The Virgin Tour

The Virgin Tour was the debut concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna. The tour supported her first two studio albums, Madonna and Like a Virgin. It started on April 10, 1985, at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, United States, and ended on June 11 of the same year at the Madison Square Garden in New York City. Although initially planned for an international audience, the tour was restricted to the United States and Canada. Warner Bros. Records decided to send Madonna on tour after Like a Virgin became a success. After an official announcement on March 15, 1985, Madonna and her team began production plans. She wanted the tour to be a reflection of her own self and collaborated with designer Maripol for the costumes.
Beastie Boys were signed as the opening act, while record producer Patrick Leonard was the music director. The stage was triangular, with walkways and ramps around it, with lighting arrangements hanging about 30 feet above. Four giant screens lined three sides of the stage's outer perimeter. The setlist consisted of songs from her first two records, Madonna and Like a Virgin. Madonna was backed by two male dancers as she moved energetically across the stage. The show ended with her in a wedding dress, performing "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl".
The tour received a mixed reception from critics, but was a commercial success, with many newly-obsessed Madonna fans in attendance. As soon as it was announced, tickets were sold out nearly everywhere. Macy's New York department store created a "Madonna department", where shoppers could find not only official tour merchandise, but also clothing, jewelry, and accessories to replicate what was considered to be the Madonna "style". The store was flooded with fans, who bought everything from chunky bracelets and bangles, scrunchies and headbands, to pearl necklaces and rings. The store also carried shoes, shirts, denim jackets, large sunglasses, and Madonna's "signature" accessories: rosary-style necklaces, crucifix earrings, fingerless gloves, and even a replica of her iconic belt, with the metal buckle carved to say "BOY" in all capital letters. On its end, the tour was reported to have grossed over $5 million, with Billboard Boxscore reporting a gross of $3.3 million.
The tour was recorded and released on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc, as Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour, which received a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. With the commencement of the Virgin Tour, a wide-ranging audience—especially young women—thronged to attend, all nearly decked-out in Madonna-inspired outfits. This frenzy surrounding Madonna gave rise to a new term called Madonna wannabe—a reference to her obsessive followers that would be officially recognized by the Webster's Dictionary in May 1991.

Background

The Virgin Tour was officially announced on March 15, 1985, by Warner Bros. Records. Prior to the tour, Madonna's only live performances were limited to evening shows at Danceteria, CBGB and Mudd Club, and only the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, where she performed her song "Like a Virgin". Following the success of the Like a Virgin album, the record label wanted to milk-in the success of the album by sending Madonna on a worldwide tour. However, the tour was restricted within United States and Canada. It did not visit Europe, Asia or other continents. Early on there were plans to schedule dates in Australia and Japan due to Madonna's large fan bases in both countries; however, the final schedule did not reflect the idea. In the end several more U.S. dates were added and the tour was moved to larger concert venues due to overwhelmingly strong ticket sales. Madonna was quite nervous to perform in front of a huge audience, and singing with a live band for the first time. During a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, interviewer Austin Scaggs asked Madonna regarding her feelings and emotions during the tour, since it was the first time she was playing in arenas. Madonna replied saying

That whole tour was crazy, because I went from playing CBGB and the Mudd Club to playing sporting arenas. I played a small theater in Seattle, and the girls had flap skirts on and the tights cut off below their knees and lace gloves and rosaries and bows in their hair and big hoop earrings. I was like, "This is insane!" After Seattle, all of the shows were moved to arenas. I've never done a bus tour. Everyone says they are really fun

Development

After the tour was confirmed, Madonna and her troupe started working on it. Madonna wanted it to be "loud and brazen, and a reflection of my street-style and DGAF attitude". She wanted a concert where people can enjoy themselves as much as she would enjoy performing. Commenting on the development, Madonna said "I normally hate performances where there is just a singer singing, and a lame-ass band playing in the background; or shows where there is a rocker screaming his lungs out and jumping on the crowd. That just plain sucks! That's why I wanted something different, something that would be memorable". For the show, Madonna collaborated with her designer friend Maripol for the clothes and the fashion. Maripol operated a small fabric boutique called Maripolitan in Greenwich Village, where the designs and the clothes for the tour were decided by her and Madonna. Rehearsals for the show started in late February, with auditions and choosing the dancers going on in-between. Madonna specifically wanted male back-up dancers, citing that the "provocative moves that I do on stage works better with men beside me". To further promote the tour, Warner Bros. Entertainers Merchandise Management Corp. introduced the Boy Toy collection, named after the belt buckle Madonna wore on the Like a Virgin album cover picture. It consisted of a rectangular buckle, with the words "Boy" and "Toy" emblazed on it in gold color. For choosing a music director for the tour, Madonna's manager Freddy DeMann contacted record producer Patrick Leonard, who had just returned from the Victory Tour by The Jacksons. At first Leonard said no, feeling exhausted from the tour, but after he spoke to Madonna on the phone, he found her charming, and agreed to sign for the tour.
American hip hop/rap rock group Beastie Boys were signed as the opening act for the tour. In 1998, Adam "MCA" Yauch of the group recollected: "One day, Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, came in and said, 'Hey guess what—Madonna's manager called. Do you guys want to go on tour with her?'" DeMann had asked for another group called The Fat Boys, but Simmons did not manage them and lied, saying "Oh, the Fat Boys have another gig that week. What about Run–D.M.C.?" But they were too expensive according to DeMann, and hence ultimately Beastie Boys were chosen. The same year, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz from the band commented: "It's not like any of us knew Madonna that much, but we all used to hang out at Danceteria so we knew about each other. I don't know why she thought it would be a good idea , though. It was a terrible idea. But it was great for her in a way because we were so awful that by the time she came onstage, the audience had to be happy". In 2024, Michael "Mike D" Diamond admitted in conversation with Conan O'Brien that "it was a huge deal and totally absurd that we got asked to do that tour". However, Ad-Rock noted the pairing was not as crazy as it seemed. "We used to play at the same clubs in New York", the vocalist pointed out. "No one ever talks about that part of the story".
The circular stage for the tour consisted of three ramps around the perimeter, which were connected with each other. A long line of stairs descended to the main stage from the central ramp; it was flanked by the band. About above the stage, the speakers were suspended from a circular beam. Four giant screens lined the outer perimeter of the stage, on three sides.

Concert synopsis

The show opened with Beastie Boys performing six of their songs for 30 minutes. They were accompanied by their DJ, Rick Rubin, who scratched the music, with the Beastie Boys prancing around the stage, making lewd gestures towards the audience. As they finished their performance, the backdrops started displaying Madonna's images from her music videos. The band—consisting of guitarists, bassists, a drummer and three synthesizer players—came into focus, and the music started. Madonna's voice was heard, saying: "Don't be afraid... it's gonna be alright". Then, Madonna's silhouette appeared behind a white screen on top of the stairs as the first beats kicked in. The white screen lifted and she is finally seen, wearing a psychedelic denim jacket, a blue see-through crop-top and her characteristic green bra. She also had lacy leggings and crucifixes around her ear and her neck. She posed on the stairs before reaching the microphone to sing "Dress You Up". After dancing to the last note of the music, Madonna and the two male back-up dancers went to the back of the stage, as the music of "Holiday" began. Taking a moment to ask the audience how they are feeling, Madonna declared, "I was never elected homecoming queen, but I sure feel like one now", and started the performance of "Into the Groove", playing a tambourine. A boombox was present on the stage during the performance, Madonna sitting and playing with it, and addressing it as her "box". She continued with "Everybody", while asking the audience to clap along with her. As she finished the vigorous performance of "Everybody", the lights were dimmed and the introduction music of "Angel" started. Rotating lights fell on the stage. Madonna appeared sitting on top of the stairs and gradually descended. During the intermediate bridge, she and her dancers moved energetically around the whole stage, as white balloons fell on them from above. Madonna continued singing as the lights were dimmed again. She finished the performance and disappeared behind the wings for a costume change.
She appeared on the stage wearing a black, fringed micro-top and similar skirt, with her belly-button exposed, and a number of crucifixes in different sizes, hanging from different parts of her body.
As the guitar intro of "Gambler" started, Madonna stood on the side-stage and started dancing energetically, as flashlights fell on her. While singing the song, she sometimes opened her jacket and sometimes straddled a steel structure present on the side of the stage. The performance ended with Madonna jumping off the side stage, onto the main one. She then performed "Borderline", "Lucky Star" and "Crazy for You"—while touching the hands of the audience members. Madonna then returned to the microphone and started singing "Over and Over" from Like a Virgin. It was followed by "Burning Up" during which she caressed one of the guitarist, ultimately disappearing for another costume change. As the music of the song "Like a Virgin" started, Madonna returned on the stage, wearing a wedding dress, holding a bouquet in her hand and a long white veil behind her. Accessorized by a white bow atop her head and lacy, three-quarter length gloves, she also had a crucifix on her waistband and another hanging from a long chain around her neck. Madonna asked the audience "Will you marry me?" When the audience answered affirmatively, she threw the bouquet towards them and started singing the song. Madonna continued singing the song while rolling around the floor, and added a snippet of Michael Jackson's Motown-style single, "Billie Jean". Balloons floated out towards the audience again as she pulled apart her veil and threw it towards the audience. She returned to the stage in the arms of one of the backup dancers, wearing a boob tube and a tight white skirt, carrying a bunch of notes in her left hand, and a number of garlands around her neck. In a self-parodying performance of the song "Material Girl", at the end of the performance Madonna asked the audience "Do you really think I'm a material girl? ... I'm not ... Take it ... I don't need money ... I need love". As she began to strip off more clothes and jewelry, she was apprehended and marched offstage by an extra posing as her father. In Detroit, her father Tony Ciccone himself did the honors. The show ended with Madonna returning onstage once more to take her fur coat and doing a curtsey.