Madonna celebrated 40 years of MTV as she opened the network’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Sunday night.
The show opened with the trailer for Madonna’s forthcoming concert movie, featuring footage from her 2019/2020 ‘Madame X’ Tour, set to debut on Paramount+ on October 8.
It showed her taxiing through New York’s Times Square in a trench coat, as she narrated the early years of her career.
“I came to New York City with nothing but 35 dollars and a pair of dance shoes,” recalled Madonna. “I was 19 and terrified.
“Forty years ago, another underdog arrived in New York City hoping to create something revolutionary. An all music channel premiered in the middle of the night and called itself MTV.
“We found each other and from then on changed my life, changed music and created a new art form. That’s why there’s only one place to be tonight.”
The pop legend got a standing ovation as she strutted out onto the Barclays Center stage to the soundtrack of her 1990 hit Vogue.
She relished the moment before stripping off her Burberry trench coat to reveal a PVC look, before opening the awards show.
“They said we wouldn’t last, but were still here motherf**kers. Happy 40th MTV. Welcome to the 2021 MTV VMAs,” Madonna announced, before strutting off stage.
Madonna will celebrate 40 years in music next year with a career-spanning reissue campaign, marking four decades since the singer released her debut single Everybody.
It will include all of the singer’s studio albums, plus singles, soundtrack recordings, live albums and compilations.
According to an announcement on her website, the Like a Virgin hitmaker will “personally curate expansive deluxe editions for many of her landmark albums” and “introduce unique releases for special events, and much more.”
The series will be overseen by Warner Music’s catalog team, led by Kevin Gore, President of Global Catalog, Recorded Music, and further details of the first release will be “announced soon”.
