Camacho
-
Posts
979 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Camacho
-
-
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=705517
Madonna Scared Away from Red Square
Last week, as part of her "Confessions" tour, Madonna gave a concert at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow that will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the loudest fashionable events of the year. The only annoying thing about it is that Moscow "high society" didn't get to see nearly enough of Madonna, and Madonna didn't get to see nearly enough of Red Square.
Long before Madonna's Moscow concert, the heroes of the society chronicles were already measuring not only the high price of the VIP spots (they came in both "gold" and "platinum" varieties), but also the difference between the nominal and real price of the tickets. It was considered especially chic to buy for $5,000 a ticket for the show that had originally cost 25,000 rubles (about $1,000). There were also many who doubted the reality of the pop diva's visit right up until the moment it happened. Only when a landing party of Madonna's technical and dance troops had checked into the Ararat Park Hyatt hotel did the society pages finally believe: "She's coming!"
Madonna flew to Moscow in her private jet. From the airport, the singer headed immediately to the Ararat Park Hyatt, where she was staying under the pseudonym Louise Gordon. At the same time, the nearby Gary Tatintsian gallery unveiled an exhibit of Steven Klein's photographs entitled MADONNA.X-STaTIC PRO=Cess. Mr. Klein's exhibit has been touring the world for several years, but Madonna has never before permitted an open exhibit to be held. The exhibit attracted not only the photographers Vladimir Glynin and Vladimir Fridkes and the gallery owners Boris Pavlov and Yemelyan Zakharov but also the head of Access Industries, Leonard Blavatnik, and his brother Aleksey; Rossport head Vyacheslav Fetisov; "Wimpelcom" general director Alexander Izosimov; top model Natalya Vodyanova and her husband, the English baronet Justin Portman; the restaurateur Arkady Novikov and his wife; and the collector Victor Bondarenko. Disappointment showed on the faces of all of the guests as they arrived at the gallery, as if they had expected Madonna to be there to greet them personally. Instead of Madonna, they were met at the door by the beaming head of the promotional agency marka:face:fashion, Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich: "Her people got in touch with us half an hour ago," he said, smiling broadly. "She'll be here!" As part of the necessary security measures, the guests were herded into the inner courtyard. At just after nine, a long black limousine pulled up to the gallery, and out stepped a small woman dressed entirely in black. Heading straight for Mr. Pavlov-Andreevich, she confidently delivered her lines: "Hello. Where is Mr. Klein?" Presumably to preserve her cover, she spoke in Russian. Remarking on her level of preparation, Mr. Pavlov-Andreevich took her to Mr. Klein.
As they looked over the exhibit, those in the courtyard started a discussion about the legendary woman herself. "She's such a tidy little woman, getting a little up there in years," said an unknown young man, choosing his words slowly. A buzz of whispers followed his words, and after that only the most delighted exclamations were heard: "She's out of this world, she's unreal!"
Meanwhile, in front of the installation "Bud," Madonna ran into the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Singapore to Russia, Michael Tay, who should not have been there. Madonna acted as though she had not noticed him, while Mr. Tay, who was absorbed by the work he was looking at, at first really didn't notice her. When the ambassador finally became aware that the idol of millions standing before him, he was so taken aback that it was clear he posed no threat to the singer. Giving him a glance, Madonna said simply, "Bye." Then, together with Mr. Klein, she drove away from the gallery intending to go for a walk on Red Square. However, no sooner had the door to the limousine swung open then the flashbulbs of the lurking paparazzi exploded with such furor that the door immediately closed again. The car headed for the hotel. Upon arriving at the Ararat, Madonna wrote in her blog that she felt fantastic and that she was very pleased by the care taken by her hosts about the weather on the day of her concert. "I have been told that Russian weather experts are going to spray the sky above the stadium so it doesn’t rain on my show!" she bragged. "The system was originally developed to keep Red Square rallies dry in Soviet times, and was used for the G8 summit. I have to hand it to Russia. You really know how to treat a Queen! I mean I've been adored in many ways, but you are the first country to move heaven and earth for me!" Meanwhile, fans who already had no hope of meeting Madonna descended on Club CabareTT for the "Evropa+Madonna party," which featured an exclusive performance by Madonna's opening act, D.J. Paul Oakenfold.
Before the concert the next day, Madonna, like any other tourist, went souvenir shopping. She came away with a set of five pink matryoshka dolls for her daughter. The singer, who is well-known for her spiritual quests, particularly liked their name: "the praying angels." Then, leaving the matryoshkas in the hotel, Madonna set off for Luzhniki.
The holders of the VIP seats arrived at Luzhniki significantly later. They were distinguishable from the ticket holders for the ordinary grandstand seats only by the official "BeeLine" or "Evropa+" bags containing a t-shirt and a baseball cap emblazoned with the tour's emblem that they received at the entrance. The VIPs discovered an unexpected use for these items when the usherette who was supposed to show them to their seats gave them a valuable bit of guidance: "Make sure to lay out the t-shirt before you sit down, since the seats are dirty." At this, the "platinum" audience members indignantly exclaimed en masse that at the price they were paying, they were fully within their rights to expect that their seats would be free of dirt and rainwater.
Their dissatisfaction might not have been so vocal if the stage hadn't been so far away: between the VIP seats and the stage lay an entire football field and a 20-meter-wide athletic track, and the view of the stage was decidedly sidelong. "It's bad, of course, but from the presidential boxes, where [Moscow Mayor Yury] Luzhkov, [inteko company head Elena] Baturina, and [Duma Vice-Speaker Artur] Chilingarov are sitting, you can't see anything," they consoled each other. Luzhkov, who attended the concert with his wife and daughters, had little to complain about, however. When else would he be able to hear the most famous woman in the world scream into the microphone, "Thank you, Mayor Luzhkov!", without even butchering his last name too badly? Others noticed in the presidential box that evening included the mayor's press secretary, Sergey Tsoi, and his wide Anita; the president of the National Football Fund, Alimjan Tokhtakhunov; the co-owner of Fleming Family & Partners, Mark Garber; and the management of the stadium with their entire households in tow. Rumor even had it that the president's chief of staff, Vladimir Kozin, came into the box, glanced around, and left.
In the "platinum" zones were Gazprom head Aleksey Miller; "Troika Dialogue" president Pavel Teplukhin; Ukrainian presidential advisor Boris Nemtsov; television personality Ksenia Sobchak in the company of Polina Deripaska, the wife of the head of the company "Basic Element"; MTS vice president Tatiana Yevtushenkova; and Shakhra Amirkhanova, the editor of Harper's Bazaar. Around nine in the evening, Mr. Blavatnik and Mr. Izosimov appeared with fairly melancholy expressions on their faces. The buffet in the "platinum" boxes left something to be desired, while there was no buffet at all for the "golden" VIPs, prompting Mr. Garber to pass a bottle of wine hidden in one of the official sponsor's bags to a friend on the other side of the fence. The head of Bosco di Ciliegi, Mikhail Kusnirovich, managed to get his hands on a pair of open-faced sandwiches topped with dry-smoked sausage. Having torn off their cellophane wrapping, he gave one to the actress Ingeborg Dapkunight. For all of that, though, the view of the stage was slightly better from the "gold" boxes.
The start of the concert was delayed. Finally, a blimp with no clear purpose appeared in the sky over the stadium. Noticing it, Mr. Miller wondered aloud, with hope in his voice, whether this "might be a concert by Led Zeppelin?" After what seemed like a few more hours, however, it was Madonna who took the stage. For the VIP spectators, she was approximately the size of a half of someone's little finger, and many of them left their seats and crowded into the aisles. Their dissatisfaction was further stoked by the fact that even the plasma screens weren't sufficiently large for such an enormous venue. The situation ripened to criticism flung at the stage by the disgruntled VIPs. "In my opinion, she can't sing at all," grumbled one woman. "It seems to me like her breasts are too small," added her companion. "And seeing how everyone in the fan zone is going crazy is especially annoying," said the fashionable promoter Andrey Fomin. Only the singer's most devoted fans in the VIP zone managed to hang in there until the end of the show.
After the concert Madonna went to rest, and the next day she visited residential school #80 for children with developmental delays. As a gift, she brought the children 15 cakes and several warm coats. When the children began to call her "mama," the pop diva, on the verge of tears, made a swift exit.
Yevgeniya Milova
-
^ Those are so cute Pera!
---
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/7days/story...1874564,00.html
Sunday September 17, 2006
The Observer
A good week for ...
Madonna
How much mileage can one poppet gain from toying with religious sensibilities? After she performed in Russia last week, she took some heat from the Orthodox Church. When are the clerics going to learn not to take the bait?
-
-
So nice to find many articles in English for Moscow
Eurasian Home Analytical Resource, Russia
JULIAN EVANS, MOSCOW
WHEN MADONNA CAME TO MOSCOW
It’s the day before Madonna’s first ever Moscow show, and the atmosphere around the gig is tense. Many Muscovites say they are sure something will go wrong, and the gig will be cancelled. There is a sense that there is more riding on this concert than just music. Forget the G8 summit in St Petersburg – Madonna’s gig is, in the words of Arthur Fogel, chairman of Live Nation’s global music division and the top tour operator in the world, “easily the biggest show that’s ever been held in Russia”.
Rumours and controversies have swirled around the Moscow show ever since it was announced in August. Two weeks ago, a group called the Union of Orthodox Flag-Bearers staged a noisy protest in downtown Moscow, where they declared a “Holy Inquisition” against Madonna, and drove a stake through a poster of the singer. The aim of the inquisition, said chairman Leonid Simonovich Nikshich, was to “fight against slander, rather than kill people”. That’s a relief, then.
But religious protests against Madonna are nothing new. More seriously, the Moscow show had to change venue in controversial circumstances. Live Nation originally wanted to hold the show at Luzhniki Stadium, where the Rolling Stones played in 1998. However, it appeared Spartak Moscow football club would be playing there, so they opted for another location, near Moscow State University. Their local operator, NCA, hired a state-owned company called Kreml to get permission for the venue.
It appeared permission had been successfully attained, and Live Nation gave the approval for 35,000 tickets to be sold. But then it became clear that permission had not, in fact, been given by the Moscow police force. “The process had not been concluded”, admits Vladimir Kiselyev, general director of Kreml.
But Live Nation certainly thought, and thinks, it was. Fogel says: “We were shown a letter saying approval had definitely been given. We would never have advised for tickets to be sold if approval hadn’t been given. It’s distressing to hear that it might not have been.”
In which case, were they lied to, or was it a problem with communication? Kiselyev of Kreml says the latter: “There were so many different partners involved, it was a problem to coordinate everything.”
Luckily, at that point it became clear that Luzhniki Stadium, the original choice for the venue, would in fact be free, and the concert was moved there. The local operators were saved from a highly embarrassing, costly and potentially litigious situation.
Even the Luzhniki venue was not without its pitfalls. The architect of the roof, Nodar Kancheli, who this month narrowly escaped criminal charges after a water-park he designed collapsed and killed 28 people in 2004, told Russian radio that the Luzhniki roof could also collapse if the vibrations of the show were too strong.
Local rock critics say these controversies, on such a high profile concert, could spoil Moscow’s reputation as a place major bands should visit. “They’re risking everything”, says Artyom Troistkii, who helped organize the Live8 gig here. “All these scandals have pushed Moscow back. It’s because the American tour operators were greedy, and wanted to do the tour themselves, rather than selling the rights to a major local operator. They pushed all the wrong buttons, didn’t know who to talk to or who to bribe.”
Unfortunately, the situation is not unique. Last month, Eric Clapton was booked to play on Red Square. However, three days before the gig, his management team abruptly cancelled the show, when it became clear they were actually playing in a venue just outside Red Square. Clapton’s management declined to comment.
These set-backs have led to a bout of typically Russian soul-searching among the local press. Russian Newsweek, one of the best news magazines here, wrote a cover story entitled ‘Sorry Madonna’, in which they apologised that her tour had to encounter all the obstacles of playing in Moscow: “Terrorist threats, greedy police, bureaucratic idiocy, religious condemnation, and simply chaos”.
Fogel, who has organized tours all over the world, says: “It’s around 50% more expensive to do shows in Moscow than in any other city in the world.” That’s partly because of geography – it costs a lot to move 35 trucks from Poland, as Live Nation had to do for Madonna’s one Moscow show.
But partly, it’s corruption. Fogel says: “It’s the culture of everyone looking to be taken care of.” So you have to pay the customs guards to get your trucks through the border, you have to pay to get all the different licenses. Two members of the crew even had to pay off the police when they ventured into Red Square to go sightseeing.
That puts off many artists from coming here, says Fogel. Some of his other acts, such as U2, still haven’t played here. Bands only seem to play here when they are well and truly passed it – it’s like a musical elephant’s graveyard. Where does T-Rex play 20 years after Marc Bolan died? Moscow. Where does Run DMC play when it has lost 50% of the band? Moscow. Where does St Etienne go when they want to play a come-back gig? Moscow. “Is Belinda Carlisle playing here?” asks an incredulous Fogel, after he sees a huge billboard announcing her upcoming gig. “Of all the people…”
Those hot acts who do make the effort to come here sometimes do so in the face of commercial common sense, because they dream of playing in such an exotic location. Jack White of the White Stripes told the audience for their gig last year: “Our manager told us it was too expensive to play in Moscow. So we fired him and got a new manager.”
It’s strange that Moscow shouldn’t be more on the music map, when the city is swimming in petro-dollars. That oil wealth means, at least, that the oligarch class can afford to hire the world’s top acts to play for their own private parties. Thus earlier this year, Christina Aguilera was paid $1 million to play three songs at the birthday of Daghestani billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. She’s never done a public show here.
The local population, meanwhile, has to rely on tribute bands to keep them amused. One of the most frequent acts on the Moscow live music scene is Billy’s Band, a tribute band for Tom Waits. Another poster for a big festival in November proudly announces ‘Creedence Clearwater Revival’, and underneath, in tiny letters, ‘Tribute Band’. Local bands casts a longing eye at the distant western scene, and try to imitate, with occasionally amusing results. One of the hits of the summer was ‘Depressed Gangster Rap’, which combined a Dr Dre beat with a sprightly polka accordion.
Local tour operators, it should be said, disagree with my gloomy view of the Moscow music scene. Nadia Solovieva, head of SAV Entertainment, which has brought acts like Paul McCartney and Roger Walters to Moscow, says: “Most of the biggest acts have played here. Which acts come here is totally driven by public taste.” She agrees the local music scene is moribund, but blames that on CD piracy, which means Russian record companies are too weak to invest in local talent.
The situation is certainly not all bad. More and more good acts are making the trip east – next week, Missy Elliott makes her debut here. Some oligarchs, like the Alfa Group, have been helpful in bringing acts like Madonna to the Russian people. Moscow is already firmly on the map for international DJs. And those bands that do make it out here can be guaranteed a rapturous reception, because they audience are hugely grateful they have made the effort to come.
And the Madonna gig did happen. The expected crisis with forged tickets didn’t occur, though the venue and date switch meant the stadium was only three quarters full. The star wasn’t kidnapped. The 7,000 police were, on the whole, a help rather than a hindrance. And the roof didn’t collapse.
“I’ve wanted to play in Russia for 25 years”, Madge told the adoring crowd. “I’d like to thank mayor [Yuri] Luzhkov for making it happen.” In fact, the actual show went off more or less without a hitch, and mayor Luzhkov, who was at the show, ordered the tube to run an extra two hours to take us all home. “I got the feeling that the authorities right at the top wanted to make this run smoothly”, says Fogel. Moscow is establishing itself on the international gig circuit, albeit slowly.
Julian Evans, a British freelance journalist based in Moscow.
September 15, 2006
-
mlicious
And so to bed....
Posted: 15 September 2006 - Thanks to Timur
Russian website www.tden.ru published this great picture of Madonna and her Dancing Queen dressing gown as she returned to her hotel after her first ever concert in Moscow.
-
September 15, 2006
Madonna’s Moscow concert: The Third Rome is still standing
MOSCOW—There is an episode in Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” when the eponymous heroine, naked, flies over Moscow on a broomstick. Heading to a gathering of witches, she is invisible. But even if she were not, the huge city would be unlikely to remember seeing her for very long. Strange things happen in a megalopolis, so what if a naked woman flew on a broomstick or a couple of people went mad? Most people would not care.
However, before the arrival in Moscow of the “demon-possessed Madonna”, as ultra-Orthodox Russian priests put it, the Third Rome did see a few apparitions. First the authorities prohibited the concert’s organizers from staging it in front of Moscow State University. They ostensibly feared that students would fall in droves from the windows of one of Moscow’s highest buildings. Then they turned down the organizers’ proposal to hold the concert at the Tushino airfield. The police said they could not guarantee security, recalling that two Chechen suicide bombers had blown themselves up there two years before. The authorities did not want to allow Madonna to use the city’s largest stadium, Luzhniki, either, saying that it was the training ground for the football club Spartak. It became obvious that Madonna had powerful foes in Moscow.
The church hierarchs were the first to declare that she should not be allowed to perform in the capital city of an Orthodox country. Black-clad religious fanatics gathered in the center of Moscow. Just seeing them made a creepy enough impression, but when they started tearing a Madonna poster with a wooden stake, it looked absolutely sick. A man whose clothes were better suited for begging for alms was stomping on the pieces of the poster and saying something about heresy and demonic apparitions and predicted that the land would fall apart if this slut were crucified on the stage. Moscow laughed, but land did fall apart. A day before Madonna’s arrival, a large part of the road on a major city highway collapsed into a 10 meter crater. The road had hardly been rebuilt when the same happened in another party of the city.
Then, unexpectedly, the church went silent. The clever organizers of the concert announced that President Vladimir Putin intended to meet the pop diva for breakfast. It proved enough to stop the devilment around the event and to allow her to perform in Luzhniki. From then on, everything looked normal: it was the typical concert of a grand celebrity with an erotically provocative show, but after Russia’s crazy sex revolution in the late 1990s her concert did not look any more scary than the strip shows in Moscow’s numerous nightclubs.
There was no thunder when Madonna finally arrived in the Russian capital. Instead, the weather improved, and it was sunny after two weeks of cold rain, so the singer looked a bit odd when she came out of the airport wearing a fur-collared jacket. Overall there was nothing demonic about her. A Moscow daily wrote that she was dressed like a modest secretary who bought her clothes at cheap markets.
After the powerful PR campaign, it was a sensation when radio stations announced four hours before the concert that not all tickets had been sold. As many as 50,000 people attended the performance, but the number of unsold tickets is unknown.
The audience’s reaction was surprising. One of the fans said disappointedly that Madonna was singing for herself and not for the audience. Apparently, she failed to sufficiently impress a crowd that had waited for her appearance for two hours. Still, her crucifixion provoked a roar unlike any that had been heard here for about twenty years, since the last victories of the national football team.
So, separating the pre-concert schizophrenia of the authorities and organizers from Madonna’s quite normal stay in Moscow, we can state one thing. Moscow, as one of the world’s largest capital cities, is quite able to accommodate any celebrity. In their hunt for adrenaline, Muscovites are no different from other people. They are capable of adoring their idols, but that does not mean they want to turn Moscow life into chaos. So even if Madonna had flown on a broomstick, the Third Rome would still be standing.
___
© 2006, RIA Novosti. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
—By Boris Kaimakov [RIA Novosti] 6:02 am
-
What a mess!
Get into the groove
By Leo Mourzenko
Special to The St. Petersburg Times
An eye-witness report of Madonna's much-hyped concert in Moscow earlier this week.
MOSCOW — In short, it happened. Madonna delivered an astounding performance in Moscow on Tuesday. Despite everything that stood in the way of the show taking place, 50,000 concertgoers at Luzhniki Stadium had a chance to confess their love for one of world showbiz's most celebrated icons.You probably heard something about it.
The fuss accompanying the show — part of Madonna's "Confessions" world tour and her debut in Russia — was unprecedented.
The Orthodox Church led frequent demonstrations against the use of religious symbols in the show, which has caused controversy elsewhere in Europe. A church spokesman was reported in The Washington Post as saying Madonna "needs spiritual assistance."
Meanwhile, Russia's largely state-controlled media has in recent weeks devoted acres of newsprint and hours of television time to the pop diva's visit to Russia.
In an attempt to get a different perspective on the event, The St. Petersburg Times declined the opportunity of enjoying the show in the comfortable press seating area, and went to Moscow by train earlier this week with the intention of joining the regular crowd.
In the event, Tuesday's concert was one of the best shows — and one of the most poorly organized events — your correspondent has ever witnessed.
Some sources Wednesday reported gloatingly that the show was the only venue on Madonna's 40-stop tour that wasn't completely sold out. Well, no wonder. Less than two weeks before the concert, its date was put back a day and its location was changed from a predominantly standing-room-only field in front of Moscow University on Sept. 11 to Luzhniki Stadium, a monstrosity built for the 1980 Olympic Games.
Trying to take advantage of this sudden change of venue — reportedly prompted by fears of a terrorist attack on the original concert's portentous date that coincided with the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. (two suicide bombers killed 16 people at a concert in Moscow in 2003) — the organizers decided to issue some 15,000 more tickets to fill the extra seats; the price for these, however, was 4,500 rubles and up, as opposed to 1,500 rubles for standing tickets at the original concert.
With the arena's 80,000 seats, almost three times more than the capacity of the original venue, it would have been nearly impossible to expect a huge boom in sales a week before a show, which at the time looked very unlikely to happen altogether due to the confusion.
As expected, the result was unimpressive: half the bleachers were quite bare. The furthest from the stage, supposedly with the most advantageous view of all the "non-VIP" seats, were jam packed; the rest not so much.
A similar situation occurred two years ago during an overpriced Cher show in the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg. Keeping a straight face, the management masked up the unsold seats in the main area by simply moving the crowd down a level from the much cheaper top tiers. In the end it indeed looked like a full house. Here nobody bothered with such a manoeuvre, so 30,000 people spread thin along 80,000 chairs made the stadium look pitifully empty.
But another 20,000 people had a good time in the standing area which became a massive dancefloor. What these folk had to go through to get there though was something like a cross between bootcamp and an episode of "Survivor." It was fun to get into the groove with a friendly crowd during a two-hour dance music show, but during the middle of a six-hour wait to get there some people grew impatient.
The most-obsessed fans lined up in front of the first gate about half a mile away from the arena when dawn broke Tuesday. By 3 p.m. a few thousand more people had joined them. By 4 p.m. most had entered the complex, only to find themselves confronted by another set of entrance gates.
This was where chaos began.
Desperate for any kind of guidance, excited Madonna afficionados migrated from one line to another looking for assistance from police and guys in black suits, who were silent like lambs.
An hour later it was announced that standing-room admission would only occur at Gate 1, so there was rush to Gate 1. After 10 minutes of a potentially deadly people jam there, the guards changed their minds and opened another couple of gates. At the ticket gates, the authenticity of tickets was examined with the help of ultraviolet lamps which were probably as old as the arena itself.
Once through the gates, the crowd had to cross another 500 meters to the building only to find another heap of clueless people. Folk piled up around any entrance, urged on by the magnetizing sound of Madonna warming up. The diva was so close, yet so far.
The entrance area, flooded by police, special forces and the military, was a disorganized sight: hundreds of people pointlessly rushing around trying to figure out the location of a stairway to heaven.
Then, all of a sudden rows of uniformed guys tightened up, forming corridors leading to the entrances. Jammed in lines 3 meters wide, the crows waited patiently. Madonna in the meantime could still be heard rehearsing.
After another 30 minutes, people were finally let inside. The first few hundred got a chance to see the stretching and humming into the microphone. She waved her hand and disappeared backstage. For five hours.
Luzhniki is ordinarily a soccer stadium and the field is big but normally there is about a thousand times less people kicking one ball on it. After a while, admission to it was stopped and even people with tickets for the area were sent to the stands.
The rows of standing people were so tight that if one considered going to the bathroom, one had to realize that he or she would never make it back to the spot one had secured… or make it back at all.
The bathrooms were so carefully secured by the men in uniform that one had to make it back onto the field through the first checkpoint — and the chances were that the only way back into the stadium was to be sent to the seats.
At 7 p.m., celebrated DJ and Madonna collaborator Paul Oakenfold appeared. He entertained the crowd with an unimaginative 45-minute long set, consisting of the frequent flyers of pop radio airplay. A few Russian tunes included pleased the crowd, but the guy wasn't really into it.
Silence fell. Up until 9.30 p.m., when a Swarowski crystal disco ball finally descended onto the stage, it was up to the crowd to keep itself entertained. People kept looking at vacant seats and complained about bathrooms or the total lack of food or drink to be had.
In the end, however, all was forgotten. At 9 p.m., tensions evaporated and people started laughing — and coming up with the nasty things they'd do if the concert never took place. When the lights came down everyone was quite warmed up by the excitement of exhaustion and the realization that the waiting was over.
Madonna put on a grand show, performed with outstanding energy. A brushed up "Like a Virgin" sounded like it could be released tomorrow and top the charts anew, and non-single tracks like "Isaac" or "Forbidden Love" from Madonna's latest album, "Confessions on the Dancefloor," were also potent. Together with the hits "Sorry" and a 10-minute rendition of "Hung Up," the songs kept hands up in the air for most of the show.
After it was all over, a satisfied public slowly moved to the nearest metro station through yet another uniformed corridor, already disregarding such minor obstacles as confusing guidance to exits or continuous lack of amenities. People had seen the legend; they were happy.
How happy was Madonna herself we'll never know.
It is hard to believe she was that bothered by the empty seats, given the enormous hype which her appearance in Russia had generated.
But the lack of enthusiasm with which the crowd met a "support democracy" speech Madonna gave must have been a disappointment.
-
*much obsess*
The tour is enormously and astonishingly successful on many levels, and surely making many other artists (*cough* Mariah *cough*) in the industry very envious of Madonna's success, I don't understand why there's so much nitpicking and faults with the tour being blown out of proportion here. I don't know understand how a show that had 98.2% of the tickets sold and higher grosses than nearly every arena show on the tour (including NY and London) is considered bad. There always room for improvement (more promo, doing more shows, touring in more countries, singing more "classics", dancing more, having nicer hair, less this, more that, blahblahblah) but perfection is never achieved. Especially with a fastidious fanbase! Madonna is the most successful and adulated female artist in the concert industry. She looks like she's still in the prime of her life on stage. There will come a day (hopefully not for a very long time) when she won't be able to do any of this because she'll be too old or dead! You're entitled to be dissatisfied with some things, but lighten up, bask in the success and enjoy the great ride while it's still hot!
-
A Russian Iconer posted this...
Moscow Yellow press - u have to love it
Here's a short summary of my favourites (from UK newspapers and Russian too):
-Madonna to have dinner with Putin.
-Madonna sang 20 songs during the show.
-Madonna didn't pay the bill at Ararat Hyatt Hotel.
-Madonna left with scandal: did not pay $200 for the calls to USA.
-Madonna refused to fly to the show on helicopter.
-Madonna arrived 5 minutes before the show in Moscow.
-Madonna writes about walking in Moscow in disguise and buying souveniers for her kids in her own blog.
-Show was delayed due to bomb threat
-Madonna's clone will sing in Moscow. That is why no close-up photos were allowed.
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5344332.stm
Madonna's Moscow gig
Tuesday night's first-ever concert in Russia by the singer Madonna is the subject of some bemused comment in the Moscow press.
An audience of between 35,000-50,000 attended the show, which passed off without incident, despite threats by protesters to disrupt the performance following a controversy over the singer's appearance suspended from a cross.
Novyye Izvestiya comments that although fans had been "out of their minds with expectation" beforehand, "there were hardly any worthwhile scandals at the concert itself" and "the main scoop is that there were empty seats at the stadium".
Nezavisimaya Gazeta agrees, noting that in every other European capital, Madonna's concerts are sold out every single time.
"In Moscow, things got so bad that ticket touts, having lost all hope of making some money out of it, were handing out tickets for free."
Moskovskiy Komsomolets notes that while Madonna received "plenty of stick from the church and politicians" over her appearance, "she just kept saying she did not care".
"She may have managed to get some new recruits to her sect. But Russians were not among them. We are a sturdy kind of folk," the paper writes.
"We are not taken in by overseas tricks. Images of George W Bush or leather whips do nothing for us. This is why the empty seats at Luzhniki Stadium on Tuesday were shining like polished bald heads."
-
14 September 2006
3AM: GUARDING MADSKI
10,000 cops protect her in Russia Crowd are too scared to dance
Eva Simpson & Caroline Hedley
MADONNA played the most incredible concert ever in Moscow - with 10,000 soldiers and riot police armed to the teeth in the audience.
Following mafia kidnap fears and warnings of Chechen terrorist attacks thousands of police and army cadets were out in force, bristling with weaponry, at her Russian gig. So it was little wonder her fans found it hard to get in the party mood - many punters said they found the huge police presence menacing and intimidating.
One fan told us: "There was very little atmosphere or dancing and Madonna was really struggling to get the crowd going. Most events have a security presence but this did seem to be extraordinary.
"I was at the G8 summit and the security was comparable. Everywhere you looked there was a ring of security guards. It did make it hard to dance when you're standing beside a guy in a uniform."
Madonna was playing the Luzhniki Stadium, and it must have been odd looking out into the crowd and seeing nearly as many police as punters.
The concert began with the 48-year-old descending from the roof in riding gear shouting: "Hello Russia! Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming."
The 55,000 capacity venue wasn't full - partly because tickets for the Confessions tour cost up to £500, nearly two and a half times a monthly Muscovite wage.
And at least a third of the seats were empty.
Sniffer dogs, explosives experts and soldiers from the Dzerzhinsky special task force were on hand while helicopters circled the stadium on Tuesday night.
Queues grew as every guest had to go through a metal detector and have their bags checked.
The world's biggest-selling female artist was scheduled to perform in a park close to Moscow State University and more than 35,000 tickets were sold within days of becoming available.
But police demanded a change of venue two weeks ago amid fears that as many as 200,000 people could gatecrash one of the biggest showbiz events in Russia this year.
Madge has also had criticism from church chiefs and Russian Orthodox leaders demanded she ditch religious imagery from her act.
One fan moaned later: "It was closer to a Lionel Richie concert than a satanic orgy." Don't think she'll be Russian back there then!
-
Thursday, September 14, 2006. Issue 3497. Page 10.
Madonna's Cross to Bear
By Masha Gessen
I went to Madonna's concert on Tuesday night. I have never been a huge fan, but I recently read a study that showed that people really only like the music they heard while they were in college. Once they are out of their mid-20s, they start losing the ability to appreciate new music, and then by the age of 40 they are pretty much stuck on a couple of albums. This is the understanding on which virtually all U.S. FM radio stations base their programming. I was a freshman in college in the United States when Madonna became a star, so I am stuck with her.
It was a great concert. It was so poorly organized as to embarrass, I think, even the spectators. Seven thousand police and military succeeded in squeezing the viewers into tight spaces but could not keep nearly the entire dance floor from smoking. The stadium was half-empty, presumably because of the change of venue, confused publicity and the efforts of scalpers. And on the way out, for reasons none of the conscripts or officers present could explain to me, people had to squeeze through a narrow corridor formed by police, some of them on horseback.
But most big public events in this country provide a showcase for the stupidity and pointlessness of the police force. What I find more important is the amount of effort the Russian Orthodox Church put into trying to keep people from attending the concert. They campaigned in the media, with one church spokesman calling Madonna "a 50-year-old whore." They demonstrated. They threatened.
Twenty-three religious protesters were arrested on the day of the concert. As my friends and I made our way to the stadium, through police cordons that stretched for kilometers, some of them were still handing out leaflets. An elderly woman approached us and explained that "a ritual would be performed" that would do irreparable damage to us. She handed me a laser-printed page with a litany of objections to Western culture in general and Madonna in particular. It pointed to Madonna's "desire to mock the Savior's suffering on the cross."
Thanks to the Russian Orthodox Church, most of the public was aware that one of the songs in the concert would be performed with the singer suspended on a giant luminescent cross. What I -- and, I assume, most casual observers -- did not know was what the song would be and what the point would be. The song was "Live to Tell," her 1986 hit, and the point was not subtle. Flashing behind her (and the cross) on a giant video screen were the faces of children and some statistics: the number of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa and the fact that without help they will all die before the age of 2. And then there was a long quote from "The Sheep and the Goats" story from the New Testament.
"I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink" -- I think the words are familiar to most of us, even those of us who are not Christians, right through the "as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." The point of this passage is that Christianity is measured not by faith alone but by good deeds. It was not a point that Madonna made subtly, or in good taste, but it is the sort of thing that ought to disarm any protest, simply because at the end of the song she makes an appeal for donations to help the children.
In the Russian Orthodox Church's view, that was a satanic ritual. Which serves to prove, yet again, that the Russian Orthodox Church is as dogmatic as is a 40-year-old when it comes to new music. It is as crude as its spokesman's "whore" remarks. And most of all, it is mean.
-
before some people here start to freak out, note that this is just for North America!
Tim McGraw, Faith Hill tour biggest so far of 2006
By Dean Goodman
Reuters
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; 12:26 PM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nashville couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have smashed the record for the highest-grossing tour in country music history, selling $89 million worth of tickets on their just-completed trek, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
The previous record of $62 million was set by Kenny Chesney last year. Additionally, the couple's Soul2Soul II tour is currently the top-grossing North American tour of any musical genre for 2006, just ahead of the $86 million raked in by Madonna, according to concert trade publication Pollstar.
But Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni expects the Rolling Stones to finish the year on top with sales of more than $100 million. The British rockers earned $52.5 million during the first half of the year, and will kick off a two-month stadium tour in Boston next Wednesday.
McGraw and Hill's tour of 55 cities began on April 21 in Columbus, Ohio, and ended on September 3 after three consecutive nights at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. In all, they performed 73 shows, of which 53 were sellouts -- including two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York and three at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"We have been blessed over the past several months to have the opportunity to do what it is that we love to do most," they said in a statement.
"We've spent time with the most passionate and professional individuals in the business (our crew), we've seen the beauty that is our country and we've been honored to have had the chance to meet so many fans along the way. It's an experience that could be difficult to replicate."
The biggest audience they played to on one night was more than 20,000 people during their second show at The Palace of Auburn, near Detroit, while the most people at a single venue was 50,000 during the couple's three-night stand at Staples Center.
Next on the horizon for the couple: McGraw stars in the October 20 feature film release "Flicka," while Hill is set to issue a new single, "Stealing Kisses," from her 2005 album "Fireflies."
At the Country Music Association Awards, set for November 6, they have been nominated for musical event of the year for "Like We Never Loved At All," while Hill has additionally been nominated for female vocalist of the year.
Reuters/VNU
-
newsvideo (in English), click on the "Video: Watch Video" link under the pic on this page:
-
http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/2006sept/1301.htm
Madonna Thanks Moscow’s Homophobic Mayor Luzhkov for Gig
Unlike Elton John's impassioned plea for tolerance in Warsaw, Madonna ignores plight of Russian gays
Russian language report from GayRussia.ru
Commentary
MOSCOW, September 13, 2006 (GayRussia.ru) – Madonna did it. Despite protests from Orthodox people and clerics, despite all the problems with the expensive tickets, despite the changes of the venue and date of the concert, she came to Russia for the first time to perform her “Confessions” in the largest Russian stadium, Luzhniki, where more than a decade ago a final of the UEFA Cup was played.
And she praised Mayor Luzhkov, who last May, had not only vetoed Moscow Gay Pride but also virtually “orchestrated” the violence against gay men and women in the streets of the Russian capital on that “day of shame”, Saturday May 27.
About 40,000 fans of the gay icon managed to see her on Tuesday in Moscow. City authorities said that it would be difficult to provide security for such a show but they also did it.
A few days before, posters with Madonna were burnt in the streets of Moscow. The Church was considering damning those who will come to the concert.
Those who protested against the first gay pride march in Moscow on May 27 threatened to disrupt the concert and the architect of the stadium roof even went so far as to warn that his roof could collapse because of the sound.
In fact nothing materialised. Madonna even performed her scandalized song when she is crucified on Swarowski cross. This song provoked the biggest wave of protests from religious people who even asked this scene to be deleted from the concert.
Though at the end, for many who attended the show it became clear that without this scene the show would lose a lot.
During the performance, Madonna paused and started to talk to the Russian fans. She said that for more than two decades of her career she dreamt to come to Russia and now this dream came true.
“I would like to thank everyone who organised it and especially Mayor Luzhkov who made it possible,” she said.
“Russia has been a democracy for 15 years and you should take advantage of it. You should speak for yourself, OK? You should express yourself, OK?”
Moscow gay pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev, who attended the concert, was indeed shocked by what he heard from Madonna.
He said that “everyone saw what it is to speak for yourself and to wish to express yourself in Moscow on May 27 this year. It is probably possible to express yourself when millions of dollars are at stake but not when the simple rights and freedoms of ordinary people are concerned”.
He added that “despite religious protests homophobic Mayor Yuri Luzhkov not only allowed the concert but also gave his patronage which is written on the tickets.
“The question is whether ordinary gays and lesbians asking for their rights are more blasphemous than Madonna crucified on the cross in front of thousands?
“Hypocrisy of the Moscow Mayor is well known, but with years it is becoming more and more mean and outrageous,” he suggested.
There were hopes that Madonna might raise the issue of gay pride march in Moscow during her concert like Elton John raised the issue of Polish homophobia during his concert in the country ruled by the ‘intolerant twins’.
But it was not to be. The multi-million contract of Madonna might have included “special thanks to Mayor Luzhkov” and she just fulfilled it, Mr. Alekseev suggested. “If this was the case, Madonna turned out to be a star, who is not capable of speaking for herself. that is something she nevertheless wished for her fans in Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.
Madonna’s first and maybe last concert in Moscow is over.
Many people expressed their disappointment, others were delighted. But despite threats, security forces demonstrated that they are capable of providing security for such a massive event.
-
Newsreport video: http://news.ntv.ru/93865/video/
-
Madonna Saddles and Rocks Moscow
American pop diva Madonna has given her first show in Russia at Moscow’s Luzhniki Arena. Madonna came to Moscow with the Confessions Tour, promoting the new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor. Kommersant correspondent Irina Kulik and other 50,000 Madonna fans went to the gig.
Madonna’s concert is a real landmark event for Moscow even though major pop stars of all stripes have included a venue in Russia's capital in their schedules. But Madonna is a unique personality. She still embodies pop culture, real conceptual pop art. She is the only one on this intrinsically conformist pop stage who still dares to be provocative while once raging rocker debauchees are now turning into law-abiding and politically correct citizens. She does not fight with philistine morals. She simply ignores them. It makes it more menacing than any political program speeches. No wonder that the pop diva and her fans received a greater number of anathemas than the main rock anti-Christ Marilyn Manson. A small group of Russian Orthodox believers even took to the streets to protest the gig near the venue, only to find themselves behind the bars along with ordinary drunkards.
Some songs from Madonna’s latest album feature citations from ABBA. Madonna was the first who got the permission from the Swedish band to use their songs. The screaming pink leggings is probably the last item of clothing that Madonna can try on and not look ridiculous as would any other middle-aged lady who suddenly threw on the things she used to wear as a teenager. In fact, disco was the last thing that reigned in the world before Madonna appeared. Yet, despite the love of pink, the Material Girl still cherishes no girly sentiment. All this jolly dance-floor fun sounds almost heart-rendering, like a kind of a party during a plague.
The world is going to nowhere but we have some time for a party. The British Paul Oakenfold gave the Moscow fans a real disco party. He included dance-floor hits of the last twenty years into his set, with an emphasis on the Russian influence – Zemfira, PPK and even Tekhnologiya whose Nazhmi na Knopku (Press the Button) finished his part.
The start of the show looked more like a race track than a disco party. Horses galloping on the screen at the background, Madonna emerged from a crystal glitter-ball like a horse-woman with a whip. She used the whip to hurry her dancers as if it was a never-ending training – for herself and others. Those confessions (a word from the name of the tour) are not some sentimental and confidential words but bold revelations. Just look at those x-rays of the artist’s fractures – they were showed during Like A Virgin. This time, they were combined with shots of broken and bandaged feet of horses. Regardless of all her professional injuries, the amazing old horse still looked the most relievable part of the astounding machinery of her show.
The total weight of all the things she took to Moscow is 200 tons, which can be put side by side with a military ship. The glitter-ball studded with Swarovski crystals alone weights a ton. The glitter-ball, however, wanes compared to another element of the show – the paste-studded crucifix that Madonna climbs during one of her songs.
With every song the audience realized that if it was a dance party, it was at least special one. No floodlights, but pictures of suffering children, rivers of blood and women wearing yashmaks instead. During Forbidden Love, trunks of the dancers bore either the David’s star, the crescent with a five-pointed star or the Lebanese cedar. The video featured symbols of world religion made of blood drops. Even the sticky Sorry sounded as Madonna’s apology before the suffering world.
She sang Live to Tell on the cross with crystals. That paste-studded disco crucifix, which caused so much controversy in Russia, looks not a religious symbol but a pop art object. It is some kind of an enormously enlarged jewelry like those many ladies and gentlemen of various degrees piety wear. You would rather call Madonna crucified on that giant bijou a victim of fashion than a martyr for faith. Only if appeals to help AIDS-positive and www-addresses of foundations in charge did not appear on the screen during this glamorous crucifixion.
Even after easing the tension, she did not go on to dance songs. She preferred rock ones, appearing in a leather jacket with a huge guitar atilt for I Love New York. At one point, the diva decided to talk to the audience as any artist on tour does. However, starting with the usual “I love you Moscow”, she went on to say that you guys have been living in democracy for 15 years here, but do you often think about peace in the world? After that she sang Give Peace A Chance with all her band.
Then, she stepped from rock heaven into disco hell. The stage changed into a dance floor again for Music Inferno. Madonna appeared on the glittering stage in a white three-piece while dancers on roller-skaters were whirling around her, nearly knocking her off her feet. Yet, the inferno proved to be a parody, just like La Isla Bonita which was turned into a kitsch Latin disco with heavenly branchy palm while suddenly cropped in that hell on the backdrop screen. It was then when Madonna sang one of her most provocative songs, Erotica. She closed the gig with Hung Up with ABBA’s sample in it, showing the audience a mantle with crystal-embroidered Dancing Queen on the back. Others might recall another hit of ABBA – See that girl, watch the scene, dig in the Dancing Queen.
She played her yesterday’s gig amazingly, while on the previous day she attended the opening of an exhibition of her pictures shot by Steven Klein, American photographer. This flash trip from the airport to the gallery shows not only energy of a socialite. It seems that Madonna needs to look in her own reflection in art before a show. This is what makes her main instrument – not only music. Confessions Tour proves it once again.
Irina Kulik
-
Against the odds, Madonna rocks Moscow
Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Tuesday September 12, 2006
By Nick Allen, Moscow
She was to be kidnapped or crushed with her fans by a stadium roof, eternally damned by the church or forced to cancel by petty incompetence and greedy intrigue. But against all the odds, Madonna performed in Moscow Tuesday night to a roar of acclaim. Whether fired up by irritation at the problems, or coolly tapping a quarter of a century of performing excellence, the 48-year-old pop diva delivered a blistering show for some 50,000 people in the Russian capital's Luzhniki stadium. With the song I Feel Love she embarked on the set of her controversial Confessions tour.
In the preceeding weeks, the biggest music event of Moscow's year began to resemble a grotesque soap opera with an ever changing cast, as a succession of figures proclaimed that they were the real organizers.
Promoters and police clashed over the venue, supposedly owing to security considerations, and after the gig was pushed back a day, furious fans were given less than a week to swap their tickets for the concert planned by the university for new ones at the stadium.
A Moscow architect whose buildings suffered two horrific collapses said powerful reverberations from the music could literally raise - and bring down - the stadium roof.
Extra security was arranged after British media claimed that the Russian mafia wanted to abduct the singer, her son Rocco and daughter Lourdes.
Russian Orthodox Church believers tore up Madonna's picture at small rallies round town, angered mainly at the song Live to Tell, where the singer undergoes a mock crucifixion in a crown of thorns.
And all the time, her fans tried to forget the debacle of the scheduled Eric Clapton gig by Red Square a month earlier, cancelled at the last moment amid conflicting rumours about the reason.
Meanwhile, the scalpers had a field day marking up thousands of mysteriously channelled tickets that were officially priced at 1,500 rubles (56 US dollars) to 25,000. Days before the event, VIP seats were reportedly selling for more than 95,000 rubles in a country where the average monthly salary is around 10,000 roubles.
Somewhere in the melee voices could be heard calling for what most people wanted: a show that lived up to her reputation as a performer and Moscow's as a city that successfully hosted concerts by other top acts like the Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams and Joe Cocker.
"Maybe Madonna's fans will get to see not some bellicose champion of depravity and other heresies, not an instigator of petty political squabbles, but a singer whose show simply deserves respect," the Novaya Gazeta newspaper wondered on the eve of the concert.
It didn't look possible, with showbusiness insiders lashing out at a constantly deteriorating chain of weak command in the concert's organization. Some blamed the singer's US representatives, Live Nation, for trying to maximize profits by hiring Russian ground operators who were out of their depth from the start.
But, as they say, it was all right on the night. Moscow had its Holiday, while the mafia and other sundry forces and calamities were left to strike another day.
Madonna's Confessions tour began in May and is expected to break all box-office records for a female artist, with anticipated gross revenues of 200 million dollars.
-
Lenin and Madonna. Goes so well together
-
@ this photo
A Russian Orthodox youth movement supporter stands in a mask depicting U.S. singer Madonna as they protest her upcoming performance on Tuesday in Moscow, September 12, 2006. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Madonna to defy Russia church plea to tone down act
Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:21 AM EDT
By James Kilner
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna will sing suspended from a cross in the finale of her Moscow concert on Tuesday despite a plea from the Russian Orthodox Church to drop that part of her act.
The 48-year-old U.S. pop star has outraged Christian groups across Europe by staging a mock crucifixion and wearing a crown of thorns on her global "Confessions" tour.
"This will be absolutely the same show as Madonna has performed in other European capitals," Anton Atrashkin, press chief for Madonna's Russia concert, said as the star prepared to take to the stage in Moscow's Luzhniki stadium.
Madonna, a lapsed Roman Catholic whose shows have been denounced by the Vatican, has attracted accusations of blasphemy throughout her career.
In the finale of her "Confessions" show, she sings while suspended from a cross.
The Orthodox Church has called on people to boycott Tuesday's concert, though the show was a sell-out and she was expected to draw an estimated 50,000 people.
"We are not against Madonna. We're against her blasphemous acts during the concert," Father Sergei Zvonoryov, a member of the Moscow patriarchy press department, said.
"Crucifixion, cross, diadem of thorns on her head. All this is a parody on the crucifixion of Christ," he said.
Riot police and lines of army cadets monitored thousands of Madonna fans who streamed to Moscow's Soviet-built Luzhniki stadium, the main venue for the 1980 Olympics.
Police detained a handful of radical Orthodox believers protesting against Madonna by singing hymns and holding crosses outside the stadium, local news agencies reported.
But fans had only words of support for Madonna's intention to stick to the original performance plans.
"It's misunderstood. It's pop music and modern art," said Igor Antipov, 27, who had traveled from St Petersburg for the concert. "The Church is another part of our life. I'm an Orthodox believer and I can see the distinction."
Russia's Orthodox Church has been able to fill a vacuum in faith since the fall of Communism in 1991 and has grown in influence and power.
But Russians also lap up visits by Western pop stars who have made sporadic trips over the last 15 years and the event has been an instant sell-out.
-
Madonna Set to Sing in Moscow Tonight
Sep 12 9:14 AM US/Eastern
By JUDITH INGRAM
Associated Press Writer
Madonna is due to take the stage of Moscow's biggest stadium on Tuesday night for the latest concert in her round-the-world "Confessions" tour in spite of religious protesters' threats to disrupt the performance.
The culmination of the concert, when Madonna sings while suspended from a cross, is at the heart of objections to the show.
"I think a deeply believing person would never go to the concert," the Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, told Associated Press Television News. "This lady ... plays with religious symbols, and I think it's not only a matter of financial advancement of her production but it's also a kind of attempt to justify and sanctify her message and her sins, using something holy."
The singer arrived in the Russian capital late Monday and kept a low profile, waving at fans waiting to glimpse her as she slipped into her downtown hotel, the Park Ararat. She work a black parka with a fur- lined hood, wide-legged parachute pants and dark glasses.
More than 50,000 people have bought tickets for the heavily advertised performance, and some 7,000 police officers were to be on hand in and around Luzhniki Stadium, on a bend in the Moscow River near Gorky Park.
The Russian Orthodox Church has objected to the performance, pushing hard for the organizers to push it back from the initially planned date of Sept. 11 _ both in a sign of respect for the victims of the terror attacks in the United States five years ago, and because that date coincided with a church holiday, the Feast of St. John the Baptist.
The venue was also switched. The concert originally was planned for a stage on the Vorobyovye Gory (Sparrow Hills), overlooking the Moscow River, but the Orthodox Church said that would be inappropriate because two churches are located there. The organizers scrambled to find another site after police said they could not ensure security in such a sprawling area.
City authorities pushed for the concert to be held at Tushino Airfield, the site of many outdoor rock extravaganzas. However, Tushino is on the outskirts of the city, it is anything but scenic and its security image is shadowed by the 2003 double suicide bombing at a concert there that killed 14 spectators.
Scores of Orthodox protesters, dressed in religious costume and carrying religious symbols, have held noisy rallies over the past few weeks to protest the concert.
"We are conducting an intensive spiritual fight against her name: We are standing up to her satanic spirit," said Dmitry Antonov, who said belonged to a group called the Union of Orthodox Crusaders. "We will try to disrupt the concert."
His colleague, Leonid Nikshish, said Madonna could sing whatever she wants, "but as soon as she starts to defile the cross, we will do everything possible to make sure she's kicked out of Russia and not just Russia."
-
Thanks to Madonnalicious!
Posted: 11 September 2006 - Thanks to Boris
Fans can download this Russian TV report that was broadcast tonight. It shows the stadium being prepared for the Confessions Tour show tomorrow night and Madonna arriving in Russia earlier this evening.
-
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/entertainment...tent_687441.htm
Madonna went to Russia in furs
(utro.ru)
Updated: 2006-09-12 21:38
What seemed to be an eternal waiting has finally come to an end, and it was not in vain! The most popular and most admired pop-star in the world arrived in Moscow.
At the age of 48 and on the 24'th year of her musical career Madonna stepped on the Russian soil for the very first time in order to present her "Confession of a Dance Floor" to thousands of adoring fans. The long-awaited day has arrived. Despite the protests from the Russian Orthodox Church leaders and death threats from anonymous ill-wishers world's sexiest and most scandalous singer will perform in "Luzhniki."
Actually Mrs. Louise Ciccone was expected in the capital on Sunday together with her husband and children. But contrary to the expectations the dear guest arrived Monday by herself. Apparently she left Guy Ritchie, Lourdes and Rocco in London. Her flight's time and place of arrival were kept completely secret until the last minute. In the end the place turned out to be airport in Vnukovo-3 and the time - last night.
Moscow greeted the ungodly musician with a heavy rain. A special ladder was ordered to the plain to protect the lady from getting wet. But practical Madonna came fully prepared for the surprises of mysterious Russia . She came out dressed in warm hooded jacket with bits of fur. Her face was adorned with the sunglasses of course! She looked happy, smiled and waved at the photographers.
Even before her flight had arrived Madonna was presented with a list of hotels where she could stay for the night and a list of clubs and restaurants where she could spend her evening. From the first list the singer chose "Ararat Park Hyatt," and the magnificent "Audi" (Madonna's favorite car) took off in the direction of her hotel choice. There Mrs. Ciccone was warmly met by a crowd of fans and an entire security squad. However, once she has rested, the pop-star decided not to attend any clubs or restaurants. Instead she headed down to the exhibition of her good friend ¨C the photographer Steven Klein.
Meanwhile the fans are leading the countdown to the cherished moment. Madonna's performance will be preceded by Paul Oakenfold. But the fans are willing to put up with the guy for the sake of their dream. And besides this famous DJ's visit in itself is a great musical event.
As for those who care nothing for the pop-music or for its Queen, they can only expect trouble from the upcoming concert. If last night the price had to be paid by the drivers, today it's the pedestrians' turn. Due to Madonna's performance the subway station "Vorobiovi Gori" is going to be closed for the entire day. From 9:00am until midnight all the trains will be passing through the station with stopping.
-
Russian Church urges Madonna to tone down her act
Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:46 AM ET
By James Kilner
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Orthodox Church made a last-minute plea to Madonna to drop symbols of the crucifixion from her stage show when she performs in Moscow for the first time on Tuesday.
The 48-year-old pop star has outraged Christian groups across Europe by staging a mock crucifixion and wearing a crown of thorns on her global "Confessions" tour.
As the controversial star prepared to perform before an estimated crowd of 50,000 at Moscow's Luzhniki stadium, an Orthodox Church spokesman called on her to tone down her act.
"We are not against Madonna. We're against her blasphemous acts during the concert," Father Sergei Zvonoryov, a member of the Moscow patriarchy press department, said.
"Crucifixion, cross, diadem of thorns on her head. All this is a parody on the crucifixion of Christ. She must respect the view of the country and society, where she is going to perform," he said.
Other radical Orthodox groups threatened to stage protests outside the stadium.
"We can't get the show banned but we can ask people to pray and protest against her presence here," said a spokesman for two such groups, the Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers and the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods.
"She wants to hurt our religious feelings," he said.
Russians lap up visits by Western pop stars who have made sporadic trips since the 1991 fall of communism and, despite the strong church reaction, the event has been an instant sell-out.
Wooden "matryoshka" dolls with Madonna's face have been on sale for weeks off Moscow's Red Square and she has featured heavily in newspapers before her first concert in Russia.
Hundreds of fans kept vigil to welcome her when she flew in to one of Moscow's VIP airports by private jet on Monday night and then was whisked by convoy to a city center hotel, a short walk from the Kremlin.
Madonna, a lapsed Roman Catholic whose shows have been denounced by the Vatican, has attracted accusations of blasphemy throughout her career.
In the finale of her "Confessions" show, she sings while suspended from a cross.
(Additional reporting by Vera Kalian)
NBC undecided about M crucifixion. LTT cut out?
in ARCHIVE - Madonna
Posted
reuters
NBC TV undecided about Madonna mock crucifixion
Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:40 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The NBC television network is still making up its mind about whether it will allow pop star Madonna to stage a mock crucifixion on its airwaves as part of her upcoming prime-time concert special.
The 48-year-old entertainer has made the crucifixion stunt, in which she performs while suspended on a giant cross wearing a crown of thorns, a centerpiece of her global "Confessions" tour.
Her stage act drew storms of protest from the Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church during recent performances in Rome and Moscow, with church leaders condemning the mock crucifixion as blasphemy.
But executives at NBC, owned by the General Electric Co. will wait for makers of her concert special to submit the production for review before deciding whether to allow the mock crucifixion to air.
"We're awaiting the delivery of it, and once we've seen it in its entirety, we'll make a decision," an NBC spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday. The program is slated to air in November, but no specific date has been set.
Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, had no comment on the issue, according to an assistant in his office.
In July, when the network first unveiled plans for the Madonna concert special, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly gave mixed signals about how much artistic freedom Madonna would be given. The mock crucifixion was known then to be a central part of her stage act.
"She's not revising her act," he told a gathering of TV critics at the time. "We've discussed what content will be in and what is out, and we've come to a healthy place that represents her show but is appropriate for television."
He later added: "She's going to do her show, and we'll decide which numbers are in the special and which are not. And that's whole numbers. We're not going to make piece-meal edits."