Liner Notes · No. 021
"Material Girl" by Madonna: the B-side
Quick hall pass: a song about rejecting diamonds became a Duff sisters movie, a Macy's clothing line and a Glee mashup. Nobody read past the title. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- The Moulin Rouge! soundtrack credits "Sparkling Diamonds" to Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, Caroline O'Connor, Natalie Mendoza and Lara Mulcahy. Five people to cover one Material Girl. (Slant)
- The Duff sisters' soundtrack single wasn't "Material Girl." It was Hilary's "Play with Fire." (Wikipedia)
- Glee's mashup landed on Glee: The Music, The Complete Season Four. (Wikipedia)
- At Coachella 2026, Madonna noted she'd first played Confessions on a Dance Floor in America in Coachella's dance tent, 20 years earlier. Tent to trap door in two decades. (JamBase)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
A movie, a mall and a Glee club
The song got its own Duff sisters movie, a Macy's clothing line and a Glee mashup.
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The movie: In 2006, Hilary and Haylie Duff starred in Material Girls, as cosmetics-heiress sisters who lose their fortune in a corporate scandal. It's loosely based on the song. The sisters recorded their own cover, and it plays at the start of the movie. An entire feature film greenlit off a song title. Somewhere a studio executive is still waiting for Walk This Way: The Movie.
The mall: You saw the pop-up about the Macy's line. The fine print: it launched on August 3, 2010, in 200 stores and online, designed by Madonna and her daughter Lourdes, with Taylor Momsen as the face of the line. A song about turning down the money, sold by the rack. The irony came in juniors sizes.
The choir room: Glee, Season 4, "Girls (and Boys) on Film," aired March 7, 2013. The New Directions girls, led by Marley (Melissa Benoist) and Unique (Alex Newell), sing a "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" / "Material Girl" mashup. It was based on a version from a 2001 movie. Show choirs: still borrowing homework from the kid one row over.
Which 2001 movie? Quiz time.
Which 2001 movie mashed "Material Girl" together with Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- The tour that made it an encore, and the Detroit concert tape that went platinum.
- Britney before the kiss, Nicole Kidman on a swing, and the Duff sisters' opening number.
- Madonna in 2026: a Coachella surprise with Sabrina Carpenter and Confessions II at #1.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
The encore that went platinum on VHS
The Virgin Tour encore went from Seattle to Madison Square Garden in two months, and the Detroit show went platinum on VHS.
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The tour: The Virgin Tour, her first, opened in Seattle on April 10, 1985, with "Material Girl" as the encore, and wrapped at Madison Square Garden on June 11, 1985. Two months from a theater in Seattle to the Garden. Most of us took longer to learn to parallel park.
The tape: The Detroit show from May 25, 1985, came out on home video that November as Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour. It topped Billboard's music video sales chart and went platinum. Platinum. On VHS. Tracking lines and all.
The comeback: The song returned on the Re-Invention Tour in 2004, its last outing for years, per a 2008 write-up. Twenty years after the encore, still in the set. Your 1985 Members Only jacket did not get a second tour.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
Britney, Nicole Kidman, the Duffs and Glee
Britney on tour, Nicole Kidman on a swing in Moulin Rouge!, the Duff sisters and Glee. Vote below.
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- 1999 · Britney Spears. She performed it on her first headline tour, the ...Baby One More Time Tour. Four years before the kiss. Practice makes perfect.
- 2001 · Nicole Kidman and the Moulin Rouge! cast. As the quiz spoiled, Kidman's Satine makes her entrance on a swing singing "Sparkling Diamonds," the "Diamonds" / "Material Girl" medley. The exact pairing Madonna's video made in 1985, now with a swing. Upgrades.
- 2006 · Hilary and Haylie Duff. Recorded for the Material Girls soundtrack, where it opens the movie. It was not released as a single. Even the soundtrack picked another song.
- 2013 · The Glee cast. Melissa Benoist and Alex Newell's mashup, based on the Moulin Rouge! version. A cover of a cover of a remake. Glee in one sentence.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Material Girl" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where Madonna is now
A reported 1.6 million fans on Copacabana Beach, a Coachella surprise in 2026 and a #1 album with Confessions II. No tour announced.
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The beach: The Celebration Tour had been postponed after Madonna was hospitalized with a serious bacterial infection in June 2023. It ended on May 4, 2024, with a free show on Copacabana Beach in Rio. Live Nation, citing Rio's tourism agency, put the crowd at 1.6 million, beating the Rolling Stones' 2006 record there.
The trap door: On April 17, 2026, Madonna rose through the stage during Sabrina Carpenter's second-weekend Coachella headline set. They did "Vogue" and "Like a Prayer" and debuted a new song, "Bring Your Love." Forty-one years after this video, still making entrances you didn't see coming. Your knees heard "rose through the stage" and filed a complaint.
The album: On July 3, 2026, Confessions II came out on Warner Records, her original label, produced with Stuart Price. It's her 15th studio album and her first since 2019's Madame X. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with about 134,000 units, and became her 13th UK #1. Thirteen. Most artists would frame one.
The tour: None announced. Her manager Guy Oseary told Variety "I'm not sure yet."
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