20 years since Madonna gave us Sex
I cannot believe it is 20 years ago.
Any Madonna fan around at the time will remember the excitement.
Queueing up outside HMV on Oxford Street – I was there – waiting to get my hands on a copy, I was not alone, the crowds had gathered from early morning.
It was 1992, the days before internet so there were no leaks.
No sneak previews other than the ones Madonna put out prior to its release.
There was a lot of hype though, and that started months before the frenzy began to bubble to boiling point in the weeks running up to October 21.
I scoured the newspapers for any hint as to what was going to be in this new project about to be unleashed on the world.
A book simply entitled “Sex”, which promised to blow all previous boundaries of risque out of the water.
Madonna had a two years earlier sparked outrage with her notorious Blond Ambition tour, and in the years following escalated herself to most famous woman in the world status.
But this was going to smash all barriers.
They were delivered at midnight in security vans, and guarded until morning, no-one apart from selected members of the press was allowed a look, and that was under close supervision in designated secret locations.
A young Jonathan Ross bagged an interview with Madonna to coincide with the book’s release, and it was heavily billed as the scoop of the year.
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, presenters of This Morning, had their researchers primed that morning, instructed to bike a copy back to the studio in time for the show at 10am.
They tentatively unwrapped their copy, to gasps of disapproval.
I can still see Judy’s face screwed up into a sour knot – ultimately throwing the aluminium-bound tome to one side pronouncing “she has gone to far this time”.
The Daily Mail came out that week with a strap across the front page announcing the paper was to become a “Madonna free zone”.
The editors had deemed the papers, radio and television had become saturated with her and were putting an end to it.
But the hype charged on relentlessly for the next year.
Her album, Erotica, did not do too well.
Even fans, slightly embarrassed by pictures of her pleasuring herself over a mirror or being sexually abused by two shaven-headed lesbians wielding a flick knife, turned their backs on her for a bit.
I remember getting the book home to my university digs, surrounded by about 20 others desperate to get a look at what the whole world was talking about.
For the time it was shocking and I remember turning the pages feeling a bit flushed.
I think the one of her leaning over a dog, virtually naked, as one of my room mates walked out saying “I’m not looking at this” was the most nerve-jolting for me to look at.
There was talk about her being arrested under Britain’s obscenity laws, but that never happened.
There was however a fierce tide of fury vented at Madonna for quite some time.
Reviews said she had ruined her career, people boycotted her music and the press vilified her for months upon months.
But this is where Madonna came into her own as a survivor, and disciplined achiever.
A newspaper reviewer recounted how, outside her hotel as she walked out, someone had shouted “how does it feel to be over Madonna?”.
The reviewer remembered one thing from seeing her that day, how she showed no reaction.
She carried herself out of the hotel as if she was still the greatest star in the world.
He said “it was if the words simply did not penetrate her armour”.
And she was back shortly after, with a new image, a new tour and a new Madonna, and 20 years later she is still here.
When people are bashing Madonna, saying she is is over, they should take a look at the past 30 years.
There is nothing that can knock her off her perch, she is still driven by the same force that got her to the top on the first place.
So, to every other Madonna fan, happy “Sex” 20th anniversary coming up! - and here’s to another 30 years of the Queen of Pop.
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