118 SCORE: 7.367 2015 PLACEMENT: N/A HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 6 (@funkyg @eatyourself @JMRGBY @Sleepycat @Remorque @Trinu 3.0) LOWEST SCORE: 1.5 x 1 (@Chezam) MY SCORE: 8/10 I've been thinking a lot recently, which I don't imagine is particularly unique given how much time we've all had to just stare at walls in the last few months. I've been thinking about progress, and how fucking frustrating it is. I've been thinking about people who fought for things I take for granted now that were utterly unthinkable back then, and how they never got to see the fruits of their battle because acceptance is this cruelly slow process that can take several generations and the people who throw the first brick sometimes never even get to see it land. And it's not fair because everything feels and is more urgent than ever. We literally have about four minutes to save the world at the moment and instead we're strangling the life out of the vulnerable and the oppressed and the planet. It's awful and I hate it. It feels like progress isn't just not happening but it's being reversed, all because people like to feel more or better than others, and it feels utterly hopeless a lot of time. Madonna is someone who I look to when I'm sad. And I do get sad, sometimes, unspeakably so. It's not like she's dictating my world view or deciding my thoughts (otherwise we would be in trouble after today) but she's someone I admire and respect and in times of strife and chaos it's comforting to find her alongside me when I'm struggling, whether she's giving support with songs she sang twenty years ago blasting into my headphones or simply rendering her rage with poorly punctuated Instagram captions complete with a tone deaf hashtag including one of her hit songs she feels is relevant to the moment. This is not only because she's my hero, but it's because Madonna has seen shit. She's actually one of the people who fought for progress and won. She's lived in times that were worse than this and railed against it and saw how things can actually change. She's been able to see things get so much worse before finally starting to get better. And that's not even including her own life with its own ups and downs. She's seen a worse world, she's fought her entire life for a better one and largely succeeded. "I Rise" works for me largely because of all the above. It's that stoicism, that nerve-steeling. The ability to still celebrate the one step forward after twelve steps back. It takes patience, and grace, and an almost endless well of compassion, but... maybe we get there? Or at the very least people after us get there after we cleared the way for them? Is the overall delivery a little hokey? Yes, okay, fine, but I'm gonna allow it. If someone who has seen far worse and done far more than I have can still hope that things are going to get better, then maybe I can hold on to the little bit of magic in it as well. It also feels earned after the particularly heavy journey through Madame X, to have this final chip of sunlight cut through and remind us to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Madonna most likely won't be around to see full extent of her own reach; she'll be referenced in the history of pop culture for as long as there is pop culture, and people will be finding things she did and discovering her all over again for decades to come, and hopefully she finds them in that better world that... we just need to keep striving towards, no matter how pointless it feels right now, and she'll exist all over again in the impact she's able to make there too. She'll one-two-cha-cha-cha her way into someone else's heart and the journey will begin all over again. Anyway, I've talked about this for longer than I will most of my 10/10s, so. The song received a video sponsored by TIME magazine, which is largely a video of clips that remind us how much progress we've made and how much people are still marching for. The song was also appropriately performed during her World Pride set last year, where she was beautifully candid about how grateful she was to be there, and it was of course the finale to the Madame X Tour, which we actually have some great footage of thanks to the London Palladium trying to drop the iron curtain on Ma'am X because she went over curfew, to which she just came out in front of the curtain and did the whole thing acapella with the audience instead. Fools. Don't they know there's no game they can play that she ain't won?
So far the two lead singles that left are her worst two and they left in the right order for me. The next one to go should be Living For Love but I hope it makes the top 100
Seriously. I loved Encyclopedia Madonnica by Matthew Rettunmund but I would love a @RJF book about Madonna. Or she should hire you to write the liner notes for the deluxe reissues which we all hope for one day and know will never happen. Except we all know it will be an Erotica reissue with one extra track and a bonus Erotica pillow.
I was there the night of the I Rise “situation” and honestly, what a moment it was. The sheer genuine rage emanating from her was truly something to behold. Her screams of “fuck you!” will always be my lasting memory of the Mrs X tour.
117 SCORE: 7.382 2015 PLACEMENT: DOWN 21 - 96 of 210 (7.291) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 15 (@rav4boy @Suburbia @soratami @torontodj @Syzygyz @Skyline @Modeblock @Coochi @Drew @Robsolete @unnameable @joeee @Lila @ufint @Holly Something) LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 1 (@Hurricane Drunk) MY SCORE: 8/10 And that's a wrap for Evita! Arguably the most iconic song from the film, the musical, the soundtrack, whatever the hell it is. It's out, and it's over. Despite a modest uptick in score, it's a pretty damning tumble since 2015. I guess y'all just don't like musical theatre? Which is absolutely... the right decision to make in your life. You probably hate yourself a little less. I don't really have too much to say about this. Apparently on her first run through of this song backed with the eighty-plus-piece orchestra, Madonna sobbed as she thought she had done a fucking terrible job due to being uncomfortable with the recording situation. I'm not sure how many takes were between then and what we got, but I think you can still hear a slight nervousness in her tone in the final take. That does not stop it, however, from being a stunning vocal. Yes yes new section of her range blah blah blah but you really can't argue with the fact that she gave the Evita soundtrack everything she had. Most of my points went to that, along with the fact that y'all know I'm a sucker for an orchestra, and this probably gets the most sweeping arrangement of all the songs we've head from this soundtrack in the rate. Exquisite! Madonna and the Evita production in general actually had to fight to be allowed to film on the balcony of Government House after President Carlos Menem deemed Madonna unsuitable for the part, wishing an Argentinian actress had got the part instead (which... tea?). However, after director Alan Parker dragged the lead members of the cast into a meeting with the president, he acquiesced at Madonna's insistence. QUEEN... except for the fact that it turned out that they had already built a soundstage in London and it would be too expensive to bother with setting up for shooting on the real thing. Madonna was, you guessed it, pressed. She got her way in the end though. There's a little about that moment in the Evita Diaries that Vanity Fair published in 1996: Sunday, March 10 Last night was like a dream and yet it happened so easily and effortlessly I have to keep pinching myself to make sure that I haven't imagined it. Last night I walked out on the balcony of the Casa Rosada in front of thousands of people and sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." In the exact place she had stood so many times before, I raised my arms and looked into the hungry eyes of humanity, and at that moment I felt her enter my body like a heat missile, starting with my feet, traveling up my spine, and flying out my fingertips, into the air, out to the people, and back up to heaven. Afterward I could not speak and I was so happy. But I felt a great sadness too. Because she is haunting me. She is pushing me to feel things. When you want something bad enough the whole earth conspires to help you get it. Method acting MOTHER. It also got a dance remix at Madonna's behest which appears to be largely responsible for any chart success it had. Who said she wasn't responsible for own success earlier today in the General thread? It's mostly just malicious gay faggotry but I wouldn't expect anything less from the queen of all three of those things. "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" has been performed... sporadically over the years. It normally gets pulled out during tour stops in Argentina naturally, but wasn't actually officially performed until Sticky & Sweet. An instrumental of it is used during Drowned World, and Madonna also sang it in Miami on the Rebel Heart Tour during the acoustic section, which was always a thrilling roulette to see what hit she would perform that night. I got "Ghosttown" which was good, but... I'm always going to want "Like A Prayer". More recently, she also performed it during the Madame X Tour because Andrew Lloyd Webber was in the audience. Stan! I'll chuck the dance remix in at the bottom too, which is appropriate for its audience.
This will be the last time I post the leaderboard at the end of a day's eliminations, as we'll officially reach the halfway point in the rate tomorrow. I'll be using a list of songs remaining to sum up a day's losses after that. The leaderboard will of course still be updated on the first page though! 117. Don't Cry For Me Argentina - 7.382 118. I Rise - 7.367 119. 4 Minutes (Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland) - 7.345 120. She's Not Me - 7.315 121. Physical Attraction - 7.309 121. Why's It So Hard - 7.309 121. This Used To Be My Playground - 7.309 124. Dear Jessie - 7.3 125. Heartbeat - 7.285 126. Inside Out - 7.239 127. Where's The Party - 7.188 128. Falling Free - 7.179 129. Crazy - 7.173 130. Nobody's Perfect - 7.139 131. I'm So Stupid - 7.127 132. Push - 7.112 132. I'm Addicted - 7.112 134. Masterpiece - 7.091 135. American Pie - 7.085 136. Body Shop - 7.061 137. Unapologetic Bitch - 7.058 137. Extreme Occident - 7.058 139. Looking For Mercy - 7.042 140. You Must Love Me - 7.024 141. Goodbye To Innocence - 7.009 142. Gang Bang - 6.939 143. Holy Water - 6.915 144. Gambler - 6.912 145. Think Of Me - 6.906 146. Beat Goes On (Feat. Kanye West) - 6.894 147. Beautiful Killer - 6.884 148. Hold Tight - 6.873 149. The Look Of Love - 6.824 150. Future (Feat. Quavo) - 6.8 151. Batuka - 6.791 152. Voices - 6.785 153. Best Night - 6.755 154. Veni Vidi Vici (Feat. Nas) - 6.752 154. Broken (I'm Sorry) - 6.752 156. Shanti / Ashtangi - 6.73 157. Addicted - 6.712 158. Iconic (Feat. Chance The Rapper & Mike Tyson) - 6.702 158. Ciao Bella - 6.702 160. Spotlight - 6.694 161. I Love New York - 6.652 162. Messiah - 6.639 163. Love Song - 6.621 163. I'd Rather Be Your Lover - 6.621 165. Supernatural - 6.615 166. Candy Shop - 6.588 167. Wash All Over Me - 6.561 168. HeartBreakCity - 6.558 169. Bitch I'm Loca (Feat. Maluma) - 6.548 170. Your Honesty - 6.524 171. Beautiful Scars - 6.461 172. Something To Remember - 6.458 173. Love Don't Live Here Anymore - 6.448 174. Over And Over - 6.433 175. Another Suitcase In Another Hall - 6.409 176. Stay - 6.367 177. Don't Stop - 6.339 178. Girl Gone Wild - 6.324 179. I Know It - 6.267 180. Act Of Contrition - 6.245 181. Fighting Spirit - 6.227 182. I Don't Give A (Feat. Nicki Minaj) - 6.203 183. It's So Cool - 6.191 184. Illuminati - 6.167 185. Funana - 6.161 186. Dance 2Night - 6.152 187. Borrowed Time - 6.118 187. History - 6.118 189. Sooner Or Later - 6.109 189. One More Chance - 6.109 191. Back That Up To The Beat - 6.076 192. Let Down Your Guard - 6.036 193. Killers Who Are Partying - 6.015 194. I'm A Sinner - 6.012 195. I Fucked Up - 5.964 196 - Some Girls - 5.933 197. He's A Man - 5.924 198. Give Me All Your Luvin' (Feat. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A.) - 5.921 199. Buenos Aires - 5.894 200. Super Pop - 5.848 201. Revolver (Feat. Lil Wayne) - 5.827 202. Can't Stop - 5.776 203. Ain't No Big Deal - 5.736 204. Turn Up The Radio - 5.727 205. Best Friend - 5.721 206. Graffiti Heart - 5.697 207. Hanky Panky - 5.691 208. Love Makes The World Go Round - 5.679 209. Back In Business - 5.67 210. Pretender - 5.661 211. Lament - 5.615 212. Cyber-Raga - 5.603 213. Incredible - 5.545 214. Jimmy Jimmy - 5.521 215. Now I'm Following You - 5.497 216. Ring My Bell - 5.424 217. S.E.X. - 5.373 218. Spanish Lesson - 4.997 219. Shoo-Bee-Doo - 4.948 220. More - 4.852 221. What Can You Lose - 4.436 222. Superstar - 4.391 223. Auto-Tune Baby - 4.121 224. Cry Baby - 3.367 225. I'm Going Bananas - 3.327 226. B-Day Song (Feat. M.I.A.) - 3.000 227. Hey You - 2.976
I wish I’d just gone ahead and give Don’t Cry.. a 10. My favourite pop star in one of my favourite musicals? What’s not to love. Also, the I Rise write-up stirred more emotion in me than the song itself ddd
That Argentina Dance Mix, why have I never heard it? Why do parts of it sound so Steps Do The Musicals ITV Special? Ew I'm surprised it's not Top 100, but You Must Love Me should have beat it in my opinion as well. Good night
I love that she got Gloria Estefan's favorite remixers Pablo Flores and Javier Garza to do the Miami mix of Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Queens!
I‘m glad to see the back of I Rise but Argentina and 4 Minutes could’ve stayed longer, particularly the latter.
