Material Girl - Live Performances

Live Performances

"Material Girl" was performed by Madonna on four of her world tours. She ended The Virgin Tour (1985) with a self-parodying performance of the song. She wore a white tube top and a tight white skirt and carried a bunch of notes in her left hand. At the end of the performance she asked the audience "Do you really think I'm a material girl?...I'm not...Take it ... I don't need money... I need love." As she began to strip off more clothes, she was apprehended and marched offstage by an extra posing as her father. In Detroit, Tony Ciccone himself did the honors. The performance was included in the VHS release Live – The Virgin Tour. In the Who's That Girl World Tour of 1987, Madonna performed it as a medley with "Dress You Up" and "Like a Virgin". She wore an elaborate costume, inspired by Dame Edna Everage. It consisted of a hat strewn with fake fruits, flowers and feathers, jeweled batwing spectacles with heavy, black frames, a ruffled skirt, a bodice covered with objects like watches and dolls and fishnets. Author Carol Clrek stated that the dress was more "ludicrous for Madonna, than humorous." Two different performances of the song on this tour can be found on the videos: Who's That Girl – Live in Japan, filmed in Tokyo, Japan, on June 22, 1987, and Ciao, Italia! – Live from Italy, filmed in Turin, Italy, on September 4, 1987.

For the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990, Madonna and her supporting dancers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory were dressed as old women in fluffy dressing gowns and curling pins in their hair. Singing the song with a strong mid-western accent, they got up and revealed a frivolish pink dress underneath their gown, in which they danced around. Madonna replaced the words "experience has made me rich" with "experience has made me a bitch". After singing, she produced dollar bills out of her corsage and threw them up in the air for the audience to catch. Two different performances were taped and released on video, the Blond Ambition – Japan Tour 90, taped in Yokohama, Japan, on April 27, 1990, and the Live! – Blond Ambition World Tour 90, taped in Nice, France, on August 5, 1990. During the Re-Invention World Tour of 2004, a general setlist was decided where the show rehearsals would start with "I'm So Stupid" from American Life, "Dress You Up" and "Material Girl". But "Dress You Up" and "I'm So Stupid" were later dropped from the show. Hence "Material Girl" was transferred as the closing song of the military segment of the show, and was re-arranged as an electric guitar version. Madonna wore military themed clothes and sang the song while standing in front of a microphone and playing an electric guitar. The backdrops displayed mathematical equations along with DNA helixes rushing through the screens. Elements of "Material Girl" and "Give It 2 Me" were included in the live performance of "Girl Gone Wild" on the MDNA Tour.