'Who The F**k’s Madonna?': Australia’s Love Affair With Madonna Started 40 Years Ago Today

“Who the fuck’s Madonna?”

“What the fuck is a Molly?”

And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Australia’s love affair with Madonna – she’s had 65 Top 40 singles, more than any other woman – can be traced back to this day in 1984.

Music guru Ian “Molly” Meldrum was in America at the time, interviewing artists for the ABC’s top-rating music show Countdown. Along with Rod Stewart, Laura Branigan, Bette Midler, Billy Idol and Big Country, Molly’s big interview was with Van Halen, who were riding high at the time. Molly remembers David Lee Roth telling him a joke:

How many people does it take to change a light bulb at a rock gig?

Answer: Twenty. One to screw in the bulb, two to hold the ladder, and 17 on the VIP guest list. 

On March 27, 1984, Molly went to see Eurythmics at The Ritz in New York – supported by Australia’s own Real Life.

At the end of the show, a huge screen descended on the stage and played the latest music videos. One of them caught Molly’s eye. It was called Burning Up.

Molly was struck by the lyric:

“Unlike the others, I’ll do anything/ I’m not the same, I have no shame/ I’m on fire …”

“Who is that?” Molly asked the man dancing next to him.

“That’s a new artist named Madonna.”

When Molly discovered the singer was on the Sire label through Warner Music, he told his travelling companion, Peter “Iris” Ikin, a Warner executive: “I really want to do an interview with this Madonna chick.” 

Ikin’s reply was blunt: “You haven’t got time to do another interview.”

But Molly managed to squeeze Madonna into his packed itinerary.

On the day of the interview, Molly was busy presenting Countdown Awards to Real Life – Best Debut Album and Most Promising New Talent – pre-recording their acceptance speeches because the band would be on the road when the awards were happening at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on April 15.

“By the time I got back to the Warner office, I was running horribly late,” Molly recalls. He roamed the Warner corridors, yelling, “Iris, where are you, Iris?” defying Ikin’s orders to call him “Peter” as he was trying to portray a corporate image.

Ikin was not happy with his friend. “How dare you,” he snapped. “You are so late!”

“I don’t care,” Molly replied before cheekily adding: “Who the fuck’s Madonna, anyhow?” 

Big mistake.

From around the corner came a defiant voice: “I’m fucking Madonna, what the fuck is a Molly?”

“I have to admit,” Molly says, “it was not the best start to an interview.”

Molly immediately knew this artist had an attitude. You could sense the tension as the interview started.

“Madonna, welcome to Countdown and welcome to Australia.”

“Thanks,” she replied tersely.

“Look, I’ve got to ask you: Who the fuck’s Madonna?”

The singer laughed. “And from that point on, I knew we were going to be good friends.”

Molly first mentioned Madonna on Countdown on April 8, 1984. He introduced her as a “great chick from New York”, adding: “Tell you what, watch out for her because I think she’s going to be really big in Australia on the charts over the next two to three months.”

Molly smiles when reminded of the memory. “Of course, I should have said decades, not months.”

During that first interview, Molly told Madonna how much he loved her Holiday single, tipping it could be a big hit. 

“Well, why don’t you make it into one?” she challenged him.

“I will.”

Holiday entered the Countdown Top 10 at number nine on April 29, 1984, rising to number four two weeks later.

It was her first Top 5 hit.

Madonna revealed to Molly that her “big break” was working as a dancer and backing singer for one-hit wonder Patrick Hernandez in Paris. 

“He was doing a world tour and looking for girls to do back-up singing and dancing and to go around the world, and I thought that would be great to start off in the music business.

“So, I went to Paris, and that’s basically how I got involved in music. Nothing happened to me there, of course, because that sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?” 

Following their memorable first encounter, Madonna gave Molly many exclusives over the years.

In 1985, MTV in America wanted to do a Madonna special. She said she’d do it – if Molly did the interview.

“I was in a state of shock when I arrived because it was like a movie set,” Molly says. “There was a crew of about 40 people running around, and I was used to just a cameraperson, a soundperson and me. The set-up took hours, but we finally got into the interview, and it was going well until Sean Penn arrived. It was then that I realised how much she was in love. Once Sean was there, I lost her.”

That night, Molly had dinner with Madonna, her manager, Freddy DeMann, and her publicist, Liz Rosenberg. When Penn asked how the interview had gone, Molly laughed and said, “It was going well until you arrived.” Then Molly proposed going back to his hotel room. “Look, this is a really important interview. Why don’t we go back to my hotel and wrap it up?” 

They ended up shooting another 90 minutes. Molly even asked Madonna about her relationship, referencing Penn’s arrival earlier in the day. “Seeing you with Sean, where he can really faze you … I mean, the love, you can see it.”

Madonna: “What are you talking about? This is personal stuff, right?”

Molly: “Well, it sort of is … where another person can actually put Madonna second.”

Madonna: “In other words, I actually care about what somebody else thinks about me? Well, yeah, that’s what happens when you’re in love with somebody. You give up a certain part of yourself. You have to become selfless in a way. That’s the trade-off – you also get a certain kind of security that you don’t have when you’re not with somebody.”

Madonna also opened up about her relationship with her fans. “The whole reason I got into this business is because I want to be near people. I want to communicate with people. I don’t want to have a separation; I don’t want to hide from people. I want to be approachable. I want people to see I’m a human being with the same faults and the same problems, and the same fears. I don’t think that I’m better than anybody else.”

In another chat, Molly and Madonna talked about demons. Madonna said she still had a few to exorcise from her soul. 

When Molly asked if fame had been hard, the singer replied: “In the beginning, it’s a rush, [but] you don’t know what you’re in for. Then you go through the, ‘Oh my God, no privacy, no anonymity.’ You become bitter and want to tell everybody to fuck off.

“But now I feel like I’ve come out on the other side of it. I’ve accepted it.”

Molly: “If you stripped away the Madonna character, what would there be?”

Madonna: “The person you’re looking at [long pause]. That’s me, you know.”

Molly has many Madonna stories but believes one personal anecdote reveals the true Madonna. In the late ’80s, Molly’s friend and former personal assistant Lynne Randell was working in New York with Sire boss Seymour Stein, who signed Madonna.

“One night, we all went out to dinner,” Molly recalls. “As we were leaving the restaurant, Madonna disappeared into the kitchen. She returned with a doggy bag, saying, ‘Molly, would you mind giving me a lift?’”

The singer was going to visit a friend, Michael, a 21-year-old dancer who had AIDS. “Madonna was in the middle of making Who’s That Girl, but whenever there was a break in filming, she would go to the hospital and nurse Michael. The public never saw any of this. Many people only see Madonna’s ambition, but she’s also very caring.”

From little things – Molly spotting the Burning Up video in New York 40 years ago – big things have grown. Madonna has had 11 number one singles in Australia; only The Beatles and Elvis have had more. Overall, she has had a remarkable 41 Top 10 hits in Australia and 12 number one albums.

Four decades after they met, Molly remains one of Madonna’s biggest fans. “She is a true artist, always challenging her fans and never repeating herself. She’s fearless, ambitious and daring. And she’s inspired women around the world.”

Mike Munro remembers interviewing Madonna in Cannes for 60 Minutes. “Luckily, I said the magic words: ‘Molly Meldrum says hello.’ Once I mentioned his name, she was charming and trusted me a lot more.”

Madonna has never forgotten how Molly championed her work. When she last toured Australia in 2016, she dedicated Take A Bow – a song she rarely plays live – to “the first man in Australia to fall in love with me”.

The singer then kissed Molly and gave him a swig from her hip flask. Molly grabbed the microphone and exclaimed, “I fucking love you!”

“I love you, too,” Madonna replied.