Madonna performs ‘This Used to Be My Playground’ live for the first time – Billboard

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Fans attending Madonna’s Celebration Tour stop in Chicago on Friday night (Feb. 2) got to hear something the Queen of Pop has never done before: perform her No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit from 1992, “This Used to Be My Playground.” (Well, at least a little).

He song was written by Madonna and Shep Pettibone for the 1992 film Your own league. Madonna co-starred in the baseball comedy-drama as “All the Way” Mae Mordabito, and the song played over the film’s closing credits. Until last night, it was the only one of her 12 Hot 100 number one hits that she had never performed live.

During the concert at The United Center, Madonna reminisced about filming the movie, which was a fictional story about the real-life All-American Women’s Professional Baseball League.

“I hope you remember,” he told the audience, “I made a movie called Your own league, and I had to learn to play baseball in this city. I was here for months! And… at first I was a little bad, but I got good. I got good at it. Until the end Mae, that’s how it is. Remember her? I learned to play baseball in this damn town! And do you remember the song? While we take a trip down memory lane in my retrospective (show).

She then sang a few lines, a cappella, from the beginning of “This Used to Be My Playground,” with the help of the crowd, and told the audience, “Aww, bless you,” after they joined her. She then joked: “I thought only 10 of you would know. Turns out 20 of you knew it. I’m kidding.”

“I have very good memories of this city, just saying,” he said.

In addition to topping the Hot 100 for one week in 1992, “Playground” peaked at No. 2 on the Radio Songs chart and No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart. It would also earn a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song. In 2023, it ranked as Madonna’s 19th biggest song of all time on the Hot 100 chart.

Fun fact: in 2019, Billboard asked Madonna to Consider performing three songs on your upcoming Madame X tour. – her three Hot 100 top 10 hits that she, at the time, had never performed live before. They were “This Used to Be My Playground,” “I’ll Remember,” and “Rescue Me.” During preparations for the Madame