Madonna in Her ‘Ray of Light’ Era: Revisit the Best Photos Ahead of ‘Veronica Electronica’

The Veronica Electronica remix project of Madonna‘s Ray of Light arrives on Friday. Originally considered as a name for the 1998 album, Veronica Electronica features eight edits of songs from the album and comes 27 years after Ray of Light‘s release.

The original album’s campaign put Madonna, as ever, into the center of cultural consciousness, with the superstar making a barrage of appearances and performing music from the album on television and awards shows ranging from The Rosie O’Donnell Show to Top of the Pops to The Oprah Winfrey Show and the 1998 Academy Awards, where she presented the Oscar for best original song and mingled with fellow icons including Cher, Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple on the red carpet.

Madonna’s appearance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, on Sept. 10 of that year, was dominated by the “Ray of Light” video, a clip that was such a big deal, it got a limited-edition release on VHS. (Flipping between quick-cut edits of scenes from life on Earth and Madonna dancing, it remains one of the most iconic music videos of all time.)

The video won four awards (video of the year, best female video, best direction in a video and best choreography in a video), with the night also seeing Madonna — who by this point had flipped her blond hair from the album cover into a dark brown — perform the song alongside Lenny Kravitz and a gaggle of dancers. The performance expanded Ray of Light’s thrust of electronic music into the mainstream by presenting the fashion and dancing of this musical subculture to the global audience tuned in to the VMAs.

Through this swirl of appearances, Madonna presented some of her now most iconic looks, from the silky turquoise blue top of the album’s cover, shot by famed photographer Mario Testino, to the red Jean Paul Gaultier kimono she wore while accepting her and Ray of  Light‘s Grammy for best pop album and the white tank top and purple trousers she changed into later in the evening.

See photos of Madonna during the Ray of Light era below.