WHEN Madonna was planning her last performance at the MTV VMAs, the brief was simple: “We need to be on the cover of every newspaper.”
She certainly ticked that box and, 23 years on, we’re still talking about it.
That is what set designer Ron Norsworthy recalled from her 2003 appearance at the ceremony when the Queen of Pop was dressed as a groom while the next generation’s arch rival pop girls, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, were her brides, singing a mash-up of Like A Virgin and Hollywood.
After each emerged from a towering statue of a wedding cake on stage, Madonna turned to snog Britney, with cameras cutting to her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake’s shocked face, before Madge turned and locked lips with Christina, too.
And tomorrow night, Madonna, 68, will bring us another showstopper when she opens this year’s VMAs with a performance packed with special guests.
Show producer Van Toffler teased: “It’s got so many fun elements it’ll make your head spin.
“Madonna never disappoints. She is the ‘M’ in MTV.”
Charli XCX is hotly tipped to join Madonna, after the pair released Danceteria Afterhours yesterday, a remix of a song on Madonna’s latest album Confessions II.
Sabrina Carpenter, who collaborated with the superstar on Bring Your Love earlier this year, and Troye Sivan, who sampled her 2000 hit Music on his new track Party, could also join her.
Regardless of who she sings with, it is bound to be another of her epic MTV VMA performances — above, we recall her most memorable.
Madge has courted controversy at the VMAs ever since the inaugural ceremony in 1984.
She was just two years into her career when she sang Like A Virgin in a bustier and veil, with a belt buckle which read “BOY TOY”.
When one of her high heels slipped off, she tried to style it out by rolling around on the floor and inadvertently — or perhaps on purpose — flashed her underwear and garter.
At the time, her manager Freddy DeMann insisted her career was “over” because of the incident.
Little did he know that outrageous acts like that would make MTV desperate to get her back year after year.
Recalling it in 2022, Madonna said: “I was trying to do this smooth move like, dive for the shoe and (make it) look like it was choreography. And my dress flipped up and my butt was showing. Can you imagine?
“I didn’t even know my butt was showing. It wasn’t even like the whole butt, it was just like a butt cheek, like half a butt cheek. When I went backstage, my manager told me my career was over.
“Those were the days when you shouldn’t show your butt to have a career. Now it’s the opposite.”
She returned in 1987 to sing Causing A Commotion in a live-link from her tour in Italy, then Express Yourself in a 1930s-style suit in 1989.
Her 1990 performance of Vogue, which saw her and her dancers dressed in full 18th-century French royal court outfits, complete with powdered wigs and corsets, is one of her most referenced appearances.
Despite MTV banning a handful of her videos in the intervening years, she returned for a gender-bending routine in a tuxedo in 1993 for Bye Bye Baby.
Even when she wasn’t performing, she made headlines.
A pre-show interview at the 1995 event, where she won Best Female Video for Take A Bow, was crashed by a clearly intoxicated Courtney Love who threw items from her make-up bag at her until being invited up.
It resulted in the start of a very frosty relationship for the pair, with Madonna quipping the Hole frontwoman was in “dire need of attention.”
Fusing techno with her spiritual side, her 1998 performance saw her sing Shanti/Ashtangi, an album track from her influential album Ray Of Light, before belting out that title track alongside Lenny Kravitz.
Tomorrow’s ceremony, hosted by Snoop Dogg from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, will include performances from Brit singer Sienna Spiro and country star Shaboozey.
There will also be a Dolly Parton tribute from Kacey Musgraves and a medley from Raye, Sombr and Teddy Swims honouring George Michael, ten years after his death.
Singers including Tyla and Alex Warren, as well as actors Teyana Taylor and David Corenswet will be among the presenters giving out awards.
Madonna leads the nominations for the ceremony with 13, followed by 11 for Taylor Swift, who will premiere the video to her new single Patient Zero at the event.
Madonna’s guest performers being kept a closely guarded secret is just how it was in 2003, and even though it ended up being just Britney, Christina, and Missy Elliott involved, there had been plans for many more artists.
Pink, Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez had also had initial discussions about taking part, as well as an unlikely hopeful, Kelly Osbourne.
Speaking to Nylon magazine, designer Ron recalls of Kelly, who had recently covered Madonna’s song Papa Don’t Preach, “I don’t know if she was in the mix for very long but I do know that I did hear her name.”
Although the kissing is still discussed as one of the most delicious awards show moments, there was a mixed reaction at the time.
While Beyonce called it “a real eye-opener,” Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks wasn’t as complimentary, describing it as “the most obnoxious moment in television history”.
Christina had some withering comments too, as her kiss with Madonna wasn’t seen on screen, due to cameras being on Justin Timberlake’s reaction instead.
Despite taking part in the performance and doing her own songs Dirrty and Fighter later in the night too, Christina said: “The VMAs were so vanilla. So predictable, so safe, no edge.”
And in a clear dig at Britney, she added: “Apart from Madonna, Mary J. Blige, and myself, I cannot think of another female performer who had her mic switched on. That is very disappointing to me.”
Madonna has since attended the VMAs to pay tribute to stars including Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin, while a 2021 appearance came to mark MTV’s 40th birthday.
On stage, dressed in a black dominatrix-style leather bodysuit, she laughed: “And they said we wouldn’t last. But we’re still here, motherf***ers.”
Don’t expect her to bite her tongue on stage tomorrow, either.
- The VMAs will air on MTV UK on Monday at 9pm, and stream on Paramount+ from Tuesday.