As Madonna was approaching the latter half of the 1990s, she was entering a period that was both of her most interesting as well as most boring. With her compilation “Something to Remember,” she did her best to establish herself as an adult contemporary singer, focused largely on ballads. The same could be said for her last official album “Bedtime Stories,” which took on a more mature sound from a singer that had become synonymous with expressing overt sexuality. As far as performers go, Madonna was having a wild and memorable decade that found her branching out into film and even producing music through her label Maverick Records. Nothing was going to stop her from becoming a legend, and 1996 was a major reason why.
Because of Evita (1996), Madonna didn’t go on a world tour to promote her music. She was too busy getting ready for her biggest film role to date. Like Dick Tracy (1990), Evita would require her to sing as well as act. Unlike her first Oscar-winning movie, she was about to be a lead in a sung-through musical that required her to take vocal lessons to improve her register. This was going to be a role that required much more from her than any project had before. One of the rarest aspects of her signing on was that this would be the least amount of control she had over any project. Even the sole original song, “You Must Love Me,” had more input from composers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
It’s difficult to make this about Madonna’s journey exclusively when Evita had been in production hell for longer than her entire career. In fact, the idea for a movie has been around longer than the Tony-winning stage production it’s based on.
When starting their careers, Webber and Rice were as much acclaimed for popularizing the concept album. For instance, there wasn’t originally a plan for a stage version of the show until the album gained some traction. It also allowed for the show to be tighter, as it allowed them to notice how the music flowed together. In 1976, they released “Evita” with similar success. By 1978, it was a successful production on the West End.
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| Left to right: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice |
In that time, filmmaker Alan Parker approached Webber and Rice with an interest in adapting it into a film. Everything was going well until Parker revealed that he was reluctant to do back-to-back musicals following Fame (1980). The irony is that Parker wasn’t the only movie musical director to drop out of the project. Ken Russell (Tommy (1975)) would also show faint interest until conflicts arose.
The history from there is storied and could fill this entire article. However, it would be unfair to derail from the film at hand. Despite being a hot commodity, there were constant debates over how much the studio was willing to pay for it. There was also a time when Oliver Stone wanted to direct it. However, he also had disputes with the studio and chose to film The Doors (1991) instead. He complains that Parker, who later returned to the film after 15 years, kept enough of his script that he was owed some credit.
It’s arguable how much Stone’s final contribution was, but Parker definitely had his own view on how to make the film work as a music. One of the most noteworthy achievements of Evita was reuniting Webber and Rice after decades of separation. Because of Parker’s 146 changes to the score, they had to rewrite most of the music. Their new song, “You Must Love Me,” was designed as a chance to give Eva Perón more of a sympathetic dynamic. Also, if their Wikipedia page is to be believed, it was also a deliberate push for a Best Original Song Oscar statue.
The story goes that Madonna eventually got the role when she wrote Parker a four-page letter detailing how committed she would be to the role. She also added her music video for “Take a Bow” to prove her capabilities. Parker was game, provided she agreed that they were not going to treat this like a Madonna music video. As someone who had studied Perón by collecting archival information, Parker had the vision to make it more of a political drama akin to his work on Midnight Express (1978).
Recording for the soundtrack started on October 2, 1995, at CTS Studios in London. It took almost four months to complete. One of the bigger issues with this was that because Madonna wasn’t used to working with an orchestra, this meant that there was some confusion. Along with vocal lessons, she gave everything into the performance. The issue was that the first day went so badly that it’s called “Black Monday” due to Madonna being “petrified.” This was because she had to sing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” in front of Webber, who was somebody she greatly admired.
Madonna would take things further when she decided to visit Buenos Aires where Perón was from to talk about her life. The whole filming in Argentina was considered controversial for a variety of reasons. The most noteworthy was that people believed that they would disgrace her image, especially since she was still revered by The Peronist Party. Many scenes required thousands of extras and the production was eventually accepted as a form of expression. Even then, The Government of Argentina released their own film Eva Perón: The True Story (1996) to set the record straight.
With whatever could be said about the film, it did achieve one amazing feat. Madonna personally entered The Guinness Book of World Records for having the most costume changes in cinematic history. This included: 85 costume changes with 39 hats, 45 pairs of shoes, and 56 pairs of earrings. Considering that the whole point of Evita was in part to be fashionable, it makes sense that she would achieve this goal.
During her time filming, she was also pregnant with her first child, Lourdes. While it’s not noticeable in the film, it lead her to have discussions in the press about whether it was more acceptable to be divorced or be a single mother. During the music video for “You Must Love Me,” she hid her pregnant belly behind a piano as well. Also to help her look like a professional actress who worked hard, she created a layer of transparency by sharing her personal diaries during filming with Vanity Fair.
In May 1996, the first trailer was presented at The Cannes Film Festival. Clocking in at 10 minutes, it was met with positive feedback from the likes of Roger Ebert who called it impressive. From there it would enter a platform release, beginning in limited and eventually building to $141 million internationally on a $55 million budget. This wasn’t a terribly successful film, as Dick Tracy grossed $21 million more, not to mention spawned the “Vogue” dance craze.
The reception around Evita was more muddled. “You Must Love Me” was considered one of Madonna’s weaker singles with many believing that it didn’t work out of context. Parker directed a music video for the song, and soon it became clear what the biggest selling point was. Even if it featured excellent work from Antonio Banderas (the first actor to be approved for the film) and Jonathan Pryce, many wanted to see what Madonna could do with a full-on musical. With the b-side “Rainbow High,” “You Must Love Me” was another hit for her career. The soundtrack had two versions, full-length and highlights, which together sold 11 million copies internationally. If you look at Apple Music, you will also see that it’s still one of the bestselling movie soundtracks, often in the Top 50.
Some could argue that if Madonna had any chance at major awards attention, this was it. The reviews were mostly positive, praising her especially for a memorable turn. When it came to the Golden Globes, she would earn a Best Actress in a Musical for Evita and was on her way to some attention at The Academy Awards.
The only issue was that The Academy wasn’t ready for her. If any story was attractive to them, it was the song “You Must Love Me.” It could easily be seen as a return of the great collaboration team Webber and Rice. While they had produced great work in the recent past, they hadn’t worked together in decades and many could see it as supporting their return to a fruitful partnership (it wasn’t). Though yes, anyone arguing that it was an excuse to make them both EGOT’s wasn’t wrong. It would just take another few decades to get there.
With exception to a few technical nominations, Evita didn’t show up too much at The Oscars. With that said, the song was their surefire hit, earning the team an Oscar. It follows in a long line of movie musicals that added a new song to the film just to get an Oscar nomination. As far as this trend goes, this isn’t the worst example of that. Even by Webber’s standards, it doesn’t compare to the forgettable, disposable “Learn to Be Lonely” from The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
Still, with a modest performance at the ceremony, Madonna continued to find ways to be more respected by her peers. Unlike with Dick Tracy and “Sooner or Later,” she took things simple, allowing her vocals to do the hard work. In the process, she did something special by having three of Broadway’s most successful composers earn Oscars off of songs that she sang. While she has yet to get a personal nomination, this was evident that in an alternate world she was not too far off from getting the respect that many believed she deserved. After all, the 90s were her best period as an actress and made many think that she had that potential to be a triple threat. Ironically, this may have been her last great movie, the one where she had the least amount of control over her decisions.
What’s interesting about Evita is that “You Must Love Me” wasn’t just a hit for the movie. It would be incorporated into future productions of the show. While I personally find it jarring, it doesn’t take away too much from what works very well about the show.
If I can get personal, Evita as a movie is not my favorite representation of the source material. I have seen it on stage and was captivated by how it mixed the music with these symbolic dance numbers, where politics and tangos existed in the same choreography. There were things that I admired so much about it as this vibrant romanticism of its subject. With all of this said, I am forever partial to the version with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin, who have a greater dynamic than Madonna and Banderas, working together after thinking they’d never see each other again after Truth or Dare (1991).
The movie feels dull not because of anything it personally achieves. I understand now that part of its draw is that it’s not solely indebted to the stage version. However, it feels like it was made by somebody embarrassed to be making a musical. They took out the rhythmic dynamic of the story, where the songs now were sung without any greater purpose in movement. It feels lacking, overlong, and some of the bombasts feel absent from the soundtrack. It’s good if you know absolutely nothing about the Broadway version, but for me, it’s too stuffy. While it may be the most successful adaptation of a Webber musical (still ever), it’s still not a version that defines what’s great about this story, one of my personal favorites. Madonna is fine. Again, I’d love Lupone or somebody with theater chops, but you get what you get sometimes.
Evita cemented the potential of Madonna as an ultimate threat to pop culture writ large. With another Oscar-winning song to her credit, her image renovation proved to be a great success. She was going to enter the end of the decade with something that she arguably didn’t have at the start: deeper respect from her peers. She had proven that she could do anything and make it more than shocking fodder. With that said, she would return to pop music after a three-year hiatus with her final album of the decade. It would also be one of her most vital and essential in her entire career. What “Ray of Light” lied beyond the success of becoming a mother and an acting superstar? There’s only one way to find out.
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