If you are a Madonna fan on the Internet (see also: a PAPER Magazine reader), you have probably come across the work of Martín Diaz over the past week.
At 62, the Floridian became a viral sensation with his emotive lipsyncs on TikTok and Reels, which gained additional traction on Twitter as part of a multi-platform global takeover of sorts. His videos are characterized most by their no-frills immediacy — just Diaz feeling his fantasy, either in his room or often a beach, to the music of Britney or Gaga or often Lana (I love this one to her unreleased cut “Never Let Me Go”). But mostly Madonna, whose merch he’s often sporting and whose lipsync videos he typically captions #Queen.
“I haven’t had time to process it all, to tell you the truth,” he says of his newfound viral fame. “I’ve always loved to entertain, ever since I was a little kid. My daddy used to show me off to his friends...I’ve always had that in me.”
He recalls being in high school when he first encountered Madonna, who he dubs the “number one diva.” He was doing the dishes, listening to the radio, when “Holiday” came on. “It was love at first sight.” From there, he became a card-carrying fan, rapturously following along for the star’s meteoric rise during the 80s and her radical artistic innovations throughout the 90s.
But it wasn’t until nearly the turn of the century when Madonna’s music began to take on a new dimension for him, something more elemental, even spiritual.
“I lived a life of excess. I love partying and dancing and everything that came with the 80s and 90s,” Diaz says of that time, the “everything” referring to the sorts of drug habits that enable constant debauchery long surpassing the sunrise. He hit his breaking point in 1998, checking himself into rehab for his addiction. Also that year? A little album called Ray of Light.
“It was like my mother, Madonna, was sitting there telling me it was going to be okay,” he says of his first experience with the landmark album, which he would listen to on the beach as he worked through his recovery. “It was a release…letting go of the bad stuff and having this woman become a spiritual guide to me. I quoted her the first time I shared my story at a [Narcotics Anonymous] meeting.” (The specific quote was “The Power of Good-Bye”’s chorus, which he connected to his own experience moving on from addiction: “there’s nothing left to lose / there’s no more heart to bruise / there’s no greater power / than the power of good-bye.”)
Since then, he’s made it his mission to lean into the unmitigated joy he gets from the Queen. He’s seen her live eight times, starting with the Drowned World Tour, during which he says he “sat there in silence, meditated, and thanked her for helping [him] heal.” One thing he singles out about her live performances is what he dubs her “Madonna moments,” when she taps into pop divinity and transcends human form, “transfixing us with her art.”
Those Madonna moments are the thing Diaz is hoping to channel with his videos, though he admits he was nervous to touch her discography when he first started posting, opting instead for the safer waters of Taylor or Dua. “I didn’t think I could do her justice, and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. But then one day I did, and it was just…in me. I’ve had her in me since 1982, and it exploded.”
As with the rest of us, he’s in a state of constant jubilee over the Confessions II rollout, with its seemingly endless string of career highlights. “I Feel So Free” is his favorite (#SafetyInNumbersSummer!!!!), though he’s enamored with everything so far and has a soft spot for “Bring Your Love,” whose intro has given him his most viral moments. Those videos (of which there are, seemingly, four thousand) feature him lip-syncing the last bit of the intro, where Madonna says “Sabrina…” and Sabrina replies “Madonna…” and laughs before Madonna says “I got something I wanna talk about.” He’s only lipsyncing Madonna’s parts (he loves Sabrina, he assures me, but she is not the number one diva after all), practically begging for a duet partner to fill in the blanks — which the Internet has offered him in spades.
One thing he always does lip-sync, though, is Sabrina’s laugh. “I can’t help it!” he offers as a defense. “It’s so giggly and girly, and I’m like, I’m a girl!”
We asked him some obligatory questions to cover our bases, the answers to which are as follows: his favorite tour he’s seen is Confessions, his favorite album is Like a Virgin (with a nod to American Life), and it is generally considered rude to ask a gay man his favorite Madonna song.
With all his newfound fame, Diaz has no plans to change anything he’s doing: “I truly believe that we stop shining when we start listening to the noise. And I choose not to listen to the noise.” And why would he? His videos are playing all over the world (including “high-end stores in Milan,” he says), Confessions II is right around the corner, and he’s found himself a Colombian man he’s planning to visit later this year.
“He’s a lot younger than me, so it’s kind of taking a page out of her handbook. If Madonna can do it, so can I.”
Images courtesy of Martin Diaz
