I’m from Medellín, Columbia and it’s crazy that she said that she wanted me to be part of the project.” Madonna was just as happy to perform with Maluma, and said after the performance: “Madame X on stage performing with her favourite Papi – thank you @maluma.” #todayinmadonnahistory

On May 2 1987, La Isla Bonita, the fifth and final single from Madonna’s True Blue album hit #4 in the USA. The instrumental version of the song was first offered to Michael Jackson before Madonna both accepted it and wrote the lyrics and melody. La Isla Bonita is noted for being the first Madonna song to have a Latino influence in it, with arrangements of Cuban drums and Spanish guitar,maracas, harmonicas and a mix of synthesized and real drumming. The town of San Pedro in the island of Ambergris Caye, Belize is thought to be the main inspiration behind the song. However, Madonna later told Rolling Stone: "I don't know where San Pedro is. At that point, I wasn't a person who went on holidays to beautiful islands. "I may have been on the way to the studio and seen an exit ramp for San Pedro." She also described the song as her tribute to the "beauty and mystery of Latin American people". #todayinmadonnahistory

#Madonna's #BlondAmbitionTour live from Nice, France. (HD Digitally enhanced an upscaled using AI software.)

What is your Madonna playlist if you are feeling post apocalyptic? Here’s mine: 4 Minutes Dark Ballet Time Stood Still Borrowed Time Future Future Lovers Killers Who Are Partying Till Death Do Us Part God Control Spanish Eyes Rescue Me Live to Tell Power of Goodbye Hold Tight Die Another Day Paradise Not for Me I’ll Remember This Used to be My Playground HeartBreak City Falling Free Ghosttown I Rise

April 27, 1990 Madonna performs Holiday on the Blond Ambition World Tour in Yokohama, Japan at the Yokohama Stadium. Her third night in Yokohama and 9th show on the tour . This was before Madonna started having major vocal problems, which plagued her for most of the later shows on the tour. She sports her original ponytail, the more iconic of the two hairstyles for the tour, and is full of boundless energy. This tour was extremely grueling for Madonna. Everything about the Blond Ambition tour was next level for it's time. A huge step up from her previous tour, it had more costumes, much more choreography and was darker and more complex. It sought to not just be a concert but tell a story theatrically as well. Everything from the lighting to the band was simply incredible. The tour was a landmark not just for Madonna but for pop music and the tremors of it's earthquake-like effect are still felt in every modern day pop show. Info thanks to The Best Madonna Picture Collection

Hits USA April 27 1987

Divine. Sacred.

On April 27 2010, Madonna’s greatest hits collection, Celebration, was released as a piano, vocal and chord songbook. The book included all of the 37 songs featured on the original 2-CD release. #todayinmadonnahistory

On April 27 1985, Madonna’s Angel single was briefly reviewed in Billboard magazine as it entered the Hot 100 at #48. The Angel 12-inch single, which included an extended dance mix of the track – plus Into The Groove on the b-side – would be issued commercially in North America in late May On April 27 1985, Madonna’s Angel debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at 48, while her previous single Crazy for You was at number-two on the chart. After ten weeks, Angel reached a peak position of five on the chart. The song tied Madonna with Olivia Newton-John, as the female artist with most top-five hits on the Hot 100 at that time. It was ranked at 75 on the year end chart for 1985. #todayinmadonnahistory

Bravo April 26, 1984 Issue Nr. 18

On April 26 1994, Madonna attended the Los Angeles premiere of the Alek Keshishian film, With Honors. Madonna contributed I’ll Remember (the theme song) to the soundtrack which was distributed by Maverick Records. #todayinmadonnahistory

Madonna Today Show April 25, 2008 Pedro Zogbi - > My reinventions are part of my evolution and my growth as a person. there are aspects of it that are frivolous and there's aspects of it that are real. > Have you ever wished to be anonymous? no. i mean yeah, i have moments of it, but I don't wanna wish that i'am not me , I don't wish i was someone else. > What you want to feel about your life? That my soul reached its true potential, and that i did everything I was put on this earth to do. > Which is? well who knows? we are about to find out.

On April 26 1994, The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was released by Warner-Reprise Video on VHS and laserdisc. The concert – recorded on November 19, 1993 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia – was a re-edited version of the concert special that had aired live on HBO. It was directed by Mark “Aldo” Miceli, who directed the live screens on Madonna’s 1990 and 1993 tours, as well as the Blond Ambition Japan Tour 90 VHS/laserdisc release. The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was nominated for a Grammy in 1995 for Best Long Form Music Video and was also one of the first concerts to be commercially issued on DVD in 1998. #todayinmadonnahistory The broadcast was produced in association with HBO and was titled Madonna Live Down Under: The Girlie Show. Initially, the November 20 show, the second of two dates at the Sydney Cricket Ground, was to be filmed and aired. However, a massive storm forced the cancellation of the show, so the November 19 show, which had been filmed as a "safety show", was aired instead in USA (HBO) and Germany (Premiere). A month later an edited version of this original broadcast was shown on UK TV (Sky). A re-edited version of this concert was released worldwide on VHS and Laserdisc on April 26, 1994 as The Girlie Show: Live Down Under. It was nominated for the Grammy Award of Best Long Form Music Video in 1995.

On April 25 1988, Spotlight was released as a single by Warner-Pioneer. Issued exclusively in Japan, it was the only commercial single release from the remix album You Can Dance. The song was written by Curtis Hudson, Madonna and Stephen Bray and was produced by Stephen Bray. Madonna wasn’t given a co-producer’s credit on the track – odd considering it was a leftover from the True Blue album sessions, for which she co-produced every song. The track was remixed by John “Jellybean” Benitez for its inclusion on You Can Dance. In a 2012 interview with blogcritics.com writer Justin Kantor, Curtis Hudson recalled the circumstances surrounding the creation and release of Spotlight: “During the time right after Holiday, when we’d go to her place and write, I presented Spotlight. I gave her a complete song, Spotlight. I had actually written it in case Warner Bros. asked her for another Holiday. She said she loved it and felt spiritual about it. But she didn’t use it or contact me again about it. It sort of popped up out of nowhere when she was getting ready to do You Can Dance. Her lawyer contacted our manager and said we needed to talk. We went over and met with him. She and Stephen Bray had already done the song; but I hadn’t even heard the version they had done.They took the demo I had given her and worked it into a different song. They gave me credit since I had the original song copyrighted. I would’ve collaborated and made changes. But I was told, ‘Well, she’s too busy. She’s overseas doing a movie.’ I was okay with it, though, because they gave me credit. But the original song had a certain magic, and the changes took that essence away. The original Spotlight was another Holiday—the rhythm, the basic groove. I think they were trying to get away from that sound. Sometimes artists don’t want their sound to be identified with specific writers.” 32 years ago, Spotlight was released as a single in Japan on April 25th, 1988. Here is the original video clip of the song from a promo WEA In-Store VHS, featuring images from the Who's That Girl Tour. Thanks MadonnaTV for the video. #todayinmadonnahistory

April 24, 2019 Madonna after live on MTV for Medellin video premiere

On April 25 2017, Madonna responded to reports of a new biopic being produced by Universal: “Nobody knows what I know and what I have seen. Only I can tell my story. Anyone else who tries is a charlatan and a fool looking for instant gratification without doing the work. This is a disease in our society.” According to Variety, Universal had no comment, but had this to say about the biopic: The studio won an auction Monday for Elyse Hollander’s “Blonde Ambition” screenplay about Madonna’s first album. “Blonde Ambition” led the 2016 version of the Black List — an annual ranking of the best un-produced screenplays in Hollywood. Hollander’s script received 49 votes among the 250 executives voting. The project details Madonna’s efforts in the early 1980s in New York City to get her first album released while navigating fame, romance, and the dismissive attitude of the music industry at the time. #todayinmadonnahistory