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I had a great time talking to Niki Haris and Donna De Lory.  They are about to visit Palm Springs for a fun show with Carlton Wilborn and Luis Conte.  Take a look at what they say about working with Madonna, her upcoming Celebration Tour, and why the LGBTQ+ community is near and dear to

The post Niki Haris and Donna De Lory Talk Madonna, Celebration Tour, Upcoming Show appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.

This wasn’t supposed to be how it went down. For the past four years, Rod Thomas, who performs under the alias Bright Light Bright Light, has DJ’d an afternoon dance party called “Romy & Michele’s Saturday Afternoon Tea Dance” in New York City at Manhattan’s Club Cumming and Brooklyn’s C’Mon Everybody. Last month, he released the first track, “This Was My House,” a fantastically fun disco bop off his forthcoming album, Fun City (due out in September). And for the video, which debuts today, he...

Madonna released her first single 30 years ago. That means she's officially been a part of the danceteria that is our collective subconscious for three decades. Damn. The only proper way to celebrate is with a photographic timeline, a one-a-year retrospective of Madonna's defining images, videos, and pop culture moments per year. Let's jump from 1982 to 2012 in 30 fabulous photos.

1982: The spiky journey begins.

1983: A lucky star is born.

1984: The "boy toy" bombards the '84 VMAs

1985: Never been healthier.

1986: Herb Ritts captures Madonna at her truest and bluest

1987: "La Isla Ciccone"

1988: From "boy toy" to "gal pal" with Sandra Bernhard

1989: This time, "M" stands for "Metropolis" in the unbeatable "Express Yourself" video.

1990: Striking a pose in "Vogue"

1991: We knew she'd wow at the Oscars "sooner or later."

1992: Enter Dita. 

1993: Lost in a "Fever" dream

1994: Clearly ready for a...

I like having an easy comeback for that incessantly rebooted complaint: "Madonna's not talented!" For me, it strikes the same chord as "Women aren't funny," because in order to spew such a statement, you have to want to believe it, and you have to ignore obvious conflicting facts. And I don't know why you'd want to, because the formula for Madonna's success is simple and respectable: She's Elvis with brains.

She has all of The Pelvis' swagger, confrontational stage presence, carnal urgency, and underlying soulfulness. Unlike Elvis, she also has subversive wit, a compulsion for revitalizing her theatricality, and the kind of raunchy self-awareness that'd force Ed Sullivan to broadcast her just from the neck up, let alone the waist. To call Madonna's bravado and success "calculated" is -- as All Music Guide critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine once put it brilliantly -- "not to get Madonna." She's righteously in control,...

Days before her big halftime show, MTV News counts down the Queen of Pop's most-iconic moments on our stage.

By John Mitchell

Madonna at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards

Photo: Getty Images

America will be the first audience for the Queen of Pop in over two years when Madonna takes the stage at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis as the halftime act for Super Bowl Xlvi. If her history with MTV is any indicator, she's likely to blow the roof off the joint.

Madonna is known for her over-the-top live performances and will most assuredly have her game face on with the world watching this Sunday. Not that she ever slacks in the live performance department: Her most recent tour, Sticky & Sweet, was the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist and the fourth-biggest tour of all time. From Live Aid in 1985 to Live 8, 20 years later, she's headlined some...