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TOUR2008

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  1. Which celebs attended Sticky and Sweet ?

    Confessions Tour

    Beyoncé

    Shakria

    Leonardo Dicaprio

    Fran Drescher

    Lucy Liu

    Kelly Ripa

    Nicole Richie

    Paris Hilton

    Gwyneth Paltrow

    Phil Collins

    David Copperfield

    David Blaine

    Kevin Spacey

    Christina Aguilera

    Lindsay Lohan

    Randy Jackson

    Gayle King

    New Jersey governor

    Carmen Electra

    Tara Reid

    Eva Longoria

    Rosie O. Donnell

    Uma Thurman

    Mila Kunis

    Steven Tyler

    Ellen Degeneres

    Portia DiRossi

    Felicity Huffman

    Julia Roberts

    50 Cent

    Michael Schumacher

    Demi Moore

    Chelsea Clinton

    Donna Karan

    Chi Chi La Rue

    Alex Rodriguez

    Kanye West

    Anthony Kiedis

    Ricky Martin

    Michael Bloomberg

    Brittany Murphy

    Willy Wonka

    Jon Corzine -

    Lenny Kravitz

    P. Diddy

    Pedro Almodovar

    Penelope Cruz

    Lionel Richie.

  2. http://seattletimes.com/html/edcetera/2019329521_madonna-concert-seattle.html

    Madonna rocked us as a feminist icon at KeyArena

    Posted by Sharon Pian Chan

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    COLIN DILTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

    There is only one word to say after Madonna's extravaganza, spectacle and concert Tuesday night: Respect.

    Madonna tore it up on the dance floor at the age of 54. She shot her dancers up in a dance sequence rivaling the video game "Call of Duty." She bared her butt — with "Obama" written across her back. But she is nobody's baby.

    For many women, she is the one, the beginning and possibly the end.

    Even rapper Nicki Minaj, in a video segment at the concert, acknowledged, "There is only one queen and that's Madonna."

    Madonna showed us that a woman didn't have to be nice to succeed, even as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to struggle with her icy image. Madonna had children and marriages but was never defined by her partners, unlike Elizabeth Taylor and Angelina Jolie. Madonna is a singer who became a brand. There have been many women who tried to imitate, but fell short: Britney Spears, J. Lo, Lady Gaga. Most importantly, she is a megastar who did not self-destruct, unlike Marilyn Monroe.

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    SHARON PIAN CHAN / SEATTLE TIMES

    Anessa (left) and Christy Novasil

    Some women behave like men to get ahead. They wear pants. They talk like men. Madonna used her sex to succeed, and she did it Tuesday, stripping down to a bra, then pulling her pants down below a thong and baring her cheeks to the Key. "My ass belongs to Obama, even if he is a Christian. When he is in the White House for a second term, I will take my pants off all the way." (The religion reference was the diva's comeback to an earlier comment when <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/348972/madonna-barack-obama-quot-black-muslim-quot-remark-was-meant-to-be-quot-ironic-quot?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories">she joked that he was a Muslim.)

    Some fans wore t-shirts supporting same-sex marriage and approval of Referendum 74. We probably would not be voting on the issue on Nov. 6 without Madonna. She championed gay men, bringing them into mainstream pop culture with the song "Vogue," her movie "Truth or Dare" and her book "Sex."

    And to those who were shocked by the shooty-shooty-kill-kill scene at Madonna's concert, it's only shocking because she's a woman. Men have been shooting people up in movies and on television for decades. Besides, I would be disappointed if she failed to produce any outrage. It would be like going to a U2 concert and not getting an education about government oppression in some corner of the world.

    The shooting was one segment in an extravaganza that included a marching band suspended from the ceiling, Irish stepdancing (think "Riverdance"), a Jabbawokeez-style dance troupe, Parkour leaps across rising and falling pedestals and dancer contortions worthy of a Beijing acrobatics troupe. If Madonna was stiff in the opening numbers, by the middle and end, she was outdancing her band of androgynous, multicultural dancers 30 years her junior.

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    SHARON PIAN CHAN / SEATTLE TIMES

    Left to right: Chandra Chenvert, Amber Perdue, Ashley Allen.

    As opening DJ Martin Solveig said, "You all have the best seats that ever existed." KeyArena felt like an intimate arena on Tuesday, far better than the Tacoma Dome. It's worth saving, ahem, Seattle City Council and Mayor Mike McGinn.

    In two hours, Madonna showed us the uselessness of Seattle's passive aggression. I bow down to her Madgesty, and deliver her message to those who missed the concert.

    What are you looking at?

    Strike a pose.

    Express yourself.

  3. Madonna tells fans in concert to support the ‘black Muslim in the White House’

    Was pop star making a tongue-in-cheek joke to fans ... or does she really think Obama is Muslim?

    Comments (9)

    By Kristen A. Lee / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

    Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 1:19 PM

    Madonna supports President Obama, but does she know he’s a Christian?

    inform.jpg

    Madonna confused some Washington, D.C. fans by demanding that they support the "black Muslim in the White House" as she gave a profanity-riddled political endorsement of President Obama Monday night.

    It wasn't clear in a YouTube video of her speech whether Madonna's description of Obama was meant to be tongue-in-cheek or if she is one of many Americans who doesn't know the president is Christian.

    The singer began the political detour during her MDNA concert stop in the nation's capital by remembering Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. as leaders who, she said, "fought for our freedom."

    "And now it is so amazing and incredible to think that we have an African-American in the White House," she said, adding: "Y'all better vote for f--king Obama, OK? For better or for worse, all right?"

    "We have a black Muslim in the White House!" she proclaimed. "Now that is some s--t. That is amazing s--h. It means there is hope in this country. And Obama is fighting for gay rights, so support the man, go--ammit."

    Before launching into the political rant, Madonna did warn the crowd that she might get some of her facts wrong. "I'm a little dizzy," she said.

    The pop icon followed up that somewhat-confusing endorsement with a suggestive striptease later in the show, The Hill reported.

    Taking off her shirt, Madonna pulled down her pants to reveal the name "OBAMA" written in all capital letters across her lower back.

    "When Obama is in the White House for a second term I'll take it all off," she said, before launching into a sultry version of her 1984 hit "Like a Virgin."

    Madonna also used body art to show her support for the president at a concert at Yankee Stadium earlier this month.

    Read more: http://www.nydailyne...4#ixzz27VX5p9ks

  4. http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2012/09/madonna_united_center_flash_an.html

    Madonna @ United Center: Flash and flattery

    By Thomas Conner on September 20, 2012 2:20 AM |

    (Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)

    Earlier this week, Madonna caused a minimal stir by sniping at Lady Gaga, referencing her during a concert and adding, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

    Wednesday night at Chicago's United Center, the first of two concerts there this week, Madonna again slipped the chorus of Gaga's "Born This Way" into the bridge of her own "Express Yourself" -- it's a seamless match, for sure -- but let it go without comment. Well, almost. She shouted a bit from "She's Not Me" at the end.

    It seems like pretty catty paranoia from the indisputable queen of pop, as if the Material Girl -- a 1 percenter if ever there were -- has adopted the Republicans' new slogan ("We built it!") and its false sense of rugged individualism. Madonna broke ground for women in pop during the '80s and easily can justify her worldwide love, but much of her success is a pastiche quilt, a smart synthesis of the best of the best. Wednesday's show only lengthened the long list of film and music artists she herself flatters by imitation.

    In fact, the opening of her two-hour concert -- full of the usual impressive showmanship, heavy hoofing, mish-mash religious symbolism and garish exhibitionism -- finds the Gen-X megastar, now 54, retooling gruesome scenes as if acting in a Quentin Tarantino film. (Or is it ex-husband Guy Ritchie's?) Kicking through a church window and brandishing a machine gun, Madonna and her legion of dancers careen through several violent set pieces, including pointing prop weapons into the crowd several times then blowing away various assailants -- their blood splattering across the three-story video screens -- while singing, "I wanna see him die / over and over and over and over ..." ("Gang Bang").

    Her typical cheap shock tactics aside, it's not exactly a comfortable thing to watch at the end of this particular summer in Chicago.

    In a previous statement, Madge has described this "MDNA" tour, supporting her new album (widely lambasted, though I didn't hate it), as "the journey of a soul from darkness to light," as well as "part spectacle and sometimes intimate performance art." The Broadway-level production does eventually lighten up, though it's mostly artless and nearly all spectacle. Robed monks quickly turn into shirtless hotties ("Girl Gone Wild"), cheerleaders and little drummer boys prance about ("Give Me All Your Luvin'"), there's the requisite cross-dressing and hand jive ("Vogue"), and the whole thing ends in a "Tron"-meets-Tetris, feel-good dance party ("Celebration").

    The finest moments, though, are in the middle -- without all the hoopla. She sings "Turn Up the Radio" alone at a mike on the catwalk strumming a guitar, nothing else. "Open Your Heart" becomes a rhythmic Basque arrangement, with the full ensemble of dancers casually hanging like real people instead of choreographed cogs. (Here she's also joined by her 11-year-old son, Rocco Ritchie, busting moves and grinning from ear to ear.) Next, "Holiday" actually feels like one, relaxed and spontaneous.

    It's a refreshing, natural few moments, and it gives Madonna a chance to squeeze in some yammering about Oprah (she was last in United Center early last year for the TV host's big farewell) and delivering an impromptu homily about self-empowerment and treating "one another with dignity and respect."

    Performer, heal thyself. Your legacy is secure, and it would be cemented for a whole new generation -- Wednesday's crowd was, well, my age -- if you took Gaga under your wing instead of clawing at her all the time. Go teach her a thing or two. Girl needs it.

    Note: Those with tickets for the Thursday night show (and babysitters at home) should be aware the posted show time is 8 p.m., but on Wednesday (and at most other shows on the tour) Madonna didn't start until 10:20 p.m. (DJ Paul Oakenfold fills an hour of this time spinning records. Zzzzzzz.)

  5. Madonna full of fresh pop at United Center


    Madonna performs at the United Center. (Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune)

    It was a concert that opened with an act of contrition and closed with a robed church choir paving the road to a celebration. In between there was fake blood, pretend guns, the return of the infamous conical bra, whiffs of sadomasochism and poison-tipped political commentary, as well as allusions to the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein, movies by Oliver Stone and Stanley Kubrick, Brecht-Weil cabaret, Asian mysticism, Cirque du Soleil-style tightrope acrobatics, and Basque folk music.

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    Madonna was in town, and though she’s one of the most famous celebrities in the world – and also one of the priciest, as evidenced by those $355 seats – her first of two concerts Wednesday at the United Center had all the hallmarks of a cult artist indulging a serious art-pop fetish.

    The easy route would’ve been a greatest hits tour, but even at 54 – something of a godmother to two generations of pop singers from Britney Spears to Lady Gaga – Madonna appears to get bored much too easily to do something that rote. She’s almost perverse in the way she tries to upend and reconfigure her songs to fit a theme, and this was no exception – a self-described two-hour, four-part “journey of a soul from darkness to light.”

    Got that? Sometimes it wasn’t always easy to follow Madonna’s lead. Where’s this going, exactly? And how much of this was gratuitous shock theater rather than soul baring personal statement? But there was no denying the blend of art, artifice and sheer sensory overload. Besides the 16 dancers, four musicians and two backing singers, a stage that stretched into the middle of the arena and the sumptuous visuals made for something grandly watchable. It made every other recent arena tour that traffics in spectacle look rather puny in comparison. And somehow, a few emotional payoffs snuck through the dazzle, too.

    Once regarded as a chirpy ingénue destined to burn up her 15 minutes and fade, Madonna has turned reinvention into 300 million worldwide record sales and nearly 30 years of stardom. She has taken a few knocks this year as her latest album, “MDNA” has tumbled down the charts soon after a muddled halftime performance at the Super Bowl.

    Though the album was panned as a late, unsuccessful attempt to ride the coattails of the burgeoning electronic dance music movement, it was sold short. It was that rare recent Madonna album with an emotional center, with several songs zeroing in on the toll of her broken marriage, and that filtered into her performance Wednesday.

    Her concert tours use music as just one of many elements in a multimedia scramble of dance, performance art, theater and video, and “MDNA” was no exception. The visually spectacular first segment was set in a Gothic cathedral with shafts of light piercing through the “windows” and hooded monks ringing a bell and burning incense, suggesting some strange hybrid of Kubrick’s ritualistic sex scenes in “Eyes Wide Shut” and a foreboding Medieval ceremony. The set morphed into a tawdry hotel straight out of Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” with Madonna gunning down masked assailants with disturbing glee, smearing the joint with blood and curse-splattered bravado. The music rumbled with menace, Madonna’s voice Auto-tuned almost beyond recognition, the once-bouncy “Papa Don’t Preach” and the exuberant “Hung Up” slowed and twisted to a crawl.

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    A parade of drummers, some of them suspended from ceiling wires to make it seem as though they were floating above the stage, exuberantly flushed out the bad vibes on “Give Me All Your Luvin’.” Segment 2 was more organic, and exuded a highly unusual quality for a Madonna tour: something like warmth. She still uses her guitar, which was often barely audible, as more of a prop than an instrument, and her voice remains thin. But her dancing was energetic, and at times astonishingly athletic. “Open Your Heart” inspired an ensemble performance that suggested a mating of gypsy kicks and hip-hop break dancing.

    The next segment was all ice-queen Berlin cabaret, topped by an oddly moving, slowed-nearly-beyond-recognition “Like a Virgin.” Here was Madonna’s signature song (or at least one of them) sung from the perspective of a much older woman looking back on her life, trying to conjure up a feeling she could barely remember, let alone ever experience again. It concluded with a tortured, erotic ballet involving Madonna, another dancer and a corset. A vulnerable Madonna? You saw it here first.

    After that, the singer sent her fans home dancing with the sound of sitars on “I’m a Sinner,” a choir on “Like a Prayer,” and an aerobics class sponsored by Kraftwerk on “Celebration.” Amid a fleet of fluorescent modules, she was briefly the dance-pop icon of the ‘80s and ‘90s again. Some of her fans would surely be glad if she stayed there for an entire concert. But for Madonna that would mean turning into a nostalgia act, and she’s not having i

  6. http://chicagophoenix.com/2012/09/21/madonna-kills-it-at-united-center/

    Madonna kills it at United Center

    Balancing newer hits with vintage pop killers must’ve been difficult for the people who put together Madonna’s setlist for her recent tour. And at Wednesday night’s show, fans heard most of MDNA and managed not to skip a single classic. No fan left dissatisfied. Cutting many songs to only two choruses made room for more performance, more magic and more impact. So the two-hour set was jam packed with power, never enduring a dull moment in the nearly sold-out venue at the United Center.

    With most of the crowd of fans from the Celebration generation, hits from Confessions on a Dancefloor and latest MDNA weren’t so enthralling. The stage was laced with black and white and red for “Vogue,” when the United Center finally filled with noise and motion. The show’s other peak happened as cheerleader Madonna stomped and twirled to “Express Yourself,” mashing partly with “Born This Way.” Whether in jest or in disdain, the moment wasn’t to be missed.

    Opener, DJ Paul Oakenfold didn’t have much capacity to rev up the crowd, house lights still lit and top-40 remixes uninspired, so it was up to the Queen of Pop to energize the audience and get them excited.

    “I haven’t had any Red Bull,” she said sarcastically, and paused. “This is all me and caffeine.” If this is Madonna high on caffeine, we never want to see her come down. She was revved up, and at age 54, showed no signs of slowing, even at the two-hours-long show’s finish. It was astonishing how she kicked just as high and never skipped a beat or paused to breathe. The diva went on stage after 10 p.m., but still livened the crowd, many of which had surpassed their bedtimes.

    For the most celebrated pop star of all time, this woman acted less like a superstar and more like a voice with a platform. She’s known for her snooty character and fame-induced antics, but on Wednesday we were lucky to see a looser and more talkative Madonna.

    Responding to fans in the front row, she joked “Hi, I love you too. Buy a T-shirt. I have four kids.” It’s rare for her to say much of anything to the crowd, and Wednesday’s attendees got to hear Madonna telling stories and empowering concertgoers with some words of advice: “Do me a favor and don’t vote for Mitt Romney.” She even said goodbye to the crowd after final song “Celebration” and a fiery dance break in high-tops. Madonna never says goodbye!

    Holy Hell, was the “MDNA Tour” a spectacle. No image fell short of mesmerizing, no move was less than passionate and no lyric sung without meaning. Madonna clearly hired the greatest dancers, the most talented designers, and the best-equipped production team to put together this tour. She had multiple costume changes and set changes, from church scenes (“Girl Gone Wild”) to motel shootouts (“Bang Bang”) to avant-garde cabaret shows (“Like A Virgin”). The concept was ambitious, and though somewhat disconnected, extremely entertaining.

    A Midwesterner herself, Madonna poked fun at our neck of the woods before slowing down to perform “Masterpiece,” another MDNA highlight. “I’ve always loved the way you people say words like ‘car,’ ‘shop,’ … “Madonna,” she embellished. At this point, the Queen had successfully engaged the crowd with her energy and amused folks with her sense of humor. Not halfway in, every fan’s dollar was well-spent. The rest was a shock-value show that couldn’t be priced.

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