LIKE THE VERY FIRST TIME, Madonna is ready to dazzle, inspire and astonish us once again as she
embarks on her latest tour, The Celebration. Currently the tickets on both February 17th and 18th are
ranging from $90 to a whopping $900. This is, by far, the concert of the season.
But the material girl’s concerts haven’t always been this expensive. Let’s start at the beginning. The year
is 1985 and Madonna is getting ready to go on her first ever tour appropriately titled, the Virgin tour. It
began in April in Seattle and ended in New York with three concerts at Radio City Music Hall. In all,
she performed for more than 300,000 fans with 38 concerts in 28 cities at mainly mid-sized, theatrical
venues.
I was lucky enough to score tickets to her opening night and the 2nd and 3rd shows at Seattle’s ornate
Paramount theater. I spent the night in line to get 2nd row tickets for a mere $15.50 each!
Yes, I confess, I was a Madonna wannabe-sporting long blonde ‘desperately seeking Susan’ hair,
makeup, rosaries and rubber bracelets.
Madonna was the world’s newest superstar with 2 hit albums (Madonna, Like a Virgin) under her ‘boy
toy’ belt and her starring role in Desperately Seeking Susan. She was the new MTV pin up girl of the
eighties. What Madonna had proven on video and vinyl, she now set out to establish on stage. She was
more than the newest pop superstar. Suddenly, Madonna was a multi-faceted artist whose extraordinary
abilities were constantly being revealed.
That first night in Seattle, the Madonna wannabes were out in full force, going to great pains to achieve
every detail of Madonna’s look; bleaching their hair, exposing their belly buttons, and wearing the all-
essential boy toy belts, fingerless gloves and Catholic jewelry. Madonna had done more for the lingerie
industry than Frederick’s of Hollywood.
In addition to spending their allowance on the Madonna look, the wannabes snapped up every piece of
memorabilia they could get their hands on. The tour merchandisers estimated that a $20 Virgin tour T-
shirt sold every six seconds. Tour Books were only $7!
As I sashayed to my seat down front- a mere 8 Rows from the stage- the screams became deafening as
the wannabe’s impatiently waited for their idol to appear. Then the moment had finally come.
Madonna’s voice cooed, “Don’t be afraid it’s going to be alright”, as the diva herself positioned herself
backstage behind a big white screen casting a silhouette of herself as the screen began to slowly rise to
the beat of our opening number, “Dress you up”, making her way down a long, white staircase, wearing
a pepperesque Paisley psychedelic jacket.
After she sang “Holiday”, she said, “I’m not nervous anymore. Seattle, wanna play with me?”
Of course we did, so she stripped off her jacket revealing a purple bra and forest green top to the
delight of the audience. She. Then grabbed a tambourine and got us “Into the groove”.
More hits followed with “Borderline”, “Lucky Star”, “Over and Over” and “Burning Up”. With each
song Madonna aimed to reach out and establish intimacy with her fans -determined to live up to their
expectations as a fearless role model, yet showed her vulnerable side, too.
Madonna radiated an Aura of blonde ambition even in 1985 with all her glamour and flirtatious
sexuality of Marilyn Monroe. She was at home. In the spotlight. Madonna had arrived.
