all about Madonna

Dozens of die-hard Madonna fans today braved miserable conditions to snap up the first tickets to see the Queen of Pop’s Millennium Stadium concert.
Fans camped for hours outside the Ticketline office, in Westgate Street, and Cardiff International Arena on chairs and in sleeping bags to make sure they got their ticket to see the superstar.
The singer is expected to perform to more than 60,000 fans at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday, July 30 – one of only two venues on the UK leg of her Confessions World Tour.
It will be the first time she has ever played in Wales, with tickets for the concert selling for between £55 and £150.
Mother-of-two Rhiannadd James, 33, from Trowbridge, had camped outside Ticketline since 8pm yesterday to make sure she was first in the queue to snap up a ticket.
She said: ‘I’ve been a Madonna fan since I first saw her on Top of the Pops when I was a kid.
‘This will be the first time I’ll have seen her in concert and I’m very excited. She’s just phenomenal.’
Zoe Carlyon, 28, of Salisbury Road, Cathays, who joined the queue at midnight, said: ‘I’ve been obsessed with Madonna since I first saw her on Top of the Pops when I was five-years-old.
Dafydd Mott, 31, an antiques dealer from Constellation Street, Adamsdown, had been queuing since 2.30am today to get tickets for him and his wife.
He said: ‘I’m under orders from the wife to get the tickets. Madonna has a talent for reinventing herself and her music has changed with the times.’
Meanwhile Mark Collings, 26, from Nantgarw Road, Caerphilly, Sion Thomas, 19, from the Graig, Pontypridd, and Steven Edwards, 19, Llanbradach, arrived at the Cardiff International Arena at 5pm yesterday to make sure they were first in the queue to buy tickets.
Mr Collings said: ‘Madonna is just amazing. All this rubbish about tickets being too expensive is a nonsense because you know what you’re going to get, which is just an amazing event.’
source : icnetwork

As Madonna fans in the UK know to their cost, tickets for rock and pop concerts keep getting more expensive.
The price of a seat for the London gigs in the singer’s forthcoming Confessions On A Dancefloor tour ranges from £80 to £160, with an additional £13 booking fee.
Judging from e-mails received by the BBC News website, there are plenty of people who are prepared to pay. For every person denouncing the ticket costs as an “outrage”, there is a fan who feels the show is “worth every penny”.
Of course, veteran Madonna-watchers will be used to such high prices by now.
It’s been just two years since her Re-Invention tour, which saw UK tickets selling for up to £150 and grossed $125m (£71m) worldwide – more than any other star’s concerts that year.
In fact, Madonna is one of the key beneficiaries of some powerful economic forces that have re-shaped the world of live music – for better or for worse.
Since the start of the 1980s, the superstar effect has become more pronounced in rock and pop, with a small number of performers taking an ever larger share of the spoils.
Research into the market in the US, where the trend started, has found that in 1982, the top 1% of artists received 26% of concert revenue. By 2003, that figure had gone up to 56%.
source : bbc

We make fun of her age, religion, politics, workout ethic and even that mysterious English accent of hers. But when-ever Madonna tickets go on sale, they disappear faster than diet pills at a Lindsay Lohan look-alike contest.
On April 10 at 10 a.m., tickets went on sale for two shows at Madison Square Garden in Maddy’s upcoming “Confessions on a Dance Floor” tour. Ten minutes later, all 40,000 ducats disappeared. That prompted the announcement of two more shows, whose tickets vanished just as briskly.
Tomorrow at 10 a.m., tickets to a fifth, and perhaps final, Garden date go on sale (for a show to be given July 18).
Whaddya think is going to happen?
Which only begs the question: Why do people all keep rushing into the clutches of Madonna’s live shows while pretending to be utterly aloof?
Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time humans have displayed a contradictory tussle between lust and contempt. Here are the more specific reasons for our behavior.

We actually like the music. (Remember that?)
Especially for this tour. Conceived as a nonstop ode to club culture, the “Confessions” tour promises to bring Madonna back to her early dance scene days, reminding us of why we loved her in the first place. While cultural windbags may concentrate on her persona – and pretensions – fans know that Madonna has put out more great dance records than any pop star in the last 20 years. Except, of course, for the Pet Shop Boys.

Her Tuors Rock!!! (even when they’re really self-important.)
Yes, Madonna’s shows always go for some Grand Statements, none of which have quite connected, or achieved coherence, since her peak tour (1990′s “Blonde Ambition”). But despite the riot of information and “messages” she infuses every show with, her core production always looks smashing. And her choreography never descends into the Vegas tackiness of some other female pop stars we won’t stoop to mention. (Okay: Janet Jackson). Better, on Madonna’s last road show, 2004′s “Re-Invention Tour,” she proved how much stronger her vocals have become over the years. At this point, not only can we dance to her music, she can sing it too.

We want to see if the ol’ gal can still do it.
As she approaches 50 (well, 48), it’s a bigger and bigger dare for Madge to do the kind of nose-bleed headstands, body-bisecting leg splits and yoga-inspired pretzel twists we expect from her – and that she ruthlessly demands of herself. Madonna’s insistence on keeping such a dizzying level of physical engagement at her shows means she’s now defying age in the same way she once did sexual taboos. And that desire has a cultural resonance: As our whole boomer-defined culture grays, we all have a stake in Madonna’s mission to hold back the clock.

We’re fascinated by her continues need to whip up such an insane amount of attention around herself.
Madonna’s greed for recognition has always drawn a crowd. That her need hasn’t abated after more than 20 years in the punishing media light only underscores the “me-me-me-ness”of it all. Which speaks to the inner egoist in us all.

source : nydailynews

Hot 200 Albums :
102 (82) Madonna – Confessions On A Dancefloor

Billboard Comprehensive Albums :
105 (83) Madonna – Confessions On A Dancefloor

Hot 100 Singles Sales :
03 (06) Madonna – Sorry
14 (14) Madonna – Hung Up

Pop 100 :
80 (79) Madonna – Hung Up
82 (76) Madonna – Sorry

Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
22 (15) Madonna – Sorry

Dance Radio Airplay :
07 (05) Madonna – Sorry

Hot Dance Singles Sales :
03 (03) Madonna – Sorry
05 (04) Madonna – Hung Up

European Top 100 Albums :
07 (07) Madonna – Confessions On A Dancefloor

European Top 100 Singles :
13 (13) Madonna – Sorry
49 (46) Madonna – Hung Up

European Digital Tracks :
14 (12) Madonna – Sorry (Album Version)

Imagine if Elvis had decided to make a pit stop at Woodstock.
It’s perhaps the best way to put into perspective the hotly anticipated performance by Madonna perhaps one of the most famous faces on the planet at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., a three-day musical extravaganza best known for its lineup of indie-rock bands and dance-oriented DJs.
Outside of Madonna, the biggest acts on the bill are Depeche Mode and Tool though successful, hardly on the superstar pop level of Madonna. Others include the punk rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Orthodox Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu and the electronica dance duo Daft Punk.
Certainly Madonna’s appeal is universal and organizers are pleased as punch to have there. She brings with her, however, a magnetic megastar effect some will want to see her simply out of curiosity.
“Coachella this year is going to be known as the Madonna festival,” joked Tom Smith, lead singer of Editors, an up-and-coming rock foursome hailing from Birmingham, England. ‘”Good on her’ I say.”
Others are mystified she’s there at all.
“Madonna’s a pretty mainstream artist … I’d expect a bigger alternative kind of artist,” said Chris Ross of the emerging rock group Wolfmother. “It’s kind of interesting.”
Coachella’s website message board heated up when Madonna announced she would play the festival, prompting some unseemly posts like “I hope Madonna chokes on a crumpet.”
Some fear a logjam of humanity at the smaller stage where she’s set to appear the Sahara dance tent, catering to an audience and a feel more in line with the her recent works rooted in the same electronica genre.
How exactly did The Madonna Factor come into play? Paul Tollette, co-founder of Goldenvoice, the company that puts on Coachella, said he was still looking for a big name for the popular dance tent and they started considering one of the biggest names of them all.
“We didn’t have anyone for the second night. We got to talking and we said, ‘What do you think about Madonna?’” Tollette recalled. A few phone calls and mutual friends later and Madonna was a go for Coachella (Madonna declined to be interviewed for this article).
Tollette acknowledged that adding Madonna to the bill has presented some logistical challenges more people craning their neck to see her. To address that, he’s put in place some spatial changes at the Sahara tent to accommodate more people more than the thousands that usually fit inside.
To maintain the integrity of that plan, Tollette chose not to elaborate on those changes, but he’s well aware the magnitude of Madonna commands full attention.
“There will be some people here specifically for her,” Tollette said, adding the caveat “They’ll be overwhelmed by Coachella people.” (It’s worth noting that he drew a distinction between the two camps).
There are no main stage acts going on at the same time as Madonna, but there are some acts on smaller stages during her set. Tollette predicts that there will be plenty of people taking in those other acts while Madonna does her thing.
Is Madonna the biggest act to ever hit the stage at Coachella?
“That depends on your definition of big,” Tollette said. “She’s probably sold more records than anyone we’ve had at Coachella.”
Tollette admits many people can’t understand why Madonna whose summer tour this year is perhaps the most anticipated would play there.
But Tollette added: “She knows a lot of the DJs that have played the Sahara tent, so this isn’t anything new for her.”
World renown DJ Paul Oakenfold plays on the same night as Madonna in the dance tent. They’re friends, have toured together, and Oakenfold has done several well-received remixes of Madonna’s songs.
He said Madonna likely could have requested to play on a big stage at Coachella, but wisely choose to stick with the electronica-themed “Sahara” tent.
“That’s an incredible boost for the electronic scene,” Oakenfold said. “To choose the less is more. It’s a smaller situation, but it’s going to be unbelievable.”
“I think this is extremely cutting edge for an artist of that pedigree,” he added. “It’s going to draw a lot of attention to that tent.”
source : ap

Middle age and motherhood are treating Madonna awfully well: She’s just added a third Boston date to her upcoming Confessions Tour. The additional show is July 10 at the TD Banknorth Garden. Tickets, $55-$350, go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com and 617-931-2000. Her other Boston shows, July 6 and 9, also at the Garden, are sold out.
source : bostonherald

Madonna is nominated for International Album Of The Year (“Confessions On A Dance Floor”) and International Single Of The Year (“Hung Up”) on Austrian Amadeus Music Awards. Show will be broadcasted on May 25th on ORF1.
source : hafo / madonnanation

Superstar Madonna wants fans to reveal their private thoughts in confessional video booths for her forthcoming world tour.
The spiritual Like A Prayer singer is planning to give fans a chance to spill their deepest, darkest secrets as she travels the world on her Confessions tour, which kicks off in Los Angeles next month.
The queen of pop will then choose the best ones and play them out to the crowd during the breaks in the show.
A concert insider says, “It will be awesome as you could propose to someone, or dump them, or simply tell Madonna how much you love her.”
source : teenmusic

Madonna, who has already sold out two nights at the Forum in Inglewood, will play a third show at the venue on May 24, tour promoter Live Nation announced Monday.
Tickets for the show, priced at $57.50-$352.50 plus service charges, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at www.LiveNation.com as well as all Ticketmaster outlets and www.ticketmaster.com. They also may be purchased by phone at (714) 740-2000. There is a limit of six tickets per order.
Madonna’s three concerts in Southern California, May 21, 23 and 24, will launch her Confessions tour, which currently includes 30 U.S. dates, to be followed by at least 18 shows in Europe. Most of those performances have quickly sold out.
source : ocregister

Icon (Madonna’s Official Fan Club) is pleased to offer more pre-sale tickets to all qualifying members who were enrolled prior to Sun, Apr 2nd at 11:59 PM (PST) for the following shows:
Sun, July 20th – Cardiff
Sun, Aug 6th – Rome
Thurs, Aug 24th – Horsens
The ICON pre-sales for the above shows will begin on Tues, Apr 18th at 9 AM local time (where the venue is located) and end on Wed, Apr. 19th at 5 PM local time.