The Girlie Show: Live Down Under

History

The video release was originally aired as a television special, Madonna Live Down Under: The Girlie Show, on American network HBO and was the channel's most watched original program of the year. Initially, the November 20, 1993 show was to be filmed and aired, however, a massive storm forced the cancellation of the show, so the November 19 show (which had been taped the night before as a "safety show") was aired instead. Another television special aired in Japan only, entitled Madonna Live in Japan 1993: The Girlie Show, but was never released in any video format. In 1995 this title was nominated for the Grammy Award of Best Long Form Music Video. The DVD was certified gold in Brazil by the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos (ABPD) for shipment of 25,000 copies. Was also certified 3× platinum in Australia.

Critical reception

Dominic Griffin from Daily Variety wrote that: "Madonna danced, sang, and more specifically entertained her way through this two-hour concert set. [...] Madonna's comments aside, this show was purely for the cameras and the viewing audience at home. Expertly shot with multi-cameras including a crane and an onstage SteadiCam, the show was shot in close quarters, with an occasional pan of the vast audience. [...] After a slow start, the show, which included nine costume changes, never once let up. Madonna showed great energy and amazing stamina throughout." Heather Phares from Allmusic gave the release four out of five stars and wrote that "With crystal clear digital video and sound, the disc delivers dynamic versions of "Holiday", "Rain", "Erotica", "Deeper and Deeper", and 14 of the Material Girl's other hits, making it the next best thing to actually being at the show." She added that though the lack of special DVD, "it's still a decent presentation of a spectacular, two-hour concert, and worthwhile for fans looking to upgrade from the laser disc or VHS versions. Billboard

Formats

It was released on VHS, Laserdisc, VCD (Asia only) and later on DVD. To accompany it, Madonna released her second coffee table book, The Girlie Show which includes a bonus CD with three live tracks from the concert; "Like a Virgin", "Why's It So Hard" and "In This Life". As one of Warner's earliest releases, the DVD is unusual in being double sided with a 2 channel PCM audio track on one side and the 5.1 dolby digital on the other. The audio track on both has various faults, particularly around the performance of Vogue.

It was also released as part of a 3 VHS box set The Madonna Collection (2000) available in the UK only with Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour and The Immaculate Collection.

Track listing

1. "The Girlie Show Theme"
2. "Erotica"
3. "Fever"
4. "Vogue"
5. "Rain" (contains an excerpt from "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" and "Singin' in the Rain")
6. "Express Yourself"
7. "Deeper and Deeper"
8. "Why's It So Hard"
9. "In This Life"
10. "The Beast Within"
11. "Like a Virgin" (contains an excerpt from "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)")
12. "Bye Bye Baby"
13. "I'm Going Bananas"
14. "La Isla Bonita"
15. "Holiday"
16. "Justify My Love"
17. "Everybody Is a Star"/"Everybody" ("Dance to the Music" and "After the Dance")

Production credits