Glindathegood
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Posts posted by Glindathegood
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Take A Bow she could do acoustically. It wouldn't take too much rehearsal. But I don't see how she could do Inside Out since that would require programming and an arrangement with the whole band.
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That would be great if it's true! It's 4p.m. on the East Coast now. So I would think around now would be when she would start rehearsing.
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The Stephan guy who she brought up on stage wrote a blog about his experience!
http://stefanwithanf.blogspot.fr/2015/09/the-night-i-danced-with-madonna.html?m=1
Last night in my hometown of Philadelphia, a lifelong dream of mine happened: I danced with Madonna onstage.I'm still overwhelmed with joy and love and emotion, but here is an account of how my dream became a reality.In the second to last song of Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour, "Unapologetic Bitch," a randomly selected fan is brought up onstage to dance with the Queen. I had heard that the fan is picked before the show begins so by the time me and my BFF Jennifer had taken our seats and the show began, I just assumed some lucky fan had already been selected. And so, I began to watch the show.Which was amazing because 1) Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour is one of her great tours and 2) Jennifer and I were in the 4th row. It was during the end of fourth-to-last song (Material Girl) that I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there was a woman with a headset and walkie-talkie and a crew shirt and she said "Would you come with me?"I don't know how, but I INSTANTLY knew I had been picked to go onstage. I tapped Jennifer and said "I have to go. I'm going onstage!" Jennifer looked at me like I had two heads, but I didn't have time to explain.Along the side of the arena the crew woman asked me if I would like go up onstage and dance with Madonna. I couldn't have said yes faster.She walked me towards the back of the floor section where a co-worker was waiting. The two of them basically drilled me, asking if I was DEFINITELY going to dance and how I HAVE to dance really hard and Madonna is happier when the person dances a lot and how the girl at the last show didn't do anything and how I MUST dance my ass off. I looked at her point-blank and said "I've been waiting my entire life to do this. Trust me. I will dance."They introduced me to the security guard, Lou, who was going to hold my stuff and escort me to and from the stage.I stood there looking out at Madonna who was singing "La Vie En Rose" and suddenly the realization hit me that I'd be joining her up there in mere moments. A twinge of anxiety rushed through my body. What if I passed out?! What if I froze?!But then I realized that this is something I've always wanted to do. That I've been dancing to Madonna for 30-years! I knew I could do this, a calm washed all over me.The opening notes to "Unapologetic Bitch" began and Lou said it was time to go. I followed him from the back of the floor section around the crowd over to the left hand side of the catwalk by the heart-shaped stage. I was told to stand there and when the dancer comes over and gestures for me, to go up the stairs.The entire event from here is captured on video (in multiple views):From the moment I walked up the stairs onto the heart stage with her, life took on a surreal quality. It was as if I was doing something completely appropriate and natural -- dancing with a woman whose music and career I've loved for three decades -- but yet it seemed like a dream. Either way, I was having the time of my life.Madonna and I grinded. Madonna bent me over and smacked my ass. Madonna kicked my ass. Madonna humped my ass. It was heaven.While walking down the catwalk towards the main stage, Madonna held my hand and was gazing into my eyes while singing. I was in awe. She looks absolutely beautiful. You can tell she is 57, but hot damn does she look amazing for her age. Seriously flawless. Staring into her crystal-clear blue eys and seeing her smile at you is otherworldly.As I walking down the catwalk one of the dancers was instructing me on when I wpuld have to turn around and pose to the crowd and then again when I would have to turn and give the middle finger to the crowd. I didn't have time to tell him I already knew the routine from the previous shows.Then I was taken to the main stage and had to dance my solo, in front of Madonna, in front of 20,000 fans. I wanted to take in the moment of me being in that spotlight in front of all those people but I couldn't. I didn't care. Madonna was watching me dance and I just directed my energy towards her.The song ended and she put her arm around me and told me I did a great job and asked me my name and I kept wanting to touch her, put my hand on her to recognize that it's real, that the moment is actually happening. She asked me if I was nervous and I wanted to joke with her, so I said "no." Which she questioned and I answered the truth, that I was nervous as hell. I got my prize, the banana, and I gotta say watching Madonna trace a banana down your body while talking and looking at you is a wonderful way to spend a Thursday night.She said goodbye to me and waved me off and the hatch they positioned me over began to lower me down underneath the main stage. The dancer who accompanied me told me to watch my head since the stage is very low. I tried to take in as much of my surroundings as possible. To get a peak behind the curtain, to see backstage at a Madonna show is something I've never been able to see. It flew by me so quickly. And then there was Lou, standing with my bag and he escorted me back to the floor.I didn't even know what had happened and suddenly everyone recognized me and began hugging me and telling me what a great job I had done.I squeezed back into the row with Jennifer and we hugged and screamed in delight.Madonna performed the last number (Holiday) and then the show was over. But my celebrity had only begun.Every single person I passed was smiling and high-fiving and fist-bumping and shouting my name and telling me congrats and asking to take pictures. It was unreal.Jennifer and I finally made our way out of the venue and a wave of emotion overtook me. Tears began welling up in my eyes and I felt beside myself. I couldn't believe -- I STILL cannot believe -- that I had just experienced that.I boarded the subway and received a round of applause from everyone. More photos, more fist-bumps.I laid in bed at my friends house that night trying to go to sleep but it just didn't happen. I was too excited. I still am.To say it was one of the best nights of my life would be an understatement. I couldn't have asked for a better night. It truly was a dream come true.So what now?! Well, now I can finally move on to fulfilling those other dreams I have. -
Revolting, unfair review. Disgusting! Ewwww!!!
This guy obviously has no taste. He also wrote a crap review of the Culture Club concert I went to which was the second best show I went to this year after Madonna!
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Yes, it's a total crap review. It's nice when she does her big hits and I certainly enjoy them, but I think her shows would lose their special quality if she was like every other artist who just sang their hits in a straightforward way without any other elements or theatre or provocation. I think this tour does a good job of balancing both things. But of course these uptight male critics want her to do just a conventional concert. But that's not to me a true Madonna show.
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Boy, they don't like her in Philadelphia. Here is another somewhat negative review. This is another one from a conventional music critic who does understand the theatrics or her sense of humor, but he finds a few positives! But he makes a mistake saying Ghosttown has been on the setlist from the start. All he seems to care about is if she sings every hit she ever recorded. He seems pretty conservative, when he says her provocation is without a point, which I don't think is true at all. And of course he throws in the usual age related desperate thing!
http://touch.mcall.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84518353/
Two-thirds of the way through her concert Thursday at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, Madonna introduced the title track to her new album “Rebel Heart” by thanking her audience.
“You have allowed me to be provocative, experimental … and hopefully lovable,” she said. “And to be the rebel heart that I am.”
And certainly Madonna hasn’t made it this far into her career – more than 30 years and 65 million albums sold – by being static.
Trouble is, Madonna’s “experimentation” has often resulted in the weakest music of her career, and her provocation has often been without a point, making it, well, pointless. That’s even more true now – being a provocateur at 57 can sometimes seem like desperation.
So while much of Madonna’s 21-song show (with snippets of seven others and parts of four more played over the speakers during interludes when she left the stage) was unquestionably entertaining on some level, it wasn’t always the best music.
Instead, the show’s best points were when Madonna simply sang – even better when she sang simply.
The show also was weighted heavily to Madonna’s new disc, with 10 of the songs from that disc, including five of the first six.
That gave the show a decidedly slow start, despite it being by far the most theatrical part of the night. It opened with the new “Iconic,” with 14 ancient-Egyptian-looking dancers on stage as Madonna was lowered in a cage.
Even “Bitch, I’m Madonna,” with duet partner Nicki Minaj rapping on the big screen, failed to grab the listener. And the one old song she played early, “Burning Up,” didn’t have the heat the title implies.
The next half-hour of the show had Madonna targeting Catholicism, as six dancers wearing nuns wimples used crosses as stripper poles during “Holy Water” and Madonna climbed a cross as the song segued into a snippet of “Vogue,” then writhed atop the “Last Supper” table chanting the “Holy Cross” lyric “Yeezus loves my p---y best!” on the following “Devil Pray,” she writhed at the feet of a seated “priest.”
It all came off as bad theater, and if there was a desperation moment in the night, that seemed to be it. Organized Christianity is a very cliched target, and Madonna’s has (ab)used its imagery since 1989’s “Like a Prayer” – which surprisingly, given the religious overtones, she didn’t sing.
But Madonna is nothing if not opportunistic, and she spent a good deal of the night talking about Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia this weekend.
She said it seemed the Pope was stalking her – visiting New York a day after she was there and following her to Philadelphia. “He’s a copycat, right? Or he’s secretly in love with me.”
After climbing atop a table to dance energetically on a better number, “Music,” she said, “I made it. Can the pope do that?” She then dedicated the second half of the song, with a snippet of “Give It 2 Me,” to him.
Before a French-language version of “La Vie En Rose,” she said she had been excommunicated from the Catholic church three times. “I’d like a big round of applause for that; I’m very proud of that,” she said. “It shows that the Vatican cares.
“ And since the Pope – Popey-wopey -- is on his way over here, bless him, I want to dedicate this song to him. … Honestly, I don’t think there’s that much difference between me and the Pope. We both wear dresses. I’ll stop right there.”
And after a slow and theatrical version of another better song, “Material Girl,” she did a wedding march and tossed her bouquet to a gay male couple, she said, “Rules are for fools. That’s why I like the new Pope – he seems very open-minded. “
But the concert was immeasurably better when Madonna simply sang. “Body Shop” from her new disc, sung amid a full stage garage, including the front of a car -- was slow, yet far more intersting and fun. The following “True Blue,” largely acoustic, also was good. And she also seemed to really sing on the new “Heartbreak City,” which included a snippet of “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.”
Her big hits were even better, even though she slowed “Like a Virgin” to a Caribbean lilt, taking some of the fun out of it, and added snippets of “Justify My Love” and “Heartbeat.” She also danced her most energetically – something in short supply on the night – and even twerked.
“Dress You Up” was rearranged as a Flamenco/Salsa number – also with snippets, of “Into The Groove” and “Lucky Star,” and the fact that her voice went off key just proved she was singing live. (Whether that was the case all night was unclear: on her hit “Music,” her voice continued as she danced with the mic at her side.)
And even when she did do a hit as a big production -- “La Isla Bonita,” with more than a dozen dancers in traditional Mexican garb – it made sense.
But the show skipped an awful lot of Madonna’s hits. She didn’t do “Borderline,” “Crazy for You,” “Live to Tell” “Open Your Heart” or “Cherish.” And despite her interest in religion, she also left out “Papa Don’t Preach.”
She also took an inordinate amount of time off stage – a total of 15 minutes, or one-seventh of the show -- to change costumes, filling the time with her dancers suggestively romping in bed to “S.E.X.” or swinging atop 10-feet-tall poles to “Illuminati.”
She saved the best of the new for late in the show, doing “Ghosttown” as a “request” (a bit of an untruth, it’s been on the set list since the tour started) with just her and guitar. And on the title track of “Rebel Heart,” she really sang.
She closed the main set with the new “Unapologetic Bitch,” bringing an audience member, “Stefan,” on stage to dance and get banana for his efforts before telling the crowd, “Goodbye, my bitches.”
Then she returned for a six-minute encore of her first charting single, “Holiday.” On it, she and the dancers simply filled the stage with an energetic performance.
No experimentation or provocation was needed to make it good.
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I think she just forgot to sing WtG lol her reaction at the 1:50 mark when she turns >> https://www.facebook.com/drownedmadonna/videos/996941473685155/
Yes, maybe. But I would think everyone in the band including Madonna would have a pre printed setlist. Most shows I've been to the band members at the end of show throw out to the audience their copies of the printed setlist. I have setlists from different bands I've been to see. And these are relatively obscure indie bands, so I would think a professional top artist Madonna and her band would have one!
I don't see anything wrong with doing three acoustic songs in a row. I think she should put back in Who's That Girl and then also do Ghosttown.
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Here's a review of last night. Be aware slightly oversensitive people, it's a bit negative but not too bad. I guess it's her first slightly critical review. I don't think it's too bad though. For whatever reason, Philly didn't seem to have the same response as the earlier shows. Oh well, you can't win them all!
One more night of sin before the Holy Father comes to town: On the eve of Pope Francis' historic visit to Philadelphia, the woman named after the Virgin Mother, a woman who has used rebellion against the Catholic Church as fuel for her three-decade career as a pop provocateur, served as The Pontiff's opening act in South Philadelphia.
Madonna brought her Rebel Heart tour to a not-quite-sold-out Wells Fargo Center crowd on Thursday night, with the 57-year-old dance pop superstar attracting a largely female crowd, mainly in her demographic range, that skewed younger and more multicultural among gay male fans.
The show opened with the new album's overbearing and strained "Iconic," with a filmed intro in which Madonna copped to "an insatiable desire to be noticed." Prerecorded video segments featured Mike Tyson and Chance the Rapper, and ill-conceived costuming positioned our heroine as half ninja warrior, half Joan of Arc.
That set the stage for a night of self-mythologizing, which included the new album's "Bitch I'm Madonna" and "Unapologetic Bitch" - clearly currently her favorite word, often used as a term of endearment to express love for her fans.
The show got better and somewhat less heavy-handed from there. But Madonna is never one for subtlety in her theatrical presentation. She surrounded herself with video screen flames in "Burning Up" - an oldie but goodie from her 1983 debut album, played early in the set - and acted out the double entendres of "Body Shop" while writhing on the hood of a classic hot rod onstage.
The segment most designed to make Pope Francis blush was the early combo of the Kanye West-produced "Holy Water" mashed up with "Vogue." The oral sex metaphor that asked supplicants to "bless yourself and genuflect" featured Madge and a barely dressed female dancer in nun habits spinning around on combination stripper pole/crucifixes before acting out a bacchanal on an onstage altar scene modeled after Leonardo's Last Supper. Forgive her, Father, for she has sinned.
The early parts of the show were weighed down by the heavily choreographed numbers and the need to include songs from the new album that even ardent fans seemed less than thrilled to hear.
But things loosened up in the midsection, with a barrage of playful hits like the delightfully camp, Spanish-tinged "La Isla Bonita" and the disco duo of "Dress You Up" and "Into The Groove."
After those two, Madonna took a breather at the edge of the extended stage that reached more than halfway across the sports arena floor and addressed her audience. "You know what I think is interesting is the Pope is stalking me," she said, pointing out that Francis' visit to New York this week also came a few days after her performance there. "Either that, or he's secretly in love with me." During that interlude, she urged her fans to express their love for her, and seemed underwhelmed by their somewhat tepid response.
Later, a Cotton Club-style extended production number included the glitchy Euro disco of "Music" and four-on-the-floor thump of "Candy Shop," and featured one dancer wearing a half-gown/half-tuxedo outfit. Madonna dedicated a portion of the medley to Il Papa.
As the show wore on, her stage patter - spoken in an oddly high-pitched voice that seemed unfamiliar - got more Pope-centric.
"Rules are for fools, right?" she said.
"That's why I like the new Pope; he seems really open-minded," she said, adding that "I've been excommunicated by the Catholic Church three times. I'm very proud of that. It shows that the Vatican cares." Later, after bringing an male audience member up to dance during "Unapologetic Bitch," she directed him off-stage and playfully said, "Go down and down, straight to hell, where I'll be waiting for you."
After that, Madonna still had plenty of hits at her disposal, but opted to finish with a single song encore of "Holiday." It never became the truly effusive celebration it aimed to be, and as Madonna, dressed in an Uncle Sam outfit, made her red-white-and-blue departure, lifted up to the rafters in a harness, it brought to a close a solidly entertaining two-hour show that never really caught fire.
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and what kind of technical difficulty was it ? She only sits and plays the guitar ?
Dont see any difference if Monte plays the guitar on GT or Madonna on WTG !
The only thing I can think of is there was some type of time issue with the venue that she had to be finished at a certain time and so she had to cut one song.
What time did she go on? On here, it seemed a bit later than the other shows.
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yeah, but someone like me likes more theatrical and organized and more dances.
this show seems more improvised and approachable but less organized and tight.
i prefer her dance and spectacle shows.
but i think she could do this kind of show once in a while.
i hope next tour will be more theatrical and grander with more dances.
I don't agree. I feel she and the audience is loving the more conventional concert feel. I think on the next tour she should go even more in this direction, maybe even changing the set list more from night to night. I think the dance and spectacle thing has become too predictable and some people are bored with it. This new style is refreshing and connects with people better.
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Great review, thanks! It's funny to see how people appreciate and love her more when her focus is less on theatrics and more on having fun and smiling througout the show. I believe it makes her seem more 'human' and that's what the GP wants.
Not just Madonna, but the GP goes to concerts by any artist to have fun and honestly to hear songs they like. We can talk about theatrics or story arcs and I know us hard core fans love that, but the general public doesn't analyze shows that deeply. They see a concert as a fun night out to sing and dance along to songs they like. They want to feel the artist connects with them on a personal level and appreciates them as fans. It doesn't matter if it's Madonna or any other artist. That is how most people view concerts.
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Is it really Stephen from here? Wow. I am glad she didn't choose one of the pope people. The pictures are funny but it would come off as disrespectful to him. That would be a huge controversy overshadowing the good things about the tour.
If she cut Holiday too, it must have been some kind of time issue with the venue curfew or something.
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Does this venue have some type of curfew time? If she came on slightly late, maybe she had to cut a song. Perhaps she will add it back in in other shows if she goes on earlier or the venue doesn't have a cut off time?
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I also love how they act like Obamacare is this EXTREME thing, when years ago it was initially by and large the idea of republicans!
Obamacare might be a step in the right direction, but it is also a MUCH watered down version of what we should have gotten which is a universal single payer healthcare system.
Totally agree! I think we should have universal health care/single payor. Donald Trump of all people at one time was all for this, but now that he's a Republican he dropped that!
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Great review from my alma mater, NYU! Yeah!
http://www.nyunews.com/2015/09/23/30-years-later-madonna-returns-to-madison-square-garden/
Jake Viswanath, Contributing writer
September 23, 2015At one point during her Thursday night show at Madison Square Garden, Madonna sat down at the end of her cross-shaped catwalk, guitar in hand, and started talking to the audience.
“Well here we are, 30 years later,” Madonna said to the screaming crowd, referring to the first time she played the Garden on her 1985 “Virgin Tour.” “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”
It was a particularly heartfelt and nostalgic moment from the Queen of Pop, something that’s unusual for her shows. Among other things, Madonna is known for her intense and provocative world tours. They are usually filled with profanity-laced greetings rather than heart, and a focus on the present rather than the past. Even her greatest hits are reimagined when they are brought out. This is part of what has kept fans coming back to see her for 30 years. But the singer’s new “Rebel Heart Tour” has a different feel.
The show, her second of two at the Garden, kicked off in classic Madonna style as she sang “Rebel Heart” from a descending cage surrounded by dancers dressed as medieval guards. She followed with a rendition of “Bitch I’m Madonna” and an electric guitar-driven “Burning Up,” the first of a few reinventions of ’80s classics throughout the night.
The show’s obligatory blasphemous number was a mashup of “Rebel Heart’s” “Holy Water” and the classic “Vogue,” during which the provocateur and four dancers dressed as scantily-clad nuns performed with cross-shaped stripper poles before recreating “The Last Supper” on stage. It was a sight to behold, and one of the evening’s most unforgettable moments.
As the night went on, however, Madonna began to focus less on jaw-dropping theatrics and more on simply having fun. The sheer joy was contagious throughout the arena, as she and the audience danced to a faithful rendition of “Deeper and Deeper” and a remixed “Like a Virgin,” complete with a strip tease. The night was filled with audience interaction, making it more intimate than your average pop show. After thanking specific fans in the crowd for their support, she brought an unsuspecting fan on stage to dance with her during “Unapologetic Bitch.”
But the show’s most special moment came as she sang an acoustic version of “True Blue,” a song she has not performed live since 1987’s “Who’s That Girl Tour” while the song’s subject, Oscar-winning actor and ex-husband Sean Penn, watched from the front row. It was a sign that their tumultuous relationship has come full-circle on a good note, and a remarkably personal moment to witness in a theatrical arena show.
The “Rebel Heart Tour” proves that Madonna can thrill an arena crowd without the bells and whistles that make up her typical pop spectacle. She has never sounded better or looked more at ease on stage, giving fans yet another reason to keep coming back after a three-decade career with no sign of stopping soon.
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Well Madonna fans tend to be very left wing or at least the loudest ones seem like they are online. Find it difficult to relate to political discussions within my own family and even my closest friends because they are so left wing. Try to be a centrist politically even though I'm a life long democratic and will NEVER vote Republican until there are more moderate candidates. Don't like identity politics or the victim mentality of some on the left and hate religious fundamentalism and pocketing the rich assholes on the right.
I don't think most Madonna fans are very left wing. I think they are Democrats and liberal and support President Obama for the most part. Since he was elected twice, I think supporting him is pretty much in the mainstream. Very left wing would to me be socialist or communist or something like that which I don't see much online.
I don't understand the "identity politics or victim mentality" thing. There is still racism, sexism and homophobia so I don't see anything wrong with pointing that out.
There will never be moderate candidates at least ones that win because the people that vote in the Republican primaries are the most conservative and religious. Look at this campaign. The more moderate Republicans are Pataki, Graham, Kasich and Christie and they are way at the bottom with little or no support.
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Cant wait for lard butt Christie to drop out.
Its amazing how a few years ago he was being groomed to be the great white hope for the GOP, and now he is hardly on the radar.
He's actually one of the more reasonable ones though! Trump and Carson make him look normal! Sadly, Christie is too liberal for most Republican primary voters.
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Great read from pitchfork of all places. Must read for everyone!!
By T. Cole Rachel, September 21, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. EDTPhoto by Mert and Marcus
As stereotypically gay music experiences go, you can’t go much gayer than attending the opening night of a Madonna tour. I say this fondly, and as a forty-something gay man who has seen lots of ostensibly very gay things, including but not limited to Kylie Minogue’s Fever tour, a semi-private Celine Dion concert in New York City, and multiple Erasure tours. Within the pantheon of music culture that gay men hold dear, Madonna has been serving as a defacto ambassador for nearly 30 years since. Admittedly, talking about gay diva worship in pop culture is to trade in both old stereotypes and terrible clichés, but standing outside Montreal’s Bell Centre Arena on the opening night of Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour, it’s hard not to ponder the connection, standing amid sea of excited gay men—most of them sporting Madonna shirts from previous tours, with a few of them dressed as Madge herself. A DJ outside the venue was spinning Madonna remixes and a pack of horned dancers provided "Living for Love" photo ops in front of a Rebel Heart backdrop. There were of course women, and perhaps a younger audience than expected, but Madonna’s audience of gay men is holding steady.Since interviewing Madonna for Pitchfork earlier this year, I have often been thrust into the strange position of being a Madonna apologist in the course of conversations about her. Why does she insist on competing with teenage pop stars? (Why not?) Why does she work with the trendiest young producers? (She always has.) Why is she still showing her ass in public? (Again, why the fuck not?) It’s a curious role for someone who doesn’t even own all of her later records. As a goth teen in the late '80s, my bedroom altar was dedicated to Siouxsie Sioux, who articulated my particular strain of teenage ennui.
Still, I loved Madonna for what she represented. That she spoke about AIDS and advocated for gay people at a time when few else did was inspiring to me. When she showed up on "David Letterman" with Sandra Bernhard, the way she seemed born of a mythical downtown NYC I’d only ever read about was life-giving. Yet, after the interview ran, I was kind of amazed at how much grief I encountered on her behalf, most of which can be summed up with some version of How Dare She STILL Be Doing This. She’s always been a polarizing figure in pop culture, but as she gets older she becomes polarizing in a new ways; her steadfastness and tenacity as a controversial pop icon are taken as an affront.
After all the noise surrounding the leak and subsequent release of Rebel Heart, the cape-yanking tumble at the Brits, her often questionable Instagram activity, her insistence on remaining both sexual and youthful at the age of 57 (despite the fact that media outlets talk about her as if she was 97), being in a room full of liquored up Madonna fans at the opening night of her tour is to experience her influence made manifest. Also, her longtime fans don’t give a fuck about any of that stuff. In the hearts and minds of those whose lives she has religiously soundtracked for the past 30 years, Madonna is pretty much beyond reproach.
It helps that the Rebel Heart tour, as it turns out, is the most retrospective thing Madonna has done in a decade, mostly dispensing with the thematic narratives of previous shows in favor of something altogether lighter. The show is still an outrageously choreographed spectacle—in which dancers clad as nuns poledance, and Madonna herself first appears in a gilded cage that is lowered from the ceiling—but unlike previous tours, in which she danced, sang, and yoga-posed always like a woman with something to prove. Comparatively, the Rebel Heart tour actually seems like, well, fun. She smiles. She jokes about her own image. She belts out "La Vie En Rose" while playing a ukulele. She does faithful renditions of "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita" that resulted in nearly deafening arena-sized sing-alongs. The show itself, while still offering plenty of cuts from the new record, also showed Madonna giving a very sweet nod to her own history, something she’s seemed wary of in the past, as if looking backwards too much somehow nullifies the potential of her future.
Madonna isn’t always easy to love, even if you happen to really love her. But why should she be? She may not always give people what they want, but she reliably gives people what she wants, which is just as admirable. Her legacy at this point is untouchable—though her position in popular culture circa right now is a weirdly untenable one. Were she to abandon making new music and simply play the hits, she’d get called out for finally having become a nostalgia act. When she makes new music now—having already recorded a gazillion iconic singles—she gets shit for it, regardless of said music’s quality. Part of what infuriates people about Madonna is that, despite all of this, she remains unbowed. And this, of course, is why gay men love her.
Gay fandom is a complicated phenomenon and one, quite honestly, that I don’t always understand. But what Madonna means, particular for gay folks of a certain age, is something that is not to be taken lightly. These days it’s de rigueur for pop stars to support, embrace, and court a gay fanbase, but back in the '80s that was hardly the case. At a time when an entire generation was being lost to AIDS, Madonna was one of our biggest advocates. (She’s actually the first person I remember ever seeing utter the word "condom" on television, via her MTV safe sex PSAs) At a time when representations of gay people in mainstream media were few and far between, seeing Truth or Dare—a film that matter-of-factly depicts gay friendships in a way my teenage self had never before seen—was an unexpected lifeline. For a lot of gay kids who felt adrift in our secluded, pre-Internet teenage bedrooms, seeing Madonna cavorting with her gay dancers and actually celebrating their queerness felt like evidence that there was indeed a different kind of life out there for us—a club that might actually want us as a member.
I couldn’t stop thinking about all of these things while watching Madonna do a writhing version of "Like a Virgin" some 20 feet in front of me, a bizarro "I made it through the wilderness" moment that apparently a lot of the people in the room were also having. Aging along with your heroes is often weird. Some people—David Bowie, Patti Smith, for example—make it seem easy, cool even, while others (George Michael, I’m looking at you) make it really uncomfortable. For me, Madonna exists somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Given that her whole career has been defined by pushing back against the status quo, it makes sense that she would continue to do so now. If she bristles at the mention of retirement (as she did when I talked to her), it’s totally understandable. People have been asking her about "aging gracefully" since she entered her thirties. Her career begs the question, at what point is anyone expected to give up doing what they love? And at what point is it considered necessary to give up on your idols and surrender to the tyranny of coolness?
As I get older, I increasingly hope the answer to those questions is never. Singing "Who’s That Girl" along with several thousand other gay men at the Montreal show proved to be surprisingly emotional for me, a rare instance of feeling part of some shared, mainstream gay experience. Watching Madonna medley her way back through the past three decades, I kept thinking about the guy in the lobby I’d seen earlier wearing a Keith Haring t-shirt and how Madonna herself had gotten choked up talking about Keith, as well as the countless other people who supported her career early on and were lost to AIDS. At some point during the show—maybe around the time she pulled out Erotica’s "Deeper and Deeper"—I scarcely noticed when my own cynicism about the whole thing evaporated while I danced. As a person who works in a culture that gleefully encourages snark and bitchiness and in which expressing admiration in a non-ironic way is often seen as a sign of weakness, it’s nice to be reminded how refreshing it is to simply love something because it makes you feel alive.
As Madonna neared the end of the show, it was nice to see that she too seemed genuinely moved by the feeling in the room. She gave up her tightly rehearsed performer posturing for a few minutes and simply became human, smiling and pausing to address the crowd. "Thank you so much for sticking with me all these years," she said. As me and my boyfriend started to drunkenly applaud, we were drowned out by the queen behind me who seemed to sum up everyone’s feelings by screaming out, "That’s right, bitch! Somehow we’re all still here. Aren’t we lucky?"
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This.
Rather than repeating herself with another technical tour....she's chose to strip it down, explore her rarities and classics and really open up with her audience!
I think this tour had been one of the biggest re-inventions we have seen from Madonna in along time....and it has nothing to do with her image.
Yes, it really has been her biggest reinvention in awhile. It wasn't that big a surprise to me because there was a page on Facebook, I think it was Madonna music or News of Madonna not sure which that said the tour would still have dance numbers but it would also have more intimate moments where she connected with fans. Props to them for getting that information.
I think the kind of tour is a natural outgrowth of Rebel Heart which has less of a dance feel and how she said in numerous interviews that she wanted to do songs you could play on acoustic guitar and concentrate more on writing good songs and less on production and also how she said she missed the 80's. All of that comes out in this tour.
Madonna usually tells you in interviews what she is thinking so if you listen carefully you can tell where she is probably going next. She's quite a sincere and straight talker in that regard.
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So she picked a celebrity whose met her several times already to go on stage w/ her instead of a fan? That's pretty lame.
She seems like she alternates fans and celebrities. She also chose Diplo and Amy Schumer.
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And there is no similiarity between Madonna and Bernie Sanders in terms of age. Madonna is still full of energy and passion and life. Bernie when I see him on tv, he just looks tired. I don't see he has the strength and the vigor to be President. It is a very stressful job with a lot of pressures. Just my opinion.
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Are you for real? You won't vote for him because of THAT?
I am for real! When you vote for someone, you are not voting just for their opinions and policies, but whether you think they have the personal qualities to do the job. I agree the most with all of Bernie's political opinions. But being President is a tough job that requires a lot of stamina and force of personality to work with Congress and get your policies enacted. I don't see that Bernie has that for a lot of reasons not just his age, but he was kind of an outsider and outcast in Congress. How many bills did he get passed?
Say whatever you want about President Obama, he gets things done! He passed the health care bill and the nuclear agreement with Iran. He has a certain energy, personality and charisma that makes him able to put his policies into action. I don't see that Bernie has that.
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I honestly don't like any of these candidates. Hillary is tired and Bernie is too old. I wish President Obama could run again. Is it late to change the Constitution!
He said he could easily win a third term!
No wonder with these losers around! -
She should do one more mindless inappropriately youth orientated slutty club bangers full album like the fabulous Rebel Heart before she turns 60, then go to Joe Henry for album #15.
Yes, I tend to agree. I think she still should do one more pop/dance album with a couple of ballads or acoustic songs before she totally changes direction and does the slower more vocal driven album people are referencing here.
Boston September 26
in ARCHIVE - Madonna
Posted
Take a Bow she could do in the acoustic section instead of either Who's That Girl or Ghosttown. Ghosttown technically doesn't fit with the Spanish costume in that section.
I feel on this tour she is loosening up a little and not being wedded so much to themes and sections and if she wants to all of a sudden sing something different she could in one of the guitar/acoustic places.
That is one of the advantages of having less choreography. If she feels like it she can do a new song or replace one song with another.