What Madonna’s 1993 Australian concert was like and what was making news in 1993?

AS Madonna, now aged 56, heads back to Australia for her first tour since 1993, we take a look at what was making the news back then.

Hat’s entertainment ... old mates Madonna and Molly Meldrum catch up down under in 1993.

WHEN Madonna, now aged 56, first toured Australia in November 1993, her local fans were already impatient.

Australia had given Madonna her first Top 20 hit anywhere in the world, Burning Up, a decade earlier in 1983.

The song was championed by Molly Meldrum and John Peters of Countdown, and her next single, Holiday, would be the first of four decades worth of Top 5 hits here.

We’d missed three tours here, 1985’s iconic Virgin Tour, 1987’s Who’s That Girl tour and arguably her finest performance 1990s Blonde Ambition, the concert that spawned In Bed With Madonna — the documentary that helped pave the way for celebrity reality TV.

So after waiting a decade, 1993’s Girlie Tour arrived down under with Madonna coming off the back of the controversy of her Sex book, sexually-charged movie Body of Evidenceand her divisive and, yep, sexually-charged Erotica album.

Back then fans were shocked that Madonna charged $200 for the best seats.

Fast forward to 2015 and $200 is nearly the cost of the nosebleeds at Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour next year, where the front row will cost you $2000.

And five more tours have skipped Australia, with a 23 year gap between the Queen of Pop’s royal visits down under, with fans thinking she was allergic to Australia.

The Girlie Show was not Madonna’s best tour, coming at a strange point in her career. She’d promptly reinvent herself from the dance of Erotica to R & B for Bedtime Stories then get serious with the Evita soundtrack and motherhood.

Her creative rebirth, Ray of Light, was five years away. But The Girlie Show did set the agenda for most female pop acts to follow and also how future Madonna tours would go.

If you didn’t like the Erotica album, tough luck. Most of the setlist came from that album, with just a sprinkling of older hits including then then-current Vogue and Justify My Love and slightly older Holiday, Express Yourself, La Isla Bonita and an odd version of Like a Virgin.

If you wanted Like a Prayer, Into the Groove, Borderline, Lucky Star, Papa Don’t Preach, Open Your Heart, True Blue, Crazy for You or Gambler, sorry, but how about I’m Going Bananas from the Dick Tracy soundtrack? Done.

While many others whose careers started in the ‘80s turn their concerts into nostalgia mode — you get the feeling Madonna would have to be at gunpoint to do a Greatest Hits tour.

Each tour basically plays nearly everything from her latest album, with just a handful of hits, often totally reworked.

On the 1993 tour Madonna’s second show at the Sydney Cricket Ground was filmed for a DVD (well, back then a VHS) that was proof that Madonna did tour here.

1993 wasn’t a banner year for Madonna musically although the ballad Rain was Erotica’s second Top 10 hit in Australia when tour fever kicked in.

The biggest selling song that year was Meat Loaf’s I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That). He’d return, long before Madonna did, and perform the song at the MCG where Madge’s Girlie Tour played to 150,000 fans over three nights in Melbourne. However Mr Loaf’s version, at an AFL Grand Final, is now in the sporting hall of shame.

It was the year that Peter Andre, Inner Circle, Sonia Dada, Snow, Ugly Kid Joe, Spin Doctors and Urban Cookie Collective thought they were shaping up for huge careers.

Ironically Madonna’s Immaculate Collection outsold Erotica in Australia in 1993, perhaps fans were buying it to hear the hits she didn’t play live.

The Bodyguard soundtrack was the year’s highest selling album, fastly followed by Eric Clapton’s Unplugged and, alarmingly, sax pest Kenny G’s Breathless.

Australia has changed since the last time Madonna was here. Back in 1993 Brisbane won the Winfield Cup (now the more politically correct NRL Grand Final) and Essendon beat Carlton to win the AFL Grand Final.

Australia had just secured the Olympics for Sydney, Paul Keating had just pipped John Hewson in the Federal Election and we were rushing to see Mrs Doubtfire and Jurassic Park at the box office.

The Piano had put Australian films on the map, Yahoo Serious extended his 15 minutes with Reckless Kelly while Priscilla and Muriel’s Wedding were in production but a year away from release.

TV gave us The X Files, the Ricki Lake Show, NYPD Blue and The Nanny.

It was also the year Ariana Grande was born, Fred Hollows died, Ray Martin left Midday, E-Street was axed and Jim Robinson, Ramsay Street’s patriarch, died of a heart attack on Neighbours.

In 1993 Madonna was 35. In 2016 Madonna will be 57 when she is back on our shores and is likely to look younger than she did 23 years ago.

Originally published as What Madonna’s 1993 Australian concert was like and what was making news in 1993?