all about Madonna

50 Pictures - Confessions Tour in San Jose (May 30 2006) - are added to the gallery.

As the only pop mega-show this summer -- Britney Spears is pregnant again, Christina Aguilera is going retro to revive her career, and Justin Timberlake is reportedly taking voice lessons -- Madonna did what was expected Tuesday night and delivered a multi-dimensional concert with healthy doses of shock and awe.
You have to give Madge credit -- the 47-year-old mother of two still has it, looking good and sounding good at the packed show in San Jose's HP Pavilion. She performs there again at 8 tonight.
With bulging biceps, a 24-inch waist, and a behind that women half her age would envy, Madonna commanded the stage for two hours.
The self-proclaimed dancing queen changed seven times (from jockey in black to disco star in white, and multiple leotards -- how many women would willingly wear a white leotard? Maybe only Madonna).
Visually, the concert was stunning, with a curtain on stage that doubled as a movie screen -- flashing pictures of President George W. Bush with photos of dictators like Saddam Hussein and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il -- a mechanical horse with a stripper pole that she saddled during a rendition of "Like a Virgin,'' and the larger than life disco ball that lowered onto stage with her inside. The ball was embellished with $2 million worth of Swarovski crystals.
And of course, there was the already infamous crucifixion segment with Madonna suspended from a giant illuminated cross, wearing a crown of thorns, singing "Live to Tell.'' While visually stunning, the depiction wasn't anything new in the music world. Many still recall rapper Kanye West wearing a crown of thorns on Rolling Stone magazine in early February.
At any rate, Madonna had to out-do her last tour which displayed images of the crucifixion, had T-shirts with the line "Kabbalists Do It Better,'' and dancers in rabbi robes and burqas that covered their heads but exposed their legs.
The bulk of the music Tuesday night concentrated on new material from her latest album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor.'' And like her album, most of her concert was upbeat. She remixed some of her classics disco-style, with "Music'' done up as "Saturday Night Fever,'' and "Erotica'' and "La Isla Bonita'' in that white leotard. (She reportedly will soon be releasing an album of remixes.)
She slowed down during the middle of the concert with a stripped-down acoustic version of "Drowned World/Substitute for Love'' and a duet on "Paradise (Not for Me),'' with Yitzhak Sinwani of the London Kabbalah Centre. Sinwani also joined with her on the controversial song "Isaac,'' which some argue tries to cash in on the name of the founder of one form of Kabbalah, which is a no-no.
Much of Madonna's pop-concert longevity can be attributed to her dancers whose break-dancing, roller-skating and urban gymnastics wowed the audience.
Although, she rarely strayed from the script, Madonna did say San Jose was much more fun than Las Vegas. And the crowd seemed to believe her. From the beginning, the audience partied in her honor and stood up and danced for most of the show.
Madonna has transformed from pop icon to mom and back, challenging lines of good taste and longevity in an unforgiving genre. But she continues to reinvent herself. Let's hope she still has more to confess.
source : mercury news

As someone who no longer has anything to prove, Madonna could easily coast through her rigorous two-hour performance and, at age 47, nobody would blame her. But Tuesday at the HP Pavilion, the first of two sold out shows, she pushed herself to the limits in an exhausting, exacting performance and barely paused for a breath.
In a dazzling spectacle that juggled music, dance, video, special effects, she was a slave to the show's ceaseless pace from the minute she appeared, lowered to the middle of the arena floor inside a giant disco ball. Riding the bare backs of male dancers wearing bridles and blinders, she wore a top hat and brandished a riding crop while images of giant horses filled the massive video screen behind her.
She never let up, driving herself, her band, her dancers through their demanding, frantic paces, although even the big staged smiles couldn't disguise the basic joylessness with which she approached her tasks. At this point, even Madonna is probably a little tired of her act.
But the girl is game. She sang "Live To Tell" from a twelve-foot crucifix, sure to go down as one of those Madonna moments that have always marked her shows. She ran footage of Bush, Hitler and Osama to her song "Sorry." She worked a merry-go-round contraption like a stripper with a pole. She fondled herself. She flipped the bird. She played electric guitar on "I Love New York" and told the audience they better jump up and down on the next number. "Or I'm gonna get pissed," she said.
Her concerts have never relied on music. She brings so many elements together -- staging, video production, choreography -- media manipulation is the real performance and music is only a portion. She puts together a package that is part sex, part dance music, part her own tabloid allure and, drawing from the gay and S&M demimondes, delivers a deliciously overloaded, deliberately daring, but ultimately streamlined and safe experience. This is her real talent and she changed the way the entire industry looked at talent after they saw how she played the game.
She concentrated almost exclusively on material from her latest album, "Confessions On a Dance Floor." Working with British electronica producer Stuart Page, who served as musical director of her 2004 "Re-Invention" tour and played keyboards on her "Drowned World" tour in 2001, Madonna has given her sound a fresh rinse. Big, ringing grooves drive the "Confessions" songs, thunderous, pounding rhythms that Madonna tops with a wall of vocals, her own disciplined voice the mere cherry on top of the frothy, foaming sound.
She used each number as a set piece. A runway shot down the middle of the arena floor and she sent dancers scurrying up and down the ramp constantly, at one point having them whiz around her on roller skates. Two other runaways flanked the stage. The band moved around behind her on motorized platforms and dancers appeared and disappeared through trap doors. A huge semi-circular video screen could lower like a curtain. Every moment of the show, every step, every breath, was written in stone. Nothing was left to chance.
She went through costumes. She changed her hair, first pulled back, then let loose, then pulled back again. She struck dramatic poses and stomped, bumped and ground her way through strenuous ensemble dance routines. She grabbed the spotlight and she held it.
As always, Madonna can get an audience's attention, but then what? She's not the kind of performer to touch their hearts. She obviously relishes the attention, demands it actually, but she doesn't give back any warmth. Attitude she has -- saucy mare and naughty girl -- attitude and a remarkable athleticism. But it is a spectacle of sound and light, a flash and a roar, not anything ennobling or enlightening, just entertaining.
source : sfgate

The line between music and theater continues to blur in Madonna's world. In many ways, her current "Confessions" tour is a better theater production than it is a pop concert.
In that sense, Madonna's live show is just catching up with the rest of her career--which, arguably, has had more to do with creating good theater than with making great music. Fortunately, she's also released her share of memorable songs along the way.
On Tuesday (5/30), during the first half of a two-night stand at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA, the 47-year-old pop icon born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone definitely delivered a dramatic visual presentation for the capacity crowd. She didn't do quite so well with the musical portion of the concert.
One could certainly take issue with Madonna's set list, which basically ignored the old hits in favor of the new dance material. Yet, the set list wasn't really the problem here. To the contrary, Madonna definitely chose enough worthy songs to theoretically put on a very fine show.
The trouble came with how the theatric side of the show often overwhelmed the music, as Madonna and her cast of cohorts delivered big productions on somewhat modest numbers. The word that kept coming to mind was overkill.
Still, Madonna definitely entertained her fans with this over-the-top production.
Much like 2001's Drowned World Tour, the singer's current "Confessions" trek--which supports last year's "Confessions on a Dance Floor" album--was broken up into four segments.
The first was dubbed the Equestrian segment, which was a bit ironic, given that Madonna was injured in a horse-riding accident last year. As horses paraded on overhead screens and dancers wearing jockey-style gear gyrated on stage, Madonna appeared from the center of a giant disco ball and proceeded to sing the new album's "Future Lovers" and the Donna Summer disco anthem "I Feel Love." The singer continued with another "Confessions" track, "Get Together," and then followed with the classic "Like a Virgin," which was performed in part while the singer slid about on a horse saddle.
The second section, called the Bedouin segment, began as Madonna donned a thorny crown, took a Christ-like position on a huge cross and sang "Live to Tell." Not surprisingly, that move has drawn a bit of controversy, but nothing that Madonna can't weather. The main problem is that the cross move--like so many of the show's theatric maneuvers--does nothing to further the music. If anything, whatever shock value comes from Madonna's bold move seems to detract from the song.
The most surprising quarter was the Never Mind the Bollocks section, where Madonna embraced her inner-punk for a fun run through rock-and-roll-infused dance numbers like "I Love New York" and "Ray of Light."
The last portion of the evening was a full-on disco party, highlighted by such fan favorites as "La Isla Bonita" and "Lucky Star." The star closed the show with a fine version of the new album's "Hung Up."
source : live daily

Disco, most assuredly, is not dead. Not anymore.
But too much of a good thing was exactly what killed disco the first time. That's something that Madonna, judging from her show Tuesday night in San Jose, apparently didn't learn.
The problem with disco was never a lack of fun. Nearly 30 years later, it can still be a hoot. All one had to do was watch the dancing crowd loving Madonna at San Jose's HP Pavilion on Tuesday night.
No, the problem with disco was that it got so fun, there was just way, way WAY too much of it.
Which takes us to Madonna's "Confessions" tour, which pulled into HP Pavilion Tuesday night for the first of two shows. A Madonna concert is usually one curveball after another; a big, well-planned production peppered with thoughtful moments. The mix of material is usually enough for old and new fans alike. There's enough tongue-in-cheek humor to soften the indulgences in ego. It's usually an excellent concert by someone who's almost never accused of being boring.
Tuesday got boring, ironically because Madonna was working so hard to not be boring. Tuesday wasn't a concert. It was a loud, throbbing disco party, with Madonna as the centerpiece in the pink-purple Olivia Newton John "Let's Get Physical" leotard. Maybe boring isn't the right word. Maybe irritating is a better description.
Yes, we were warned. Madonna's newest record "Confessions on a Dance Floor" is most assuredly not a pop record. It's a well-crafted dance record by someone who knows well-crafted dance records. But, and I could be wrong, when people shell out hundreds of dollars to see the Queen of American Pop/Dance Music in an arena, shouldn't they get a cross-section of 23 years of memories, instead of one long mix-tape where the beat never changes? Even the rare old song she performed brimmed with a massive beat, at times obscuring the song itself.
Even with a disco theme -- forgetting for a second the first half of the show, when Madonna hit the crowd over the head with every world problem of the last five centuries -- the show was far more disjointed than your typical Madonna effort. It was just strange, watching her tackle everything -- starving children, the KKK, natural disasters, the Middle East -- with a throbbing disco beat. It wasn't done in the smart, pop-art way of which she's more than capable. At one point she even flashed images of Richard Nixon at the crowd. If there was a message there, it was obscured by sensory overload.
For two hours she mostly rolled through the dance-heavy material of the past decade. Emerging from a giant disco ball, the 47-year-old came out in tight equestrian gear, occasionally using a horse whip on male dancers with horse bridles in their mouths. By second song "Get Together," the big bass dance-fuzz was so heavy, it was hard to hear the vocals -- kind of like that mini-truck at the stop light with the stereo that sounds like a passing 747.
There were good moments. During "Like a Virgin," Madonna climbed a mechanical saddle and did ... well, Madonna stuff to it (she may be 47 but find me a 27-year old who looks that good in riding gear). A large narrow contraption of monkey bars lowered from the rafters during "Jump," so Madonna's shirtless boy-toy dancers could swing around. A bit later came the much-hyped scene angering some Christian groups on this tour. Wearing a crown of thorns, Madonna set herself on a large glittering cross to sing "Live to Tell." On one hand it was kind of fun just for the shock value. On the other, the stunt aspect and bad sound nearly obliterated the effect of a song that's so much better when standing quietly alone. Her voice was barely audible. It got way overblown when video images of starving children (this from a pop star selling $90 sweat jackets in the lobby) started rolling. It reeked of being disingenuous, a feeling that continued when she jammed every religious symbol she could think of onto the video screens for "Forbidden Love."
The message came off about as deep as a bumper sticker. Later, when her dancers donned what looked like desert garb, I couldn't help but think of a dance number in Mel Brooks' "History of the World."
But the fans ate it up, dancing for two hours straight. In that regard, the show worked. Things got better on the usually superb "Ray of Light" and well-crafted "Substitute for Love," but even those sounded hurried. "La Isla Bonita" was jumbled and rushed. The big dance number and colorful backdrops couldn't hide that she was strangling the song into a hyper-disco bore. When the beat takes precedence over the dynamics, good songs suffocate -- it was a problem Madonna had with her older material all night.
She did manage to ratchet up the party near show's end, doing "Lucky Star," dropping balloons and cranking up the noise. The effort was obvious, especially for a woman nearing 50 who was running circles around singers half her age (even if there were more piped-in vocals then in recent years). And, yes, she warned us that she really likes disco right now. But, if anything, she was trying to too hard to prove she can still run in place for two hours. More variety and a few pauses to properly recognize the career that got Madonna where she is today would've been more effective.
source : contra costa times

Madonna might get the highest price ever paid for a TV concert special - $15 million from NBC, the Daily News reports - from her current "Confessions" tour.
Now it still remains to be seen whether or not the network would air her as she hangs herself - crown of thorns and all - from a disco-glittery 20-foot huge cross in an imitation of the execution of Jesus or yelling profanities during an anti-Bush montage.
Guy Ritchie's documentary on the tour would also reportedly air.
In the June issue of W magazine (hit newsstands on May 19) she is featured in a 58-page photo spread of Madonna in sexually provocative positions. Some photos of the star feature her posing with no top while wearing fishnet stockings, leather gloves nearly up to her elbow, and holding a small whip while 'playing' with horses in the sand.
source : post chronicle

US pop queen Madonna could be the latest of a string of celebrities to pose as a model for Swedish low-cost fashion retailer Hennes and Mauritz (H and M), a Swedish newspaper said on Tuesday.
The daily Expressen said that Madonna was in negotiations with the company.
"She's a superstar, a style icon - and controversial. Now Madonna could be H and M's next clothing model," the paper said.
H and M would neither confirm nor deny the report. "Our policy is to never comment on such reports," company spokesperson Kristina Stenvinkel told AFP.
The retailer announced earlier this month that Dutch designer duo Viktor + Rolf would create a special collection for H and M this autumn, to be launched in November.
But it has yet to announce who will don the creations in the accompanying advertising campaign.
Previous H and M models have included superstars Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Anna Nicole Smith.
Last year, British supermodel Kate Moss was dropped from the group's ad campaign after allegations arose that she had taken cocaine.
Expressen pointed out that Madonna had a long history of collaborating with Swedes, including music producers, songwriters, music video directors and even her yoga instructor.
source : thelocal.se

2 Pictures - Madonna and Guy Ritchie arriving at Madonna's after show party at TAO nightclub in Las Vegas (May 28 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Get Together EP is now available at US iTunes. Click on links bellow to download.

01 Get Together
02 Get Together (Tiefschwarz Remix)
03 Get Together (James Holden Remix)
04 Get Together (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
05 Get Together (Danny Howells & Dick Trevor KinkyFunk Mix)
06 I Love New York (Thin White Duke Remix)

Madonna's new world tour kicked off last week, and the Church of England immediately weighed in with a bad review -- something about the singer wearing a crown of thorns while being crucified on a mirrored cross.
It was a spectacularly exciting two-hour show, packed with sinewy, skin-baring dancers, fine singing, some of the best dance music of the decade and one of the most memorable stage entrances in memory. And it included a scene where Madonna -- age 47 and the mother of two -- sang the ballad "Live to Tell" suspended from a giant cross.
Of course, Maddy has always used Christian imagery to provoke. These days, though, she's no longer the polarizing figure she once was -- that honor now belongs to Tom Cruise -- and the 18,000-strong fans at the Forum in Inglewood didn't raise an eyebrow.
Ironically, the Forum is now owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which normally holds its services there on Sundays. The ushers, though, seemed more interested in the writhing dancers.
Madonna's elaborately staged "Confessions'' road show, which occupied a gigantic high-tech T-shaped stage, took in 22 songs from all aspects of her career, thematically broken into four sections. She and her crew perform in San Jose on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The tightly choreographed concert began 50 minutes late when a giant crystal disco ball was lowered from the ceiling to the end of a long catwalk stretching deep into the audience floor. Out popped Madonna -- a dominatrix in jodhpurs and top hat snapping a jeweled riding crop -- delivering the recent "Future Lovers,'' surrounded by topless male dancers.
Madonna was in thrilling, non-stop-action mode, strutting up and down the catwalk, crawling on all fours, offering some expert pelvic thrusts and holding attention all around. The singing was strong, the material well-chosen, and accompaniment by a top-notch seven-member ensemble was solid.
The dozen or so dancers had as many costume changes as the headliner herself, and Cirque du Soleil-style gymnasts worked out on platforms while massive video screens showed images of war, world leaders, horses -- and Madonna.
But while it was a perfect, flashy Hollywood production, there seemed to be little room for ad libs, although Madonna did throw in some expletives to urge a singalong during the roof-raising finale of her current disco anthem, "Hung Up," as Mylar balloons fell onto the crowd.
While she played almost every song from her current "Confessions on a Dance Floor" release, the crowd went especially crazy for old favorites, including "Like a Virgin," for which Madonna climbed onto a carousel horse, which raised and lowered while the singer gyrated.
source : mercury news

15 Pictures - Madonna performs in Los Angeles during "Confessions" World Tour (Forum, Los Angeles, May 24 2006) - are added to the gallery.

Photos by R7Boogieboy

A colorful phantasmagoria, Madonna's "Confessions" tour opened in Los Angeles Sunday and presented the 47-year-old as a dancing machine with a rather simple need, a beat. "Confessions on a Dance Floor," Madonna's dance-oriented album from last year, fills more than half of the 90-minute, encoreless evening. Stripped down as it is, Madge and her creative team pump up every song to larger than life through images on video screens, brilliant lighting and lively movement on the mainstage. A wide ramp cuts down the center of the arena to a smaller stage, which becomes a playground for the dancers and Madonna, who play the entire evening at fever pitch.
Madonna has always allowed her designers to go hog wild, yet here the team has created a cohesive whole, making the entire night engaging regardless of whether she's singing hits or lesser-known "Confessions" material. She sings with the muscularity of her well-toned body, even turning the album track "Sorry" into a tour de force from vocals alone. The visuals plus the material should prevent her from having to follow "Confessions" with an Act of Contrition tour in which she kowtows to nostalgia to sate her fans' demands for her pre-"Vogue" standards.
She arrived -- 50 minutes after the printed start time of 8 p.m. -- at the center-arena stage, climbing out of a giant disco ball that has descended from the ceiling, driving home the point that this is a dance show. The Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder hit "I Feel Love" was the second song performed, a harbinger of the night, just in case the glittering ball was too subtle -- this is music about love and sex, feeling good and enjoying the visceral excitement of music.
Positioned as her re-entry into the dance music arena, "Confessions on a Dance Floor" is no groundbreaking work by any stretch. If anything, it's a bit retroretro: The timbre of the beats, vocal tweaks and synth sounds bear the sheen of 1985-95, especially Louie Vega productions and Depeche Mode. When "Ray of Light" is performed, its depth beyond most of the "Confessions" songs is almost instantaneously obvious.
While most tunes are performed as recorded, "Music" gets a startling reworking. Number starts with a loop of the intro to "Disco Inferno" as the stage is bathed in deep red. Dancers become roller-skating daredevils as the "Music" riff starts to sprout within "Inferno""Inferno" yet never takes over; Madonna enters and sings the tune straight, allowing "Music's" "I wanna dance with my baby" lyrics to settle in as if she were offering a salute to Studio 54's heyday. Despite its excess, it gels convincingly.
Tune feeds into the final four -- "Erotic," which is presented with five couples dancing mild-mannered steps lifted from a Broadway ballroom scene; "La Isla Bonita," done with on-the-nose visuals; "Lucky Star," with some early off-key vocals that indicated there are live elements in a show abounding with electronically triggered sounds; and "Hung Up," the best single on "Confessions," a dance hit that never quite caught on at the radio.
The Forum, which was sweltering, did Madonna's voice no favors. She often was shouting, and the reverb added by sound technicians fought with the building's notoriously bad acoustics. (Sound did improve as the evening wore on).
The ramp and center stage -- devices that acts such as the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi and U2 use to get closer to more audience members -- don't allow Madonna to produce intimate moments. Even when she sat on a stool on the mainstage and strapped on an acoustic guitar to sing the 1998 miss "Drowned World," the result was as big as a dance track. Proximity, rather than intimacy, is what she delivers; her audience eats it up.
Being who she is, some of the show is bound to raise some eyebrows: The opening montage, set in a stable, borders on bestial porn; she strings together videos on AIDS in Africa, gangs and child abuse in a Clinton Foundation PSA that's totally out of character with the rest of the program; and she emerges for a segment crucified on a metallic cross, complete with a crown of thorns. And as if she can't go anywhere without dragging religion into the picture, a quote from the New Testament book of Matthew closes one video segseg and a blowing of the shofar opens a ballad -- but looking for a connection within this music seems futile.
source : variety

More Pictures from Confessions Tour Opening Night in Los Angeles are added to the gallery.

"This is who I am / You can like it or not / You can love me or leave me 'cause I'm never gonna stop."
So sings Madonna.
Forhet the crucifix. No, really. It has already become the visual image of Madonna's spectacular (and spectacularly ambitious) "Confessions" concert. But as usual, there is more to M's work than meets the eye. The "blasphemous" sequence, in which she sings "Live to Tell" suspended on a cross, is accompanied by desperate images and dire statistics about children dying of AIDS in Africa. Why the cross? Don't ask M, who'll only tell you her work must speak for itself and she believes in the intelligence and imagination of her audience.
In spite of the crucifix controversy, this show contains some of the great set pieces of Madonna's career. "Music" is transformed into an homage to 1970s disco in general and John Travolta in his white-suited "Saturday Night Fever" persona in particular. This incredible number is worth the exorbitant price of admission. There is her entrance from the ceiling in a giant glitter ball . . . "Like a Virgin" performed in her dominatrix equestrian outfit, playfully gyrating like a 20-year-old on an oversized saddle . . . "Ray of Light" and "I Love New York," display Madonna's impressive guitar licks and her ability to command the stage as a rock-chick extraordinaire. "I Love New York," which is one of the weakest songs on her "Confessions" album, comes alive, thanks to Madonna's ferocious in-the-flesh tackle of it. The sinewy, sometimes androgynous singer/dancer channels Iggy Pop in her angry, defiant "Let It Will Be," and then switches moods instantly with a haunting "Drowned World." Both songs question fame, in a different frame of mind, reflecting Madonna's continuing search for peace within this maelstrom of her own making.
There are the head-scratching moments, numbers that don't come off ("Erotica") and cringe-inducing profanity directed at the president. (Really, at almost 48 years old, there's no need for Madonna to engage in juvenile pandering. Especially as she makes her political point powerfully in a video montage that includes George W. Bush existing side by side with Hitler, Mussolini and other charmers.)
Even if you are not especially a Madonna fan, I defy anybody to watch this woman work for two hours onstage and come away unimpressed. (She is greatly assisted by her incredible troupe of dancers, of whom Daniel "Cloud" Campus and Leroy "Hypnosis" Barnes are standouts. But every single one in her cast is brilliant!)
Madonna is determined to tattoo her vision onto her audience and make them think whether they want to or not. She is equally passionate that her fans get the very best of her, doing what they want to see her do. She sings (live), she dances like time has stopped and surely she never fell off that horse! The star provides an ongoing visual feast; almost too much happens on a Madonna stage (and in her head!). She and director Jamie King are over-fond of the giant visuals that back Madonna and can overwhelm her, but these are often beautiful, and for the fans in the nosebleed seats, they're compensation for watching their idol from a vantage point that reduces her to the size of a postage stamp.
Though they seem polar opposites, Madonna and Marlene Dietrich have a lot in common. Marlene also offered herself as fans wanted to see her - encased in sequined gowns, a shimmy here, a hand gesture there. Madonna's act is considerably more athletic, but nonetheless a result of iron stamina, perfectionism, self-love and a professional standard that is out of reach by even the most dedicated performers. (Indeed there is an almost Prussian, compulsive work ethic in Madonna's personality.) Old age and infirmity stopped Marlene, and she drew the curtain on her public self. Madonna is still a young woman, but not a youngster. Watching her aerobic intensity, one wonders how much longer she can do it. And why she wants to continue the brutal grind? Why? Because whatever her art and world attention has meant to Madonna, it hasn't altered. She has changed in some ways: married, a mother of two, a devotee of religion, but the great need that propelled her from Michigan to Manhattan way back when is as strong as ever. She wants to be adored - she wants to shock, confound, create, never rest on what has been. She looks to the future. Madonna is consumed by ambition and ego yet sometimes longs to free herself.
"Confessions" - which might be subtitled "I'm Still Here Ha! Ha! Ha!" - isn't a perfect concert, though by the time it reaches N.Y.C. in June, it might be. But it is a perfect showcase for a woman who has imposed her will on the world. And has no intention of loosening her grip.
One of the happiest people at Madonna's concert was pal Rosie O'Donnell, loaded down with camera equipment. It was her first time out with a digital camera; she usually prefers old-fashioned film - "I love that darkroom smell!" Rosie compared notes with celeb lensman Kevin Mazur, much loved for his talent and good manners. Rosie has long documented Madonna's concerts. "I send her scrapbooks. I figure when we're both 80 we'll be in rocking chairs, going, 'Ah, remember the "Confessions" tour, honey?' "
Maybe. But I have a feeling M will be on her "Madonna 80: Ready, Willing and Still Able" tour.
source : ny post

Madonna wasn't cherished yesterday by Catholics, who blasted the aging Material Girl for dangling on a cross and wearing a crown of thorns during an L.A. concert over the weekend.
"Why would you take the place of Jesus Christ and do something like this?" asked Leana Lorenzana of Jackson Heights, Queens, outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Lorenzana answered her own question, saying the 47-year-old pop star was grasping for publicity when she stunned a Los Angeles crowd by singing "Live To Tell" while suspended on a mirrored cross.
"All Catholics should protest," said Evelyn Bonilla, 28, of Suffolk County. "She shouldn't do this in New York. I don't know how L.A. permitted this."
Anthony Quinata said there was no message to be learned from Madonna's actions.
"I think she's doing it for shock-value purposes," said Quinata, 29, a Catholic from Irvington, N.J. "If you don't acknowledge it, it just goes away. I want it to go away."
source : new york post

Madonna has defended a controversial mock crucifixion in her stage show, saying it is part of an appeal to the audience to donate to Aids charities.
"I don't think Jesus would be mad at me and the message I'm trying to send," she told the New York Daily News.
UK and US church groups condemned the stunt after the singer began a 51-date world tour in Los Angeles.
A Church of England statement asked why Madonna felt "the need to promote herself by offending so many people".
Madonna performed the ballad Live To Tell while suspended from a giant mirrored cross on Sunday's opening night.
Images of poverty in the developing world were shown on video screens, while numbers ticked away to represent the 12 million African children orphaned by Aids.
"Jesus taught that we should love thy neighbour," Madonna told the newspaper.

Upset
David Muir of the Evangelical Alliance accused the singer of "blatant insensitivity".
"Madonna's use of Christian imagery is an abuse and it is dangerous," he said.
"She should drop it from the tour and people need to find their own means of expressing their disapproval."
This is not the first time the pop star's concerts have upset the Church.
In 1990, the Pope called for a boycott of the Blond Ambition tour, in which Madonna simulated masturbation during Like A Virgin.
The video for Like A Prayer also brought condemnation from groups claiming it was blasphemous.
The Confessions world tour will reach Britain in July.
source : bbc

Less than 12 hours after Madonna crucified herself on a mirrored cross, the Catholic League expressed its discontent with the concert stunt. "Knock off the Christ-bashing," Catholic League president Bill Donohue said in a statement Monday. "It's just pathetic."
"I guess you really can't teach an old pop star new tricks," he said. "Poor Madonna keeps trying to shock. But all she succeeds in doing is coming across as a boring bigot."
The "Confessions" tour continues through Sept. 4 with dates throughout North America and Europe.
source : ap

Madonna kicked off her latest world tour with her most controversial stunt ever - a mock crucifixion.
The pop queen wore a crown of thorns and was hung from a mirrored cross to sing her ballad Live To Tell at the Forum in Los Angeles, the first date on her Confessions tour.
Last night, the stunt was shaping up to be the bitterest episode yet in lapsed Catholic Madonna's stormy relationship with the Church.
Both Catholic and Church of England spokesmen attacked it.
A spokesman for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, said: "To use the crucifixion as a stage prop is a banal perversion of that magnificent event."
Madonna, 47, has a history of clashes with the Vatican, who labelled her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour "one of the most Satanic shows ever". The crucifixion appeared to puzzle many of her LA audience rather than offend them, though, as the singer made no attempt to explain the meaning of the imagery.
The show also featured a montage juxtaposing shots of Tony Blair and George Bush with footage of Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
And the star, an outspoken critic of Bush, showed her feelings for the president by changing the lyrics to I Love New York to include an obscene reference to him.
Madonna also had time for plenty of costume changes, including 70s disco outfits and a cape labelled Dancing Queen.
Her raunchiest look poked fun at the idea that she has mellowed into an English country lady. The keen horse-rider wore jodhpurs, high boots and a top hat to whip her male dancers into shape, dragging one around in a leather harness.
The outrageous outfit was one of 30 designed for the tour by French couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier.
He and Madge first got together in 1990, when he designed the Blonde Ambition tour outfits, including her infamous conical bustier.
The Confessions tour is expected to make more than L100million. The UK leg of the tour starts in Cardiff on July 30.
source : daily record

"I want to turn the world into a giant dance floor," Madonna declared as tickets for her Confessions world tour went on sale.
The 47-year-old disco diva is known for her theatrical, action-packed performances and last night's sold-out show was no exception.
There were tutus and tiaras, drag queens and diamantes, sequins and sparkles, black corsets and bejeweled belts - and that was just the audience.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Salma Hayek, Rosie O'Donnell and Nicole Richie were among the 20,000 fans dazzled by the two-hour show at the Los Angeles Forum.
"Are you ready to take a ride with me?" the material mum asked as she emerged from a giant disco ball covered with $2 million in Swarovski crystals.
Wearing jodhpurs and a top hat, the equestrian style outfit was matched with black and white footage of racehorses flashing on the huge screens at the back of the stage. Male dancers moved to the music like animals, with leather harnesses around their necks. Madonna mounted them, whipped them and seduced them.
A backstage spy said Madge had been "more finicky than ever" about the dancers - "her gifted and naughty children".
"She tells them off if they dare to yawn or sigh or ask for a breather. Those dancers are basically in boot camp. She's pretty scary!"
Just like their taskmaster, the dozen dancers did not stop for a second. They roller-bladed and back-flipped, break-danced and boogied. They even put on a Cirque-du-Soleil-style show during one of the songs.
It was a visual feast with more than six different costume changes, none straying far from Madonna's love of lycra.
Like a Virgin was a real crowd pleaser. Madge cranked up the kinky factor and strapped herself into a silver-studded saddle that was attached to a pole, and circled above the audience.
One of my favourite outfits was a black bomber jacket that sparkled as she sang I love New York all rock'n'roll style with a Les Paul guitar.
Coming close behind was the super sleek, 70s style white suit she wore in a disco-flavoured section of the show when she sang Music and successfully showed off some Saturday Night Fever/ John Travolta moves.
Gold metallic balloons fell from the ceiling as she called to the crowd to sing along.
"Don't make me stop this car," she joked when the audience didn't sing to her satisfaction. "Come on, you lazy (rhymes with suckers), SING!"
So we did. And we danced. She dazzled us some more. And then it all seemed to be over in a flash.
I left mesmerised, amazed, exhausted and astounded by her stamina. There's no need to worry that this may be Madonna's final tour. She certainly shows no sign of slowing down any day soon.
source : msn.com.au

What do you get when you mix a mock crucifixion, Kabbalah, political diatribes and a plea for AIDS relief with a giant crystal-covered disco ball?
Why, the first night of Madonna's Confessions tour, of course.
The 47-year-old pop icon jumpstarted the North American leg of her tour with a bada-bang Sunday night at the Forum in Los Angeles, dazzling the sold-out crowd with million-dollar set pieces, seven costume changes and her yoga-buffed bod.
To gild the lily, Salma Hayek, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rosie O'Donnell and Nicole Richie were also spotted getting into the groove during the show.
About 50 minutes after the concert's designated starting time, a mirrored disco ball encrusted with $2 million-worth of Swarovski crystals was lowered onto the stage and out popped Madge, wearing S&M-themed equestrian gear like a second skin. Carrying a jeweled riding crop and surrounded by male dancers with leather straps and bits in their mouths reminiscent of Pulp Fiction, Madonna straddled one of her "horses" and opened the show with "Future Lovers," from her latest chart-topper, Confessions on a Dance Floor.
Nine of the evening's 22 songs came from Confessions, including "Sorry," "Jump" and "I Love New York," while the rest were a combination of classics like "La Isla Bonita" and "Lucky Star" (loved by people old enough to actually be able to afford the $350 ticket prices) and newer old hits like "Music" and "Ray of Light."
Maintaining a laudable amount of energy, Madonna danced her way through the night, stopping only to change Jean Paul Gaultier-designed clothes, pick at a Les Paul guitar, make a crude joke in reference to President George W. Bush, and, finally, head off into the night, sans encore.
During the lady of the hour's brief forays offstage to change, video montages depicting members of the Bush administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair interspersed with shots of Hitler, Osama bin Laden and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe kept the adoring crowd entertained, er, enraged, er uncomfortable.
Gone are Madonna's days of suiting up in cone-shaped lingerie for a taboo-busting boudoir romp during the crowd favorite "Like a Virgin." Looking back, the Truth or Dare days when she scandalized the local police for simulating masturbation onstage seem almost quaint.
Nowadays we've got the married mother of two perched atop a kinked-up carousel horse--minus the horse--on a saddle that looked more like a Hell's Angel's idea of black leather heaven. The non-animal bobbed up and down while the diva gyrated in time with "Like a Virgin." In the background, images of the broken bones Madonna suffered in a horse-riding accident last year flashed on huge video screens.
Hidden trapdoors, ramps and a flashing catwalk crisscrossed the stage to accommodate the band and 22 backup dancers and singers employed by Madonna's latest extravaganza.
Of course, the Material Girl did more than confess on the dance floor last night. Reaching out to her Kabbalah crew, she welcomed vocalist Isaac Sinwahy to harmonize with her on "Drowned" and play the shofar, a horn traditionally blown during the Jewish high holy days.
She also managed to antagonize anyone not already busy boycotting The Da Vinci Code with the crown of thorns she donned and the 20-foot-high mirrored cross she perched on during her '80s-era ballad "Live to Tell."
With silver cuffs holding her arms in place, Madonna sang while images of third-world poverty and numbers representing the 12 million children orphaned by AIDS in Africa ticked by on a screen.
The Church of England has already denounced Madonna's "offending" performance, asking Monday whether the songstress was "prepared to take on everything else that goes with wearing a crown of thorns?"
"And why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to promote herself by offending so many people?" a church spokesman said.
"Knock off the Christ-bashing," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement Monday. "It's just pathetic."
This isn't the first time Madonna has crossed the church, so to speak. In 1990 the Pope called for a boycott of the pop star's Blond Ambition tour because of her saucy "Like a Virgin" performances. A few years prior to that, the Vatican had condemned the video for "Like a Prayer," which features burning crosses and images of a black Jesus figure.
Madonna's latest blasphemy doesn't reach Britain until July.
Billboard has predicted that the 51-date Confessions tour could gross in the $200 million range. Cher, queen of the "farewell tour," currently holds the record with $192.5 million, but that was earned in the course of 273 shows.
To remember the night of 1,000 images, concert-goers can pop for a variety of souvenir goods, from $10 sheets of stickers to $85 long-sleeve tees.
We're holding out for the $2 million disco ball.
source : eonline

Having opened to fabulous reviews on Sunday night in Los Angeles, tour promoters The Next Adventure and Kyodo Tokyo are pleased to confirm that Madonna will visit Japan this September. Madonna Confessions Tour will play the Osaka Dome on Saturday, Sept. 16th and Tokyo Dome on Wed. Sept. 20.
Ticket reservations will begin on Saturday, June 10th with public on sale Sunday, July 9th. Ticket prices will be 14.000 yen, 11,000 yen with special seats available for 50,000 yen. Additional ticket information will be announced soon. For Concert Inquiries, please contact: Kyodo Tokyo, Inc. For Ticket and Ticket Package Information, please contact PIA.
source : confessionstour.com

Visit Rosie's Blog to read her writtings about Madonna and to see some of her exclusive photos from the opening show of Confessions Tour

Streams : Windows Media Player | Quick Time

Catholic-bashing Madonna has a disco-mirrored cross to bear - not to mention a prickly crown of thorns - which she uses to crucify herself in her new international tour.
The singer's controversial stunt stunned the crowd as she kicked off her Confessions tour in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Just as she started to croon the sultry ballad "Live to Tell," Madge suddenly appeared onstage as a modern-day, Christ-like figure being "crucified" on a giant, mirrored cross.
To complete the look, the singer wore a crown of 50 thorns over flowing, golden locks.
The stunt immediately drew protests.
"When the Material Girl first embraced kabbala, we thought her newfound faith would inspire her to show some respect for religion," said the Catholic League's Bill Donohue. "But I guess you can't teach an old pop star new tricks."
The Church of England, in Madonna's adopted country, where she lives with her British hubby and two kids, also ripped the singer. "Why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to promote herself by offending so many people?" church officials asked in a statement.
Industry experts say the raunchy tour - which is peddling tickets at up to $380 a pop - could be the highest-grossing ever. Billboard magazine says the overall gross could hit $200 million. The 47-year-old singer has already sold out her six dates at Madison Square Garden this summer.
Watching the muscle-bound Material Girl strut her stuff in L.A. were such celebs as Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and Salma Hayek.
Comics Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell, as well as O'Donnell's partner, also made the scene - although at one point, Rosie reportedly upgraded herself to a premium spot on the floor, leaving her lover alone in the stands.
The kooky-for-kabbala Madonna even had her guru, Rabbi Yehuda Berg, in attendance.
Berg watched his star pupil sweat and gyrate in thigh-high, spiked-heel, black boots and skintight S&M outfits as she straddled a crystal-rivet-studded saddle on a dancing pole to belt out such oldies as "Like a Virgin."
The singer performed other throwbacks, including "Lucky Star" and "Ray of Light," while touting her newer stuff, such as the single "Hung Up" and "Future Lovers," from her latest work, "Confessions on a Dance Floor."
It appeared that Madonna's tumble from a horse last year wasn't far from her mind, either.
After popping out of a $2 million-plus, Swarovski-studded ball, a whip-bearing Madonna rode the back of a muzzled male dancer.
X-rays of her once-broken bones also were flashed overhead.
source : ny post

Another set of Pictures from Confessions Tour Opening Night in Los Angeles are added to the gallery.

Though Madonna's latest world tour has been dubbed the Confessions tour in honor of the singer's latest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, the trek, which began Sunday night before a sold-out audience at L.A.'s hallowed Forum, was much more Cirque du Soleil than a night of intimate revelation.
Descending from the heavens at a quarter to nine in a ton-and-a-half disco ball -- covered in 2 million dollars? worth in crystals -- Madonna began the "Equestrian" portion of the show (the nearly two-hour show was broken down into four sections) with Confessions' "Future Lover." Clad in horseback-riding attire, complete with top hat and riding crop, she moved around the stage's center inlet, which stretched halfway through the floor, before making her way to center to pay homage to another disco queen, with Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." She returned to the new album for "Get Together," performing the song without much assistance from her cadre of backup dancers -- and proving why the disco-tinged track is one of the album's high points.
But since the majority of the frenzied throng paid as much as $350 a ticket for some high-powered spectacle, Madonna would not let the faithful down. And she didn't: The pop diva rode a mechanical saddle/stripper pole during "Like a Virgin" and displayed her gymnastics skills in "Jump." Madonna re-emerged for the "Bedouin" portion of the evening on a mammoth disco crucifix wearing a crown of thorns to perform "Live to Tell." She returned to religious imagery for Confession's "Isaac," which featured a woman dancing in a cage. The singer showed some of that who-gives-a-fuck attitude that first made her a star with "Like It or Not," a rendition spiked by her burlesque-style dancing with a chair. And that was only in the first half of the evening.
Changing costumes again for the "Never Mind the Bollocks" section, Madonna came out rocking an electric guitar for "I Love New York," which featured projections of the city skyline on a large video screen. She held the guitar while exhorting the crowd to dance for a hard-rocking version of the title track of Ray of Light. In keeping with the theme of this portion, the background dancers reemerged, New Wave'd out in black-and-white ties.
Madonna's career has been marked by her chameleon-like ability to reinvent herself, and indeed, in the annals of pop music, her talent in that category may be second only to David Bowie's. Throughout the night, she continually assumed new roles -- even playing the balladeer remarkably well, in renditions of "Drowned World" and "Paradise (Not for Me)," the latter of which was a duet with Yitzhak Sinwani, whom she introduced as her friend.
The singer's most recent role in the pop world has been dance diva, and she assumed that mantle proudly for the evening's final "Disco" theme. Emerging to the beat of the Tramps' "Disco Inferno" in a John Travolta-style white suit (circa Saturday Night Fever, of course), Madonna became the dancing queen for high-energy versions of "Music," "La Isla Bonita" (complete with a cavalcade of dancers and tropical-island images), a techno-fied "Lucky Star" and the closer, "Hung Up." With the climax of that runaway single, gold balloons descended from the rooftops.
Madonna had played many roles in the first night of her Confessions tour -- but confessor was not one of them. Apparently, in all the pomp and circumstance, there was no room for warmth, or even the attitude that made her recent Coachella festival performance so memorable.
Performing at Coachella before a largely foreign audience, she appeared as the Madonna of old: defiant, hungry, ready to fight. A determined Madonna, one who might spar with the crowd, seemed largely absent this weekend at the Forum. She limited her interaction to platitudes like, "Are you ready for a ride, L.A.?," "The show is just beginning!" and "Put on your dancing shoes."
Then again, she didn't have anything to prove to these fans. They got exactly what they wanted on this night: a celebration of all things Madonna, for better or worse.
source :rolling stone

First Pictures from Confessions Tour Opening Night in Los Angeles are added to the gallery.

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.
source : washington post / reuters

An onstage roller-disco complete with a fleet of satin-jacketed rollergirls and -boys. A shofar (Jewish horn) solo and traditional Hebrew incantation by a turban-swaddled man named Isaac, followed by a Fosse-style chair dance and some ghetto-blaster dry-humping. A politicized video montage starring Adolf Hitler, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, Osama bin Laden, Richard Nixon, George Bush, and starving African children. A futuristic mechanical bull equipped with oddly gynecological-looking steel stirrups. And no less than seven costume changes, including three leotards, one unitard, a Saturday Night Fever Tony Manero leisure suit, a crown of thorns, and an electric cape emblazoned with the rightful title of "Dancing Queen."
All of this may sound like the makings of Cirque Du Soleil, the Eurovision Song Contest, Live 8, a lost weekend in Vegas, and an evening at either the Kabbalah Centre or Coyote Ugly rolled into one. But of course, it was just the opening night of Madonna's much-hyped Confessions tour in Los Angeles.
Proving that music does indeed make the people come together, Madonna debuted her new show-of-shows before an adoring mixed audience of drag queens, moms, grandmas, club kids, and yuppies at L.A.'s Forum on Sunday, May 21 (her first of three sold-out nights at the 16,000-capacity venue). She launched her set with a sultry homage to the Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder disco anthem "I Feel Love" while dressed in equestrian fetish-wear and brandishing a whip (a nod to both her recent horsey W photo spread and the 2005 horse-riding accident from which she has triumphantly recovered), and from that moment on, she was off and galloping, taking the audience on a truly wild ride.
She showed she could still be shocking after all these years by singing "Live To Tell" while suspended, Christ-like, from a mirror-paneled crucifix; demonstrated her basic but unexpectedly solid guitar-playing skills during "I Love New York" (while looking like a supremely badass rock star in a patent-leather motorcycle jacket and glammy feather boa); revealed some bull-riding moves that would make Debra Winger green with envy; and was basically a walking (make that strutting) advertisement for power yoga as she flaunted her finely muscled, mind-bogglingly age-resistant physique in shiny, second-skin Spandex throughout.
Despite the surprising and disappointing lack of an encore (what, no "Like A Prayer"? no "Borderline"? no "Material Girl," even?), during her breathless two-hour set the Divine Miz M justified not only her audience's love, but her somewhat exorbitant $350 ticket price as well. It can safely be said that those 16,000 fans got their money's worth, and then some.
source : yahoo

Pop diva Madonna kicked off her "Confessions" tour 45 minutes late at The Forum on Sunday, but fans said they'd wait another two hours if they had to for the colorful dance music icon.
The show, the first of four Los Angeles dates by the singer, was packed to the rafters as fans turned up early to party in the parking lot to await the return of the Material Mom for her first L.A. show in years. Madonna hits boomed through the overcast skies outdoors from car stereos before doors finally opened.
Once inside, fans lined up to buy T-shirts, wristbands, keychains and other items on one of the most-anticipated opening nights of the year.
"She's nasty and sexy and has no regrets," summed up actor Marc Imme, 23, of Toluca Lake, a Madonna fan who came to the show with several friends. "What I like about her is she's an innovator who breaks all the rules. Her music is always ahead of its time."
The show was set to start at 8 p.m. but opening night glitches and mind-boggling traffic snarls caused the delay. Fans cheered celebrity sightings of Rosie O'Donnell, Salma Hayek, Nicole Richie and others seated among the well-dressed crowd.
A spectacular opening in which Madonna was lowered onto the catwalk from the ceiling hidden in a giant disco ball drew roars. When the orb landed on stage, it opened like a blooming flower and the 47-year-old singer stepped down, wearing a tight equestrian-style outfit and snapping a riding crop to the beat of the first number, "Future Lovers."
"As I grew up, Madonna symbolized female empowerment," said Andrea Holt, 27, a marriage and family counselor from Fort Collins, Colo., who flew in to catch the tour-opener at The Forum. "She tested limits and I liked that. And she went through phases in her life. Now, she's focused on her family and a lot of us can relate to that."
Madonna's "Confessions" trek, which continues Tuesday and Wednesday at The Forum and then returns June 3 to Staples Center, will be moving throughout North America until the end of July before heading to Europe and Asia.
Even at ticket prices topping $350, seats sold out rapidly at most venues and continue to be available at outrageous rates over the Internet.
Madonna's most recent disco-themed album, "Confessions On A Dance Floor," has been a huge hit, topping the charts in 40 different countries since its November 2005 release.
"I love that she went back to her dance roots," said Christy Boric, 27, a social worker from Phoenix. "She always reinvents herself she's always one step ahead."
The 22-song concert was broken into four sections, covering hits including "Like a Virgin," "Ray of Light," "Lucky Star" and the recent "Hung Up."
Sitting halfway up in the stalls, nightclub host Sergio De La Vega, 28, of Los Angeles wasn't worried that Madonna was a bit late coming to work.
"It's Madonna I'd wait two hours if I had to," De La Vega, wearing a Madonna hoodie, said. "I've been a fan since I was 7."
Elsewhere in the audience, customer service rep Antonio Briseno, 26, of Buena Park said he'd spent $200 on Madonna merchandise at The Forum and had no regrets.
"The thing about Madonna is, she puts you in a good mood when you're down," he said. "She's a woman of power. Her attitude, her style it's just right. And that's why I'm a fan."
source : la daily news

More Pictures from Confessions Tour Opening Night in Los Angeles are added to the gallery.

Click on images bellow to watch short clips of Madonna performing "Jump", "Like A Virgin", "La Isla Bonita", "Lucky Star", "Erotica" and "Hung Up" at Confessions Tour"

An 8th and final date at London's Wembley Arena has just been announced on London's Capital Radio. The date is Wednesday 16 August. which also happens to be Madonna's 48th birthday!
Tickets for this date go onsale this Friday morning at 9:00am via the usual outlets.
source : madonnalicious

A better title for Madonna's Confessions tour might be the Go to Confession Tour, as you feel like you need to by the time the show is over. As we've come to expect from Madonna, her latest tour, which she kicked off Sunday at the Forum, is so provocative that it's hard to count the ways.
Let's see, there was the whole hanging on a cross, wearing a crown of thorns thing. The riding the rhinestone-studded, black leather carousel like she's the main attraction at the erotic shop across town thing. And, of course, that nasty George Bush comment thing, which she brought back from her Coachella show last month.
The show started off nice and sweet with images of horses on the screens and Madonna in full equestrian attire descending from the ceiling in a one-ton disco ball. A closer look at that outfit, however, revealed she's going for the dominatrix look and that whip wasn't meant for a horse.
As Madonna sang "Future Lovers," mixing in a little of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" for good measure, her leather-strapped male dancers slithered around her like a lost scene from "Eyes Wide Shut." "Get Together" offered more of the same, but nothing could have prepared the capacity crowd for what would follow - and we're not talking about her own X-rays on the screens.
Bringing "Like a Virgin" out of the vaults, Madonna introduced the song by asking the audience if they wanted to go for ride. She then saddled up on a carousel-like set piece and rode it like no carousel should be ridden.
The moves sent the room into a frenzy and caused one of the only sing-a-longs of the set, which featured 10 Confessions on a Dancefloor tracks and, unlike the Re-Invention Tour that launched in the same venue almost two years ago (see "Madonna Twirls Rifle, Lifts Up Her Kilt At Tour Opener"), only a few old favorites.
As is the case with all of her tours, however, Madonna gives you a lot to watch. Her fourth tune, "Jump," might have featured the most impressive eye candy of all. Between the jungle gym that descended onto the runway and the crew of perfectly-toned tumblers racing around, it was like the Olympic gymnastics freestyles finals on Red Bull.
For her next tune, Madonna made one of her seven costume changes and returned to the center of the stage a la Jesus Christ on the cross (if that cross were built in 2006 ... by Marilyn Manson), singing "Live to Tell." Like Kanye West on the cover of Rolling Stone, it was a fascinating image, whether or not you think it's immoral.
The middle of the set was mostly a showcase of Confessions, including a stirring rendition of "Issac" featuring the song's namesake guest voice (see "Madonna Denies Blasphemy Charges, Explains Origin Of 'Isaac' ") and a video montage for "Sorry" that managed to knock most of the world's leaders. "Don't say forgive me," Madonna sang as pictures of the war in Iraq flashed with shots of President Bush.
In "I Love New York," during which Madonna played a black guitar surround by her six-piece band suddenly covered head-to-toe in white, the singer not only added "but not you guys" after the "Los Angeles is for people who sleep" line, but changed the "Just go to Texas/ Isn't that where they golf" lyric to a derogatory Bush remark (see "Madonna, Kanye Just Add To Coachella's Eclectic Atmosphere").
Aside from those references, though, Madonna kept her political comments to a minimum. In fact, she kept all her comments to a minimum, only encouraging them to dance when the time was right, like "Ray of Light."
After delivering the back-to-back ballads "Drowned World" and "Paradise (Not For Me)," Madonna got back to her business of catering to the dance floor and her band launched into a version of "Music" that mashed with "Disco Inferno."
While dancers whisked around her on roller skates, Madonna donned a white suit and danced down the runway to the small stage in the middle of the arena, where she did her best "Saturday Night Fever"-era John Travolta routine, complete with the "hitchhike" (you know, thumbs to the side).
"Erotica" was, well ... you guessed it (let's just say it was performed in a body suit) and "La Isla Bonita" was reinvented with a salsa groove.
With the exhausted crowd at their peak, Madonna brought out another oldie in "Lucky Star" but modernized the track with a techno beat that slowly morphed into "Hung Up."
For the Confessions single, Madonna returned to center stage for the same provocative (told you there were many) performance she gave at the Grammys, only this one included a few new twists.
And as the curtain (or in this case, a giant curved screen) came up and the lights came on - no encore for the second straight tour - a message flashed across the screen: Have You Confessed?
The Confessions Tour returns to the Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday before moving Las Vegas for the weekend (see "Madonna Sets Dates For Confessions World Tour").

Set list:
"Future Lovers"
"Get Together"
"Like A Virgin"
"Jump"
"Live to Tell"
"Forbidden Love"
"Issac"
"Sorry"
"Like It or Not"
"I Love New York"
"Ray of Light"
"Let It Will Be"
"Drowned World"
"Paradise (Not for Me)"
"Music"
"Erotica"
"La Isla Bonita"
"Lucky Star"
"Hung Up"

source : mtv.com

Seventeen years after she suffered the wrath of Pope John Paul II and was condemned by the Vatican for her provocative performances, Madonna has outraged political figures once again.
During her latest world tour, the pop star donned a crown of thorns and suspended herself from a giant cross, no doubt testing the patience of successor Pope Benedict XVI.
She went on to launch a political attack on Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush, by showing a video likening their tactics to reviled dictators Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Osama bin Laden.
To add insult to injury, the Material Girl also changed the lyrics of her song I Love New York to make a crude reference to Bush and a lewd act.
It is not the first time Madonna has upset religious groups and political leaders.
In 1989, the Vatican wanted her banned from performing in Italy after it deemed her video for Like A Prayer as blasphemous.
Madonna will be performing in Britain in July and August and fans are expected to pay up to L200 for a ticket.
source : daily mail

Madonna kicked off her Confessions Tour Sunday night at The Forum in Los Angeles. USA Today's Edna Gundersen was there to give you the inside scoop.
The music: The beat-crazy energy seldom flags in a highly polished two-hour show subdivided into Equestrian, Bedouin, Never Mind the Bullocks and Disco sections, though it's the heady pulse of dance music, fortified by a sharp band, that dominates throughout. The rhythm-driven bonanza plucks nine of its 22 songs from Madonna's sweaty Confessions on a Dance Floor album, and the new tunes hold up well live, especially Sorry, Jump and I Love New York. Latter-day hits eclipse classics, with the shimmery Ray of Light and boisterous Music easily outshining a tinny Lucky Star. Madonna is as fit vocally as physically, effortlessly nailing tender passages or a demanding upper register after strenuous bump-and-grind workouts.
The set: The visual orgy includes a giant disco ball that peels open like a lotus, hidden trapdoors, a saddle bobbing on a pole (yes, she rides it), a flashing catwalk that leads to a lighted dance floor at the center of the arena, sweeping tilted ramps for dance escapades and huge screens flashing cutting-edge videos of, well, mostly more Madonna. The visuals dramatically enhance the sonics, except in two cases of gratuitous excess - when horrific horse accidents crop up during Like a Virgin and when Madonna strikes a mock crucifixion pose on a geometric cross while singing Live to Tell, spoiling one of her most intimate and haunting ballads.
Fashion and choreography: Madonna looks fab in Jean-Paul Gaultier get-ups, from bondage riding duds to glam-punk black, all designed to flaunt a designer physique. The dance troupe dazzles with krumping, acrobatics, roller skate rumbles and goosestep rhumbas.
The merch: For fans who pay up to $350 for tickets, the $85 long-sleeve black shirt is a bargain. Pink Ts with a glittery 'M' go for $80, and baseball caps fetch $35. Kids on a tight allowance can opt for the $10 sticker sheet. The hot seller on opening night: $30 photo-packed programs.
The crowd: Mostly boomers, teens, gays, Hispanics. Opening night devotees sported tiaras, go-go boots, rubber dresses, black corsets and bejeweled belts. And those were the guys. Madonna wanna-bods squeezed size 14 forms into size 4 hip-hugger minis.
The inside scoop: Salma Hayek, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rosie O'Donnell and Nicole Richie were spotted at Sunday's launch. Only friends and family were admitted to Saturday night's secret run-through, staged for a cozy gathering of 3,000. Every crewmember was allowed to invite 15 pals. On Sunday, Madonna's rehearsal left several people steamed at the curb. They were upset not about being left outside but because Madonna was inside after crossing picket lines. The stagehands are in a dispute with the venue's management. Actually, it's a wonder the scandalized singer got in at all. The Forum is owned by The Faithful Central Bible Church.
source : usa today

Another set of Pictures from Confessions Tour Opening Night in Los Angeles are added to the gallery.

The Church of England has criticised Madonna's appearance on a cross to kick off her latest tour in Los Angeles.
"Why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to promote herself by offending so many people?" said the church in a statement.
Madonna performed the ballad Live To Tell while suspended from a giant mirrored cross on the opening night.
David Muir of the Evangelical Alliance also accused the singer of "blatant insensitivity".
"Madonna's use of Christian imagery is an abuse and it is dangerous," he said.
"She should drop it from the tour and people need to find their own means of expressing their disapproval."
Madonna's spokesperson was not available for comment at the time of publication.
This is not the first time the pop star's concerts have upset the Church.
In 1990, the Pope called for a boycott of the Blond Ambition tour, in which Madonna simulated masturbation during Like A Virgin.
The video for Like A Prayer also brought condemnation from the Vatican for its burning crosses and depiction of a black Jesus.
The 51-date Confessions world tour kicked off in Los Angeles on Sunday. It will reach Britain in July.
source : bbc

Music experts in America expect Madonna's Confessions tour to sail past the $200 million (GBP111 million) mark, which will make the pop superstar the top female performer ever. CHER currently holds the record with $192.5 million (GBP107 million) from 273 shows on her recent "farewell" world tour. Madonna's figures, predicted by music industry trade magazine Billboard, are astonishing when you consider she is expected to play less than 60 dates.
source : contact music

20 Pictures - Madonna performing at Confessions Tour Rehearsal in Los Angeles (May 20 2006) - are added to the gallery.

There's no stopping Madonna. The star quit movies after a series of flops but she's making a new documentary, to be directed by real-life hubby and movie director Guy Ritchie. And the documentary, which follows one about herself, is on one of her all-time favorite movie icons, the tragic Jayne Mansfield - a rival to Marilyn Monroe's crown in the fifties. Madonna said she finds the story fascinating; she plans to produce the film too.
source : sky.com

Click on images bellow to watch Madonna's Speach, "Like A Virgin" and "Music" performances from Confessions Tour Rehearsals yesterday.

Madonna kicked off her new Confessions world tour in Los Angeles on Saturday - and showed it will be her most controversial routine ever.
As my snap shows, at one point Madge appears hanging from a cross, which is sure to stoke up a backlash from Christians.
The show, which features lots of rubber, leather and bondage gear, will open with her emerging from a giant disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
She will also poke fun at her horse accident by appearing in full riding gear, complete with crop. Before Saturday's gig, which was a private show for friends, family and record label staff, the pop legend attended a Kabbalah meeting with husband Guy Ritchie to mentally prepare for the opening night.
Fans were shocked to see Madonna looking the thinnest she has ever been after weeks of gruelling rehearsals for her energetic show.
Tomorrow I will bring you a live review from the official first night of the tour, which arrives in Britain at the end of July.
source : the sun

Madonna is the queen of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. No doubt about it.
Madonna helped Coachella set a two-day attendance record Satur day and Sunday when at least 60,000 people a day cramed crammed into the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
The demand was so great for Madonna, it took the crowd 30 minutes to inch their way across the field after her performance. Coincidentally, that was just how long her performance was.
The Queen of Pop started 25 min utes after her scheduled start time, emerging out of a disco ball with her ensemble of spacemen-like dancers in a black outfit and shades. After opening with her recent dance hit, "Hung Up," which she sang to open this year's Academy Grammy Awards, she told the audience this was her first festival and "give me some love."
Madonna, 47, then sang songs from her most recent album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," with a throbbing, enhanced elec tronica beat. She played guitar on "I Love New York." Then she asked the fans - perhaps 30,000 people including beer garden patrons and indie rock fans for The Editors at the next tent over - if they wanted her to do an old song.
Then she asked if she should take her pants off. ? "It's too hot to wear clothes," she teased. Then, strip ping to her tights, she asked, "Does my ass look good?" - knowing she is incredibly buff.
Then she sang an old song, One song. "Get Up and Dance." She writhed around the floor a bit and then the concert was over.
There were people who didn't want to see Madonna at the alter native-oriented festival.
Fonzie Hernandez of Coachella wore a T-shirt he designed that said, "Madonna killed Coachella."
"She doesn't belong here," he said. "She's pop."
But even fans stuck in the glacial- like retreat from the Madonna set said it was worth it to see Madon na.
"I think it's awesome and incred ible," said Kymberly Whitaker of La Quinta. "She'll probably never be here again in our little Coachella Valley."
Paul Tollett, founder of the Los Angeles-based Goldenvoice promoters, said the increase in attendance presented few challenges. Madonna was as easy to work with, he said, as the management for Tool and Depeche Mode.
"From the beginning," he said. "They wanted to fit it and not overpower the show."
Tool was the Coachella Stage headliner. Other top performers included the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Matisyahu and Paul Oakenfold.
source : thedesertsun

Madonna thrilled thousands of fans at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Sunday, even as she brought a mainstream feel to the traditionally edgy event.
Not everyone was excited to see the pop star at the musical extravaganza best known for its lineup of indie-rock bands and dance-oriented DJs.
More than 100,000 people came to the inland desert for two sold-out days of sun and sound. With 47 acts on Sunday's bill alone, fans had so many choices they had to miss some bands to catch others.
Hours before Madonna, the San Francisco-based Mates of State, a husband and wife duo, performed their unique blend of alt-pop drum and organ music.
source : ap

Pictures by Michelle Yee, courtesy of The Desert Sun

There was more people outside the tent trying to get in than people inside the tent.
She asked the crowd "How does my ass look?" and tore her pants off!
Read more on Coachella Live Blog
source : thedesertsun

An expanded lineup, an enlarged dance tent and more headline acts than ever before has resulted in record attendance for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Festival officials reported 60,000 people attended Saturday's opening day at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, and at least that many are expected for today's finale featuring the Queen of Pop, Madonna, at 8:10 p.m.
That two-day total would eclipse the attendance record of 110,0000 set in 2004, the year Radiohead and The Cure were headliners.
In a reversal of a report from earlier this week, a spokesman for promoter Paul Tollett of the Goldenvoice company said tickets are still on sale at the Empire Polo Club gate.
The dance tent in which Madonna is performing, which Tollett says is actually a canopy, contains 50 percent more space than last year's tent. But the entire grounds were more crowded. The mid-size Mojave Tent overflowed with people trying to see such afternoon indie rock acts as Wolfmother and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The crowds slowed pedestrian traffic almost the way alt-rock star Beck blocked it two years ago.
But Ashley Flores, 18, of Rancho Cucamonga, was one concert-goer who didn't seem to mind the increased attendance.
"It's fun," said Flores, who got her ticket early Saturday from a friend. "I like it."
Alt-rock, hip-hop and electronica artists played compelling music throughout the day, but Grammy Award-winning hip-hop star Kanye West got the party started before 6 p.m.
He kept the audience bonded to the main Coachella Stage ,which later featured Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand and Depeche Mode.Police reported 15 arrests and 11 hospitalizations, mostly heat related.
The Coachella resumes today with more than 45 new artists shortly after noon.
source : thedesertsun

01. Hung Up
02. Get Together
03. I Love New York
04. Ray of Light
05. Let it will Be
06. Everybody
source : drownedmadonna