Is there ANYTHING you don’t know about Madonna? Sure, we don’t know it all about the Queen.
Hi fans and stans of Madonna the greatest female artist of all time! How are you today! Ready to learn a few little things about the goddess? (Talking about goddesses,… below, you’ll find out something related to goddesses, ancient queens and Madonna’s claimed name, ESTHER… One of my favourite facts about Madonna)
19 Things you didn’t know about Madonna 1
Table of Contents
Yep. I’m here today to tell you 19 things you didn’t know about Madonna, OR maybe you did, in which case I’m here only to refresh your memory.
I’m going to start already. Otherwise I’ll start rumbling as usual. So, here we go! Oh, I’ve divided this into two posts because it turned out to be too long. When the last 10 things you didn’t know about Madonna is ready, I will insert a link in this post. For now, I think you have enough with these.
9 Things about Madonna that you didn’t know
The following isn’t arranged in any particular order. Just as it comes to my mind.
#1. Vogue wasn’t a single
Vogue was originally meant to have been a B-Side. The single that was going to be released was Keep It Together but thinking heads at Warner thought Vogue was too good to be wasted as a B-Side. Thank Warner for that.
#2. The tattoo on Madonna’s arm
Did you know this about Madonna?
The (fake) tattoo on her right upper arm in Madonna’s Die Another Day video, which also appears as a backdrop during her performance of Lament in the Re-Invention Tour, is written in Hebrew. But it isn’t actually a word, it’s rather one of the names from the 72 Names of God, and denote a diminishing of the ego to connect with joy and fulfilment.
Also, Madonna wears leather straps in the video. Tefillin is a sacred assemblage of leather boxes and straps. They are used in morning prayer and represent your desire to share rather than to receive. Kabbalah stuff, you know.
#3. Madonna is a fan of Carl Jung, not Sigmund Freud
And whilst on the subject, in Die Another Day, a metaphor for destroying one’s ego through an identity splitting strategy, the eternal dichotomy of good and bad, and one of my many favourite songs of Madonna, she ironically says: “Sigmund Freud, analize this”. Madonna doesn’t mention Freud other than to challenge the father of the psychoanalysis. She’s not a fan of Freud at all. She likes Carl Jung much more. (Camille Paglia and Madonna have more things in common than they know. One of them being that Camille is also “Jungian”).
The video for Die Another Day is still, to date, the second most expensive music video of all time, followed by also Madonna’s Express Yourself and Bedtime Story. The number one spot is for Michael Jackson’s Scream. Carl Jung was a psychiatrist and contemporary with Sigmund Freud.
#4. I’m Breathless, not a soundtrack, not a studio album
I’m Breathless isn’t a soundtrack, but a tribute and an album inspired by the movie Dick Tracy. Still, it is never counted as a studio album, even by Madonna herself.
Highly under appreciated album, by the way.
#5. Madonna claimed MY name! Esther
Here’s something you probably did know: Madonna claimed the Hebrew name Esther circa 2004 (she announced it sometime around her Re-Invention Tour). Madonna chose this name because she felt it was a name that has a lot of energy. Esther was Queen of Persia and her story is a really interesting one.
#6. Esther means star, Esther was Queen and also a Goddess… coincidentally?
But here is something you probably didn’t know about the Queen of Pop (she hates the “of Pop” bit, by the way):
I bet that, even if Madonna chose that name because it means star, it wasn’t without irony.
The name Esther, my birth name, has a variety of hypothetical origins. So, I guess that, according to our personality, we may choose the origin we like best.
You probably didn’t know Esther was a queen of Persia
Hebrew name Esther. She was queen of Persia, as I said before, and one of her most notable personal qualities was that she was never diminished by any man. That’s how she got to be a queen, actually.
From Old Persian stāra, Esther means star. But also, Esther is said to derive from the Babylonian name Ishtar (coincidentally the title of a flop in which Warren Beatty starred in the 80s. Ha!).
You probably didn’t know Isthar was a goddess of sex
Furthermore, and most importantly, did you know that Ishtar was a Mesopotamian deity?
Also known as the Queen of Heaven, Ishtar was goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice, and political power. To top it all off: Ishtar was the predecessor of the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, the raunchiest divinity around the Mediterranean.
Madonna no da puntada sin hilo, as it goes in Spanish. (That “Madonna – or anyone – doesn’t sew one stich without thread” means that there is a meticulously thought out reason behind everything she does).
#7. Lourdes IS NOT a common name in Cuba
To continue with the name’s thing and contrary to what Madonna thinks or says herself, Lourdes ISN’T a common name in Cuba. Where did she get that idea from?
I heard Madonna once say that she chose the name Lourdes for her daughter because of the pilgrimage city in France mainly, but also because it’s a common name in Cuba (Carlos León being Cuban, etc.).
Well, I don’t know who told her that (Carlos León?). Lourdes isn’t near a common name in Cuba. This is fact. I lived there on and off 2000-2007 and never met nor heard the name, EVER. (By the way, I’ve been searching where on earth I heard Madonna say that, and it was at one her interviews with Larry King. 1999).
#8. What about Lola?
Madonna calls Lourdes Lola because of her admiration of Lola Montez, a courtesan and Irish dancer who, as the mistress of the King of Bavaria, managed to exercise great political power in Bavaria (much as queen Esther) and eventually prompted the king’s abdication.
Lola arrived in Munich and it is said that when she met the king Ludwig, he asked her in public if her bosom was real. She responded by tearing off her attires to demonstrate it was. She led a really interesting life, starting with faking her nationality (Irish to Spanish) in order to portray herself as passionate and all those stereotypes about us (Spanish women, I mean).
#9. Madonna’s red string on her wrist
Did you know this about Madonna?
I’m sure you’ve noticed hundreds of times Madonna’s red string on her wrist. However, you might not have noticed that she hasn’t always worn it in the same wrist, huh?
Ok. I’ll explain.
In the Girlie Show, Madonna wears the red string on her right hand. In the 90s, the red ribbon symbolised AIDS awareness. So, it’s believed that Madonna wore the red string to support a cause, as you know, that was very close to her heart, and during this tour in particular.
The red string on your left wrist is an entirely different thing. For some people is just like a talisman, for protection, good luck etc. It is also associated to the Kabbalah and the story of Rachel. I remember Madonna being asked once about it and she answered that it was to protect herself from evil eye and tongue (Don’t remember her mentioning Kabbalah at the time, but can’t swear by it. I can’t find the video where she talks about it).
Ok, so that’s it for today. Soon I’ll publish part 2. Till then, I’d love your comments, questions, etc. below, please!