Posted on 05/22/2006 6:13:07 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
LOS ANGELES - Madonna launched her first world tour in two years on Sunday, delighting an enthusiastic Los Angeles crowd by hanging herself from a cross, insulting President George W. Bush, and dusting off some of the sexy moves that have sustained her career for more than 20 years.
The "Confessions" tour will keep her on the road for two months in North America, and then resume on July 30 in Wales for a five-week stadium swing through eight European cities. Shows in Japan are also on tap for mid-September.
The 47-year-old dance diva spent two hours churning out most of the tunes from her new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor," as well as a few old hits such as "Like a Virgin," "Ray of Light" and "Lucky Star."
The audience at the Los Angeles Forum included Madonna's Kabbalah guru Rabbi Yehuda Berg, socialite Nicole Richie, and gay icon Rosie O'Donnell, who upgraded herself to a premium seat on the floor and left her spouse alone in the stands.
The meticulously choreographed Vegas-style routine began 50 minutes late when a giant mirror ball was lowered from the ceiling to the end of a catwalk stretching deep into the floor. Out popped Madonna, in S&M-styled riding gear and whip, singing the new tune "Future Lovers" as four bare-breasted male dancers writhed around with ball gags in their mouths.
MADONNA, HITLER & BUSH
Later on, she donned a crown of thorns and suspended herself from a giant mirrored cross to deliver the ballad "Live to Tell." Video screens showed images of third-world poverty and reeled off grim statistics.
During one of her half-dozen costume changes, another video montage juxtaposed images of Bush, members of his administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair with footage of Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Midway through the new song "I Love New York," she deviated from the script and made a crude reference to Bush and oral sex.
Beyond that, she barely spoke to the audience, largely focusing on keeping control of a busy nightclub-style stage that boasted 15 dancers, four musicians and three backing vocalists. For the most part, she joined in the tricky choreography, her voice evidently not affected by the aerobic workout. She did pause for a few songs during which she appeared to play a shiny Gibson Les Paul guitar.
A disco segment near the end, where she dressed in a "Saturday Night Fever"-style white suit to perform "Music" thrilled the crowd, as did the "Like a Virgin" routine, when she climbed aboard a carousel-style black leather saddle.
There was no encore, and the lights came up as soon as she had completed a medley of "Lucky Star" and latest hit single "Hung Up" while sporting an illuminated white cape with "Dancing Queen" embroidered on the back.
Billboard magazine has forecast ticket sales could reach the $200 million range, making it the most successful tour by a female artist. Cher holds the record with $192.5 million from 273 shows on a "farewell" world tour that began in June 2002 and lasted almost three years, according to Billboard.
Madonna, on the other hand, is scheduled to play fewer than 60 dates on this tour. Similarly, her $125 million-grossing Re-Invention tour in 2004 and the $75 million Drowned trek in 2001 were also relatively brief.
What catapults her to the top of the leagues is her ticket price, topping out at $380 (including Ticketmaster fees) in most U.S. venues. However, it did not stop her from adding dates to accommodate demand.
Man with dog 1953! Our parents were worse than us!
http://members.tripod.com/~pinkfreudian/at/mnwdg53.html
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How do you know?
Prince is a very religious, very spiritual guy and I don`t blame him for walking out, that doesn`t shock me. What shocks me is why a talent like him would choose to see an absolute grade Z unmitigated sh*tbag.
Madonna's just a packaged Barbie doll, only instead of being a Veterinarian, or a Bay Watch life guard, or a beautician, she's just "In Your Face" Barbie.
As they say, "she hits the demo" -- demographic. And what a sweet spot demographic it is. Everyone and their grandma can understand what she's doing. They might say, "S&M, oh bad, bad..." or "Oh, S&M oh, edgy..." but they get what it is...
the bands that do something truly original and edgy have such a small demographic as to almost laughable. Some of the hottest bands in NYC today among the uber-hipster young are...get this!...ska bands.
Prince is a very religious, very spiritual guy and I don`t blame him for walking out, that doesn`t shock me. What shocks me is why a talent like him would choose to see an absolute grade Z unmitigated sh*tbag
You know the story of how Prince got signed to a label? The A&A guy brought a tape in and played it for his boss -- basically a full band, funk thing, etc. Six or seven instruments. Prince stuff. The boss said, "Yeah, I like it -- but the drummer's a little off, maybe we can replace him." The A&R guy, "You can't replace him, it's one guy playing ALL the instruments and doing the vocals. And he wrote the songs, too."
Prince wasn't shocked by the content of Madonna's performance, he was offended by her staggering lack of talent.
Now I have to go induce vomiting! I'm so depressed now, I thought there was some hope after seeing the band OK Go! and the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow...
SKA????
Ska with full horn sections...go figure. I was over a friend's house in Soho and heard the music drifting out from their kid's room. She was playing -- get this -- a Skatelite CD...
When the sky becomes as black as sack cloth, and yea a mighty torrent of Dickey Barrett and big band horns shall rain down upon the land... or something?
I never thought I'd live to see the day...
Wait until it spreads out to the heartland...
Actually it probably won't. I predict the quick demise of the ska revival...
But then again, I also predicted a massive revival of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds...
Ouch!... LoL..
I`ve been a huge fan of that guy since the early 80`s, Prince is without a doubt a genius, probably the only real one on the scene today. The back catalog of the songs that guy has written is mind boggling, it just goes on and on, he`s like a machine.
One day someone is going to write an expose on just how badly the record companies screwed that guy over. It's worse than what the old labels, like Chess, did to their artists.
I suppose it's too much to hope that she might schedule some shows in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, or someplace else where Sharia law is in effect?
I don't know what to say about Nick Cave... I think we were ALL shocked when that didn't happen... ;-)
Luckily, the first outbreak of Ska was successfully contained in 1997. I think it mostly affected Boston and outerlying suburbs.
So that's what those guys in Level 4 biohazard suits were doing running around the Boston clubs...this outbreak of ska might be worse. The bands have names like Ska Shank Redemption.
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