Happy Birthday To Us – MadonnaTribe’s 10th Anniversary
This week MadonnaTribe.com celebrates its tenth anniversary! The journey we have been through has been incredible and amazing and even if at times we had to deal with people who are not very nice at all, the warmth of fans and people we have met along the way totally makes up for it.
When we started MadonnaTribe in early June 2003 all the first bunch of big English speaking sites and forums were gone, “swept away” like the Madonna film that premiered that year. So we kind of reinvented what was there before us into a new formula, a sort of Madonna-only CNN, updated several times a day, where the latest news, and a panorama of newspaper articles were mixed up with exclusive scoops, and exclusive content, such our series of interviews with the people that have worked with Madonna at different stages of her career.
When we started out there were plenty of subjects to cover, such as the “Hollywood” video with our exclusive scoops about HER wearing different wigs and looks in the clip and our coverage of the children’s stories done with the help of Callaway books. When we think about running a website like this for ten years there’s plenty of strange tidbits we remember, for example along with more “normal” exclusives about Tour setlists and new album’s song names we were the first site online to break the news that the late Caresse Henry, resigned from being M’s manager, a few days after winning an award as manager of the year for the re-Invention tour. That scoop sounded SO unreal that a lot of people believed our website had been hacked, but the following day an official press statement confirmed what we had posted.
Also as long time fans we were amazed to reach and discuss Madonna with all the artists we met for our interviews. Some of our favourite highlights include discussing her tours withpeople such as the talented Jamie King, chatting about her early New York days with the one and only Maripol, discovering what lies behind some of her finest musical projects from our chat with Erotica’s co-producer Tony Shimkin or discussing Evita with Sir Tim Rice himself!
We were also among the first websites to put together a chain of fan correspondents from all over the planet, that helped us covering, with their words and personal snaps, events such as premieres and tour openings in the very moment they were happening with a more warm and personal feeling than the mere display of agency pictures. This lead to our unique coverage of her world tours (re-Invention, Confessions, Sticky 1 & 2 and MDNA) with a separate websites with spoilers devoted to each tour. Articles with an eye to collecting and tidbits and fan art and inspiration have also been a big part of our offering to fellow fans.
On a more personal side, we vividly remember all the people we have met, the friends that are still friends and the ones that aren’t. Each time we visit a new city, there is a friend from M-Tribe to meet or meet again. The lessons we have learnt by running such a popular online site, both on the professional and technical side, are huge.
I also would like to thank all our “mystery sources” who have been with us at one time or another and helped us along the way. We have always appreciated your input and support!
An now, if you wish to share your personal M-Tribe memory with us and help us celebrate our tenth birthday this week don’t hesitate to drop us an email at share@madonnatribe.com
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