Welcome to Decade – Twenty Years of Madonna News.
When we worked on the new version of the website for year 2014 we had the chance to look into all the archived versions of MadonnaTribe, their different features, layouts, graphics, logos and most of all the amount of news – from exclusive scoops to fan-shared memories, we posted since we first launched in 2003 – and we realized we had a little big treasure in our hands we didn’t want to lock in some dusty vaults.
The journey we have been through as a fansite and as a Community 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 re-invented 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 special features, such as 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, or our coverage of the children’s stories done with the help of Callaway books. When we think about running a website like this for more than a decade there’s also 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 with people such as the talented Dago González and 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 five Madonna World Tours so far (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.
All this content – spanning on a decade of Madonna news – is now back online, available on the same platform we’re running our main News page on, including our On Tour with the Idol mini-sites for the Madonna tours that have been merged with the overall news with the option to browse them in a stand-alone mode.
While working on this Decade section of MadonnaTribe we had a few smiles on our faces looking at how young and maybe naives we were at the very start, but we also loved the freshness of our younger days, the responsibility taking over while we became a point of reference for the Madonna Tribe worldwide.
It was a chance to look back to some moments we sometimes tend to forget, a chance to be proud of the road we’ve been travelling on, and to be thankful for the support of everyone who felt at home in this very one, different Tribe.
Ten more years have now passed, with all the articles, images and stories from January 2014 on shared on our main News page, our MTribeFrance page and the MadonnaTribe Forum.
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, but we would not be here today without your help, your feedback and your support!
MadonnaTribe – Where The Tribe Adores The Idol