Yes, Justify My Love, the first single off her Immaculate Collection is turning 25. Shot by Jean-Baptiste Mondino it features Madge in a hotel with an assortment of gender-bending boys and girls. If you can believe it, MTV rejected the video but instead of editing it, it was sold as “video single” —almost unheard of at a time, and goofy today considering you can watch it on YouTube for FREE. But a 5-minute VHS tape sold a million copies at $10 each. Ka-Ching! It was No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 for two weeks and benefited from the controversy.
Madonna said she was disappointed MTV decided not to air the video.
“Why is it that people are willing to go and watch a movie about someone getting blown to bits for no reason at all, and nobody wants to see two girls kissing and two men snuggling?”
In 2002, 12 years after its release, the video aired on MTV2 as part of a countdown of the most controversial music videos EVER. It’s sexy, but really, fragrance commercials are racier today. Watch.
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