Madonna (33 page)

Madonna was fascinated by the devotion of her Japanese fans. Witnessing over three hundred people camped outside her hotel all night for a glimpse at Her Virginness, she waxed philosophical. “I think I stand for a lot of things in their minds,” said Madonna. “You know, a lot of kinds of stereotypes, like the whole sex goddess image and the blonde thing.”
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The North American leg of the tour was a nineteen-city, seven-week jaunt. The first date in the states was June 27 at Miami's Orange Bowl. The ticket sales, at $1 million gross, set a new record for a female artist at that venue. The last date in the United States was on August 9 at the Meadowlands—Giant Stadium—in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The tour also encompassed two Canadian cities, Montreal and Quebec.

On July 13, Madonna headlined at Madison Square Garden in New York City and donated the proceeds to AIDS research. According to record company president David Geffen, when he was planning a benefit at Madison Square Garden Madonna volunteered her whole show. She not only provided them with her lights, her set, and her musicians, but she also donated all the merchandising profits from the programs and the posters. Says Geffen, “The woman is not only a consummate professional, she's also got a big heart.”
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Madonna stated, “I want to do anything I can to promote AIDS education, awareness, prevention—whatever. I think because I am a celebrity, a public person, I have a responsibility to be a spokesperson. Next to Hitler, AIDS is the worst thing to happen in the twentieth century. The sad thing is that it makes people even more bigoted. It gives people a reason to vent their true feelings about homosexuality.”
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By making such a gesture, Madonna became the first American pop star to take such a stance. Up to this point, with the exception of Elizabeth Taylor, most public figures had avoided any such association with the fight against AIDS. As Madonna lost more and more friends to the disease, her resolve to stand up and do something about it only became stronger. When it came time to sing “Live to Tell,” Madonna dedicated the song to the memory of her friend Martin Burgoyne.

There was also an informational pamphlet about AIDS prevention in comic book format, distributed at the concert. A note in the comic book, in handwritten script, said: “Read this booklet, then give it to your best friend. It just might save his or her life. It just might save your own. Love, Madonna.”
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When he wasn't in jail, Sean made appearances at a couple of Madonna's concerts along the way. He was in Miami when she opened the tour, and came to Madonna's AIDS benefit at Madison Square Garden. According to Chris Finch, “Sean's a great guy. We played tennis in Miami, and when we were in New York we went lingerie shopping for Madonna. We got her underwear with, like leopard patterns.”
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At the end of the song “Like a Virgin,” Madonna leaned down and planted a kiss on Chris's virginal mouth. When the tour played his hometown of Anaheim, California, he recalls, “She knew all my friends were going to be there so she kissed me longer than usual. I lost my place and couldn't remember the next steps in the number.”
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When asked what he thought of Madonna, Finch replied, “She's real nice, energetic, a workaholic. She works so hard you have to stop her sometimes. She gives 135 percent for every show. She expects everybody else to give that much.”
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After the North American leg of the Who's That Girl? tour, Madonna headed for Europe, where she appeared in England, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy. Not since the days of Marilyn Monroe had a blonde American performer caused such a stir. Throughout Europe, the image of Madonna was unavoidable. She was ubiquitous, on the covers of magazines, newspapers, and on billboards.

In France, Madonna's Paris concert was scheduled to be held in the suburb of Sceaux. Fearing that the concert would draw an unruly crowd, the local mayor threatened to cancel it only days before the singer's arrival. French Premier and mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, stepped in and saved the “holiday.” Chirac's twenty-four-year-old daughter Claude, a dyed-in-the-wool Madonna fan, had begged her father to intercede. A contender for the 1988 presidential election in France, Chirac spotted a campaign-conscious move when he saw one. Not only did he make certain that Madonna's concert didn't get canceled, he also dropped the V.A.T. (Value Added Tax) on records, tapes, and CDs from 33 percent to 18.5 percent. He announced both moves at a press conference with Madonna.

Chirac won favor, at least with young voters. Daughter Claude was able to get “Into the Groove” at her idol's concert, and Madonna received even more publicity for her Paris dates. In fact, with 110,000 fans gathered to see her, the show broke attendance records. Onstage that night, August 29, Madonna proclaimed, “Causing a commotion—that's how I felt when I went to see Jacques Chirac!”
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In Torino, Italy, near Florence, Madonna closed the Who's That Girl? concert tour before 65,000 cheering fans. Onstage she showed off several of the Italian phrases she had memorized to use in her family homeland:
“Siete gia caldi?
” [Are you hot?] and
“Lo sono fiera di essere Italiana!
” [I'm proud to be Italian!]
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Prior to the show, Madonna met with her Italian cousin Amelia, her husband, and two children, Annalisa and Giuseppe. Madonna's great-aunt Bambina didn't attend the concert because she was too frail to travel from Pacentro, the town Madonna's grandparents came from. But several Pacentro city councilmen came to deliver a parchment decree to the singer making her an honorary citizen of that village.

“Of course I'd like to see her and hug her,” said Bambina. “After all, it is an honor to have such a famous relation.” When pressed to comment on Madonna's unlike-a-virgin behavior, her great-aunt commented, “In my times we didn't behave like that.”
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The final concert was taped by ID-TV Amsterdam as a live TV special, and that footage was edited into the American video cassette, “Ciao Italia.” It was a fitting way to cap off Madonna's triumphant tour of three continents.

Amid all the hoopla for Madonna's Who's That Girl? concert tour came the premiere of the
Who's That Girl?
movie. Wedged in between an August 5 concert in Richfield, Ohio, and an August 7 concert in Pontiac, Michigan, Madonna flew to New York to appear at the premiere of the film. The evening of August 6, a crowd estimated at over ten thousand came for a glimpse of Madonna on a stage set up in the middle of Times Square. The irony came the next day at noon, when a few blocks up Seventh Avenue, at the 1,151-seat Ziegfeld Theater on West 53rd Street, fewer than sixty people gathered in the air conditioning to see the movie.