Today marks Madonna’s 65th birthday, and she just announced her re-scheduled tour dates for North America, which moves my August 31 show to the lovely date of January 9, 2024. That jaunty shorts-and-sleeveless-t-shirt look I adopt for all her concerts will likely prove problematic for Boston in January so I’m not sure what I’ll do, or whether I’ll even go. She canceled outright the last time I had tix for her Madame X Tour, so I’m not completely confident she’ll show for this one.
Anyway, of late my posts have been understandably heavy and serious, and I was trying to be a little more light-hearted with this birthday girl post, but not even Madonna has gone untouched by tragedy, and so I’m posting one of my favorite songs from her – the one that turned me into a super-fan after years of flirtatiously enjoying her music but never quite succumbing to fanaticism. That all changed when I found this song on the ‘Like A Prayer’ album.
It feels like a good moment to re-examine it, and it speaks differently to me these days. Before I even knew real tragedy, I felt a kinship with it, an affinity with the darker, shadowy side of things, and as a kid I foolishly cuddled up to it, daring life to afflict me in some way, not understanding how it already was, not realizing how lucky I was just as I was robbing myself of any possible joy I might have had.
Madonna persevered through her childhood in the aftermath of losing her mother, but she carried that loss with her at every step and turn. It’s one of the underlying layers that has always made her more than just a mainstream pop star to me, more than just a one or fifty-hit wonder. Today is her birthday, and so we honor her for still being here with us, having faced her own brush with mortality recently.
We need to cherish our icons when they’re with us, not after they’re gone.
Happy birthday, M.
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