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How Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour Changed Pop Concerts Forever

1990's Blond Ambition took Madge's natural sense of showmanship to new heights.

By Jon O'Brien

Jon O'Brien

“I know that I’m not the best singer and I know that I’m not the best dancer. But, I can f—ing push people’s buttons and be as provocative as I want. This tour’s goal is to break useless taboos.” There was only one all-singing, all-dancing chart-topper who could get away with such a bold declaration at the turn of the ’90s, and it wasn’t Paula Abdul.

From the moment that she writhed around suggestively in a wedding dress at the 1984 MTV VMAs, Madonna became the live act that you couldn’t — and didn’t want to — take your eyes off. Singing in front of a traditional guitar-bass-drums trio was never going to cut it for the woman seemingly hellbent on shocking middle America.

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Then the undisputed Queen of Pop by quite a margin, Madonna had already toyed with the theatrical on 1987’s Who’s That Girl Tour, a whirlwind of glitzy costume changes, giant video screens and dramatic reenactments that she described as “Broadway in a stadium.” But 1990’s Blond Ambition — which kicked off 30 years ago — took Madge’s natural sense of showmanship to new heights.

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Madonna asked Jean-Paul Gaultier to create more than 60 costumes for the tour, an amount which the haute couture designer admits took  350 aspirins  to get through. Luckily, all this headache-inducing work paid off. The Frenchman’s conical bra creation, which was later sold at auction for $52,000 , became one of the defining fashion statements of the decade. And items such as the polka-dotted blouse, clip-on ponytail and mic headset all became a part of the chart-topper’s style legacy, too.

Unsurprisingly, Madonna was just as fastidious when it came to the tour’s choreography. “Wimps and wannabes need not apply” read the call out seeking “fierce male dancers” for the tour. Led by Vincent Paterson, the chosen army of six were put through boot camp-like rehearsals in preparation for a tour that spanned 57 dates, five months and three continents. And with its large hydraulic platform and multiple elaborate sets, Blond Ambition’s staging essentially cost the same as the GDP of a small country. Simply no one else could compete, not even the King to Madonna’s Queen of Pop. A few years prior, Michael Jackson’s Bad Tour had impressed many with its slick moves and dazzling lights – even the BBC’s cult hero John Peel hailed it as a “performance of matchless virtuosity.” But Madge’s elaborative high-concept, five-act production left it for dust.

Blond Ambition didn’t give fans a single opportunity to get bored or head for the bar. Every four minutes there was something new to digest. Take the opening ‘Metropolis’ section, inspired by the expressionist sci-fi of Fritz Lang, for example. Madonna simulates sex in that bra while performing “Express Yourself,” straddles a chair during “Open Your Heart” and belts out “Causing a Commotion” while playfully wrestling her two backing vocalists to the ground. And this was just the first quarter of an hour.

As you’d expect from an artist whose Pepsi commercial had been yanked amidst calls of blasphemy, the second ‘Religious’ section was even more attention-grabbing. Wildly rubbing her crotch in a red velvet bed, Madonna left little to the imagination on a sensual reworking of “Like a Virgin.” And on “Like a Prayer,” the track whose provocative video had caused the soft drink giants to bail, the star and her crew are kitted out as nuns and priests.

Of course, much of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation of Italy didn’t appreciate this type of cosplay. A second date at the Stadio Flaminio was called off after none other than Pope John Paul II implored citizens to boycott “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity.”

The controversial blend of religion and erotica also incurred the wrath of the Toronto police force, particularly the “lewd and obscene” display of “Like a Virgin.” But despite the threat of arrest, Madonna and her management team refused to bow down to authority. The star even referenced the furor during her second show at the city’s SkyDome, asking the crowd “Do you think that I’m a bad girl?… I hope so.”

Madonna famously described Toronto as a fascist state in Truth or Dare , the illuminating backstage documentary which further boosted Blond Ambition’s pop cultural cachet. Who can forget the scene where the star pretends to gag after Kevin Costner – then the biggest movie star in the world – summarizes 105 minutes of sense-assaulting, boundary-pushing entertainment as “neat”?

Thankfully, the sell-out crowds reacted to the tour with a little more enthusiasm, even the Dick Tracy section featuring several numbers that would have been unfamiliar at the time. The comic book adaptation, which co-starred Madonna as femme fatale Breathless Mahoney, hit the big screen half-way through Blond Ambition’s run. And the ever-astute star attempted to guide fans towards the cinema with a high-kicking third act dedicated to the trench coat-wearing detective.

But for sheer entertainment value, the ‘Art Deco’ segment is tough to beat. Sporting a pink bathrobe and curlers while seated under a beauty parlor hair dryer, Madonna performed the whole of “Material Girl” in a comical Noo-Yawk accent before throwing fake dollar bills into the crowd. “Cherish” saw the star take up the harp accompanied by (what else?) a troupe of dancing mermen. And following a West Side Story -inspired routine for arguably her finest pure pop moment, “Into the Groove,” she wrapped things up with a faithful recreation of the iconic “Vogue” video.

By the time each and every crew member bids an on-stage farewell during the Bob Fosse-meets- A Clockwork Orange encore of “Keep it Together,” it’s clear that you’ve just witnessed a spectacle of ground-breaking proportions. As dancer Luis Camacho said, Madonna “wanted to give the audience an experience, rather than them just going to a concert. She set the stage for concert shows and experiences that followed.” The tour even impressed Grammy voters, who were notoriously slow to recognize Madonna’s greatness. The video of the tour won the 1991 award for best music video, long form — Madonna’s very first Grammy Award.

Sure enough, no longer were audiences content to watch their pop idol simply play the hits. Elaborate production values and strong narrative arcs soon became just as integral to the superstar tour as the music itself. You only have to look at Michael Jackson’s Dangerous shows, complete with catapult stunts and ghoulish illusions, two years later to recognize the immediate impact Blond Ambition had. And it has continued to inspire pop’s A-listers ever since. Without Blond Ambition, it’s unlikely we’d have the gravity-defying acrobatics of P!nk, the candy-colored razzmatazz of Katy Perry or the formidable conceptual journeys of Beyoncé. And it goes without saying that its footprints were all over the various balls staged by Lady Gaga.

Madonna herself has refused to rest on her laurels, going even bigger and bolder on the likes of 1993’s The Girlie Show, 2004’s Re-Invention and 2008’s Sticky and Sweet. But nothing has ever changed the game quite like her extremely blond and incredibly ambitious 1990 world tour.

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

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

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.)

1. It reinvented the concert tour.

Today, most major pop tours are full-scale productions with costume changes, special effects, elaborate sets and a sense of drama that takes the experience beyond someone just singing into a microphone. It wasn’t always that way, however, and Madonna and choreographer Vincent Paterson specifically set out to elevate the concert.

As Paterson explained to PEOPLE in a 1990 interview, “The biggest thing we tried to do is change the shape of concerts. Instead of just presenting songs, we wanted to combine fashion, Broadway, rock and performance art.”

2. It has full-on acts

The fact that Madonna divided her performances into five thematic categories – Metropolis, Religious, Dick Tracy, Art Deco and Encore – suggests not only a level of creative planning unusual for concerts at the time but also the sheer volume of material Madonna had to work with – and at only 31 years old, no less.

3. It made a ton of money.

In the first two hours that tickets went on sale, a total of 482,832 were purchased, for a grand total of $14,237,000. By the end of the tour, Madonna had generated more than $62 million – that’s $113 million adjusted for inflation.

4. It helped cement the link between pop costumes and couture.

In addition to the vast majority of Blond Ambition’s many stage costumes, Madonna’s bullet bra was designed by haute couture legend Jean Paul Gaultier. In 2012, one of these very bras sold at a Christie’s auction for $52,000.

5. It gave us that iconic ponytail.

According to a 1990 edition of PEOPLE’s Style Watch, Madonna’s clip-on ponytail quickly became a look that fans copied when attending Blond Ambition stops. “Lots of women – and men – are showing up at her concerts with this hairdo,” remarked Warner Bros. Records publicity VP Liz Rosenberg. “It’s really catching on.”

You might think Madonna would do anything for a look, but that clip-on ponytail resulted from one specific need: she needed a style that wouldn’t get tangled in the headset she wears when she sings.

6. The title itself was a stand for independence.

Initially, it was to be the Like a Prayer World Tour, sponsored by Pepsi. Of course, the “Like a Prayer” video was met with a great deal of controversy, and Pepsi eventually backed out of a licensing deal with “The Donner.” Thus, Blond Ambition was born.

7. It overcame a rough start.

Blond Ambition kicked off on Friday the 13th – Friday, April 13, 1990, near Tokyo, Japan. Suitably, the weather was miserably wet and cold, and at one point Madonna slid across the wet stage and proclaimed, “You didn’t know you were here for an ice-skating show. Well, I’m Dorothy Hamill.”

8. It featured Madonna at her most perfectionist, for better or worse.

And according to the New York Times review of the concert , that meant the concert was more “live” than live. “Madonna has become so perfectionistic, and so athletic in her dancing, that she would clearly rather lip-sync than risk a wrong note,” the review notes. “With tickets priced at $30, concertgoers might expect a more live concert.”

9. It made Madonna confront "the fascist state of Toronto."

As documented in the 1991 behind-the-scenes movie Madonna: Truth or Dare , Toronto police threatened to arrest Madonna should her performance of “Like a Virgin” feature her miming masturbation. When the faux-Middle Eastern arrangement of the hit song played, however, Madonna did her usual dance, hand motions and all.

Ultimately the police opted not to arrest her on obscenity charges, but she still famously called the Canadian city a "fascist state."

10. It was condemned by the Vatican.

Not that it’s a good thing to earn the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church, but it speaks to what a big deal the Blond Ambition tour was that the Vatican’s official newspaper, Osservatore Romano , declared the show sinful – a more or less unprecedented decision.

11. "Don’t talk. If you talk, I will stop speaking, all right?"

Madonna’s response to the condemnation, however, was 100 percent Madonna. After commanding the Italian press to cease talking, she defends her performance. “Like theater, [Blond Ambition] asks questions, provokes thought and takes you on an emotional journey, portraying good and bad, light and dark, joy and sorrow, redemption and salvation.”

12. Every Blond Ambition performance began with a prayer.

Regardless of what the Pope may have thought of Madonna’s work, she felt she was on good terms with God, and Truth or Dare notes that she began every show with a group prayer.

13. She sang "Happy Birthday" to her dad at the tour’s Detroit show …

There’s been no shortage of kerfuffle about Madonna’s relationship with the rest of the Ciccone clan, but the tour featured a touching moment onstage with her dad, Silvio Ciccone, at her hometown show in Detroit.

14. Which means she performed all those naughty bits with her dad in the audience.

There’s a moment in Truth or Dare when she mentions that her dad watching the racier parts of the Blond Ambition tour is scarier than confronting the Toronto police.

15. It was a decidedly pro-gay show.

It’s notable that Madonna was up-front about the fact that six of her seven male backup dancers were gay men. Madonna, after all, had been outspoken about gay rights and gay people in general long before it became the norm among celebrities. In fact

16. Its final U.S. performance was dedicated to Keith Haring.

Madonna was good friends with the pop artist Keith Haring, who died of AIDS-related complications on Feb. 16, 1990. The Blond Ambition World Tour’s last American stop, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was dedicated to Haring’s memory, and the more than $300,000 the show made was donated to the Foundation for AIDS Research. (Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour used a Haring-inspired backdrop, seen in the above clip.)

17. It featured a gay Dick Tracy chorus line.

Skip forward to the 5:45 mark in this clip of the Blond Ambition performance of “Now I’m Following You” to see six dancing Dick Tracys pair off into three male-male pairs. It’s quite the spectacle, and it’s even more notable when you realize that most of the tour began before the 1990 Dick Tracy remake (in which Madonna starred) hit theaters, meaning this chorus line was the first glimpse fans saw of the reinvented Dick Tracy.

And no, none of those Dick Tracys were Warren Beatty , who played the title character and who was dating Madonna throughout the tour.

18. It was also pro-safe sex.

You have to hand it to Madonna: Encouraging the use of condoms was on-point in 1990, and every show had her introducing “Into the Groove” by saying, “You really never get to know a guy until you ask him to wear a rubber.”

19. It mocked the perception of Madonna as a dumb blond sexpot.

For the Blond Ambition take on “Material Girl,” Madonna sang the entire song in an accent that falls somewhere between dumb blonde, “Noo Yawk” housewife and gangster’s moll. Say what you will about Madonna taking herself very seriously, but most singers wouldn’t ever perform in curlers and a bathrobe.

20. It had grand cinematic aspirations beyond Dick Tracy .

The first act of the show is themed “Metropolis.” That’s not Superman’s city. That’s the 1927 German expressionist epic Metropolis , and you can see it in the retro-science-fiction aesthetic of the stage. Hey, if you were Madonna, you’d aim for high art.

21. There’s some Stanley Kubrick in there, too.

In a 1991 New York Times interview , Madonna described the Blond Ambition performance of “Keep It Together” as “Bob Fosse-meets- Clockwork Orange .”

“It’s the show’s ultimate statement about the family, because we’re absolutely brutalizing with each other, while there’s also no mistaking that we love each other deeply,” she said.

22. Kevin Costner thought the show was "neat."

There’s a famous scene in Truth or Dare in which Madonna parties with other celebs after a Los Angeles show. Among them is Kevin Costner, who tells Madonna he found the show “neat.” It’s an amazing moment, and Madonna is predictably incensed that Costner would use that adjective to describe her. “No one’s ever described me quite that way,” she tells him. Later, she decrees “Anybody who says my show was ‘neat’ has to go.”

Costner would forgive the diss in 2007.

23. Truth or Dare was a success, too.

The documentary about Blond Ambition was released in 1991. It cost $4.5 million to make. It earned $29 million. Sure, Madonna was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actress – for playing herself, no less – but she had piles of money with which to console herself.

24. It was parodied twice.

Truth or Dare – and by extension, Blond Ambition – were skewered two times, by Julie Brown in Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful and by English comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in In Bed with French and Saunders . We’d like to think Madge took it all in stride.

25. It essentially made The Immaculate Collection happen.

The tour concluded in August 1990. Everyone was all “Wow, Madonna has an amazing library of hits.” In November 1990, her first greatest hits collection, The Immaculate Collection , was released. You do the math.

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'A Freudian nightmare': Madonna's Blond Ambition tour turns 30

Three decades on, the controversy-courting concert tour is still shaping the ways female artists express their sexuality

• Modern Toss on Blond Ambition tour ...

I n Toronto, Madonna simulated masturbation on a velvet bed under the watchful eye of the Canadian police, who threatened her with arrest if her show went ahead. In Italy, unions called for a general strike if Madonna performed, and Pope John Paul II declared her concert “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity”. The Blond Ambition tour , which turned 30 years old last month, remains among the most controversial tours of all time.

It seems bizarre now that so much fuss was made over a little fake frotting and a few gyrating nuns. But this was 1990, when Kylie Minogue was still performing in straw hats, Bananarama were deemed dangerous and the gossip pages raged over Annie Lennox singing Would I Lie to You in a bra. Into this age of relative wholesomeness landed Blond Ambition Madonna , on a mission to combine fashion, rock, Broadway theatricality and performance art, to “be provocative” and “break useless taboos”. Mission accomplished. Jean Paul Gaultier’s famous conical corset has been described as a “Freudian nightmare”, a generation of teenagers asked their parents what S&M stood for, and the coy suggestiveness of the live pop spectacle was blown wide open.

The themed set-pieces – religion, German expressionism, art deco, Madge’s rubbish new movie Dick Tracy – set a new bar for confrontational theatricality that only greater shock tactics could ever challenge. Marilyn Manson ’s onstage Bible shredding is straight out of the “Madonna 90” guidebook, and with her firework bras, stage blood and copious dry-humping, Lady Gaga looks as if she was conceived at a Blond Ambition gig. But the key taboo Madonna broke that summer was that of feminine sexuality as strength rather than titillation, as something owned by the artist not cashed in by the svengalis. That’s what gave us SexKylie , “ zig-a-zig-AH! ”, Wrecking Ball -era Miley and Nicki Minaj’s bottom-obsessed Anaconda . It’s one of the reasons female artists feel comfortable singing about sex and desire today.

Sex sells, though, and more sex sells more. Over the decades, overt sexuality became the expected – nay, contractual – pop norm. Attention-grabbing boundaries were pushed to their limits, and artists were pressured to play this new, ever raunchier game. Enter Billie Eilish, defiantly covered, mocking the uber-sexualised expectations of modern pop with a film of her stripping off beneath blackened water: “If I wear more, if I wear less, who decides what that makes me?” she intones, shaming the bodyshamers and staring out the monetisable male gaze. By asserting ownership of her body she is not re-establishing any old taboos, she’s breaking the oldest one of all – subservience. Her image, her body, her art, her rules. Which was Madonna’s point all along.

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POP MUSIC REVIEW : Madonna Pumps It Up With ‘Blond Ambition’

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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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Review/Pop; In Kitsch and Patter, Iron-Willed Madonna Flouts the Taboos

By Jon Pareles, Special To the New York Times

• June 13, 1990

Madonna is a lean, mean dancing machine in her ''Blond Ambition'' tour, which arrived tonight at the Nassau Coliseum. During her first tour since 1987, no one will mistake Madonna for an easygoing party girl or pliant fantasy object; she is in full control, casting herself as vicious or coy or devout in vignettes that are all ready for videotape.

Her stage patter is deliberately artificial, delivered in exaggerated accents from Noo Yawkese to a hokey fake cockney. Unsmiling, with severe makeup and her hair tightly pulled back in a blond ponytail, her breasts turned to sharp points by Jean-Pierre Gaultier's costumes, Madonna is so stylized she wears her current images like armor.

The tour has been promoted as a show that flouts taboos about sex and blasphemy; it does so, glancingly and programmatically, with more than a touch of kitsch. But the real surprise is how much of the music, from rhythm tracks to lead vocals, is canned - at a rough guess, more than half. Madonna has become so perfectionistic, and so athletic in her dancing, that she would clearly rather lip-sync than risk a wrong note. It makes the concert airless and off-putting. With tickets priced at $30, concertgoers might expect a more live concert.

''Blond Ambition'' has four segments, devoted to dance tunes, religiosity, ''Dick Tracy'' (promoting Madonna's current album and film role) and more dance tunes. It gets its prude-baiting out of the way early as Madonna briefly climbs atop a male dancer and then grinds against him; a few songs later, she pushes around her female backup singers and dancers, then kicks them as they lie on the stage.

A little later, Madonna is lying on a red velvet bed, attended by two male dancers wearing long, conical (and comical) breasts. She sings ''Like a Virgin'' in a mock Middle Eastern arrangement, stroking herself and heatedly writhing against the pillows; she says ''God,'' a black curtain opens, and she is surrounded by banks of electrified votive candles and a black-robed chorus, which joins her in ''Like a Prayer.'' It's the serious part of the show, with ballads - notably ''Oh Father,'' about an abusive parent and the church's paternal authority - leading to ''Papa Don't Preach,'' in which she eventually knocks down male dancers.

A white curtain falls, and the show moves on to the mock-1930's music of ''Dick Tracy,'' with what sounded like the same backup as on the album (and no visible band). In ''Hanky Panky,'' a song about sexual spanking, Madonna dresses in a chorus-girl-style fringed camisole and saunters through a production number fit for an old musical, hands tapping rumps; for ''Now I'm Following You,'' danced with a Dick Tracy stand-in wearing a yellow raincoat, Madonna announced, ''Let's do something really naughty - let's lip-sync.'' In a chorus line of Dick Tracys, men paired off with men.

Then it's back to the dance hits, most with choreography echoing Madonna's video clips. Before ''Into the Groove,'' she rapped a couplet about condoms. She closed with part of Sly Stone's ''Family Affair'' and a closing pro-family homily, ''Keep It Together.'' ''Never, ever doubt yourself,'' she said as benediction.

If ''Blond Ambition'' were a prime-time variety show, Madonna might be testing taboos, but she is hardly breaking new ground in rock theatrics. And the show has a sense of self-importance that works against it, particularly when it promises profundity and delivers triteness; in ''Like a Prayer,'' the chorus folds its hands for the word ''prayer'' and strikes muscle-builder poses for the word ''power.''

Something has also gone wrong with Madonna's singing, when she ventured to let it be heard. She has been working on her voice, developing a throaty depth that's appropriate for ballads like ''Live to Tell.'' But applied to light pop like ''Holiday,'' it sounds like a bad Barbra Streisand imitation, pointlessly overwrought.

Madonna clearly wants to make a major statement with ''Blond Ambition,'' about the malleability of gender conventions and about a woman taking control. But in the past, she has brought a sense of fun to her purposefulness - a light touch that made her a welcome relief from the ponderousness of earnest 1980's rockers. It's fascinating to watch her perfectionism and her iron will at work, but there's not much pleasure in it.

Blond Ambition Tour

Tour poster, tour schedule.

The Blond Ambition was first planned to only visit Japan and North America because Madonna was busy with several movie roles. But considering her popularity in Europe , another tour leg was added. Kicking off in Makuhari, Japan, Madonna played a total of 57 shows in 10 different countries.

→ Check out the full tour schedule here

Tour setlist

Originally titled the Like A Prayer World Tour, this tour promoted her latest studio albums Like A Prayer and I'm Breathless .

→ Check out the full setlist here

Tour crew & collaborators

The Blond Ambition Tour was a much bigger production than her previous two tours, which meant a more extended crew. Madonna was joined on stage by backing singers Niki and Donna , as well as 7 dancers , who we all got to know better in the tour documentary Truth Or Dare .

→ Check out the full crew here

Tour recording

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Madonna: Blond Ambition World Tour 90 (1990 & 1991 versions)

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The Story Behind Madonna’s Iconic Jean Paul Gaultier Cone Bra

By Liam Hess

On the first night of Madonna ’s Blond Ambition tour, held in April 1990 in Chiba, Japan, few in the audience could have prepared themselves for the spectacle about to unfold. With its $2 million dollar stage set, explosive choreography by voguing legends from the New York City ballroom scene, and headline-grabbing aesthetic fusion of Catholic imagery and BDSM, the show solidified Madonna’s position at the top of music’s pantheon. In less than two hours, she was no longer just a pop star—she had graduated to become a fully-fledged pop culture icon.

For her most avid fans, though, it was less of a surprise: Madonna was merely following up on the string of controversies that accompanied her latest album, Like a Prayer , a year earlier. A $5 million sponsorship deal with Pepsi was swiftly pulled after she debuted the video for her lead single, “Like a Prayer,” the plot of which implicitly drew a link between racial injustice and organized religion. Featuring Ku Klux Klan-style burning crosses and Madonna receiving the stigmata, it led to a direct call from the Vatican to boycott Pepsi and its subsidiaries. “Art should be controversial, and that’s all there is to it,” Madonna told the New York Times with nonchalance in the lead-up to the album’s release. (This laid-back response may have been due to the fact that Pepsi, eager to extricate themselves from the kerfuffle, let Madonna keep the $5 million check.)

Yet outside of the pearl-clutching backlash that followed the tour’s debut, the image that would come to define it was far more modest, arriving within the first few minutes of the show. Sporting an artfully slashed pinstripe suit, Madonna levitated to the stage on a hydraulic platform. She held a monocle hanging off her necklace up to her eye, before launching into “Express Yourself.” Then, moments later, she and her backup dancers whipped off their jackets to reveal something a little more sexy.

The pink conical bra that Madonna wore underneath is so embedded within the canon of both pop music and fashion that it now requires little introduction. Designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, who Madonna personally requested to create the costumes for the tour (she even handwrote him a letter to express her admiration for his humorous take on fashion), the look was the product of many months of collaboration, with fittings taking place both in New York and Gaultier’s ateliers in Paris.

“When Madonna first called me in 1989, it was two days before my ready-to-wear show, and I thought my assistant was joking,” said Gaultier in a 2001 interview with the New York Times . “I was a big fan. She knew what she wanted—a pinstripe suit, the feminine corsetry. Madonna likes my clothes because they combine the masculine and the feminine.” Indeed, it was this gender-bending spirit that made the tour’s visuals so memorable; just take her male dancers, who threw flamboyant shapes while sporting Tom of Finland-esque leather lace-back tops paired with Bob Fosse bowler hats. (The less glamorous side of which was explored memorably in the 2016 documentary Strike a Pose , where these dancers, many of whom were living with HIV/AIDS, saw their hopes and aspirations either realized or heartbreakingly thwarted.)

By Alexandra Macon

By Christina Pérez

By Marie Bladt

What made Madonna’s take on this undergarment truly subversive, though, was its nuances. The cone bra grabbed the public’s attention for the way in which it rebelled against the narrow definition of the beautiful female body that, for so many centuries, had been dictated by corsetry’s body-morphing strictures. Sure, designers like Vivienne Westwood had also spent the ’80s exploring a more freeing, playful take on the corset, but Gaultier’s version—first debuted on the runway in 1987 before being adapted for the Blond Ambition tour—took the piece and made it feel defiant, aggressive even. In place of the soft curves the corset was supposed to shape, the female anatomy became a spiky, phallic weapon, one that Madonna celebrated by exerting her dominance, sexual or otherwise, over the dancers she frolicked with across her one-and-a-half-hour musical extravaganza. This was a pop star in control, and her outfits told the story before she even opened her mouth to sing, or began gyrating wildly across the stage (or simulated masturbation, in a sequence that almost resulted in her Toronto leg of the tour being shut down).

Gaultier would go on to collaborate with Madonna on multiple occasions, including a memorable appearance at Gaultier’s 1992 AIDS fundraising gala in support of amFAR, where she walked the runway in Los Angeles before dropping her jacket to reveal a bondage-inspired harness top that left her breasts fully exposed. “I love Madonna,” Gaultier added in his New York Times interview. “She’s the only woman I ever asked to marry me. She said no, of course, but every time she asks me to work on her shows, I can’t say no.” Thirty years after making its first debut, the cone bra is more than just a part of fashion history, or an artefact hanging in a museum. Its legacy lies in the very real way in which it has encouraged generations of female pop performers in Madonna’s wake to channel their sexuality through the outfits they choose to wear without shame, and on their own terms. To paraphrase Gaultier, who could say no to that?

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Madonna: blond ambition world tour live, madonna: blond ambition world tour 1990: live from nice.

Directed by David Mallet , Mark Aldo Miceli

Blond Ambition World Tour Live contains the final tour date recorded in Nice, France. The release had previously been shown and produced by American network HBO as a television special. In 1992, the LaserDisc release won the Best Music Video-Long Form category at the 34th Grammy Awards. The tour reached North America, Europe and Asia. It was a highly controversial tour, mainly for its juxtaposition of Catholic iconography and sexuality. Rolling Stone called it an "elaborately choreographed, sexually provocative extravaganza" and proclaimed it "the best tour of 1990."

Madonna Donna DeLory Niki Haris Luis Camacho Oliver Crumes Salim Gauwloos Jose Guitierez Kevin Stea Gabriel Trupin Carlton Wilborn David Williams Christopher Ciccone

Directors Directors

David Mallet Mark Aldo Miceli

Songs Songs

Madonna Stephen Bray Patrick Leonard

Costume Design Costume Design

Jean-Paul Gaultier

WEA/Reprise

Releases by Date

13 dec 1990, releases by country.

• Physical PG-13

112 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by nathaxnne [hiatus <3] ★★★★★ 3

2 be Madonna is 2 reject a subject position which admits powerlessness. 2 be Madonna is 2 project will. 2 be Madonna is 2 be power itself, 2 identify with power in its basest most elemental forms

Madonna putting on lingerie is Jeanne D'Arc putting on blessed armor

Madonna hates a dress more than anyone ever hates wearing a dress ever except when she feels like wearing a dress & fucking rocks it bc she is Madonna wearing a dress. Madonna wearing a dress is entering combat, entering contested territory, giving up something of herself 2 the enemy 2 get closer 2 seduce 2 recon 2 intel what makes the dress pretty is the contempt what makes the dress pretty is…

Review by audrey lorraine 🦇 ★★★★★

to be hugged & called family by madonna before being thrown into the void <3

Review by PerseuEvans ★★★★★

The show that changed everything. With this tour, Madonna was consolidated as the biggest female pop star in the world and as a revolutionary woman. Staging the songs in thematically organized segments was groundbreaking and that has become a staple feature of any pop concert ever since. The "religious" segment alone - with the genius pairing of "Like a Virgin" and "Like a Prayer" - launched a thousand thinkpieces (hello Camille Paglia!) and drew anger from the Vatican, with the Pope himself forbidding the concert in Italy. Vibrant, provoking and multi-layered (the references go from "Metropolis" to "A Clockwork Orange"), "The Blond Ambition Tour" remains one the central testaments of Madonna as a visionary artist.

Review by Graham ★★★★

・ﾟ☆* └(ఠ◡ఠ)┐ 🎵 ┌(^◡^)┘ ☆*・ﾟ

and you can dance for inspiration come on i'm waiting

ᕕ(⌐■_■)ᕗ ♪♬

Review by Héctor

Keep, keep people together, keep keep it together forever and ever.

Review by vee

I know she was sat for Benedetta.

Review by ax

"one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity” - pope john paul II

Review by Ed_W00d ★★★★★

"I know I'm not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn't interest me. I'm interested in being provocative and pushing people's buttons."

Alors qu'elle se bat présentement contre les ravages de l'âgisme dans une société qui ne jure que par l'image, ses combats étaient ici l'émancipation des femmes (et encore aujourd'hui), en plus de la démystification du SIDA dont l'épidémie faisait des désastres en silence.

Il y aurait tant à dire sur ce Blond Ambition Tour qui mettait en scène une artiste en très grande forme dont la fougue ne s'est jamais atténuée encore à ce jour. Un spectacle important et révolutionnaire, non seulement pour Madonna, mais pour le monde de la pop en général. 🎤

Review by yousef ★★★★★

Madonna x jean paul gaultier greatest collaboration of all time

Review by Daphne Austin ★★★★★ 2

madonna please just release this on HQ dvd/blu-ray PLEASE i’m begging you

Review by Serena

Madonna doesn't actually sport the ponytail at this show - instead it's a modern and yet classic mop of curls, which I love.

Sex, violence, Catholicism, "I'm the fuckin boss here!" - is this a Scorcese movie? Nope, it's the Blond Ambition tour. You love to see it.

Review by Alice ★★★½

I was never a big fan of Madonna, but this whole concert was on YouTube, so I decided to check it out, as it's known to be her most iconic. It's fine. I like some of her songs, but most don't do too much for me. I can appreciate how innovative she was though - whether in a good or bad way is up to individual judgment.

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Madonna: Blond Ambition Tour, 1990

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Product Description

This release captures Madonna performing 19 songs, live in Houston, on her celebrated 'Blond Ambition' tour. Includes the hits: 'Express Yourself', 'Like A Virgin', 'Material Girl', 'Like A Prayer', 'Vogue' and 'Into The Groove'.

Product details

• Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.93 ounces
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 42 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ October 15, 2007
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Madonna
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Falcon
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0009YLHO0
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #170,987 in DVD

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Billy Eichner Teases Hollywood Bowl Singing Debut at ‘Lion King’ Celebration: ‘I Feel Like I’m on Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour’

Nathan Lane, Jennifer Hudson, Jeremy Irons, Heather Headley and North West are also performing at the live-to-film concert event

By Marc Malkin

Marc Malkin

Senior Editor, Culture and Events

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Billy Eichner is finally getting to live out his childhood dream of a being in a major stage musical.

The “Bros” star is making his Hollywood Bowl singing debut this weekend during “ The Lion King ‘s” 30th anniversary live-to-film concert.

“We just had our first official rehearsal all together this morning,” Eichner told me Wednesday afternoon. “The scope and size of it really knocked me out. If I can get through it, I think it’s going to be really fun.”

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Young Eichner calmed down in time for the show: “I was blown away. I could not stop watching Nathan. He just blew my mind, just the ultimate musical comedy star.”

Eicher became friends with Lane, who played Timon in the original “Lion King” movie, after they were introduced at a birthday party for Bridget Everett. “When I got the role of Timon and he saw the movie, he was always sending me emails of support,” Eichner said of the Tony winner. “When I had gotten some good reviews, he was congratulating me. He’s my hero, so to be on stage with him is truly wild.”

With Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter making her feature film debut in “Mufasa” as Kiara, the daughter of Nala (Beyoncé) and Simba (Donald Glover), I asked Eichner if he got to work with the music superstars’ offspring. “I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say, so I’m not going to say it,” he said. “But I’m excited about ‘Mufasa.’ We just had what I think was maybe our final recording sessions with [director] Barry Jenkins. It was the first time I’ve seen any of the movie.”

But for now, all his attention is on the Hollywood Bowl. He’ll take part in a full dress rehearsal later today. “All of the producers have flown over from London,” Eichner said. “We’re all finally in person together with the orchestra and the conductor and choreographer Jamal Sims and so many dancers — so many dancers! I feel like I’m on Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour.”

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Cyndi Lauper announces farewell tour to 'say goodbye' — her most outrageous and memorable transformations in photos

Ahead of the girls just wanna have fun farewell tour, we will get the documentary let the canary sing.

Cyndi Lauper announced on Monday morning that on October 18, more than four decades into the music business, she will kick off her farewell tour, titled Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour .

The 70-year-old singer-songwriter and legendary performer will also debut a new documentary coming out tomorrow, June 4, titled Let the Canary Sing , honoring her career and influence on pop music and style.

In honor of the singer's coming final hurrah, we're looking back on her legacy and her ever-evolving style statements, from her crazy hairstyles and tons of accessories, to the bright colors and '80s glam she's rocked over the decades…

Trending Stories

The Blue Angel era

Cyndi first began her career as the lead singer for the band Blue Angel, which released only one self-titled album in 1980. While it was a critical success, it was a commercial flop.

The band disbanded soon after, and the singer resorted to local gigs and waitressing to make ends meet, but soon found new management, a solo recording contract, and immense success with her debut solo album in 1983.

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The magic of the '80s

With the release of She's So Unusual and True Colors , Cyndi was not only a chart and awards stage mainstay, but also a frequent topic of conversation surrounding her style.

Her aesthetic was a combination of David Bowie, Boy George, and the extravagance of the decade, rocking bright red and yellow hair, chunky necklaces and bracelets, and multi-colored skirts, blazers, tights, and more.

A new age, a new look

As her career entered the 21st century, Cyndi's style remained bright and singularly her own, however she was able to find peaks and valleys to fit the times.

She's seen here rocking a bold red updo (with bright red highlights) and an outfit to match, a mixture of chic and kitsch, with her Tony Award win as a composer for the hit musical Kinky Boots .

MORE:  Millie Bobby Brown's 10 best fashion moments of all time

True colors

Color has always remained the defining trait of the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" singer's wardrobe, whether it's at events as high-profile as the Grammys or hitting the streets of NYC.

The star has promised lots more color and extravagant style in her upcoming farewell tour. She told USA Today of the tour: "I'm going to include a piece of everything — (songs from) Blue Angel, “Shine” — and combine art and moving visuals, use a lot of color and design."

Blonde ambition

From time to time, the singer will bring out her natural blonde locks as well, opting for a touch of sophisticated glamor to switch things up.

Of her decision to leave the stage, Cyndi told USA Today : "I just want to thank everybody, say goodbye, celebrate with fans that have been so loyal and sweet and were there for every crazy-ass concert or thing that I did and I'm excited about doing it."

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Cyndi to this day

Even at the age of 70, her sense of humor and desire to push the boundaries haven't dulled, as evidenced by her latest appearance pictured here.

Cyndi performed at the 2024 WeHo Pride Parade on June 2, just a day before announcing her farewell tour, rocking her gray hair with a lace bodice, metallic jacket, crocheted jeans, and a crown that instantly screams "goddess of camp."

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