A chat with Hi and Hi!
In the Graham Norton show just aired on UK’s BBCOne Madonna was presented a beautiful custom made doll by Italian duo Mario and Gianni from Magia 2000 inspired by her appearance at the Venice film festival last year. First Graham showed Madonna the full series of “one of a kind” Madonna dolls made by Mario and Gianni over the years, many of which were also exposed at the Simply Madonna exhibition held in London in 2007, depicting Madonna’s various iconic looks spanning from the Virgin Tour to the Sticky and Sweet Tour. Then when Madonna wished to keep the dolls (many of which were actually lent by the collectors that now own them) Mario and Gianni gave her the special doll inspired by the W.E. presentation making the Queen of Pop very happy.
We have asked Magia 2000 about this amazing interaction with the Queen of Pop. So, Mario, Gianni is this a dream finally coming true?
Magia 2000: Absolutely! Madonna was the reason and first subject when we started to customize and create one of a kind dolls in 1998, because we are huge fans of her and we wanted to have our own little version of her best looks. And finally now she knows how much we admire her and how much she has influenced us on our work.
MadonnaTribe: Madonna was very nice to you in the studio, but I bet those were some of the most hard minutes of your career. It was funny when Madonna called you Hi and Hi…
Magia 2000: Yes we were both very nervous but when we saw Madonna was very apreciative of our dolls we were very happy and it became so easy to chat with her and it was great to watch her going away holding our doll under her arm.
MadonnaTribe: How long did it take to put together the fabulous W.E. doll you especially made to give Madonna on this special occasion?
Magia 2000: The Graham Norton team contacted us just few days before the show, so we had little time to create this doll. To celebrate the release of W.E. we chose her look from the film premiere in Venice, a very elegant and elaborated dress by Vionnet. We only slept six hours in two days, to complete the dress and the detailed beading, along with the custom made special display box. But the effort was worth it!!
MadonnaTribe: What’s your next Madonna doll?
Magia 2000: Madonna in the Hanky Panky red striped corset from the re-Invention tour, which will be part of an upcoming project.
MadonnaTribe: You have given your one of a kind dolls to a lot of artists and now Madonna is really the icing on the cake…
Magia 2000: It’s really hard for us to believe it really happened, after all these years of being fans. And Madonna’s working ethic inspired us to work harder on our dolls to make them looking stunning. We would like to thank all the Madonna fans who supported us over the years, especially the MadonnaTribe team.