It all began with a Demo

Here’s an interesting interview with Donna De Lory in which she tells “how it all began”.
It comes from an issue of the Philadelphia weekly from a while ago.

Donna De Lory has been a backup singer/dancer for Madonna in all her performances since the 1988 “Who’s That Girl?” tour.

How did you begin working with Madonna?

When I did a demo for “Open Your Heart,” the producer Madonna was working with at the time called and said, “I love your voice and I want to work with you.” At the audition we went up three girls at a time. It was a really hard part to sing and really hard to blend, and I was thinking, “This is horrible, I just want to be able to sing by myself.” And then the producer stopped us and said, “Madonna and Donna, sing the bridge of “La Isla Bonita” together.” Madonna had her back to me, and was really annoyed and said, “Why aren’t you singing?” The producer said, “She was singing. You guys blend perfectly.” So she just kind of made a face and said, “Well, will you sing on all my records?”

What makes you work so well together?

I know she appreciates me. She knows she can trust me. I’m never going to say anything bad about her in an interview, the confidentiality is there.

What’s your favorite Madonna album?

I don’t know, maybe Like a Prayer.

Song?

Umm … actually, “Live to Tell” is my favorite Madonna song.

Which tour did you enjoy the most?

Blond Ambition, because we were doing the movie [Truth or Dare], and it was so exciting.

How much input do you and the other dancers have during rehearsals?

A lot. We’ve been onstage with her at so many shows that even the choreographer doesn’t know all the dances we’ve done. Sometimes he’ll give us a move and we’ll say, “We did it already in ’90.”

Your style on Bliss [Her Own Band] is much different than the dance album you made in the mid-’90s. What made you move more toward a spiritual type of sound?

I did a record on MCA in ’93, and then I got out of my deal and started recording my own stuff. Then I met Cameron Stone, who’s a cellist, and we started writing music together. That’s the musical influence, that and traveling around the world and being exposed to a lot of world percussion and exotic sounds.

Junior Vasquez did a remix of one of your songs, are you staying in touch with dance music?

I want to do more remixes for dance clubs. On my next record I’m probably going to have one or two songs that will be dance songs because of the way I’ll record them.

Do you think it will be hard to get people to focus on your music and not your image because of your work with Madonna?

I know that I could be very visual in the way Sade is. The focus is more on her music, her style and her mood. That’s what I’d like to be known for. When I first started working with Madonna, it was like, “I want to be the biggest star in the world, too. I want to be just like her. I want to wear great clothes like her.” Then I realized that’s not the most important thing.

Interview by Holly Mack-Ward
Source: Philadelphia weekly