Madonna Went Full Marika and Turned A-ha Into Pure 1985 Camp
Saturday Night Live: take a trip back to 1985, when Madonna slipped into her gloriously over-the-top alter ego Marika and took on A-ha’s unforgettable, ridiculously catchy “Take On Me.”
The sketch, titled “El Spectaculare De Marika,” aired on November 9, 1985, when Madonna hosted the Season 11 premiere of Saturday Night Live. Simple Minds were the night’s musical guest, but Madonna still managed to work a little musical chaos of her own into the show.
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Madonna Does SNL, 1985
Revisit the era, the music and one gloriously strange Saturday Night Live detour.
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And Marika was not doing some polite little cover version. Writer Robert Smigel later recalled that the sketch was built around a mash-up of “Take On Me” and “La Bamba,” with Jon Lovitz, Damon Wayans and Smigel himself among the backing singers. Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch also helped write the bit.
It is one of those wonderfully specific pieces of mid-’80s television where Madonna, A-ha, faux variety-show glamour and SNL weirdness all somehow wind up in the same room. If you like to reminisce about a decade like the ’80s, this is exactly the kind of oddball television artifact worth digging back up.
Madonna as Marika Sings “Take On Me” on SNL in 1985
Watch Madonna’s Marika sketch from her November 9, 1985 Saturday Night Live hosting appearance.
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Sources: Saturday Night Live archive and Vanity Fair. Video presentation: INYIM Media.
