Help me to meet her! New Video: “Crazy”

Posted on November 9, 2023 by iwillmeetmadonna

Hello everyone! I am starting this post by asking for your help in sharing this video with as many people as possible. This way, Queen Mother Madonna can invite me to be the Ballroom Judge, and my friend Diego as a Guest Ballroom Dancer during her Celebration Tour.

We, of course, are not crazy, and this song is just a love declaration for Madonna. Actually, for those who don’t know me yet, I’m Fabio Viana, 43 years old, Dutch-born in Brazil, and a Marketing Teacher at a university in the Netherlands. I’ve been running the campaign “I Will Meet Madonna” since 2012 and have made 54 videos so far in 22 countries (Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Panama, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, The Netherlands, Vatican, United Kingdom, and United States). Also, I will apply for some records in the Guinness Book, such as: fan who has made the most videos (54) to meet his idol; fan who made the most videos in different countries (22); fan who made the most videos (54) with the most songs (68) in a campaig; and fan who runs the longest campaign (11 years) to meet his idol.

My friend Diego Giuliarini, on the other hand, is a 51-year-old IT Manager from Rome. He is one of the biggest Madonna fans in the world and has attended more than 100 of her concerts, starting from the “Who’s That Girl Tour” in 1987. The only tour he missed was “The Virgin Tour” in 1985. He is such a fan that at his wedding, he hired a Madonna impersonator and sang Madonna songs with her for hours throughout the entire night, complete with choreography and various outfits. Diego is also a performer, having been part of music videos for Italian pop stars. As you can see at the end of the video, he sang and danced Vogue, with a friend back in 1990.

This video is also special because it shows my friendship with him. Diego is like a brother to me, and he is one of the biggest supporters of my campaign. This is the 9th video out of the 54 I’ve made so far for my campaign in which he participates. Previously, he appeared in Ghosttown, Crave, Isaac, Deeper and Deeper, Sorry, Papa Don’t Preach, Love Spent, and Dress You Up.

Speaking of the video, “Crazy” is a special song for me because it’s one of the songs where Madonna speaks my native language, Portuguese 🙂 In this video, I ask people from 5 different countries (United States, France, Ireland, Peru, and Bolivia) to help me meet her. Besides asking for donations to help me buy tickets to go to her concert, the idea is also to show that I am not ashamed to demonstrate my love and commitment to Queen Mother Madonna.

So, once again, I’m asking for the help of everyone who is reading this to share this video, send it to Madonna’s team, and help make my dream come true. Thank you very much!

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10 years of campaign (and new video to celebrate it)!!

Posted on May 6, 2022 by iwillmeetmadonna

10 years ago I started one of the longest projects that I’ve been involved with: my video campaign to meet Madonna! Being a fan since 1984, when I first saw her singing “Dress You Up” during the Virgin Tour, this campaign is a life achievement actually. I met so many people, had so much fun and my videos are also therapeutic for me when I am having a bad day: I just watch some of them and laugh thinking about the story behind each of them. Regardless of not (yet) properly meeting Madonna (not counting the number of times that she interacted with me during her concerts – talking or holding my hand), I still believe in one day meeting her to thank her for all the joy, hope and courage that she brought to my life (of course that there are so many other things that I would like to talk to her). And I’m going to apply for the Guiness Book of the Record for the following achievements:

  • Longest campaign to meet an idol (10 years)
  • Most videos made for a campaign to meet an artist: #53 up to now
  • Most number of countries in a video campaign to meet an artist (23): Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bolivia, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United States, Vatican City, Thailand, The Netherlands.

Celebrating this milestone, I’ve decided to make the video of one my favorite Madonna’s song: Beautiful Stranger. I still remember when I surprisingly listened to it in 1999, when actually I was waiting for the video/single from Skin, which was supposed to be the last single of Ray of Light. And I fell in love with it and I have been continuously listening to this song up to today. Originally, this video was supposed to have a mix of the demo and the original version, produced by William Orbit. But since Madonna announced her new collection “Finally Enough Love” featuring the Calderone Radio Mix, I’ve decided to re-edit the video with it (fun fact: while editing it, I realized that Madonna vocals on remix are 5% faster than the original one – so I had also to speed up my footage to have a perfect sync).

Finally, this video was recorded last January in Cumbuco Beach, in Brazil, with my specials guests: my fiancée Daniel Schepers and my sister, Fabiana Viana.

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Don’t Cry For Me Argentina in Buenos Aires

Posted on February 28, 2022 by iwillmeetmadonna


Before telling you a bit of the story behind this video, I’d like to explain my absence here. Since April 2020, I’ve been mentally recovering from several homophobic attacks that unfortunately I suffered in Amsterdam, where I live. The seriousity of the attacks were so intense that, without saving words, I’ve been almost murdered twice. The main reason of the attacks was for the simple fact that people got “offended” by the fact that I walk holding my fiance’s hand.

This is just unbelievable, especially in a city like Amsterdam (once named as the “gay capital of the world”) that I suffered 9 attacks from April 2020 until June 2021. This whole situation has been so surreal for me, that suddenly we saw ourselves on newspapers and everywhere on Internet – something that we were not proud of at all. I felt ashamed, humiliated.

I have always been joking that if someday I would like to be famous, it would be only in order to call Madonna’s attention and finally meet her – without paying for it: but because I fought for it, with my creativity, determination and uplifting videos – which is something that no one has ever made in the way I have been doing, for THE LAST TEN YEARS.

Next month, I will celebrate 10 years of iwillmeetmadonna campaign and I won’t give up. This campaign has became something really important for me, not just to meet her (well, hope is always there), but especially for being a way to express myself, to be myself, to be happy. And now, more than ever, to relieve pain.

So, this video is the beginning of the celebration of the 10th anniversary of my campaign. “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” has been always a video that I wanted to shoot in Argentina. It really shows me enjoying the music on my own, on my way and being happy just on listening to Madonna. This is my 52th video !!!! Can you believe it? It was recorded last month in Buenos Aires, so it is really fresh. The funny thing is because in the scenes recorded at the Recoletta Cemetery, where Evita is buried, and also in the Floralis (the metal flower sculpture), I am wearing a “Never Give Up” t-shit, that has been my motto not only for this campaign, as well as for my whole life.

Also, it is a good timing for uploading it now because of the 25 years celebration of the single “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”, with the digital single now out everywhere (listen/download: https://m.lnk.to/DCFMA ). I remember back in 1997, listening to this remix everywhere am I was dazzled on listening to Madonna singing in Spanish again 🙂

Well, that’s it for now and I hope that you guys enjoy the video. And for next month, I still have more surprises to celebrate the 10 years of my campaign. God bless you all!

Fábio

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Ghosttown with Fans (and my marriage proposal video)

Posted on April 3, 2020 by iwillmeetmadonna

Despite those hard days, this video is a celebration of life and love! I believe it is one of the most beautiful ones I’ve made in my life. Honestly, not only for the amazing performance of the fans, but also because it has a special meaning for me: it is my marriage proposal!!!! Watch it until the end and you will find out how I did it 🙂 Soon, I will publish the reaction of my boyfriend, because when we watched it together, he thought that it was just another video from my campaign 🙂

It’s a celebration of life, in the middle of this global corona crisis. My idea was to show how us, Madonna fans, are dealing with this whole situation. You are going to watch 34 fans from 18 countries living their life and facing the crisis on their way. But all of them are united by our passion to Madonna, who inspires us with her art, especially in those days of quarantine, when we are staying at home.

This video is also a celebration of 8 years of campaign “I Will Meet Madonna.com”.  Besides, it is my 51st video and the first time that I make a whole new video of the same song. It took me more than 100 hours to edit it. My shoulders are really fucked up for standing hours in front of the computer. But it was worth it. Also, It was only possible to make it during the night and weekends, because luckily, I am quite busy working from home.

Last but not least, it is a celebration of my love to my beautiful boyfriend. Today we are celebrating 3 years together.  I LOVE YOU MORE EVERY DAY!

And again, THANKS to all fans who made this video possible:

And THANKS to Madonna, my hero!

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Madonna reposted my Ghosttown video!

Posted on April 3, 2020 by iwillmeetmadonna

WhatsApp Image 2020-04-03 at 19.09.38

But the truth is MADONNA REPOSTED MY VIDEO ON HER INSTAGRAM STORIES AGAIN! I feel so happy – every time this happens is a recognition to the endless editing hours and also to my campaign. For me, to have the video reposted has also a special reason: it was my 50th video.

Speaking of 50th, in the past I mentioned that I would apply for the Guinness Book of the records. The thing is that I should pay to create a new category, since there is no “Fan who has made most videos with the intention to meet an idol (on this case, Madonna, of course). I will save money and do it soon.

Actually, I should have posted this earlier, since she reposted it on the 27th of March, but despite the quarantine, I’m quite busy working from home. Also, during my spare time, I was also quite busy editing the 2nd version of Ghosttown – now with 34 fans from 18 countries!!!

THANK YOU my queen!

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8 YEARS OF CAMPAIGN!

Posted on March 31, 2020 by iwillmeetmadonna

EXACTLY 8 YEARS AGO, I STARTED THIS CAMPAIGN WITH THIS VIDEO! At the beginning, I was just making videos, without any editing, on the most unusual and unexpected situations around the world to call the attention of Madonna. But video is something that I really love and my friends kept pushing me to use my editing skills and make more elaborated videos…

8 years later here I am with the RECORD OF 50 VIDEOS published since March 31st from 2012! I’m also applying for the Guinness Book of the Records for holding the record as the fan who has made most videos with the intention to meet an idol. And of course that Madonna deserves any single night that I haven’t slept editing videos, any single hour of the more than 5,000 hours of editing.

She deserves this and all the rest because she is my HERO and represents HOPE for me, especially during these times. And to celebrate, for the first time, I am making a video of a song that I have already made a video – and this one is Ghosttown with almost 40 FANS from almost 20 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES!

Stay tuned and STAY SAFE AT HOME!

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Ghosttown in Amsterdam

Posted on March 26, 2020 by iwillmeetmadonna

Amsterdam, 2020. This is our wake up call. We must be at home, and the countries, the city, for our safety, unfortunately should stay like a ghost town. I never thought that my 50th video on my campaign to meet Madonna would be made under this global crisis. This also makes me produce, for the first time, a second version video. I call you up, fans from all countries, to be part of my #fanversion of Ghosttown. Please reach me out on DM.

In addition to my new video, since the beginning of the year, I am a Lecturer in Digital Marketing at The Hague University of Applied Sciences Right now, all of us are facing the challenges with the corona crisis. However, us teachers are doing our best to provide the best online education during these days of quarantine. We are improvising recording studios at the kitchen, living room and bedrooms at home and taking care of our beloved ones. See the video below I made for my students. Please, also do your part. Please, stay at home. Stay safe!

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Madonna, you’re the one WE Crave!

Posted on July 26, 2019 by iwillmeetmadonna

Madonna, you’re the one we crave. At this time, I managed to put together 26 fans (including myself) from 14 different countries on my 49th video! For those who remember, I had a similar experience back to 2012, coincidentally with with Madonna fans from also 14 different countries, on my Miles Away video.

This video is a continuation of my I Rise video. After performing for the first time as a drag queen, which took me more than 9 hours of recording, including a live performance on a gay club, I felt relieved and emotional. So I asked my boyfriend and my brother in law to capture all of that raw emotion. I really cried and it was because I felt exhausted, but most of all relieved and with the feeling of mission accomplished. It was also really intense, because of me coming from the most homophobic country in the world, Brazil, and feeling good for have had this experience as drag. It was like healing a childhood trauma (of my mother freaking out that someday I could dress up like a woman) and also feeling completely confident with myself.

Actually, I never had the desire to be a drag. I do respect and LOVE the drag community but it is just not my thing. I like to be a drag watcher, and not a performer. And because of this and being out of my comfort zone, the accomplishments feeling was even better. I’ve never felt so proud of myself. And the nice thing is that my boyfriend was supporting me since the very beginning, either being with me on stage, on the video or helping as cameraman. I love you Daniel, every day more and more!

I  also loved the final result, but I must confess that I almost gave up making this video. It was really hard to edit. The first problem was about the footage I got: lots of material in low resolution and also framed in the vertical. But I didn’t give up and was insisting with my fellow Iconers to have everything in the right way.

However, this was nothing compared to the nightmare I had one month ago, when my computer completely crashed. I panicked because I hadn’t made a backup. After days trying to repair it, I managed to recover the original files and at least part of the video project. I felt really like dealing with one of those thousand pieces puzzles. I t was so hard to assemble it, that I had some nights without to sleep and even thought about to make something simple or even give up. But it came exactly like I thought: a celebration of union, pride, love and friendship. I was also a proof that fans can support each other.

When the video cuts to Dark Ballet, it is really on purpose, because the majority of the fans on this video (if not all) are part of the LGBTQ+ community and we’ve been dealing with prejudice everyday. We are here as fairies, not as witches. We believe in our dreams and we crave Madonna, definitely.

I’d also like to thank all of you who made this video possible:

Fans:

Cameras:

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Madonna reposted a video of mine again!!!

Posted on July 20, 2019 by iwillmeetmadonna

Time goes by for those who wait 🙂

Yesterday Madonna reposted on her Instagram stories a video of mine for the second time! When I saw on Thursday that she was rehearsing Rescue Me for the Madame X tour, I couldn’t believe that we are going to finally watch the performance of this song live! So I decided to celebrate it posting a piece of my Rescue Me video on Instagram, and for my surprise, I got a message that the queen herself had shared it.

I’ve gotten TONS of messages on Facebook and Instagram, and all of them really positive. People showed happiness and empathy with my dream 😉 And the nice thing about Madonna posting this video was also a sort of recognition on how difficult was to make it real.

The nice thing of my campaign is that I dream a lot and I manage to make those dreams into reality. All of my videos come exactly how I imagined. And sometimes my ideas are a bit difficult to make it real, like in this video.

When I thought about Rescue Me, I literally thought about someone rescuing me from a skyscraper 🙂 So, I was in Brazil and talked to my ex brother in law who is a firemen colonel. I asked him if there was some way that a fire brigade could rescue me from a skyscraper. At first, he laughed without to believe in what I was asking, but afterwards he saw how committed I am and decided to help me. He told me that the ex boyfriend of my young sister was running a security/rescue company and that he could put me in contact with him. This was sort of funny because I used to be really jealous about my sisters boyfriends and there was I, swallowing my pride and asking help to one of them. He accepted to help me :)

The next challenge would be to find a skyscraper who could accept this adventure. Five buildings denied my request, mostly arguing that it could be either dangerous or motivating people to commit suicide (hello????). But I didn’t give up and went to a famous business tower of my hometown, Fortaleza city in Brazil. Note: I told them that I was a Marketing consultant and was making an experiment about security equipments to rescue people from skyscrapers. If I would tell that it would be a video from my campaign to meet Madonna, I am sure that they wouldn’t tale me seriously. After 2 formal requests, with the help of my ex brothers in law, I got an YES! But with the condition that it would be on a Sunday morning when people wouldn’t be there working.

Guys I was literally scared, sweating and shaking as you can see on my video. I had to be really focused because:

– First, I should learn how to descend the skyscraper with the security equipment (you can see that I failed sometimes during the video, even hanging upside and down).
– I should control the rope while I was descending and be able to sing at the same time
– I should keep myself calm, remember Rescue Me lyrics and be sure that my headphones wouldn’t fall
– And finally: don’t look down!

The good thing is that I am not scared of heights, but it was breathtaking.

In the end, I managed to record my video and the QUEEN herself posted yesterday. But she has been rescuing me since 1985.

NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS!

PS: I am still editing my version for Crave, at this time with more than 20 Madame X fans on the video as well. I hope to publish it soon!

AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE NICE MESSAGES!
 

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I Rise like a Rainbow High

Posted on May 15, 2019 by iwillmeetmadonna

What it feels like for a girl? I Rise like a Rainbow High!

I don’t know how to start writing here. This video was definitely the biggest challenge on this journey to meet Madonna so far. I just remember having my legs shaking before to go on stage. After my performance, I cried a lot. I thought about my homeland, Brazil, that the thing that my mom was most scared of was me being gay and dressing like a woman. Actually this is the first thought that crosses the thought of most of the parents when “they fear” that their son is gay: “OMG, my son is going to dress like a woman”.

I must tell you that I didn’t feel anything different, dressed like Madame X. During the last years, I’ve been working a lot on myself. And I must tell you that I am cured. I am healed of any kind of reminiscent prejudice that I had from my past. Actually, the worst thing of being a drag queen was walking on high heels. My feet were bleeding later. It took almost 3 hours for having my make up done. The drag team of Haus of ThomTom, in Nijmegen, here in The Netherlands, was amazing. What those guys do is art: lots of time with rehearsals, preparing clothes, make up and also dealing with prejudice.

We got lots of positive reactions, while recording on the streets of Nijmegen. But we also got quite bad reactions and I must tell you that our team was also a bit sadly surprised: some people passed by and spit on our direction, threw beer cans out of car windows onwards our direction, verbal harassments…but we were there. We were rising, despite any kind of intolerance that we could face. And the funny fact it’s that the Netherlands is one of, if not, the most gay friendly countries in the world.

I first thought about this video like one year ago. Last December, during a dinner with my friend Willem (the drag Miss Meggie), I shared with him that I would love to make a video dressed like a drag, but I didn’t know if I would have the confidence and courage. So, back to Madame X times, we’ve all heard that apparently Madonna has recorded a video with a team of Drag Queens. My inspiration came back and I couldn’t find a better opportunity to bring the message of “I Rise”. In the end of the month, I’m going to be 39 years old and I can proudly share that I healed most of my gay traumas before my 40th year of life.

And the best of all of this, it’s that nothing in this video would be reality without the support of my angel, my prince, my love, my boyfriend Daniel. I also got dazzled how people could help me on this video FOR FREE. I’m out of budget and I don’t even know how I am going to manage to buy Madame X tour tickets, but my friends were so wiling to help me, they got so infected by my enthusiasm, that I could only cry after seeing the final result of this drag masterpiece.

Finally, I’d like to share the credits of my team of almost 20 people HELPING ME on my dream to meet Madonna, spreading her message of equality, tolerance and love. THANK YOU A LOT!

Xtra special thanks to Haus of ThomTom  @hausofthomtom

Drag Queens:

Madame X: Fábio Viana 
@iwillmeetmadonna
Miss Meggie: William 
@peggiemeggiepegmeg
Tom Tompuss: Tom van Zitteren 
@t.tom.puss
Lexie-Lolli Pop: Sander Konings 
@lexi_lollipopp
Titt McPfeiffer: Kevin van Zundert 
@tittymcpfeiffer
Drag King: 
Justin Alfa: Lizanne Silvertant 
@lizzie961

Drag X:
Mx Flo: Floris van de Bulck

Visual Effects: Lugão Naretto

Cameras:
Brandon Schepers
Daniel Schepers
Emily Salvia
Leon Wesdijk

Boyfriend:
Daniel Schepers

Makeup:
Tom van Zitteren
Sander Konings
Pascal Boerboom

Costumes/Accessories:
Miss Meggie (“Rainbow High” coat and headscarf)
Fabrícia Viana (socks)
Fabiana Viana (bra)
Daniel Schepers (Madame X short paints)
Fábio Viana (all the rest)

Shoes:
Tom van Zitteren

Assistants:
Gérard Platenburg
Leon Wesdijk
Pieter Tigelaar

Props:
Fábio Viana
Phil Gaster

Choreography: Fábio Viana

DJ ThomTom: Gérard Platenburg

Creative Producer: Fábio Viana

Editing: Fábio Viana

Post-Production:
Fábio Viana
Lugão Naretto

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