Friday, April 29, 2011

Jaron Boyd Explains How His Dance Group FootWORKINGz Ended Up Working With Madonna..

Auditioning for Madonna

Jaron talks about the 2 a.m. wake up call.

The agency asked my manager if we could try out for a Madonna audition. Lady Soul called me up and asked me to do an audition for Madonna in L.A. I said “Oh yeah! When is it?” This was 2 a.m. She said we would leave at 7 a.m.that morning. So we met at the airport, two other FootworKINGz, one was King Charles. He had the flu, but still went. T.J. – he’s from the West Side – went also. They had been practicing a routine that I didn’t know, so I was going to freestyle.

We went to Los Angeles. Nobody knew what we were about to do. It was a three-day process.
The first day was specialty dance, where we did our own thing. The second day we had to learn choreography. I always did footwork. Me learning another style of dance was new to me. I never did that before, especially in front of mirrors. Learning how to do hip hop in the mirrors was like third world to me. They saw we were not as good as the others, but they saw it was good enough. We passed the second day.

On the third day, Madonna came to check it out. We did our specialty and the choreography in front of her. Our whole goal was to show her footworking. We did not have any intentions of getting picked. We just wanted to come back home and tell veryone we did footworking in front of Madonna. We wanted her to see it. We wanted to showcase it.

She saw us dance and then told us, “I think you guys have been practicing to my music.”
Me, personally, I told her, ‘but I didn’t know all of your songs.’ For us, footworking was 160 beats per minute. Dancing to her songs was much slower. For us it was dancing in slow motion.
She thought we practiced to every one of her songs, because she told us we were hitting all the notes. When we told her we didn’t practice to her songs, she stood up and told the studio to play an unreleased song at the time.

Madonna said, “This way I’ll know if you guys are telling the truth. I am playing a song nobody has ever heard before. I’m going to see if you guys can dance to every beat on this song. There is no way you guys could have practiced to this one.”

At the time the song was Give It to Me. Madonna then counted us down, told everyone in the studio she did not want to see anyone else but the jukers. That’s what she called us, instead of saying footworkers, she said jukers from Chicago.

She counted us down.

When she was getting the music ready, King Charles reminded me of an old FootworKing routine we did when we first started. We decided to do that. When Madonna counted us down, all three of us did the old routine. It was to every beat. The routine went perfect with her unreleased song. Everybody in the studio was clapping.

Right then she said “I want you guys to perform Give it to Me.”

You could tell she liked it; it wasn’t a definite yes and it wasn’t a definite no. We were put on a waiting list. We went home and told everyone we made it to the last day.

The Announcement

Time went on. Months passed. The next year we were doing a show in New York. After our performance, our manager went onstage and announced to the audience, “I want to take this time out and congratulate King Charles and Prince Jron for making the Madonna tour.”

I was like “what?” I looked at Charles, he was as surprised as I was. Our manager knew but wanted to surprise us at the show.

After the New York show, a few months later the promoters had to get tour dates in order. A few months later we left to go to the rehearsals. It was a month of rehearsals before we did the first show. Madonna wanted to make sure everything was neat, clean and presentable for the show.

It was my first time doing a concert, so we had to get the kinks out. Everyone had to be at the same level, being on the big stage like that. It was only a promo tour; just three shows New York, Paris and Kent. We did those three shows.

The stage was big and so was the crowd. I then imagined what a world tour would be like; three times bigger, the crowd 20 times bigger. I kept thinking I was happy just to make the promo tour.

It was at that moment, where I felt like we did it.

The Test

Jaron explains one of the times they were put to “the test.”

The day before the last promo show, we were rehearsing. Madonna came up and said she was giving Chicago dancers a new song. We just rehearsed Give It to Me. Madonna said she wanted us to do another song called Miles Away.

I thought, “The concert is tomorrow!”

We had to make up a routine and stage it within a few hours. Then I heard Madonna tell the crew “I know they can do it. I believe in them.”

Right after she said that it was time for rehearsal to end. What were we going to do? On the car ride from the rehearsal spot to the hotel, me and King Charles decided to practice all night at the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel, we got a message saying Madonna wants everyone to meet in the lobby in an hour to attend a piano dinner. Oh no! That just took us (from making) up the new routine. We got to the piano dinner not being able to practice. I told King Charles, “We are here. We have to make up this routine.”

Me and King Charles were in the corner at the dinner, talking on the new routine. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 2:30 a.m. We took one hour to make up something. We had to get some sleep because the concert was later that day. We took to the stage with the new routine.

It came out perfect.

Madonna turned to us and said, “I can count on you for anything. You guys proved to me that I can count on you.”

I told her “I was happy I proved it to you. I also proved it to myself as well.”

The Call

After the promo tour, we went back home to Chicago Heights.

Months passed. Then we got the call we were going to be in Madonna’s world tour, Sticky and Sweet in 2008. I would be gone for seven months.

We traveled to Mexico, Brazil, Europe and North America. We even got a chance to do our own segment in Madonna’s show.

In the world tour me, Prince Jron, and King Charles got our own thing for about four minutes, while Madonna changed costumes. For her to trust us to entertain the crowd at that level . . . We did a song called “Die Another Day,” which was a remix of juke music.

In that number, we footworked . . . King Charles and I were boxing each other. Using our lower body and upper body.

I never boxed before. King Charles and I had to learn how to box, to make it look real. We choreographed the footwork dance with the boxing.

It was an amazing experience. Going to each country, I took pictures and video. I wanted to share with my family everything that I saw. I wanted to suck it up like a sponge, the cultures, language and food. When I was on tour, my friends from Chicago Heights kept messaging me (about) how much I am inspiring them to live their dreams and to be better (people). I just want to set a good example for others, to conquer their dreams and live big goals.

Coming Home

King Charles and Prince Jron were called back for part two of the Sticky and Sweet tour, which made a stop in Chicago. Jaron explains his homecoming performance.

We came to Chicago and performed at the United Center. My mom and other family members came to the show. They got a chance to go backstage and meet Madonna.

She told my family, “This is my son. I take care of him.”

I was so happy for them to see me perform on such a big stage. Charles’s mom was there as well. It was an emotional show for us.

At every other show we didn’t know anyone, Chicago was different, we had family out there supporting us. It was so good to be in Chicago. I have to come out (during) the first song to give Madonna her cane. Each show the crowd begins to scream. This show the screams sounded like a monster, so it really pumped me up. I was giving 200 percent the whole night. I wanted to make sure my family was proud, my mom was smiling the whole night.

That was one of the best nights of my life. My highlight night.

thanks To Sylvia!

The Beautiful "Wild Child" - Uncle Sams Club 1981.











Raw, Sexy, Beautiful, Words Can't fully explain!


You can see it here, very early on A Queen Was Blooming!











Madonna For Ed Hardy.

A picture of Madonna is on display in the windows of the Ed Hardy store in the Suria shopping mall at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Thursday, April 28, 2011

"Mama Mia", Mother & Sons Outtake!

Madonna and Her Boys, David and Rocco. Cutness!!

On The Set Of The Elle Magazine Phootshoot.

thanks Claudia!




Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Fab!!! "Who's That Girl" Tourbook Unused Prints!





Love this shoot and look, and here's some unseen shots!




Thanks Skippy







Henry Rollins: On Why Music Makes Us Lusty!

In the ’80s and ’90s, artists like Bikini Kill, Babes in Toyland, Die Cheerleader, 7 Year Bitch, Frightwig, the Lunachicks, L7, Skunk Anansie, Fire Party, PJ Harvey and the Insaints permanently obliterated any notion that females couldn’t rock like hell.

Females singing about their attraction to males and other females alienated some people, which is always a wonderful thing, but it revolutionized women’s presence in the music world and put uptight men on notice. I bet Marnie Stern plays guitar better than you, dude.

On this topic, someone who deserves her own paragraph is no doubt Madonna. She took more flak than any woman who ever hit a stage. She didn’t flinch. She stood down the world. She did it her way and continues to. She always wins and because of her, countless millions have been inspired.

When Madonna came out with that “boy toy” belt buckle, it seemed that she was submissively caving in to what was expected of a pretty girl. Wrong. It was, in fact, one of the most adroit reversals of power in modern culture. After that, her strength became immeasurable. Her crotch grab was more meaningful than anyone else’s. Check your watch — she just kicked your ass three times.

Thanks to these brave and innovative people and all the others who stood up for their truth and their libido, music remains a most excellent lust accelerant.

And not even 10 Tipper Gores (remember her?) can put the lube back in that tube.

Source: http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/04/henry_rollins_column_lust.php

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Celebration Video Stills.



Hats Off: Madonna Recycles her Image and Harks Back To Her Eighties Style On Classic Open Your Heart Video With Hat!





Hats off: Madonna recycles her image and harks back to her Eighties style on classic Open Your Heart video with a hat




By Jody ThompsonLast updated at 1:10 PM on 26th April 2011




She's been a fashion trendsetter all her life - and it seems that Madonna has taken to following her own lead and re-visiting her favourite looks if her latest outfit is anything to go by.
The star was spotted out and about in New York last night wearing a hat that brought to mind her outfit at the end of the video for her 1986 classic hit Open Your Heart.




The 52-year-old singer had teamed her black trilby with a black leather jacket, ripped jeans and a checked shirt, which all seemed to hark back to the Eighties.
Scroll down to watch the Open Your Heart video...


Hats the say to do it: Madonna was spotted in New York last night wearing a hat similar to the one she wore in the Open Your Heart video




Perhaps it was being back in New York that sparked her nostalgia, seeing as she was living in the Big Apple when she hit the big time.

Released in November 1986, Open Your Heart was the fourth single from her True Blue album.
At the start of the promo, a 28-year-old Madonna plays an exotic dancer wearing a silk black basque with what would become her trademark conical bra with golden nipple tassels in a peep show club.

Who's that girl? It's thought the be-hatted star is in New York for meetings about her forthcoming movie W.E.


Looking back: Along with the hat and ripped jeans, the star's outfit seemed quite Eighties-inspired




In circumstances not made clear in the promo, she befriends a little boy backstage - played by child actor and model Felix Howard, who was just 13 at the time.
At the end of the story, she escapes from the club with the boy looking androgynous, and like him, wearing a baggy grey suit and black trilby.

Raunchy: The start of the Open Your Heart video sees Madonna playing an exotic dance in a peep show club

Strutting her stuff: At the start of the promo she is wearing a basque with a conical bra which would go on to become another trademark look




They then literally skip off into the sunset in a picture of innocence.




It was Madonna's fifth No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard hot 100 chart and a No. 4 hit in the UK.
In the 21st Century however, Madonna is busy putting the finishing touches to her movie W.E. and it's thought she was having meetings at NBC's New York studios about the film.


The Daily Mail


Thanks Sylvia!!!















Madonna Looking Fantastic Out In NYC 4/25/11.







Love The Look!





Monday, April 25, 2011

Madonna, a Handbag & A Dog..

Guy Ritchie had to beg for years to buy his London pub, "The Punch Bowl", according to Gregory Foreman, 22, the son of the barkeeps who sold it to the movie director/Madonna-ex."He came in about three years before he bought it, kept telling my dad it wanted it, and this went on for years, he kept offering more, and finally my dad said, 'we'll take that,'" Foreman says.Ritchie ended up buying the second-oldest pub in Mayfair, built in 1750 and, naturally, haunted (isn't everything in London?).

Foreman spent his teen years living with his parents in the apartment above the pub, and now he works there with his girlfriend.He says Ritchie is a prince. "Thorough gentleman, I don't have a bad word to say about him," Foreman says, although Ritchie lives mostly in the country and isn't in as much as he used to be.But Foreman's first time meeting Ritchie and Madonna, when he was a teen, was a near disaster:After coming home from school, his mum told him the couple were in the pub and go down to meet them.

He pretended to take his dog for a walk and "a wee," then stopped to chat with Guy and Madge. But while they were chatting, the dog peed on Madonna's fancy handbag. He was rattled but Madonna, "she was so cool about it. She said she could get another."

source: usatoday

Happy 3rd Birthday To Hard Candy!



3 years ago today Madonna released Hard Candy! Love The album. Totally Madonna!



Sunday, April 24, 2011

Oh Yeah.....



Some things never change!



Madonna My Partner In Aging..

When I was a stripper, I danced to her songs. Now, in my 40s, she's leading me into a new adventure: Middle age Video

By Christine Macdonald

Saved by Pop Culture is a new series about the redemptive power of art. This piece originally appeared on Christine Macdonald's Blog.


The first time I heard Madonna sing she was telling me to get up and do my thing. I was 14 and dancing with Mitch Ruben, one of my many high school crushes. We were barefoot, dancing on the grass in the backyard of Lori Morgan's house. I couldn't make eye contact so I just swayed to Madonna's "Everybody," looking at the clouds, the grass, the sky, my feet. My mouth closed, I traced my braces with the tip of my tongue underneath my upper lip, snapping my fingers and feeling alive. High on hormones and Fresca, I lost myself in the lyrics: Let the music take control / Find a groove and let yourself go / When the room begins to sway / You know what I'm trying to say.

By the time high school graduation rolled around, I was one of a slew of 17-year-old Madonna wannabes donning a forearm full of black rubber bracelets, fake rosary beads and lace headbands. The song "Holiday" became my personal anthem, my break from the anguish of everyday teenage life.

In my 20s, working as a stripper, I danced to "Like a Prayer" without once thinking of the irony; if Madonna could burn crosses in her video, surely a naked dancer could give the pole a spin. "Vogue" was another stripping favorite of mine. I posed onstage like I was in one of her videos, letting my body groooove to the music.

After seeing the documentary "Truth or Dare," my Madonna obsession escalated. When rubbing elbows with the other club-hoppers in Waikiki, I wore fishnet tights complete with hot pants and a black, mesh body suit with a black bra underneath.


A couple of years later I met one of Madge's backup dancers at a club. I took it as a personal message that he was coming on to me and slept with him almost immediately. After the walk of shame in his hotel (a scene completely reminiscent of "Justify My Love"), I phoned my best friend (a gay dude, naturally) and we giggled for hours.


After an earth-shaking heartbreak in 1998, I shed countless tears to "Power of Goodbye" -- only to feel cleansed and stronger after repeating her lyrics: Freedom comes when you learn to let go / Creation comes when you learn to say no / There's no greater power than the power of good-bye. She just got me.


I'm now in my early 40s and, although my wild days are behind me, I am still influenced by Madonna. On the treadmill I think of her toned body as I try to visualize my old stripper self underneath the coat of cellulite and body fat. "Jump" reminds me to focus: I haven't got much time to waste, it's time to make my way. And I push myself just a little bit harder.


To some, she's too radical. Others may say she's tired. But for me, she'll always be part of my pop culture DNA, an artist who weaved her way through the fabric of my self-evolution timeline without ever missing a beat.

M Writing Classical Music For W.E.!

Pop superstar Madonna is putting her musical ability to good use by reportedly composing a classic score for her new film W.E.

The singer has directed a big screen epic about the romance between American socialite Wallis Simpson and British royal Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry the divorcee.

The movie is due to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France next month (May11) and reports now suggest Madonna is hard at work writing the soundtrack for W.E. with producer William Orbit ahead of the picture's big debut.

Bing even more:

A source tells Britain's Mail on Sunday, "Madonna is working with William Orbit, who produced her synth-electronica album Ray of Light, but it will be quite an adjustment for them. Abel Korzeniowski, who composed the soundtrack to (Colin Firth's movie) A Single Man, is on hand to help."

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Guy Oseary Tweets New Album News...

She has been "listening to music from different Producers .. and she's very excited to get working on the new album .."

She wants a new album more than you!

As soon as she's finished withe her new movie She Will Get into the studio! .. "

This Girl Has Got Great Style!

Peter Andre's Daughter Princess steps out in Madonna T-shirt!

Songs About Faith - Madonna "Like A Prayer" At No.1 On "Spinner's" List..

1: "Like a Prayer"Madonna (1989)It was fitting that a singer named Madonna
would write a song with gospel themes.

But many church goers refused to welcome Madge with open arms after the release of this song, which seemed to be about Madonna's Catholic upbringing with a metaphor about a kneeling sex act.

The video, complete with burning crosses and stigmata, added fuel to the fire.

source: spinner

Friday, April 22, 2011

M In NYC 4/22/11













Shadows And Fog 1992.







Madonna on the set of the Woddy Allen film. Also pictured Mia Farrow and John Malkovich.





Thursday, April 21, 2011

Madonna's Girlie Show Handwritten Notes.







Unreleased Track "Run" Has Leaked!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2mnqp5



from the Music album sessions.

Madonna and Tony Ward At The "Paris Is Burning" Opening!

Liz Smith Rips Lady Gaga: "Your No Madonna"!

SPEAKING OF religion, Madonna is at it again, releasing a “sacrilegious” song and video, challenging Catholic doctrines. Oh, no wait … I mean Lady Gaga and her new single “Judas” is the event raising a ruckus.The Catholic League (essentially one guy, Bill Donohue) condemns the Lady and her music and winds up with: “Maybe if she had more talent we’d be more offended.” I feel pretty sure this is a leftover from criticism of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”Gaga, honey! You do realize that as talented as you are, the Big M did all this way back in the 1980’s? This, and speaking out for sexual freedom, supporting the gays, etc? I guess everything old is always new again to a new generation. But come on, Gaga — you are a smart cookie. Get a fresh idea.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

"Paper Bag Records" Covers Madonna's "True Blue" Album.

"Paper Bag Records" is celebrating eight years as a label and their new website by releasing a tribute album covering Madonna’s 1986 album "True Blue". The label asked their roster of artists to record songs from the album, which is 25 years old this year. There were great songs to chose from — the album includes big Madonna singles like "La Isla Bonita", "Live To Tell", "Papa Don’t Preach" and "Open Your Heart". The latter was covered by Montreal-based trio "Young Galaxy". Their version of "Open Your Heart" is light and airy, with little more than two keyboards and a drum machine behind singer Catherine McCandless’s voice. It’s a nice contrast to "PS I Love You’s" "Where’s The Party", which is all crashing guitars and anguished vocals. Download the comp at the Paper Bag Records' website. Here’s the tracklist: 01 Woodhands "Papa Don’t Preach" 02 Young Galaxy "Open Your Heart" 03 The Acorn "White Heat (Silken Laumann Remix)" 04 The Rural Alberta Advantage "Live To Tell (We’re Scared Version)" 05 PS I Love You "Where’s The Party" 06 Winter Gloves "True Blue" 07 Laura Barrett "La Isla Bonita" 08 Born Ruffians "Jimmy Jimmy" 09 You Say Party "Love Makes The World Go Round"

M Leaves The K Center In NYC 4/16/11


M with Dancer Norman Outside Her NYC Apartment 4/15/11



M Mural At Hollwood/Highland In Hollywood.