The Virgin Tour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Virgin Tour | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Madonna performing Dress You Up during her 1985 North American Tour | ||
| Tour by Madonna | ||
| Supporting album | Madonna Like a Virgin |
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| Start date | April 10, 1985 | |
| End date | June 11, 1985 | |
| Legs | 1 | |
| Shows | 40 in North America | |
| Madonna tour chronology | ||
| The Virgin Tour (1985) |
Who's That Girl Tour (1987) |
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The Virgin Tour is the debut concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna. The tour supported her first two albums, Madonna and Like a Virgin. Although Madonna gained an international audience, the tour only visited North America.
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[edit] About the tour
Madonna's first concert tour was strictly one for the United States and Canada; it did not cross over to Europe, Asia or other continents. After a series of track dates in 1983-1984 in New York City and parts of Europe and Asia to promote her debut album Madonna, early on there were plans to schedule dates in England and Japan due to Madonna's large fan base in both countries, however the final schedule did not reflect the idea. Madonna later toured these countries during her 1987 Who's That Girl World Tour. In the end several more U.S. dates were added and moved to larger concert venues due to overwhelmingly strong ticket sales. Madonna notably performed every date on the tour with no cancellations.[1]
In San Francisco, tour shirts were selling at a clocked rate of one every six seconds. All 17,672 tickets for Madonna's show at New York City's prestigious Radio City Music Hall were completely sold out in a record-breaking 34 minutes. The same happened for the rest of the shows as most other shows were sold out in almost the same record-breaking time.
Madonna performed her concerts with the enthusiasm of a new kid on the block, excitedly proposing to her audiences "Will you marry me?" and seducing them with her energy and a series of club, radio and video hits like "Gambler" and "Burning Up". The look was pure Boy Toy, with costume changes including colorful New Wave jackets for "Holiday" (she looked like "Susan", the title character she portrayed in her film debut Desperately Seeking Susan) and white wedding gowns similar to the one worn in her "Like A Virgin" music video. In an obvious reference to her Detroit roots, Motown influence, and same-aged pop superstar rival, Michael Jackson, Madonna even sung a verse of "Billie Jean" during "Like A Virgin". After her concert tour, Madonna performed "Holiday", "Into The Groove" and "Love Makes The World Go Round" at the historic African famine benefit concert Live Aid in Philadelphia.
[edit] Opening acts
[edit] Set list
- "Dress You Up"
- "Holiday"
- "Into the Groove"
- "Everybody"
- "Angel"
- "Gambler"
- "Borderline"
- "Lucky Star"
- "Crazy for You"
- "Over and Over"
- "Burning Up"
- "Like a Virgin" (contains excerpts from "Billie Jean")
- "Material Girl"
[edit] Tour dates
[edit] Critical reception
Music critics were extremly critical in all cases:
- Robert Palmer, The New York Times: "Madonna... simply did not sing very well. Her intonation was atrocious; she sang sharp and then she sang flat, and the combination of her unsure pitch and thin, quavery vocal timbre made the held notes at the end of her phrases sound like they were crawling off somewhere to die."[1]
- Paul Grein, Billboard: "Cyndi Lauper will be around for a very long time. Madonna will be out of business in six months. Her image has completely overshadowed her music."[1]
- Paul Evans, Record: "Perhaps every generation needs reminding that rock and sex are sometimes indistinguishable. At the moment, Madonna's the apostle of the body gospel, and, as her show makes apparent, it's hard to recall a more fetching zealot."[1]
In response, Madonna said: "I ignored these critics because I knew deep down in my heart that it was good and ... I always will meet up with a certain amount of controversy, a certain amount of opposition to what I'm doing."[1]
[edit] Broadcasts and recordings
The 1985 Live - The Virgin Tour VHS documents a Detroit, Michigan stop on the tour. "Angel", "Borderline" and "Burning Up" were part of the tour set list but were not included on the official VHS release. In addition, bootleg video of the Dallas and New York dates have surfaced over the years, primarily on the internet.
The complete audio from a Los Angeles date was professionally recorded directly off the soundboard and soon leaked as a bootleg LP in the United States. It has been speculated that this recording was originally meant to be an official live album for The Virgin Tour that never materialized. As of June 18, 2009, there has been no official DVD release for this concert tour.
Later, a Laserdisc version of the Virgin Tour was released, then many fans copied it and transferred into DVDs to resell them on eBay.
[edit] Personnel
- Vocals: Madonna
- Set Designer: Ian Knight
- Choreographed / Staged by: Brad Jeffries
- Keyboards: Patrick Leonard and Billy Meyers
- Drums: Jonathan P. Moffet
- Bass: Bill Lanphier
- Guitars: James Harrah and Paul Pesco
- Dancers: Michael Perea and Lyndon B. Johnson
- Personal Management: Freddy DeMann for Weisner-DeMann Entertainment
- Show Mix: Dave Kob
- Music Produced by: Madonna and Patrick Leonard
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e "The Virgin Tour". Madonna Online. http://www.madonna-online.ch/m-online/tours/85_vt/facts/vt-facts.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
- ^ "The Virgin Tour". Mad Eyes. http://www.mad-eyes.net/tours/virgin-tour/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
- ^ "Tour Achieves: The Virgin Tour". Madonna's Official Website. http://madonna.com/tours/tour.php?tourid=1. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
