Happy 30th Anniversary to @madonna Blond Ambition Tour that kicked off in Japan back in 1990.  I could write an essay about how much this concert changed my life.  Maybe I will.  It catapulted her into the stratosphere and cemented her ICON status as the one and only Queen of Pop. 

I remember setting my VCR to record the Nice performance which broadcasted LIVE on HBO August 5th that year.  My family went on our Summer vacation to our shore house a few days prior so i had to wait until we got home to watch.  Luckily Z100 played the entire show on the radio so i got to hear everything but spent two weeks imagining what was going on visually until later.  I must have watch that video recording a thousand times.  It was magical.  Who knew we would be getting Truth or Dare a year later?  It’s always an amazing time to be a Madonna fan but this was her at her critical and commercial apex and she was EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE!

25 Reasons Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour Still Rules, 25 Years Later

A quarter of a century ago, cone bras ruled the world

By Drew Mackie April 13, 2015 12:00 PM

Madonna kicked off her Blond Ambition World Tour on April 13, 1990, 25 years ago this week. Besides offering the world Madonna in her absolute prime – as a performer and as an all-around focus of attention – Blond Ambition changed the pop-culture landscape.

Fans might be surprised to learn that it’s not Madonna’s highest-grossing tour; Sticky & Sweet, MDNA and The Girlie Show each performed better. And it featured only 57 stops. But it’s still hugely important and might have done the most to define Madonna as a music icon – and here are 25 reasons for that.

(NSFW warning: The article features clips from Madonna in concert, and some of the language might not be work-appropriate. Hey, it’s Madonna.)

Read more…

Check out a recently surfaced full recording of an amazing show of the tour from New Jersey thirty years ago!

Here’s a review of the show from The LA Times back in 1990!

By ROBERT HILBURN May 14, 1990

12 AM TIMES POP MUSIC CRITIC

You’ve heard about audiences yelling “author, author” at the opening of a great new play?

Madonna’s triumphant “Blond Ambition” tour may start a new tradition: “fitness trainer, fitness trainer.”

Forget Arnold Schwarzenegger–Madonna ought to be chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. She works so hard at keeping in shape that she makes Jane Fonda seem lazy.

Two hours a day in the gym? Ten?

Whether this devotion with fitness grows out of obsession with appearance or health, Madonna reflects the same determination in the rest of the fast-paced, dance-conscious “Blond Ambition” presentation.

Madonna didn’t inject any extra Hollywood glamour Friday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena as she kicked off a five-night engagement that continues with performances Tuesday and Wednesday. None of her famous pals (including “Dick Tracy” co-star Warren Beatty) joined her on stage and there weren’t other special effects.

But the basic “Blond Ambition” show comes equipped with enough high-concept, Broadway-like choreography and stage design to satisfy the most demanding stargazer in a crowd equally populated by style-conscious Madonna wanna-be’s and simply curious mainstream fans.

In many ways, Madonna is in this new show everything Liza Minnelli seems to want to be: the link with the great show-biz entertainment tradition.

The difference is that Minnelli measures herself by existing standards and plays by old rules, where Madonna sets a new standard and breaks the rules in a show that explores sexual fantasy and stereotypes, religious redemption and guilt plus Hollywood glamour with consistent imagination and style.

Madonna’s approach offers the kind of dazzle–a flashy set, colorful costumes and a cadre of dancers–that is sometimes used to cover up artistic weaknesses. But Madonna–blessed with a marvelous sense of performance–commands the stage as fully when she is surrounded by dancers as when she is sitting alone on a chair.

For three generations in rock, we have been used to performers captivating us with their voice and songs. Madonna can’t compete, artistically, with the giants of that tradition. She is more a conceptual pop artist than a purely musical one. Creditable on record, she comes alive on video and on stage.

By becoming established in the public mind as a Celebrity before becoming understood as an Artist, Madonna is still widely viewed as something of an accidental star. One way to change that perception is to place the electricity of this tour into a more traditional setting. Put “Blond Ambition” on stage for a month on Broadway and we’ll be hearing shouts on opening night of, “Madonna, Madonna.”

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