Happy birthday, Madonna!
The Michigan-born pop icon and living legend turns 62 years young on Sunday, and it appears she’s celebrating the big day in her own special way!
Related: Madonna Once Reportedly Offered Dennis Rodman WHAT?!
Late Saturday night, right as the clock turned over to her official birthday, the Like A Virgin star shared a series of various “resting b**ch face” pictures with the world on her official Instagram profile:
Love ’em!!!
Her big day got us thinking, too: instead of just wishing her a happy birthday like usual, why not reminisce about her incredible career, too?!
So without further ado… here are her ten best music videos EVER! At least, according to us, that is! Ch-ch-check out the list (below) and let us know whether you agree with our rankings, Perezcious readers!!!
Contents [hide]
1. Express Yourself, 1989
Express Yourself marked Madonna’s first video collab with David Fincher, who also directed Fight Club and The Social Network. At $5 million, this was the most expensive video EVER made (at the time, at least), and it heavily drew on the classic 1927 film Metropolis for its inspiration. Rolling Stone called Express Yourself “a perfect melding of Fincher’s expressionist impulses and Madonna’s shape-shifting allure.” Fun!
2. Like A Prayer, 1989
The iconic song was enough on its own, but a music video with burning crosses, stigmata, and a saint’s icon coming to life and eventually succumbing to the pleasures of the flesh was just too hot to handle for some! The music video for Like A Prayer caused such a commotion at the time that Pepsi actually pulled a $5 million ad campaign that had been set to center on the song itself. Oh, well! Just like Madonna herself said at the time, “art should be controversial, and that’s all there is to it.”
3. Ray Of Light, 1998
Music video director Jonas Åkerlund called this “the longest shoot ever for a music video,” recalling a complicated diagram used for the entire production — every shot was “like, such a big deal” with each frame lasting ten seconds or so, and being shot out in 30 minute increments to get about 5 seconds of content for the final product. It worked out, though, because Ray of Light became the Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards that go-round, giving Madge and her visionary director here a truly career-making hit!
4. Vogue, 1990
Come on, you thought we’d forget this video, which brought out an iconic dance from the underground gay club scene and pushed it mainstream?! Madonna teamed back up with Fincher for this one, though remarkably this time around the two produced the video in less than a day after the recording company announced they were rush-releasing the accompanying single. Fincher remembers, “we cut this thing together as quickly as we could. We shot the video in, like, 16 hours, that was it. She got on the plane and went on her world tour.” Wow!
5. Like A Virgin, 1984
It didn’t have the $5 million budget of some later music videos, but a healthy six-figure line with a trip to Venice and some quality time with a big cat (what would Carole Baskin say?!) really brought Madonna to the forefront here. Director Mary Lambert led the way on her second collab with Madge, making for a memorable if innocently-80s stylized video to go along with an unforgettable song for the whole (adult) world to enjoy.
Bonus! Material Girl, 1985
Lambert’s other collaboration with Madonna came here, with an homage to Marilyn Monroe‘s 1953 film. Ironically, this video has spawned its own set of homages and references in the modern day, too; Taylor Swift‘s memorable performance of Shake It Off at the 2014 VMAs is one particularly notable example of Madonna’s long-time reach and influence!
Well there you have it! What’d U think about our list — did we leave anything out? Would you have added anything more?!
Sound OFF with your reaction to all this, and share your own top ten music videos from Madge, down in the comments section (below)!!!
[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN]
Related Posts
-
Categories
