Madonna has become the poster girl for aging gracefully in the youth-oriented world of pop music.
Still at the height of her performing powers at the age of 50, The Material Girl kicked off the North American leg of her Sticky and Sweet Tour in front of a sold-out crowd at IZOD Arena on Saturday night - including her famous pal Rosie O'Donnell visibly seated near the front - with an action-packed, hi-tech, and yes, briefly political two-hour show that took a few jabs at Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Frankly, it was hard to take your eyes off Madonna's bulging biceps, despite such distractions as various raising platforms and slick-looking, moving video screens, and if she didn't always successfully reinvent her older tunes, the nine new songs represented from her latest urban-influenced album, Hard Candy, were among the best offerings of the night.
Opening dramatically with the new tune, Candy Shop, Madge first appeared on a throne, holding a cane, seemingly announcing The Queen of Pop isn't going anywhere except for a ride in a vintage white convertible that was eventually driven onto the stage.
Backed by a seven piece band, including Montrealer Ric'key Pageot on keyboards, two backup singers and various dancers, Madonna expertly moved around her impressive stage which fanned out to include a long catwalk with a conveyor belt to a smaller circular stage in the centre of the floor where she spent a lot of her time getting closer to the fans.
The strong opener was followed by another catchy new tune, Beat Goes On, with her Hard Candy collaborators Pharrell Williams and Kanye West appearing via video, as did Justin Timberlake and Timbaland (4 Minutes) later in the evening.
It was when she began what would be a trend of reinventing older songs, starting with Human Nature, featuring Britney Spears trapped in an elevator on video, and Madonna on electric guitar, that the concert faltered slightly.
The energy flagged until the next song, Vogue, which was reconfigured to include the horns from 4 Minutes, and made sexy by the presence of four scantily clad female dancers in black bobbed wigs and hardly any clothes.
"Some people are still sitting down," Madonna gently scolded about half-way through the show. "I'm not sitting down - fair is fair."
Also sadly missing their original arrangements were Get Into The Groove, which featured a youthful Madonna both twirling around a stripper pole and skipping rope, and Borderline and Ray Of Light, both of which became rock songs with Madge on electric guitar.
Still, there were some nice segues like two male dancers dressed as boxers and actually fighting in a ring as Die Another Die played in a video version and downright striking versions of new songs like Heartbeat, She's Not Me - with Madonna poking fun at her various incarnations including the bride from Like A Virgin and the cone-bra wearing provocateur - Spanish Lesson, Miles Away, 4 Minutes, Give It 2 Me, and the old chestnut Like A Prayer.
"It's good to be in America, I'm so glad to be back," sang Madonna, who started her latest tour in Europe with a stadium show in Cardiff, Wales, on Aug. 23.
Not known for her ballads, she also proved to be incredibly adept at the two in her set list, even if she couldn't hit the high notes during an impromptu version of the requested song, Open Your Heart.
First up was Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, with Madge decked out in a black cape and lying on top of a piano while cool-looking water imagery was projected on circular video screens enveloping her.
That was later followed by a Romanian gypsy folk band version of the Evita song, You Must Love Me, an arrangement that also strengthened the more uptempo La Isla Bonita.
The now famous Get Stupid video segue, which included images of Hitler and John McCain alongside those of Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, was trotted out again by Madonna, who actually called out Palin by name several times as her show wound down.
"This is the sound of Sarah Palin's husband snowmobile when it won't start," she said producing guitar feedback.
Madonna has two shows at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Oct. 18-19, Montreal's Bell Centre on Oct. 22-23 and Vancouver's BC Place Stadium for her first-ever show there on Oct. 30.
source : canoe.ca
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Sticky & Sweet in East Rutherford - Associated Press Review
In a show defined by throbbing dance music, tight choreography, spectacular stage sets and stunning visuals, perhaps the most stirring moment during the kickoff concert to Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour came when the Material Girl stood onstage with just her guitar and a few musicians for an acoustic set.
As she sang the emotional song from her movie "Evita," Madonna couldn't help but wink and smile at the roaring sold-out crowd as she sang the song's main refrain and title: "You must love me."
Maybe that's because she knew she was right. Even the superstar's most cynical critics couldn't walk away from her two-hour extravaganza at the Izod Center on Saturday night without being thoroughly wowed. It was not only the spectacle of the concert, but the performer herself, as she reasserted her musical relevance and dominance in her 25th year in the spotlight.
Madonna is not the world's most gifted singer or dancer or even musician, but she may be its greatest performer. From the moment she first appeared on stage, looking taut and chiseled in a black bra and shorts with a mesh layer overlay, she turned the arena into a massive dance club and a nonstop party. The zooming "Candy Shop," off her most recent CD "Hard Candy," set it off as Madonna strutted onstage flanked by an army of dancers. While they may have executed the show's most intricate dance moves, the ever-fit Madonna dazzled on her own with sinewy steps that belied her AARP-status.
Though the show's first moments were devoted to her new album, it didn't take long for her to seamlessly groove back in time, performing one of her '90s gems, "Human Nature." The already funky, synthesized tune got an even funkier update, as Madonna utilized the vocoder trend with her background vocals. The unapologetic anthem was highlighted by a video that showed Madonna being watched by a security camera in an elevator; as the song went on, Britney Spears' image intertwined with her blonde musical mentor, looking frightened and frail under the camera's lens before striking a decidedly confident pose at the song's end.
It's a testament to Madonna's musical chops that her new music blended so expertly with some of her greatest hits: Elements of "4 Minutes" were mashed up with "Vogue" for a flashback that managed to be both classic and cutting edge. While she sang many of her classics, such as "Like a Prayer," "La Isla Bonita," and "Ray of Life," those moments weren't relegated to short renditions during the retrospective medley part of the show, like many veterans do. They were given full attention with colorful, dazzling displays and new arrangements that made them seem as exciting and fresh as when they first made their debut. "Get Into the Groove" was re-imagined with the help of a DJ, a double-Dutch playing Madonna and cartoons by the late Keith Haring. During one of her many guitar-playing moments, she gave a rocked out performance of "Borderline" to the feverishly energetic crowd.
While the "Sweet & Sticky" tour would have been a triumph in any year, it was particularly impressive coming off her somewhat lackluster "Confessions" two years ago, which seemed more like a labored, carefully designed exercise than a joyful performance.
Not so this time around. Instead of performing at the crowd, she was performing for and with them, bringing them into her world with warmth and appreciation. Even when she scolded the few in the audience who weren't on their feet with unprintable language, she was jovial and endearing.
Jabs at Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — "Sarah Palin is not in my show!" were not daggers, and she even added, "Nothing personal." And the one preachy moment — in which she implored the audience to "save the world" through a series of video images that interspersed the world's atrocities with her ideas hopeful images, including Democratic candidate Barack Obama — wasn't as over the top as might be expected (with the exception of the interloping of video of Republican candidate John McCain in with world dictators and Adolph Hitler).
With her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year and her 50th birthday, it would have been easy for Madonna to turn her latest tour into some kind of nostalgia show. It probably would have been an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
But then again, it wouldn't have been Madonna — the consummate artist who always stretches the limits, exploring new ideas to stay relevant. On Saturday, she proved to be more than relevant — she's still music premier performer.
As she sang the emotional song from her movie "Evita," Madonna couldn't help but wink and smile at the roaring sold-out crowd as she sang the song's main refrain and title: "You must love me."
Maybe that's because she knew she was right. Even the superstar's most cynical critics couldn't walk away from her two-hour extravaganza at the Izod Center on Saturday night without being thoroughly wowed. It was not only the spectacle of the concert, but the performer herself, as she reasserted her musical relevance and dominance in her 25th year in the spotlight.
Madonna is not the world's most gifted singer or dancer or even musician, but she may be its greatest performer. From the moment she first appeared on stage, looking taut and chiseled in a black bra and shorts with a mesh layer overlay, she turned the arena into a massive dance club and a nonstop party. The zooming "Candy Shop," off her most recent CD "Hard Candy," set it off as Madonna strutted onstage flanked by an army of dancers. While they may have executed the show's most intricate dance moves, the ever-fit Madonna dazzled on her own with sinewy steps that belied her AARP-status.
Though the show's first moments were devoted to her new album, it didn't take long for her to seamlessly groove back in time, performing one of her '90s gems, "Human Nature." The already funky, synthesized tune got an even funkier update, as Madonna utilized the vocoder trend with her background vocals. The unapologetic anthem was highlighted by a video that showed Madonna being watched by a security camera in an elevator; as the song went on, Britney Spears' image intertwined with her blonde musical mentor, looking frightened and frail under the camera's lens before striking a decidedly confident pose at the song's end.
It's a testament to Madonna's musical chops that her new music blended so expertly with some of her greatest hits: Elements of "4 Minutes" were mashed up with "Vogue" for a flashback that managed to be both classic and cutting edge. While she sang many of her classics, such as "Like a Prayer," "La Isla Bonita," and "Ray of Life," those moments weren't relegated to short renditions during the retrospective medley part of the show, like many veterans do. They were given full attention with colorful, dazzling displays and new arrangements that made them seem as exciting and fresh as when they first made their debut. "Get Into the Groove" was re-imagined with the help of a DJ, a double-Dutch playing Madonna and cartoons by the late Keith Haring. During one of her many guitar-playing moments, she gave a rocked out performance of "Borderline" to the feverishly energetic crowd.
While the "Sweet & Sticky" tour would have been a triumph in any year, it was particularly impressive coming off her somewhat lackluster "Confessions" two years ago, which seemed more like a labored, carefully designed exercise than a joyful performance.
Not so this time around. Instead of performing at the crowd, she was performing for and with them, bringing them into her world with warmth and appreciation. Even when she scolded the few in the audience who weren't on their feet with unprintable language, she was jovial and endearing.
Jabs at Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — "Sarah Palin is not in my show!" were not daggers, and she even added, "Nothing personal." And the one preachy moment — in which she implored the audience to "save the world" through a series of video images that interspersed the world's atrocities with her ideas hopeful images, including Democratic candidate Barack Obama — wasn't as over the top as might be expected (with the exception of the interloping of video of Republican candidate John McCain in with world dictators and Adolph Hitler).
With her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year and her 50th birthday, it would have been easy for Madonna to turn her latest tour into some kind of nostalgia show. It probably would have been an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
But then again, it wouldn't have been Madonna — the consummate artist who always stretches the limits, exploring new ideas to stay relevant. On Saturday, she proved to be more than relevant — she's still music premier performer.
Sticky & Sweet in East Rutherford - USA Today Review
50 is the new 25. Or at least, that's what Madonna seemed intent on proving at her first U.S. concert since reaching that half-century milestone.
Kicking off the U.S. leg of her Sticky & Sweet tour at the Izod Center, the pop icon exhibited the energy, not to mention the muscle tone, of a woman half her age during a 23-song set that chronicled her storied career, from '80s hits to songs from this year's release Hard Candy.
Intent to give herself and her fans a musical workout, as well, Madonna put a slightly different spin on familiar tunes. As she has on recent tours, the singer played guitar on several numbers, lending a garage-rock edge to Borderline and Hung Up.
Into the Groove was presented as a pumping club mix, with Madonna jumping rope to emphasize its aerobic intensity. By that point, she had changed from a black-bustier-and-boots ensemble to a sportier but similarly revealing number set off by red gym shorts and black socks that stretched up to her gravity-defying thighs.
Audience members were impressed, and titillated. "If I were a lesbian, I would go for her," said Mary Beth Murdza, 45, a resident of Wall Township who added, "I don't think I've missed one of Madonna's tours."
Manhattan newcomer Barry Sherman, 29, came dressed in fishnet and spandex in homage to his idol. In his old house in Vermont, he added, "One of the bedrooms is a shrine to Madonna."
Madonna herself paid tribute to world music and different cultures throughout the evening. Devil Wouldn't Recognize Me had an Asian flavor, underscored by Japanese dancers, and was followed by a segment that drew on Latin influences and included Rumanian gypsy musicians, including the songs La Isla Bonita, Miles Away and, from Evita, the ballad You Must Love Me.
The visuals were similarly exotic and often stunning, from an anime-inspired montage to footage of various foreign landscapes and people. Ray of Light and Like A Prayer were accompanied by spiritual imagery, with quotations from the Bible floating across the screen.
Madonna's recent collaborators Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake popped up on video, as did Britney Spears, who filmed a special black-and-white clip as a backdrop for a frenzied Human Nature.
An already controversial segment showed famous and infamous figures ranging from Adolf Hitler and Kim Jong Il to Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama and John Lennon. Current presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were also included, McCain in closer proximity to some more patently villainous types and Obama nearer to those viewed more favorably, who also included Mother Teresa and Bono.
Madonna did not patently link McCain to any of the ogres, or verbally attack the Republican contender. She did, however, have a few choice words for his running mate. "Sarah Palin can't come to this party," she declared, after leading the audience in a festive a cappella version of Open Your Heart. "She is not in my show. She will never be in my show."
She reinforced that message, humorously, by imitating "the sound of Sarah Palin's husband's snowmobile when it won't start" with a loud, purposefully irritating burst of guitar.
Kicking off the U.S. leg of her Sticky & Sweet tour at the Izod Center, the pop icon exhibited the energy, not to mention the muscle tone, of a woman half her age during a 23-song set that chronicled her storied career, from '80s hits to songs from this year's release Hard Candy.
Intent to give herself and her fans a musical workout, as well, Madonna put a slightly different spin on familiar tunes. As she has on recent tours, the singer played guitar on several numbers, lending a garage-rock edge to Borderline and Hung Up.
Into the Groove was presented as a pumping club mix, with Madonna jumping rope to emphasize its aerobic intensity. By that point, she had changed from a black-bustier-and-boots ensemble to a sportier but similarly revealing number set off by red gym shorts and black socks that stretched up to her gravity-defying thighs.
Audience members were impressed, and titillated. "If I were a lesbian, I would go for her," said Mary Beth Murdza, 45, a resident of Wall Township who added, "I don't think I've missed one of Madonna's tours."
Manhattan newcomer Barry Sherman, 29, came dressed in fishnet and spandex in homage to his idol. In his old house in Vermont, he added, "One of the bedrooms is a shrine to Madonna."
Madonna herself paid tribute to world music and different cultures throughout the evening. Devil Wouldn't Recognize Me had an Asian flavor, underscored by Japanese dancers, and was followed by a segment that drew on Latin influences and included Rumanian gypsy musicians, including the songs La Isla Bonita, Miles Away and, from Evita, the ballad You Must Love Me.
The visuals were similarly exotic and often stunning, from an anime-inspired montage to footage of various foreign landscapes and people. Ray of Light and Like A Prayer were accompanied by spiritual imagery, with quotations from the Bible floating across the screen.
Madonna's recent collaborators Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake popped up on video, as did Britney Spears, who filmed a special black-and-white clip as a backdrop for a frenzied Human Nature.
An already controversial segment showed famous and infamous figures ranging from Adolf Hitler and Kim Jong Il to Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama and John Lennon. Current presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were also included, McCain in closer proximity to some more patently villainous types and Obama nearer to those viewed more favorably, who also included Mother Teresa and Bono.
Madonna did not patently link McCain to any of the ogres, or verbally attack the Republican contender. She did, however, have a few choice words for his running mate. "Sarah Palin can't come to this party," she declared, after leading the audience in a festive a cappella version of Open Your Heart. "She is not in my show. She will never be in my show."
She reinforced that message, humorously, by imitating "the sound of Sarah Palin's husband's snowmobile when it won't start" with a loud, purposefully irritating burst of guitar.
Top 10 Things Madonna Said Last Night in East Rutherford
10. “This is the sound of Sarah Palin’s husband’s snowmobile when it won’t start.” (She then launched into a guitar solo.)9. “You can sing along if you like.”8. “Habla espanol?”7. “[Expletive]! It’s too high for me!” (As she realized she started “Open Your Heart” in a key too high for her to finish.)6. “Are you guys having a good time? There are still people sitting down. I’m not sitting down. Fair is fair.”5. “I’m having a bit of a memory problem these days.”4. “You’re thinking: ‘What’s going on here? I paid good money for these tickets! Who’s doing the show?’ It’s not Sarah Palin. She’s not in my show. She will never be in my show... nothing personal.”3. “Opa!”2. “Did you ever have a best friend who wanted to do everything you wanted to do including [expletive] your boyfriend?”1. “I’m about to live out my fantasy here with you tonight... I want you to sing the chorus while I jump rope.”
source : newsday
source : newsday
Sticky & Sweet in East Rutherford - New York Daily News Review
Madonna broke another convention at the first U.S. date of her Sticky and Sweet tour, held at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands Saturday night.
After a career spent sneering at the stricter rules of religion, sex and gender, the star has a fresh foe in her sights - age.
Seven weeks after qualifying for her AARP card, the 50-year-old put on a show that could have winded the most sinewy of teens. For nearly two hours, Madonna commanded the stage - first, quite literally, by entering on a throne - then by throwing her rigorously toned body through tricky dance moves, including leg splits, crotch grinds and even a double Dutch jump rope drill.
The sight had to inspire admiration, even if it did nothing for the cause of spontaneity and even less for the realm of sensuality. Then again, Madonna's shows have never had much use for such things. They're multimedia workouts, geared more to awe - or alarm - than charm.
Luckily, the staging of the show has enough razzle-dazzle to excite. And the material that dominated had enough fury in the beats and fluidity in the melodies to make up for any of the night's self-consciousness or rigidity.
Half the show's repertoire drew from the new "Hard Candy" CD, which ranks as Madonna's most fun, fleet and danceable work since her very first one.
She started right out with a newbie, "Candy Shop," and from there kept the momentum going with consistently fresh arrangements of even the oldest songs. The yearning pop ballad "Borderline" became a punk pop anthem, sounding more like something The Stooges would thrash out. "Vogue" earned a new electro-clash boost. And for some reason "La Isla Bonita" got an enjoyably weird Eastern European arrangement.
Nearly all the music swung in a more punishing direction than on its album, and Madonna allowed only one true ballad, "You Must Love Me," which had its own form of overstatement in her pleading vocal.
The video followed the tough theme, with brutal images even of candy canes. In one of the few more sprightly passages, Madonna dipped back to her 1980s roots, using a playful backdrop of Keith Herring electric babies. Thankfully, she had just one political moment, the now infamous video montage that juxtaposes John McCain with images of fascist leaders and Barack Obama with peace activists. Maybe it would have been more effective if the music behind it didn't endlessly repeat the phrase "Get Stupid."
The clumsiness of it all only threw into even higher relief the welcome lack of pretension in the rest. Mainly Madonna aimed to push her true forte - cutting-edge dance music. She did so effectively enough to make the audience dance nearly as hard, and as youthfully, as she did.
Sticky & Sweet in East Rutherford - New York Times Review
“Tick-tock, tick-tock,” sang Madonna’s backup singers as video screens and subwoofers blasted to life at the Izod Center. Time obsesses Madonna on her Sticky and Sweet Tour, which made its first American stop here on Saturday night.
Time means beat and rhythm, and it means the pop history encapsulated in the hits she has been making since 1982. It also means the aging that Madonna defies with workouts, image makeovers and what looks like plastic surgery. A 50-year-old working mother, Madonna can no longer be seen as a clubland ingenue, a Hollywood glamour queen, an iconoclast rejecting a Catholic upbringing or a kinky provocateuse, and she won’t be any kind of dowager yet. Time has brought out her core: careerist ambition and a combative tenacity.
Has there ever been a colder pop sex symbol? For all the invitations in her lyrics, Madonna has always projected more calculation and industriousness than affection. She works; her audience looks and pays, becoming another conquest.
“I can keep on going through the night,” she insisted in “Heartbeat” from her latest album, “Hard Candy” (Warner Brothers), which provided nearly half of the concert’s songs. That was the point: There she was, 50 be damned, spreading her legs, strutting, pushing her dancers around, even doing double-dutch jump rope steps without a tangle.
Madonna built her career on her assets — her ear for hooks and beats, her looks, a predictive fashion sense and an instinct for pushing cultural hot buttons — and the Sticky and Sweet show insists, even demands, that they still have their effect.
She pumps up the volume, piles on the beat and mixes the unstoppable and the baffling, the thrilling and the ridiculous. The set had four thematic sections: the present-day dance floor, the old school, the big wide world, and political and spiritual aspirations (via the dance floor). For thumping electro songs from “Hard Candy,” she had the album’s hip-hop guests — Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland — performing on towering video screens, sharing the proudly mercantile sentiments of songs like “Candy Shop.”
The old-school section, with a backdrop of animated characters invented by the artist Keith Haring, riffled through original elements of hip-hop culture — break dancing, disc-jockey scratching, double-dutch and graffiti — along with (inexplicably) some pole dancing. Since punk and hip-hop were contemporaries, Madonna also picked up an electric guitar for a enthusiastic punk-pop version of “Borderline.” Her moves were aerobic, not erotic; in one song, other dancers spotted her as if they were personal trainers.
Then came a high-fashion, geographically scrambled international romp, as dancers did flamenco, tango, Indian and Middle Eastern moves. The Spanish-language “La Isla Bonita” moved to Eastern Europe as Madonna brought out a gypsy-style band, with fiddle and accordion. It accompanied her in the one song that exposed her voice: the ballad “You Must Love Me,” with woeful sustained notes.
Madonna turned to messages: a save-the-world video that torpedoed its good intentions with overkill, juxtaposing John McCain with Hitler and Barack Obama with Gandhi. Although her outfit and a mop-with-bangs wig made her look like a bad 1970s comic-book character, Madonna was close to inspirational in an electrocharged version of “Like a Prayer,” with golden-rule religious teachings projected overhead. She followed it awkwardly, with guitar-slinging rock versions of “Ray of Light” and, returning to earthly things, “Hung Up,” with a feedback finish. She wants punk’s old rebel credibility.
“No one is ever going to stop me,” Madonna proclaimed in her finale, “Give It 2 Me.” But as the show ended, the last glimpse of Madonna was a video close-up of her sweaty, unsmiling, exhausted face. She had worked hard, and showed it.
Time means beat and rhythm, and it means the pop history encapsulated in the hits she has been making since 1982. It also means the aging that Madonna defies with workouts, image makeovers and what looks like plastic surgery. A 50-year-old working mother, Madonna can no longer be seen as a clubland ingenue, a Hollywood glamour queen, an iconoclast rejecting a Catholic upbringing or a kinky provocateuse, and she won’t be any kind of dowager yet. Time has brought out her core: careerist ambition and a combative tenacity.
Has there ever been a colder pop sex symbol? For all the invitations in her lyrics, Madonna has always projected more calculation and industriousness than affection. She works; her audience looks and pays, becoming another conquest.
“I can keep on going through the night,” she insisted in “Heartbeat” from her latest album, “Hard Candy” (Warner Brothers), which provided nearly half of the concert’s songs. That was the point: There she was, 50 be damned, spreading her legs, strutting, pushing her dancers around, even doing double-dutch jump rope steps without a tangle.
Madonna built her career on her assets — her ear for hooks and beats, her looks, a predictive fashion sense and an instinct for pushing cultural hot buttons — and the Sticky and Sweet show insists, even demands, that they still have their effect.
She pumps up the volume, piles on the beat and mixes the unstoppable and the baffling, the thrilling and the ridiculous. The set had four thematic sections: the present-day dance floor, the old school, the big wide world, and political and spiritual aspirations (via the dance floor). For thumping electro songs from “Hard Candy,” she had the album’s hip-hop guests — Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland — performing on towering video screens, sharing the proudly mercantile sentiments of songs like “Candy Shop.”
The old-school section, with a backdrop of animated characters invented by the artist Keith Haring, riffled through original elements of hip-hop culture — break dancing, disc-jockey scratching, double-dutch and graffiti — along with (inexplicably) some pole dancing. Since punk and hip-hop were contemporaries, Madonna also picked up an electric guitar for a enthusiastic punk-pop version of “Borderline.” Her moves were aerobic, not erotic; in one song, other dancers spotted her as if they were personal trainers.
Then came a high-fashion, geographically scrambled international romp, as dancers did flamenco, tango, Indian and Middle Eastern moves. The Spanish-language “La Isla Bonita” moved to Eastern Europe as Madonna brought out a gypsy-style band, with fiddle and accordion. It accompanied her in the one song that exposed her voice: the ballad “You Must Love Me,” with woeful sustained notes.
Madonna turned to messages: a save-the-world video that torpedoed its good intentions with overkill, juxtaposing John McCain with Hitler and Barack Obama with Gandhi. Although her outfit and a mop-with-bangs wig made her look like a bad 1970s comic-book character, Madonna was close to inspirational in an electrocharged version of “Like a Prayer,” with golden-rule religious teachings projected overhead. She followed it awkwardly, with guitar-slinging rock versions of “Ray of Light” and, returning to earthly things, “Hung Up,” with a feedback finish. She wants punk’s old rebel credibility.
“No one is ever going to stop me,” Madonna proclaimed in her finale, “Give It 2 Me.” But as the show ended, the last glimpse of Madonna was a video close-up of her sweaty, unsmiling, exhausted face. She had worked hard, and showed it.
Britney and Madonna Fallout?
NOW are reporting that Madonna has fallen out with Britney because she has turned her back on Kabbalah. Britney was to perform on stage with Madonna when her tours come to LA but Britneys been given the boot now because of this.
A source told NOTW:“Madonna is dismayed that Britney has just dropped Kabbalah. She’s always believed it is a way of life, not just something to pick up and get rid of on a whim. Madonna doesn’t feel she can work with Britney any more because they’re just not aligned on a spiritual level.”Madge needs to get over herself. Just because someone doesn't believe in something you do that means you can't be friends with them.
A source told NOTW:“Madonna is dismayed that Britney has just dropped Kabbalah. She’s always believed it is a way of life, not just something to pick up and get rid of on a whim. Madonna doesn’t feel she can work with Britney any more because they’re just not aligned on a spiritual level.”Madge needs to get over herself. Just because someone doesn't believe in something you do that means you can't be friends with them.
MTV EMAs: Video Star
Madonna's 4 Minutes has been nominated for the Video Star award at this years MTV EMAs that take place in Liverpool on Thursday 06 November.Unfortunately fans cannot vote in this category - it is just up to MTV to decide! Madonna faces competition from 30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie, Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes, Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction and Weezer - Pork and Beans.
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