Madonna‘s “You Must Love Me,” a song from the film version of Evita, may have won its composers an Oscar when the movie came out, but love wasn’t compulsory for everyone. Thirty years ago this week, Madonna was receiving death threats for even attempting to portray Eva Perón, the musical’s titular Evita, as she was a revolutionary hero to many in her home country of Argentina.
In February 1996, more than four decades after the death of Perón, who was the wife of Argentine President Juan Perón, the onetime first lady still had ardent followers who didn’t like the idea that a film was being made out of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Tony award-winning 1978 musical. Walls between the airport and the city sported graffiti that proclaimed “¡Viva Evita! ¡Fuera Madonna!” (that last line means “Madonna, get out!”).
Perónism, a unique populist political movement, was still strong then (Argentina’s then-president Carlos Menem called the film “a disgrace”), and has echoes in the country today. But even then it was shocking for Variety to report on Jan. 25, before Madonna arrived, that Clara Marin, which the paper reported was one of Perón’s former secretaries, had proclaimed: “We want Madonna dead or alive. If she does not leave I will kill her.”
Freddy DeMann, who managed Madonna, was so worried he told Variety, “I’m one minute away from calling her out of that country.” But he might not have had to even consider that if a Perónist congresswoman got her way. The Washington Post reported at the time that a lawmaker in the country wanted to introduce a bill that would declare Madonna, filmmaker Alan Parker, and everyone else filming the movie in Buenos Aires personas non grata.
Andy Vajna, the film’s producer, called the threats “lies,” and told Variety the country was supporting the film as it would benefit the economy there. “If [Marin] threatened death to Madonna she would have been arrested on the spot,” he said. Nevertheless, upon hearing of the threat, Interior Minister Carlo Figueroa wanted the film to get more security.
Madonna and Jonathan Pryce, who played Juan Perón, in Evita.
Getty Images
The film’s producers and local authorities reacted by increasing security. A cop told the Post, though, that they worried more about Madonna being egged or insulted rather than assaulted.
Madonna, for her part, tried to understand Eva Perón and what she meant to the Argentine people. The Washington Post reported that she met with “septuagenarian Perónists” who’d worked with the former first lady and asked them a battery of questions: “Did she eat chocolates?” the paper reported. “Did she drink whiskey? Coffee? Tea? Did she change dresses often? Did she and Juan Perón exchange glances in public?” Madonna, who is no stranger to controversy, did not address the threats at press conferences for the movie while in the country.
By Feb. 12, a contingent of Madonna’s Argentine fans organized a protest in support of the star. The Associated Press reported at the time that 62 percent of Argentines believed Madonna was right for the role. “I think she is the best actress, and she’s got the right to make it, and nobody has the right to threaten her life or say that they are going to burn her alive, as that lady said she would do,” a fan named Sandra Matos told the newswire. “If that lady is a Perónist and does what Evita would have done, then she should love her neighbors, and follow the example of a good woman instead of threatening Madonna.”
The production ended up successfully filming in Buenos Aires’ federal district, the train station, and, for the showstopper “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” Casa Rosada, the pink house for the office of the president. Menem changed his mind and allowed the latter scene after Madonna met with him and wooed him with her celebrity and by playing him “You Must Love Me,” which Lloyd Webber and Rice wrote specifically for the film. Production later moved to England and Hungary, the latter of which was made to look like Argentina in the picture.
Kurt Loder, in an MTV News report, likely captured Madonna’s attitude about the controversy perfectly in a segment about how the singer was recording vocals for the soundtrack in London. “Some really serious Argentine Perónista idolators have apparently taken to muttering death threats against her, a development of which Madonna is only dimly aware, apparently,” he said, “having been too busy in London to keep up with her death-threat correspondence.”
When the film opened in Argentina, it was met with what the Los Angeles Times described as “raucous demonstrations and vandalism at theaters by political extremists.” The country initially gave the film a muted reception, as moviegoers and Madonna fans were likely both afraid to walk into a theater showing it. Nevertheless, the paper reported that ticket sales were average, comparable to The Rock and Ransom, which came out that year.
In the rest of the world, though, the film was massive hit. In addition to the “You Must Love Me” Oscar, Madonna won a Best Actress award from the Golden Globes in early 1997. “Making this movie was an incredible adventure for me, both artistically and spiritually,” she said in her acceptance speech. “And I learned so much.”
