VIDEO by Jean-Baptiste
Mondino
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The Immaculate
Collection
1990
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Late in 1990, Madonna released The
Immaculate Collection, her first greatest hits compilation, and with it, a
brand new
song called “Justify
My Love”. For this rather unconventional
hit, Madonna teamed forces with Andre Betts and Lenny
Kravitz, the hot new
up-and-comer who penned the song.
Madonna’s whispered vocals, accompanied by a sinuous
drum loop, simple
synth instrumentation, and the erogenous moans of Lenny Kravitz, easily made
“Justify My Love” one
of the most purely
sensual and rawest hits to ever grace the world of popular music. The song sped up the charts, giving
Madonna her 9th #1
single and her most controversial hit to date.
What really pushed
the envelope was the libido-charged video, which was so sexually graphic that
it was permanently
banned by MTV, the
very music video network that Madonna herself and hundreds of nameless female
models in black
lace underwear helped
to popularize. Warner Bros. capitalized
on the controversy by releasing the song as the first-ever
video single, which
would go on to be the best-selling video single in history. NBC's Dateline even devoted an entire
episode to the
controversy by featuring Madonna in an exclusive interview. So, with all the hype, what made “Justify My
Love” different than
the dozens of other sex-set-to-a-groove videos?
In their article which appeared in People Weekly,
authors Steve
Dougherty and Peter Mikelbank count the ways:
Here’s Madonna, in black bra,
stockings and stiletto heels, putting the moves on her real-life boyfriend,
model Tony Ward. Moments later she’s lip-synching with
Parisian model Amanda Cazalet, 25, who is
dressed like a Nazi hooker with
suspenders that barely cover her nipples.
Now Madonna, Cazalet
and Ward are offering free
instruction in a certain Kama Sutra technique while two very androgynous
gents pat each other more
affectionately than football players after a big play. All of which has left
fans hot, censors bothered and
fearless news programmers lined up to air the forbidden footage.
Even though the
video’s graphic sexual content could not be denied, Madonna defended the video
by saying, "I think
that I’m offending
certain groups. But,...I think that
people who really understand what I’m doing aren’t offended by it
because it’s pro
life...it’s pro, you know, equality. It’s pro humanity". Madonna went on to defend the video even
further by making a
statement that directly challenged American values: "I think the video is
romantic and loving and has
humor in it...Why is
it that people are willing to go to a movie and watch someone get blown to bits
for no reason and
nobody wants to see
two girls kissing or two men snuggling?"
Even though Madonna’s
very important message failed to break through the controversy triggered by the
video, “Justify
My Love” was but the
beginning of Madonna’s infamous sex revolution, a revolution that would soon
threaten the longevity
of her career.
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