Live Performances
Madonna has performed the song on four of her world tours. She premiered the song in 1987, during her Who's That Girl World Tour, where she danced around the stage wearing a white Spanish-style dress designed by Marlene Stewart, and a black leather jacket similar to the one she used in the music video. The screen in the background showed portraits of Pope John Paul II and then-President of the U.S. Ronald Reagan, along with scenes of John Perry III's short film, The Nightmare, ending with the words "Safe Sex", as Madonna finished the song. She dedicated the song to the Pope, marking her first conflict with the Vatican, as Pope John Paul II urged Italian fans to boycott her concerts. 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.
Three years later on her Blond Ambition World Tour, Madonna evoked Catholic images during the "Papa Don't Preach" performance. She wore a black kaftan made of chiffon and energetically danced, accompanied by six male dancers, with a platform full of votive candles in the background. 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. In 2004, during the Re-Invention World Tour, Madonna performed the song wearing a Scottish kilt, and a T-shirt that said "Kabbalists do it Better" on most of the shows, and "Brits do it Better" and "Irish do it Better" T-shirts during the shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland, reminiscent of the one she used in the song's music video. Madonna also performed a shorter, abbreviated version of "Papa Don't Preach" in the MDNA Tour in 2012.
Read more about this topic: Papa Don't Preach
Famous quotes containing the words live and/or performances:
“You’re very beautiful. So beautiful I’m going to make you immortal. Like Kharis, you will live forever. What I can do for you I can also do for myself. Neither time nor death can touch us. You and I together for eternity here in the temple of Karnak. You shall be my high priestess.”
—Griffin Jay, Maxwell Shane (1905–1983)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)