I came home from Dublin a couple of hours ago, and I’m just chilling out and finding my bearings again. I probably won’t have a chance to write about my trip until the weekend, but in the meantime I wanted to share something I mostly prepared earlier.

Like a lot of people, I’ve grown up watching Madonna; watching her videos and dancing along to her albums. Her Immaculate Collection LP was one of the first albums I ever bought for myself, and I loved to hear the crackle of the vinyl under the needle in the seconds before I played La Isla Bonita and twirled around my bedtime in the imaginary arms of my own Latino lover.

Over the years I’ve admired her inventiveness, not only in her music, but in the multitude of personas that she has created for herself. Twenty years later and I’m still listening to Madonna’s music, which is a feat in itself. She may not be the best singer or dancer that you’ve ever seen, but undoubtedly she is one of the best entertainers of the last twenty years.

So here’s a collection of some of my favourite Madonna songs/videos. Sorry about the large quantity, but I found it really hard to choose!

Playlist

1. Express Yourself
2. Don’t Tell Me (love the bit when she approaches the camera with the muscly cowboys behind her)
3. Human Nature
4. Beautiful Stranger (I sang this for an exam at music college - it was such a fun song)
5. Into The Groove
6. Secret
7. Nothing Really Matters
8. Deeper and Deeper
9. Die Another Day
10. Like A Virgin
11. Get Together
12. Material Girl
13. Sorry
14. La Isla Bonita
15. Hung Up
16. Vogue
17. Like a Prayer
18. Jump
19. Cherish (think I had a brief obsession with this song…)
20. Who’s that Girl?
21. Frozen
22. Love Profusion
23. Hollywood
24. The Power of Goodbye
25. Erotica
26. Crazy for You
27. Open Your Heart
28. Bad Girl
29. Rain
30. True Blue (I remember singing this in the playground at school)
31. Papa Don’t Preach
32. I Want You
33. Live To Tell
34. Take A Bow (I love that she used the same brooding guy as her love interest in these last three videos, which make these songs seem linked into an ongoing love story.)
35. You’ll See
36. One More Chance

Ring Ring Ring by De La Soul

Spiderwebs by No Doubt

Telefunkin’ by N-Tyce

(Vid: Higher Ground)

Back soon, don’t go anywhere! UB40 will entertain you in the meantime.

Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders

‘Cause I gonna make you see
There’s nobody else here
No one like me
I’m special so special
I gotta have some of your attention give it to me

This song was playing in my head today, don’t know why.

Much better than the Teletubbies’ version. This is the best mashup ever.

(via electro^plankton)

Madonna. Justin. Timbaland. 4 Minutes.

I’m not loving this one, guys. Funny cos I love each of these artists, but the song isn’t about anything really. 4 minutes to save the world from what? These guys are only saving me from buying this single.

It’s catchy and all, but I’m not feeling the faux-brass riff going on in the background, and the video is a bit disturbing with all those yucky flesh cutouts. That snog was nasty!

Madonna looks amazing though, some are saying that she was airbrushed, but I don’t know… professional makeup can hide anything…

Why would you put it back in the fridge? Yuck!

This video has been on my mind for the past few days. I love that long note he holds near the end, and Helena’s eyes are so gorgeous.