Flashback: Madonna Mashes Up ‘Like a Virgin’ With ‘Billie Jean’

In April of 1985, Madonna launched her first headlining tour. Like a Virgin had been on shelves for five months at this point and was still number six on the charts, and “Crazy for You” and “Material Girl” were both in the top 10. MTV played her videos in what seemed like a constant loop, and girls all over the country were raiding thrift stores to recreate her outfits.

The penultimate song of every performance was “Like a Virgin.” In a recreation of her infamous 1984 MTV Video Music Awards performance, Madonna wore a white wedding dress and writhed around on the floor at the end. Midway through the song she sang a few lines from Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean,” long before mash-ups were the rage. The two pop giants were never that close, but they had a ton of respect for each other. “When he moved, he had the elegance of Fred Astaire and packed the punch of Muhammad Ali,” she said shortly after Jackson died. “His music had an extra layer of inexplicable magic that didn’t just make you want to dance but actually made you believe you could fly, dare to dream, be anything that you wanted to be. Because that is what heroes do, and Michael Jackson was a hero.”

Read more & See Video: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-madonna-mashes-up-like-a-virgin-with-billie-jean-20130328#ixzz2OrhqzbXi

Source: Rolling Stone / MJ-Upbeat.com