Remember When: Madonna Performed a Sultry Rendition of “Like a … – American Songwriter

When many people think of Madonna, they picture her in a deconstructed wedding dress, rolling around on the MTV stage, and simulating sex in front of the masses. It was a world-altering moment in music. Few artists – particularly female artists – had been so confident embracing their sexuality in the public eye. She intended to start out like she could hold out, pushing the envelope from the earliest days of her career.

Though Madonna had already begun to make a name for herself prior, an icon was born on September 14, 1984, when she took the stage at the inaugural VMAs. Revisit the sultry performance, below.

Breaking Boundaries

When we say MTV, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Madonna is no doubt among the short list of associated words. Arguably, one could not exist without the other. Prior to MTV, there wasn’t an outlet with enough gall to let Madonna exist in her pure form and MTV was in need of a boundary pusher to help put them on the map – though they may not have known it at the time.

When MTV set out to create their inaugural awards the idea developed into something that was uncharacteristically tame. They tapped Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler as hosts and pitched the idea to local tv stations as something that would be palatable for cable audiences.

A relatively burgeoning Madonna was chosen to open the show and picked “Like a Virgin” to perform. She threw around some initial ideas, which included serenading a Bengal tiger – which MTV quickly shut down.

When the day came, they might have wished they agreed to Madonna’s Bengal tiger idea as she descended down the stage in a wedding dress adorned with chains and a belt with the words “boy toy” on the front.

Madonna played against the traditional connotations of a virginal bride in white with the performance, kicking off her shoes and grinding on the stage. On top of being more than suggestive with her movements, her dress rode up at one point revealing her underwear to the cameras. It was the moment that Madonna became a household name – for better or worse.

According to the singer, the moment was born out of a happy accident. At the beginning of the performance, Madonna accidentally kicked off her shoes. In an effort to get them back without stopping the performance, she came up with the idea of rolling around on the stage.

“So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just pretend I meant to do this,’ and I dove on the floor and I rolled around,” Madonna once explained to Jay Leno.

After the scandalous performance, Midler dissolved the tension by saying, “Well, now that the burning question of Madonna’s virginity has been answered…”

Watch the performance, below.