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Strike a pose: madonna’s “vogue” dancers recall blond ambition tour & gay life in the ’90s.

By Richy Rosario

Richy Rosario

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In 1990, Madonna embarked on her Blond Ambition World Tour. She trekked from Japan to Europe to North America, challenging societal views on sexuality while entertaining the masses. She pushed the envelope with wildly provocative dance numbers and concert themes, yet never failed to promote safe sex. “You know you never really get to know a guy until you ask them to wear a rubber,” she unapologetically said to a crowd in Japan, before jumping into her set of “Get Into The Groove.”

Due to the tour’s highly sexualized and risqué acts, she faced various death threats, ban threats from the Vatican, and warnings of arrest. However controversial, there was no denying the pop star was on a journey to put a human face on the gay community and empower female sexuality.

After the tour in 1991, came Truth or Dare , a behind-the-scenes documentary of the show, which also chronicled the lives of seven of Madonna’s back up dancers—Luis Camacho, Oliver Grumes III, Salim Gauwloos, Jose Gutierez, Kevin Stea, Gabriel Trupin, and Carlton Wilborn.

“You see the dancers that I work with and little bits and pieces of their life,”  said Madonna during an interview on  Good Morning America  circa 1991. “I deal with a lot of  issues… and what I think to be a big problem in the United States and that is homophobia. There is a real big section in the movie devoted to that. These things exist in life. I’m only presenting life to people. I’m not presenting anything that they are not exposed to in everyday life, but maybe they don’t want to deal with it. If you kept putting something in somebody’s face eventually maybe they can come to terms with it.”

By The Category: 21 Films To Watch At The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival

Twenty-five years later, these dancers are telling their own narrative (with the exception of Trupin, who died in 1995 at 26, due to complications from AIDS) in Strike A Pose , a Tribeca Film Festival documentary created by Ester Goud and Reijer Zwaan. The film, which had its grand North American debut on April 15, explores the truth behind everything that happened on tour and in the aftermath of the release of Truth of Dare. Three of the dancers — Stea, Trupin and Grumes — sued Madonna for the film due to issues with contracting and for publicly showcasing their homosexual identities, a huge issue for Trupin at the time. Trupin’s mother echoes his feelings about Truth or Dare in the recently-premiered  Strike A Pose. “[It’s] not a statement that he wanted to make. It was Madonna’s statement,” she said of her son’s sexuality.

The documentary also sheds light on how the tour first got started, with Madonna recruiting a pair of Latino dancers from New York City: Luis Camacho of Puerto Rican descent and Jose Gutierez of Dominican descent. Together, they choreographed her famous “Vogue” video.

Both were kids from the underground voguing scene and part of the House of Extravaganza, a crew of the New York ballroom scene.  Camacho and Gutierez were dance majors at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School Of Music And Performing Arts, and with a little hard work and a serendipitous encounter, they got the job.

“It’s crazy when you have this person give you this opportunity and we really didn’t work for it,” Jose muses. “It wasn’t a job that we were training for, like most dancers do.” Prior to dancing with Madonna at just 18, Jose trained at Eliot Feld Ballet Tech School since the third grade and traveled to Brazil and Japan with the House of Extravaganza.

On a bright spring day, Luis and Jose are holding court in a pressroom on the second floor of The Smyth Hotel. They discuss their experiences with Madge, the tour, Strike The Pose and the impact Truth Or Dare had on the gay community. “The first film gave us an opportunity to be express ourselves,” says Luis.“This new movie gave us an opportunity to express ourselves in a different light.”

VIBE VIVA: What was it like being a gay Latino in the early ’90s? Jose: At the time it was crazy because there was a lot of a crime in the streets. Being gay wasn’t accepted as it is today, and I was very rebellious at a young age.  [Laughs]  So growing up then, even though what was around me was very distracting I managed to try to stay focused on my dancing. I’m from the Lower East Side—my family came from nothing really, they migrated here from the Dominican Republic. [Dancing] was a way to get out of the ghetto.

The gay scene opened my eyes to so many artistic things, and that also helped me develop as an artist. I was more dedicated as a kid, growing up I loved to dance, but other than that it was very hard growing up in the ghetto, trying to stay focused when everything around is drug deals and stuff like that. I came out at a very young age to the club scene, and that was my escape where I got to dance, perform and travel.

So were you part of the famous ballroom scene voguing documentary Paris is Burning ? Jose: Yes, oh my god I was a baby! I was 16-years old. I remember sneaking off for a weekend to Washington, D.C. to go compete at a ball. I snuck away without telling my mom. And that was a scene from Paris is Burning . I remember thinking to myself ‘I want to win, so I’m trying to get everything in there.’ I was voguing at the speed of light, ’cause I didn’t want to lose.  [Laughs] Take me back to that night when you and Luis auditioned for Madonna at the club? Jose: It was in club Sound Factory. A mutual friend of ours, Madonna’s make-up artist Debi Bazar, was like ‘Madonna’s coming she’s looking for dancers soon, and I told her about you guys, you have to meet her.’  In situations like that, you’re always like ‘yeah yeah, whatever.’ And so we submitted a video of us dancing with the whole House of Extravaganza.

One night we walk into the club, and we see Debi and she was like ‘Come here I want you to meet somebody.’ She introduced me right there to Madonna. I remember being in awe. She said, ‘Hey, I heard a lot about you guys, you guys do this vogue thing and I want to see.’ I was still stuck ’cause I remember thinking ‘you want us to show you now in the club? And she was like ‘Yeah, right now.’

I was always fashionably inclined, I was done up in this crazy Gaultier outfit. And I was like ‘how do you want me to dance like this?’ Her bodyguard took off his pants and gave them to me in the VIP bathroom. I couldn’t believe I was wearing her bodyguards’ pants; he was this huge dude. But I managed and practically auditioned on the spot. And once the club got wind that she was there, the whole club turned into an audition. She said ‘Sit here with me,’ to me and Luis. ‘And let’s watch these guys, tell me what you think.’

We were there for at least two hours, then she invited us to the actual audition. We beat out 7,000 dancers. It was crazy, because she thought that I was just an underground dancer—a voguer from the gay community. She didn’t know that I was 10 years into training. So she was like ‘Oh I want you to come and do the “Vogue” video, but I don’t know if I’m going to take you on tour, because there are other forms of dance that you have to be able to do.’ Then when she saw me she said ‘I didn’t know you can do all of that.’ I was like ‘You didn’t ask me’.  [Laughs]

“DATHROBACK” A photo posted by INtheNAMEoftheFATHER(J🙏🏾SE) (@fatherjose.xtravaganza) on Dec 18, 2014 at 1:43pm PST

Did you feel any pressure to do well in the video for “Vogue”? Jose: Oh yeah! We wanted show good work coming from the community—especially on a main stage for the world to see. We wanted to deliver the goods.

What was that first night like on tour? Jose: The minute she came up on a lift and they saw a little bit of a hair, everyone just went crazy. And your heart is beating out of your chest. I remember that was the first moment in time I was like, ‘Oh sh*t is real’ And when you hear them screaming your name, at 18-years old, you’re like ‘They are screaming for me?’ It was like you just want to jump out into the crowd—such a great feeling.

How did it feel like when Truth or Dare came out? Jose: It was very overwhelming for me at the time. I didn’t set out to move people; you’re so young that you don’t realize that. You don’t think that people are like ‘Oh my god Truth or Dare saved my life.’ Today, I still get ‘Watching that movie, saved my life, seeing you being so open and comfortable made me want to come out to my family.’ That to me is amazing cause at that age, you don’t set out to do any of that. You’re not looking to be a role model, you’re just looking to live in that moment. That’s why I think I didn’t realize till much later what I had accomplished. I was just there to dance, and I loved what I was doing. I was just a young kid expressing my art. I’m so glad I was able to touch and move people. The fact that people still appreciate it 26 years later is amazing. Why do you think the ’90s needed this? Jose: Because it was a time where we needed something new. The ’90s just came in and being part of the community and part of the scene—with the rise of pop art, I think they needed somebody like Madonna to put the community on the map. [She] opened up people’s eyes to so many things that are going on in the world. It’s here: boys like each other, we’re gay, we’re human, we’re talented.

I think it played a major part in the early ’90s because you never seen anything like it. That was before reality shows, now you see it like nothing. But back then to see two boys kissing was overwhelming, but it was happening. I can’t even imagine someone being not proud of who they are. We have to be proud of who we are, and everybody is somebody. We are all here for a reason. And ever since I was a kid I always remembered that: ‘You’re gay, but you are special.’

Truth or Dare showcased the love Madonna had for you guys. How would you define your relationship with her back then?  Jose : I didn’t know how to take it. I was so young, and yeah I loved the love. She was almost like a mother to us.

Luis: This was our first big mainstream thing. We were quote in quote kings of the underground with House of Extravaganza. But this crossover was the first to us. She really took to us. By the time we got to Los Angeles and started working we were really tight. We felt very akin to her. She was really loving towards to us.

Oh yea!!!”almost forgot.”HOPE ALL YALL HAD A WONDERFUL FOURTH O JULY WKND!!!!” A photo posted by INtheNAMEoftheFATHER(J🙏🏾SE) (@fatherjose.xtravaganza) on Jul 7, 2014 at 1:25pm PDT

Can you describe to me a different side of Madonna that you guys were privy to? Jose: I saw such an emotional side. I thought I was going to lose my job because I got her so upset, to the point where she was crying. The tour was almost ending and we got into a conversation, and she was promising us to continue with a record deal, and performing at the MTV Awards. And I sad, ‘You’re a liar, we’re not going to see you again.’ I said ‘Oh please, you’re just gong to forget about us.’

It really hurt her feelings. And she just kicked me out of her dressing room. So that was a moment for me that I never saw—cause you think, ‘When this is over you’re going to move on.’ She just started crying and she said, ‘Just get out of my room.’ She kicked me out.

Luis: She honestly was really loving and motherly to us. But besides that, she was an around-the-way girl when there weren’t any cameras around. She was really chill, relaxed and we hung out.

What was it like adjusting  after you guys got back home from tour? Luis : The phone wasn’t there for room service!   [ Laughs]

Jose: It was a rude awakening. You’re spoiled with this lifestyle. As a kid you can easily adapt to all of that. I hated home, I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to be in my mom’s house. My mother looked at me like ‘Calm down before I smack you down.’ [Laughs]

Luis: Even though we didn’t come back to the situation we were accustomed to, we came back with so much knowledge. Jose, in Strike A Pose, your mother mentions her disappointment because you didn’t continue with your dancing career. Why didn’t you keep going after working with Madonna? Jose: I got distracted for a moment and I hid for a while. A lot my friends started dying when AIDS began to hit and I lost grip of a lot of things. I was still so young and I didn’t know how to deal with everything. All my family and friends that we had looked up to passed on. I was also caught up in messy relationships. Not to say that I regret anything, it made me who I am today, but I think that all of that was happening so fast. There were times where I had three or four friends in the hospital dying at 18-years old and nobody knew where it was coming from. It became very hard, and you do things that you wouldn’t normally do because you feel cheated and you walk around bitter. I did that for a while. I was getting so much love and adoration, but I didn’t see any of that stuff. What are your fondest memories of Gabriel? Luis: He was never upset about anything.

Jose: He was always smiling—so sweet.

Luis: He was such a good-natured person. We never came across someone like that, especially us—we came from a lion’s den. We come from this background of either you’re fierce or you’re not. Gabriel was this little ball of sunshine and light.

How did you guys feel about the lawsuit Kevin, Oliver and Gabriel filed? Luis: We were in the middle of doing a record deal, so we really didn’t want to get too involved with what was going on. At that time we didn’t understand why.

Jose: It divided us. Luis: They had something in their contract from their agency that they were not honoring. Do you guys understand why Gabriel did it? Luis: I understand why he did it, but that wasn’t our situation. We were out and proud already. Do I understand why he wanted out the movie? Yes. Do I understand why she would want him in the movie? Yes.

How does it feel like not having a relationship with Madonna now? Jose: Sometimes it feels weird, because you like to think that these moments you share with a person aren’t just business. There are feelings involved. I know she thinks the same. Whatever the reason is, she has moved on. Life happens and she is a celebrity as well. I don’t expect her to come knocking on my door, but I definitely miss her on a personal level. It doesn’t have to be gig. It was more than that.

How do you feel about critics who say Madonna hasn’t given people of color the proper recognition for starting the vogue dancing movement? Jose: She took two of our own and allowed us to take it all over the world. This vogue thing needed somebody like her.

If you can give your younger selves advice what would it be? Luis: To be more focused

Jose: Be more present. Do you guys have any regrets? Luis : I don’t regret anything.

Jose: Sometimes. I always say that everything that we did has made us who we are today. No I wouldn’t change anything that happened. We would do everything the same way. [But] just be more focused like Luis said.

Luis: If could have went to Los Angeles afterwards and gotten represented, I would’ve probably done that.

What are you guys doing now? Luis : I own a show in Palm Springs, it’s called “Carnival Cabaret,” and it’s a female impersonator show. I choreograph for it, but I’m not in the show. And I’m writing a memoir right now, too.

Jose: I’m working with the kids at The Door , an organization dedicated to helping youth. I just did a project with Baz Luhrmann and Jaden Smith, which is coming out on Netflix. It’s called The Get Down . I was on it as a consulting choreographer, and they asked me to be in the project. I also just got back from Sweden, from teaching a workshop there— still trying to keep dancing.

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Meet the Dancers Who Vogued Their Way Onto Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour in ‘Strike a Pose’ Doc

The title for Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan’s documentary, Strike a Pose , almost demands you finish the iconic line: “there’s nothing to it.” Madonna’s “Vogue” is as perfect an introduction to this film’s interests as anything else not least because it should ultimately conjure up in your head the dancers alongside the Queen of Pop in the David Fincher video. And of course, there’s no way of talking about those dance moves and that black and white video without invoking José Gutiérrez and Luis Camacho (both of the Xtravaganza house in New York) — it was the two of them, a couple back then, who choreographed the video and who had introduced the Material Girl onto the ballroom scene where voguing was thriving in the late 80s.

José and Luis would go on to join Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour as well as be part of the infamous 1991 Madonna: Truth or Dare documentary which gave fans a titillating look at what went down behind close doors during that scandalous tour. The dancers are back in the spotlight as part of Gould and Zwaan’s documentary which catches us up with Madonna’s male dancers from that tour and explores what each of them have been up to since having been thrown into the limelight alongside one of the most influential pop artists of the twentieth century.

“It was such a gift,” Luis tells me. “You know, we were two Latin kids from, I don’t want to say ‘the ghetto,’ but not the best part of town. And for both of us to have this opportunity as Latinos, was major. We didn’t feel that at the time but looking back, it was such a great opportunity.”

On paper, Strike a Pose may sound like Truth or Dare at 25: Where Are They Now? , a type of Behind the Music special that would nevertheless keep the Queen of Pop as the gravitational force of the six remaining male dancers (the seventh, Gabriel Trupin, still referred to as Madonna’s favorite, passed away from AIDS in the mid 90s). That’s what made both Latino dancers hesitate about joining the project. Luis outright admitted that he ignored the original email that told him of the project; he thought it might be the type of interview requests he’d been happily avoiding all these years: “I mean, how many times can you answer the question, ‘Is she a bitch or not?’”

José, the last one to agree to come on board, was equally wary. Persuaded by fellow dancers, Kevin Stea and Salim ‘Slam’ Gauwloos — who’d already been in talks with the Dutch pair — both eventually caved and met with the directing duo. Coasts apart (Luis now lives in sunny LA, José still lives in NYC), they were won over by the project. The film, they understood, would be about all of them not her, “She-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless,” Luis quipped. “Yes we miss her, and we think about her,” José admitted. “I’m sure she does as well. But we’ve all moved on. We didn’t want it to seem like a big Madonna bash,” he told me.

“You know, we were two Latin kids from, I don’t want to say ‘the ghetto,’ but not the best part of town. And for both of us to have this opportunity as Latinos, was major.”

While Madonna is center stage (quite literally) at the start of the film, in clips from the tour and in archival footage, she very quickly cedes the screen to her dancers. Finally freed from being in the background, these men are put in the spotlight and as the film unfolds, you can see them basking and straining under its glare. Secrets they’d kept from each other (and from themselves) in the intervening decades become the central focus of the film. We hear tales of addiction and recovery, of then-unspeakable diagnoses and brave struggles, of career downturns and resilient comebacks. Strike a Pose is particularly touching in its depiction of middle-aged dancers who all struggled to come down from the career and addictive high of having traveled the world in one of the most talked about tours of all time.

One of the most affecting scenes in the film comes courtesy of José’s mother. Seated at her home, in the apartment where he grew up (“Did you see the plastic coverings over the sofas?” he asked me while fighting back laughter, “She loves them!”) he’s tasked with translating as his mom explains to Ester and Reijer off-camera that she’s always been disappointed that her son didn’t turn the momentum he’d had back then into a more successful career. She wishes he’d have made enough money to at least buy her a house. She says so neither with cruelty nor candor. “I never knew she still felt like that!” he confessed on the phone. “You know, the last time I’d heard anything like that was 25 years ago!” It’s clear watching the clip that the interview had dredged up a lot of unspoken stuff between them and in the English-Spanish back and forth, we gather that she’s none the wiser about the “dark times” that her son lived through following his success in the early 90s.

Luis speaks more openly about his own dark times in the film. His road to recovery from drugs and alcoholism, “the biggest learning experience” of his life, has allowed him to approach Strike a Pose with a more level head, embracing the opportunity to tell his story and perhaps yet again offer a voice of advice and caution to those watching. He admits he was too young a boy when he went on tour; he cackles over the phone remembering how unabashed he was in front of the Truth or Dare cameras. “I mean, I was this kid from the Lower East Side. I always dreamt of being in that position. I’d ask, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say?” What he couldn’t have known back then is how much of an impact that documentary would still have. As José put it, you never set out to move a nation, but the correspondence him and the other dancers keep getting suggest they’ve become inadvertent role models in their own right.

It may have taken 25 years to get the band back together, but they are intent on making the most of it. Both teased that the group of boys have big things planned for the future while José seemed just as excited to talk about his involvement in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Netflix series The Get Down where he served as consultant and got to work alongside Jayden Smith (“A very special boy. So ahead of his time! So free-spirited”). He was proud to say that Luhrmann had been so impressed with him that he’d actually gotten him in front of the camera for some scenes. Even Australian visionaries, it seems, cannot help but see what’s made Father José Xtravaganza, as he’s known in the ballroom scene, an icon in his own right.

Strike a Pose played at t he Tribeca Film Festival from April 13 – 24, 2016. We partnered with Tribeca to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the Latino talent at this year’s fest. Follow our coverage on remezcla.com and tribecafilm.com .

You can now stream the documentary on Netflix .

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Reuniting Madonna’s iconic voguing gang of 1990

A moving new documentary called ‘strike a pose’ reunites madonna’s estranged ‘blond ambition’ dancers twenty-five years on and discovers what’s happened to them since that controversial tour.

“Open Audition for FIERCE Male Dancers who know the meaning of TROOP STYLE, BEAT BOY and VOGUE…” ran the ad. “Wimps and Wanna-Be’s need not apply!”

Little did the young men who applied know they were signing up to enter Madonna’s 1990 pop-culture maelstrom, including the now-iconic Blonde Ambition tour: named by Rolling Stone as the Greatest Concert of the ‘90s; censured by the Vatican; infamous for Jean-Paul Gaultier ’s conical bras and the slick, monochrome, David Fincher -directed video for “Vogue”; and of course the subsequent smash-hit documentary based on it all, 1991’s Truth or Dare (aka In Bed With Madonna ), which became at the time the highest-grossing feature documentary in history.

The video, tour and documentary were unusual in how frequently the star ceded the spotlight to her seven male (and two female) backing dancers, who became, within Madonna-World anyway, stars in their own right. More than a quarter-century on, elegant and elegiac new documentary Strike A Pose , from Dutch directors Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan, puts the focus back on these men, to see where – and who – they are now.

It’s easy to forget how groundbreaking it was to feature a group of gay men (six of the seven) so prominently; not just onstage striking poses, but behind-the-scenes, which is where many of Truth or Dare ’s most memorable moments emerge – from joyful communal hang-outs to the now-infamous, playful gay kiss between dancers Gabriel and Salim, virtually taboo in mainstream cinema of the day.

“My father and stepmother took me with my sister to see Truth or Dare when I was eleven-years old,” recalls Reijer Zwaan. “I remember thinking, why would I want to see a Madonna film because I was a Michael Jackson fan! And then I walked out and was, ‘Can I see this again, now?!’”

Zwaan describes seeing the film on video repeatedly through his teen years, responding to “the freedom, the spectacle and this sort of family who said and did whatever they wanted. And when I was nineteen, I came out myself. It was not related, but I think it shaped my idea of what a gay man is.” He wasn’t alone in this, nor in wondering that, while Madonna can still dominate the media, those dancers had seemingly disappeared from the public eye.

Kevin Stea certainly wouldn’t consider himself missing all these years. Since his early Blonde Ambition gig, the forty-seven-year-old has become a hugely successful dancer, choreographer, model and more, working with more pop royalty from Michael Jackson and  Prince to Beyoncé . Yet he’s all too aware of how those distant images with Madonna still burn bright today.

“It is weird that it lives on so much,” he admits. “But I think it comes down to, she let us be ourselves and not just bodies on stage. The way dance has evolved now, no one’s looking for stars as dancers; they’re looking for energy or sexy hot movement. You’re not allowed to sort of bring your back story to your art. And I think Truth or Dare gave us humanity and back story.”

That back story, however, turned into ongoing soap opera. Three dancers, Stea, Oliver Crumes and Gabriel Trupin ended up in battle with Madonna: Stea and Crumes for specific, contractually withheld payments; and Trupin for effectively being ‘outed’ in the film against his will through that gay kiss. All subsequently settled out of court, but that Trupin later died due to Aids-related illnesses in 1995, gave a tragic, conflicted and unresolved ending to such an ostensibly positive representation of gay acceptance.

“I found it so interesting that the same thing that had brought freedom to so many people, had hurt him,” observes Zwaan. “The whole backbone of our film is the paradox between that message of “express yourself”, that bold get-up-there-and-do-your-thing, compared to your personal lives: Gabriel kissing and dancing onstage but at the same time struggling with HIV and being gay. If you see what it has meant, the greater good of that kiss, it was worth it. But it hurt him at that time and he never got the chance to get over it.”

‘The greater good of that kiss, it was worth it. But it hurt him at that time and he never got the chance to get over it” – Reijer Zwaan

There’s also the ethical issue of the Truth or Dare filmmakers – presumably Madonna included – choosing to include that dynamite moment, despite Trupin’s pleas to omit it. “As a documentary filmmaker, I don’t know what I would have done,” grimaces Zwaan. “The thing is, he didn’t sign a release form…”

Zwaan and Gould’s film treats its protagonists rather more compassionately. With restraint and resonance, what Strike A Pose does, as well as reuniting them for the first time in twenty-five years, is examine each one’s respective fallout from this key period in their lives. And through them, examine how LGBTQ culture itself has changed. Two, Carlton Wilborn and Salim Gauwloos were still desperately concealing their own HIV-positive status. José Gutierez and Luis Camacho, the actual underground voguing pioneers, tried unsuccessfully to make it as a headline duo. Post-lawsuits, several were estranged from each other.

“For years after the tour and the lawsuit, it was a very sore spot in my life, a reminder of a lost friendship and a lot of misunderstanding,” says Stea. “I always sort of avoided talking about it because of the really vicious fan response that people were giving me from the lawsuit, not understanding what it was about.” “Kevin never wanted it to be a personal thing,” relates Zwaan separately. “But there’s no way of keeping something like that business-like.”

Yet Stea is keen to point out that motivation for being involved in the project was less about legal self-justification (“our intention was never to drag [Madonna] through the mud,” he states firmly, “it was to stand up for dancers’ rights and what was in my contract. I never asked for anything more.”) than to finally have the chance to reconnect with people he’d once considered family. Not that all families are meant to stay together…

“The level of connectedness was unexpected,” he marvels. “When we all got in the room together it felt like no time had passed at all and we all stepped back into the exact same roles we’d had before, but [each] with twenty-five years of wisdom and experience. And with this invisible thread of the loss of Gabriel. One of the beautiful things is that he comes alive when we’re all there.”

Strike A Pose might surprise audiences who assume that it follows the attention-seeking, image-manufactured modus operandi that some might think of as Madonna’s – and therefore her former collaborators’ – speciality. “I was floored by how lovingly and delicately they treated us and our stories,” says Stea. “ I think I had expected more sensationalism… more dirt, I suppose. But it’s about courage and survival.”

Of course, in the film’s climactic reunion there’s one elephant in the room – or rather, not. “We talked about it a lot,” nods Zwaan, “what could be Madonna’s place in the film? But having her there shifts the attention immediately.”

Still, imagine what a coup it could’ve been. “In the very end, when we were done, we sent her a letter explaining what this film was about and also having one idea of performing ‘Vogue’ one more time on stage on her ‘Rebel Heart’ tour, with her original dancers,” Zwaan admits with a smile. “And we never got an answer.”

“There’s mixed feelings among the whole group about this,” says Stea, “but I don’t see why we wouldn’t want to see her.” He laughs. “Yes, she can be a bitch sometimes… whatever. I think now more than ever I’m finally understanding why she is the way she is and I respect that so much more than I ever did before.”

“Yes, she can be a bitch sometimes… whatever. I think now more than ever I’m finally understanding why she is the way she is and I respect that so much more than I ever did before” – Kevin Stea

Stea is possibly more relaxed about future reconciliations because he had his own bizarre encounter with Madonna a few years back. They were separately dining at the same LA restaurant – he was with, among others, photographer David LaChapelle, Madonna was with hip hop star Nas – at the end of the very week he’d chosen “to deal with this whole Madonna situation” and reach out to all concerned by phone. She came over to greet the table, and, all of a sudden, Stea found himself finally face-to-face with the Material Girl again.

“The coincidence was insane – the same week!” he relates. “I got up and hugged her and we held hands and talked and that was my experience with her. And then she walked off but, for me, it was a resolving moment. And if that’s all I get, I’m OK with that. Because I went out in that moment wishing her love and gratitude.”

Zwaan himself is pretty sure Madonna has seen the film now, as she requested a video link. Not that he’s waiting on a review. “I don’t know her but I do think that… she must like it,” he surmises. “I think they are very dear to her. It was sort of a family for her too and a special year. That was not a pose.”

Strike a Pose is showing at the Bertha DocHouse in London from Feb 3 - Feb 9 and will have a digital and download release soon after. More info: www.strikeaposefilm.com

Follow Leigh Singer on Twitter: @Leigh_Singer

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A closer look at Madonna’s one-of-a-kind Celebration Tour wardrobe

By Christian Allaire

The singer's new stage outfits reference some of her most iconic looks.

Come on, Vogue ! This weekend, Madonna kicked off her global Celebration World Tour in London , where she treated fans with a career-spanning performance of some of her greatest hits. Almost better than the setlist, however, was the queen of pop’s epic new outfits for the stage—well, new in a sense. All of them riff off of her most iconic looks over the years (including, yes, that signature Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra). In honor of the tour’s kickoff, Vogue caught up with tour costume and creative designers Eyob Yohannes and Rita Melssen to get a closer look at Madonna’s one-of-a-kind, custom-made looks.

By Marie Claudel

“We created a whole new world.”

Given the magnitude of Madonna’s new tour—she’s performing on 78 days across 15 different countries— Eyob Yohannes and Rita Melssen needed top-tier stage fashion. To focus the wardrobe and give it a strong, clear message, the duo opted to mimic the theme of the show, which explores Madonna’s four decades of hits. That’s how they landed on referencing some of Madonna’s most famous outfits. “ Fashion has always been a part of her storytelling,” says Yohannes, “so we drew from her past stylistically, and we kept those themes within the costumes.”

For the most part, Eyob Yohannes and Rita Melssen created and designed all of Madonna’s costumes themselves, though they also enlisted designers such as Donatella Versace , Jean Paul Gaultier , and Dilara Findikoglu to create special one-off looks for her, too. “We wanted to reference everything that she’s done, and make something new out of that,” says Melssen . “We created a whole new world.”

A costume designed by Jean Paul Gaultier

Tailcoats and robes

The tour traces Madonna’s meteoric rise to superstardom, beginning back in the 1980s. Eyob Yohannes and Rita Melssen began their research by looking at Madonna’s polaroids and performances from the era. “There were a lot of grunge and punk kids, but also the New Romantics,” says Eyob Yohannes . “This section feels like being at a New York club, where all of these different cultures meld together.”

Act one opens with her singles such as “Burning Up” and “Everybody.” For the latter track, Madonna sports a punky tailcoat by Findikoglu , inspired by an archival blazer that the singer wore for a performance in Japan back in the ’80s. “It was a men’s coat that she got from a vintage store,” says Eyob Yohannes . “[For the new one,] we tricked it out, and added memorabilia and pins from the ’80s onto it. It was very much an ode to New York in the 1980s.”

For act two, Madonna moves into the 1990s with Erotica and Vogue . The costume duo wanted to explore the songs’s themes of sexual expression and liberation. “We had an idea to make it about boxing,” says Eyob Yohanne s . “The dancers are all dressed in boxing clothes, and M is in a boxing robe—but then there’s this beautiful sensuality when she unveils a slip dress.”

For Vogue specifically, Madonna and the costume team enlisted designer Jean Paul Gaultier to create a modern new version of her iconic cone bra, made famous during the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour. This time around, Gaultier created a black cone mini dress, encrusted with black crystals. “It would not be a show without Gaultier ,” says Rita Melssen . “He just knows her body and how she wants to feel. [Madonna] couldn’t imagine doing this without having [him.]” (Also not to be missed? Special guest Bob the Drag Queen recreated Madonna’s Marie Antoinette-themed 1990 VMAs look for the Vogue performance.)

Act three focuses on the 2010s, and Madonna performs Die Another Day and Don’t Tell Me . It’s the latter song’s western-inspired fashion that takes center stage. “We wanted to take it to this cool, futuristic world,” says Eyob Yohannes .  Her final look—a leather corset and shirt made in-house—was punctuated with a cowboy hat made by Ruslan Baginski y, and a pair of custom Miu Miu cowboy boots. ”They’re knee-high and have beautiful white western stitching, and a silver heel and toe cap,” says Rita Melssen . “The girls are going to want it.” In act four, meanwhile, Madonna leans into futurism, and rocks a special, foiled-Mylar Versace look that’s ready for the Metaverse. She wears it for Ray of Light , an obvious choice. “ Versace made a silhouette that Madonna has never really worn before—a catsuit—made in the pattern of broken glass,” says Eyob Yohannes . Rita Melssen adds, “When the light hits this catsuit, it looks like armor.”

Take this opportunity to discover 10 rare photos of a lesser-known Madonna, where she was ready to take on the world with just 35 dollars in her pocket.

By Manon Garrigues

In building this wardrobe, Rita Melssen and Eyob Yohannes had to consider functionality and movement as well as aesthetics. “She changes a lot in the show, so we needed to make sure that the clothes were quick-rigged,” says Eyob Yohannes . “There are center back zips on almost all of the costumes, so she can go in and out pretty quickly.” The speedy costume changes were made possible with strategic layering and styling. “There’s a lot of under-dressing as well,” says Eyob Yohannes . “She wears costumes underneath each other, [to be ready] for the next number.”

One of the greatest moments in the tour comes towards the end, when Madonna performs a special rendition of Like a Virgin . All of the dancers wear various looks from her archive—be it a red carpet look or album cover look. “For a lot of these looks, [Madonna] still had them in her archives, so we went to look at them and matched the fabrics and embroidery,” says Eyob Yohannes . Even the superstar’s son, David , makes a cameo, wearing the white fur coat, cowboy hat, and Versace chain jewelry Madonna sported in the 2000 Music music video.

It’s these types of thoughtful details that made working with the Queen of Pop so fun. “She is involved in every single process of the costume design,” says Eyob Yohannes. “She looks at all the fabrics, sketches, and buttons. She cares about who the characters are, and the clothes telling that story.” As more fans get to witness the show over the next year, the pair hope viewers will see that vision come to life. “I hope people realize how much of an artist she is,” says Rita Melssen. “I also just hope that they feel seen and have fun!”

Article originally published by Vogue US

Read more from Vogue.fr:

8 unforgettable Madonna performances

Madonna's rise to fame in 10 vintage photos

We know which (unexpected) designer will dress Madonna for her tour

More from Vogue France on YouTube:

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Pose Reaches Peak Madonna: a Visual History of the 1990 Blond Ambition Tour

Pose has finally done it: the series has reached peak Madonna, and there is no turning back. After heavily referencing the superstar on each episode of season two, the obsession finally reached an apex with episode five . In “What Would Candy Do?” Ricky and Damon (played by Ryan Jamaal Swain ) are on the rocks relation-ship wise, and are both auditioning to be backup dancers for the Blond Ambition tour. Going head to head in a dance-off is certainly not helping them in the love department, but we, as viewers, do get some insight into the importance of the backup dancers on the iconic tour. Over the past decade, critics have accused other pop stars—like Lady Gaga—of copying Madonna, but the show makes clear that the Material Girl also did her fair share of “borrowing.” It’s no secret now—especially not in the ballroom world of Pose — that Madonna brought voguing to the mainstream when she co-opted the moves. But the question of appreciation versus appropriation comes up here, with Blanca on one side of the argument (she sees the popularization of voguing as useful and empowering) and Pray Tell on the other (he’s fearful of the subculture being siphoned). Looking back at the real Blond Ambition tour, which was immortalized in the documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (and later in the 2016 doc Strike a Pose ), we can see that as much as that tour is known for Madonna’s famous Jean-Paul Gaultier cone bra , it was her dancers who made the whole spectacle culturally relevant. Pose aims to unpack that in this episode. If it weren’t for the queer men of color who danced on the tour, Blond Ambition would not have been as effective or as subversive. And neither would her music video for “Vogue”—a black-and-white David Fincher project that was as inspired by the ballroom scene as it was by Isaac Julien’s film Looking for Langston and the work of Bob Fosse . Here, a glimpse of what the tour looked like nearly 30 years ago—including scenes of backup dancers Luis Camacho, Oliver Crumes, Salim “Slam” Gauwloos, Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza, Kevin Stea, Gabriel Trupin and Carlton Wilborn.

Madonna poses with her backup dancers for Madonna: Truth or Dare . Photo courtesy Everett Collection.

Madonna performs with backup dancers in a Bob Fosse inspired bowler hat routine. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna with backup dancers during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Backup dancers rehearse in a scene from Strike a Pose , Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan’s 2016 documentary about the backup dancers of the Blond Ambition World Tour. Photo courtesy of Everett Collection.

Luis Camacho prepares for the stage in a still from Strike a Pose . Photo courtesy of Everett Collection.

Madonna performs with her dancers in the Blonde Ambition Japan Tour at Chiba Marine Stadium, April 13th, 1990, Chiba, Japan. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna and her dancers performing in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna performs another routine that pays homage to Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in the Blond Ambition World Tour. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna’s Blond Ambition World Tour 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna and her backup dancers, wearing mermaid tails, during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna plays the harp while her mermaid backup dancers surround her during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Not all of Madonna’s backup dancers were men. Two women support the singer on stage during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna wears the iconic Jean-Paul Gaultier cone bra during the Los Angeles leg of the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna and Salim Gauwloos have a Dick Tracy moment during the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Madonna shares the cone bra spotlight with a backup dancer during the Blond Ambition World Tour on June 30, 1990. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

This story is over 5 years old.

Madonna's iconic blond ambition dancers are reuniting to tell their story.

Read more: The Cinematic History of Madonna and David Fincher

Camacho, Gutierez, Crumes, and Stea. Photo courtesy of Logo Documentary Films

I thought, I'm going to die anyway, so why would I apply for a work visa?

Photo by Robin de Puy courtesy of Logo Documentary Films

Blond Ambition tour rehearsals. Photo courtesy of Logo Documentary Films

Oliver Crumes poses with a photo of himself from the Blond Ambition tour. Photo courtesy of Logo Documentary Films

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36 Of Madonna’s Most Unforgettable Stage Costumes

By Sam Rogers and Alex Kessler

Madonna ’s approach to her image has never been anything less than creative over the course of her long career – and nowhere is this more evident than on stage. Long before the likes of Lady Gaga or Beyoncé were turning their tour wardrobes into works of wearable art, Madonna was courting couture designers – and quite often controversy too – while performing in front of vast crowds.

Frequently collaborating with fashion’s top names, Madonna’s working wardrobe runs the designer gamut from Jean Paul Gaultier and Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy , to Versace , Gucci and Jeremy Scott for Moschino . Her professional relationship with Jean Paul Gaultier has been the most fruitful of all, not least thanks to that show-stopping conical creation from the Blond Ambition tour in 1990. A truly iconic costume if ever there was one.

The corset, an ever-present weapon in her sartorial arsenal, has been reinvented almost as many times as Madonna herself. The 2014 Christian Lacroix version, bejewelled and blue, was worn with over-the-knee, lace-up boots, while Jeremy Scott reinterpreted it with “Material Girl”-era Swarovski crystals in 2009. It’s there too in her most recent incarnation, as Madame X. The queen of pop chose a bondage-style bodysuit, fishnet stockings, and an eye-patch studded with more of those Swarovski crystals for an MTV Q&A to mark the release of her comeback single “Medellín”.

This year, Madonna has made her long-awaited return to the grand stage with the Celebration tour, which will visit 38 cities across Europe and North America and cover four decades of her legendary music career. During the opening weekend, Madonna graced the London stage with her offspring in tow, marking a special moment to celebrate her eldest child Lourdes Leon’s birthday. She also shared the stage with her teenage daughter Mercy James, who skillfully played a rendition of “Bad Girl” on the piano.

As for the Celebration tour looks? There was a lace bustier ensemble by Vetements, a silver mirrored Versace bodysuit with pronounced shoulders, and two looks by Jean Paul Gaultier: an ethereal floor-length kimono paired with a jewelled halo crown, and that iconic cone bra reimagined as a handed-beaded black corset bodysuit.

Below, see Madonna’s most unforgettable onstage fashion moments throughout the years.

She wore a corset and fishnets on stage in New York during the Who’s That Girl tour.

A swift costume change into a kitsch gown with a matching hat during the Who’s That Girl tour.

A more wholesome look on the Who’s That Girl tour.

The Jean Paul Gaultier conical bra Madonna wore during the Blond Ambition tour became instantly iconic.

She wore a corset, shorts and knee pads by Jean Paul Gaultier in Tokyo on the Blond Ambition world tour.

In another of the elaborate Blond Ambition looks – this time polka dots and an extravagant ponytail.

This pink feathered ensemble worn on stage in Tokyo during the Blond Ambition world tour was another Jean Paul Gaultier number.

Performing “Vogue” at the MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna opted for a costume originally worn by Glenn Close in the 1998 film Dangerous Liaisons .

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Madonna’s 40 Best Style Moments—In Honor of Her 40 Years in Music

By Christian Allaire

40 years ago today, Madonna burst onto the music scene with her first self-titled album—changing the pop landscape forever with her mega-hits such as “Holiday” and “Lucky Star.” There are few musical artists who can say they began their career by simultaneously igniting a whole new fashion craze, but it’s precisely what the singer did back in 1983. Fans were totally obsessed with Madonna’s signature tulle skirts, big bow’d hairstyles, and lace gloves from the get-go. Madonna wasn’t just a hot new artist to watch, then—she became a global trendsetter. And she's continued to be for four decades now. So, in honor, Vogue is taking a look back on 40 of her best fashion moments throughout her career.

Over her impressive 40-year career, Madonna has only continued to deliver show-stopping ensembles—be it on stage, on the red carpet, or in her many music videos. Nobody does “fashion eras” better than the star. With each new album she’s released, Madonna has always embraced a brand new look to go with it—whether it be her western-inspired getups for 2000’s Music , or her disco-ready attire for 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor. Like a true artist, she sees what she wears as true performance art. Remember at the 1996 premiere of Evita, when she channeled her character, Evita Péron, in Givenchy, gigantic floral headpiece and all? Pure camp!

Along the way, Madonna has delivered plenty of other looks that people still talk about today. The Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra that she wore for her “Blonde Ambition” tour in 1990, for one, is still one of her most iconic moments to date. When the superstar headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in 2012, then-Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci and famous milliner Philip Treacy created a regal, gold-and-black ensemble that totally stole the show. More recently, she also appeared at the 2021 VMAs in a leather dominatrix-style bodysuit. “They said we wouldn’t last,” she saucily told the crowd, “but we’re still here, mother-f**kers.”

Below, explore 40 of Madonna’s best fashion moments over the years.

Madonna Wore At Least 3 Different Hairstyles on the Opening Night of Her Tour

By Kara Nesvig

Madonna is back, baby! The Queen of Pop just kicked off her massive Celebration tour in London, and in true Madonna fashion, she left absolutely no detail unnoticed, including her many hairstyles. (Oh, and she's also back to her signature bright blonde , so there's that too.)

As the name of the tour suggests, the show is a celebration of Madonna's entire career — the '80s pop tartlet, the '90s glam girl, the Ray of Light spirituality, and everything in between. The musician, who has long been known for her powers of transformation, switched up her hairstyles as a nod to some of those iconic eras and, once again, I'm left speechless by the power of backstage glam teams to make such big changes so fast. Let's check out the main looks from the Celebration tour, created by Madonna's longtime hairstylist Andy Lecompte , shall we? (Spoiler alert: If you're trying to avoid secrets from the show, do not scroll down!) 

Madonna opened the show with her Ray of Light song “Nothing Really Matters” and wore her hair in loose, free-flowing waves reminiscent of that era for a portion of the show. Her hair was parted in the center for a hippie-ish vibe with subtle dark roots and styled in easy waves down her back and shoulders, perfect for dancing. If you look closely, it appears she added a pop of yellow to the mid-lengths near her ears. 

Later, the Material Girl threw it back to her '90s Dick Tracy and Vogue period with a short, super-curly Marilyn Monroe-inspired bob , dramatically parted to one side and curled in big, fluffy ringlets. At one point in this segment, she had an intimate moment with a dancer who wore a high, braided ponytail reminiscent of the one Madge donned during her Blonde Ambition tour, as though in 2023 she was revisiting her past self.

By Marci Robin

By Aliza Kelly

By Beth Sobol

As if the waves-to-curls, long-to-short change-up wasn't enough, there was yet another transformation in store: an extra-long, pin-straight blonde style with just the teeniest, softest hint of pink . When paired with a mirrored silver bodysuit, Madonna looked every bit the powerful, trailblazer she is.  Each style she wore onstage, as simple as they may seem, was a reminder of how influential she has been: Without her, would we even have the “eras” of today's pop girls? Of course, this is Madonna we're talking about, so there are probably more hairstyling surprises in store for the rest of the tour.

More from Madge:

• Madonna Just Revealed a Shag Haircut — and Her Natural Curls
• Madonna Has Pink Hair ... and No Eyebrows
• Madonna's Daughter Is Her Brunette Twin on the Runway at Paris Fashion Week

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A Closer Look at Madonna’s One-of-a-Kind Celebration Tour Wardrobe

By Christian Allaire

Photo: Courtesy of the Madonna Celebration Tour

Come on, Vogue ! This weekend, Madonna kicked off her global Celebration World Tour in London, where she treated fans with a career-spanning performance of some of her greatest hits. Almost better than the setlist, however, was the Queen of Pop’s epic new outfits for the stage—well, new in a sense. All of them riff off of her most iconic looks over the years (including, yes,  that  signature Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra). In honor of the tour’s kickoff,  Vogue  caught up with tour costume and creative designers Eyob Yohannes and Rita Melssen to get a closer look at Madonna’s one-of-a-kind, custom-made looks.

Given the magnitude of Madonna’s new tour—she’s performing on 78 days across 15 different countries—Yohannes and Melssen needed top-tier stage fashion. To focus the wardrobe and give it a strong, clear message, the duo opted to mimic the theme of the show, which explores Madonna’s four decades of hits. That’s how they landed on referencing some of Madonna’s most famous outfits. “Fashion has always been a part of her storytelling,” says Yohannes, “so we drew from her past stylistically, and we kept those themes within the costumes.”

For the most part, Yohannes and Melssen created and designed all of Madonna’s costumes themselves, though they also enlisted designers such as Donatella Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Dilara Findikoglu to create special one-off looks for her, too. “We wanted to reference everything that she’s done, and make something new out of that,” says Melssen. “We created a whole new world.”

The tour traces Madonna’s meteoric rise to superstardom, beginning back in the ’80s. Yohannes and Melssen began their research by looking at Madonna’s polaroids and performances from the era. “There were a lot of grunge and punk kids, but also the New Romantics,” says Yohannes. “This section feels like being at a New York club, where all of these different cultures meld together.”

Act one opens with her singles such as “Burning Up” and “Everybody.” For the latter track, Madonna sports a punky tailcoat by Findikoglu, inspired by an archival blazer that the singer wore for a performance in Japan back in the ’80s. “It was a men’s coat that she got from a vintage store,” says Yohannes. “[For the new one,] we tricked it out, and added memorabilia and pins from the ’80s onto it. It was very much an ode to New York in the ’80s.”

For act two, Madonna moves into the ’90s with “Erotica” and “Vogue.” The costume duo wanted to explore the songs’s themes of sexual expression and liberation. “We had an idea to make it about boxing,” says Yohannes. “The dancers are all dressed in boxing clothes, and M is in a boxing robe—but then there’s this beautiful sensuality when she unveils a slip dress.”

For “Vogue” specifically, Madonna and the costume team enlisted designer Jean Paul Gaultier to create a modern new version of her iconic cone bra, made famous during the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour. This time around, Gaultier created a black cone mini dress, encrusted with black crystals. “It would not be a show without Gaultier,” says Melssen. “He just knows her body and how she wants to feel. [Madonna] couldn’t imagine doing this without having [him.]” (Also not to be missed? Special guest Bob the Drag Queen recreated Madonna’s Marie Antoinette-themed 1990 VMAs look for the “Vogue” performance.)

Act three focuses on the 2010s, and Madonna performs “Die Another Day” and “Don’t Tell Me.” It’s the latter song’s western-inspired fashion that takes center stage. “We wanted to take it to this cool, futuristic world,” says Yohannes.  Her final look—a leather corset and shirt made in-house—was punctuated with a cowboy hat made by Ruslan Baginskiy, and a pair of custom Miu Miu cowboy boots. ”They’re knee-high and have beautiful white western stitching, and a silver heel and toe cap,” says Melssen. “The girls are going to want it.” In act four, meanwhile, Madonna leans into futurism, and rocks a special, foiled-Mylar Versace look that’s ready for the Metaverse. She wears it for “Ray of Light,” an obvious choice. “Versace made a silhouette that Madonna has never really worn before—a catsuit—made in the pattern of broken glass,” says Yohannes. Melssen adds, “When the light hits this catsuit, it looks like armor.”

In building this wardrobe, Melssen and Yohannes had to consider functionality and movement as well as aesthetics. “She changes a lot in the show, so we needed to make sure that the clothes were quick-rigged,” says Yohannes. “There are center back zips on almost all of the costumes, so she can go in and out pretty quickly.” The speedy costume changes were made possible with strategic layering and styling. “There’s a lot of under-dressing as well,” says Yohannes. “She wears costumes underneath each other, [to be ready] for the next number.”

One of the greatest moments in the tour comes towards the end, when Madonna performs a special rendition of “Like a Virgin.” All of the dancers wear various looks from her archive—be it a red carpet look or album cover look. “For a lot of these looks, [Madonna] still had them in her archives, so we went to look at them and matched the fabrics and embroidery,” says Yohannes. Even the superstar’s son, David, makes a cameo, wearing the white fur coat, cowboy hat, and Versace chain jewelry Madonna sported in the 2000 “Music” music video.

It’s these types of thoughtful details that made working with the Queen of Pop so fun. “She is involved in every single process of the costume design,” says Yohannes. “She looks at all the fabrics, sketches, and buttons. She cares about who the characters are, and the clothes telling that story.” As more fans get to witness the show over the next year, the pair hope viewers will see that vision come to life. “I hope people realize how much of an artist she is,” says Melssen. “I also just hope that they feel seen and have fun!”

This article was originally published on Vogue.com

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Madonna taps Cardi B, daughter Estere for Celebration Tour 'Vogue' dance-off

Madonna ended the West Coast run of her Celebration Tour on Monday, marking the occasion by bringing Cardi B out to judge the show's "Vogue" dance-off.

In the fifth and final Inglewood, California show at the Kia Forum, Cardi B, 31, and Madonna, 65, posed in their judges chairs, back-to-back in matching blonde wigs and con e -bras, which the queen of pop famously wore during her 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour.

In tow was Madonna's 11-year-old daughter Estere, who struck a pose in a sleeveless black and gold leotard, black boots and long braids, earning a perfect 10 from the judges.

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Julia Garner , Eric Andre , Terri Joe, Ali Wong , Alexa Demie and Santa have all had the honor of judging during the "Vogue" dance-offs .

Madonna falls onstage, recalls 'near-death experience' during Celebration Tour stops

Cardi B's appearance and Estere's performance are the latest moments from Madonna's Celebration Tour. The tour has also made headlines after fans sued her for allegedly starting shows late , her mistaken inclusion of Luther Vandross in an AIDS tribute and her fall onstage after a dancer dropped her , which she quickly recovered from.

Last week, the Grammy-award-winning singer drew ire after she accidentally called out a fan in a wheelchair for "sitting down" during her concert.

Madonna asks fan in wheelchair why they're 'sitting down' at concert: 'Politically incorrect'

The tour also comes after the singer's harrowing "near-death experience" last year. Madonna opened up during a tour stop last week about being  hospitalized with a bacterial infection and being in a coma for four days last June.

"I'm not kidding, it was pretty scary," she told fans, according to a video of the speech  shared on YouTube . "Obviously, I didn't know for four days because I was in an induced coma. But when I woke up, the first word I said was, 'No.' Anyway, that's what my assistant tells me."

Madonna explained she felt like God was asking if she wanted to "come with me," prompting her reply, "No!" During her recovery, the singer recalled she had no energy and "literally couldn't walk from my bed to the toilet."

The health scare forced Madonna to postpone the start of the tour, which had been scheduled to kick off in Vancouver last July.

Contributing: Brendan Morrow

Madonna tells fans it is 'a miracle that I’m alive' at Celebration Tour concert

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Madonna taps Cardi B, daughter Estere for Celebration Tour 'Vogue' dance-off