player. Bill Meyers, who played piano during the recording, recalled that the song required only one take from Beatty. "Vogue" closes out the album and is musically different from the rest of the tracks. It is a dance number consisting of a "throbbing beat" and lyrically has a theme of escapism. The song talks about Vogueing, a dance form which reproduced poses from high-fashion modelling. The song also has a rap section, where Madonna names various "golden era" Hollywood celebrities, including Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich. Promotion Madonna first performed "Vogue" during her Blond Ambition tour (April–August 1990), followed by the September 6 performance at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, clad in 18th-century-inspired fashions. Madonna's performance recreated the royal court of Marie Antoinette, dripping with sexual innuendo; at one point the singer flipped open her large skirt, allowing one of the dancers to crawl inside. Her dancer Carlton Wilborn explained that "[such] level of production had never been done on MTV. The costumes, the fans, the drama... MTV just had no idea, we just came out and rocked." O'Brien described the performance as a "moment of inspired brilliance", while Taraborrelli noted it as a "classic, camp show that elevated the standards of future performances on that program". It was later ranked by Billboard as the sixth best performance in the history of the award show. At the 1991 Academy Awards, Madonna appeared with singer Michael Jackson as her date and performed "Sooner or Later". According to journalist Liz Smith, Madonna had promised to perform at the award show if either "Sooner or Later" or "More" was nominated in the Best Original Song category. She wore a long, tight, white dress designed by Bob Mackie and covered in sequins and pearls. On her neck she wore $20 million worth of jewelry from Harry Winston. Taraborrelli recalled that Madonna had appropriated every move and mannerisms of Marilyn Monroe for the performance, making it a tribute to the actress. When she appeared onstage, there was technical difficulty resulting in the microphone not rising from below the stage, and a stage-hand passing it to her. Billboard ranked it as the seventh "most awesome" Oscar performance of all time, saying that "Madonna gave a performance that took us back to the glamorous days of old Hollywood." Tour I'm Breathless, alongside Madonna's previous album, Like a Prayer, was majorly promoted in Madonna's third