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Madonna has come under fire for her use of religious imagery in her stage show ahead of her first ever concert in Russia. The Like a Virgin singer has courted controversy throughout the European leg of her Confessions world tour with her decision to perform while suspended from a giant cross. A Dutch priest was arrested earlier this month (03 SEP 06) when he phoned in a fake bomb threat in a bid to have Madonna’s Amsterdam shows called off. And the 48-year-old has angered Russian Orthodox priests with her re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ ahead of her show at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium tonight (12 SEP 06). Father Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, says, “This lady has been glorifying human passions with the help of religious symbols for years – crosses, statues and beads. Now she thinks it is time for her to crucify herself in public. It means the singer is in need of spiritual help.”
Source :Contact Music

Madonna leaving the gym in London (September 08 2008)

The world pop star Madonna is expected to arrive in Moscow on Monday, Madonna’s international tour promoter Arthur Fogel has announced.
Madonna is arriving in Russia tomorrow and will reside at a hotel. She is eagerly awaiting her Moscow performance and wants to come to Russia, Fogel told the press in Moscow on Sunday.
It will be the best show in her world tour, Fogel said.
The pop star will sing 18 songs – a special set for the whole of her world tour. She did not demand anything special for her stay in Moscow and has yet to make up her mind on the sightseeing program, Fogel said.
In remarks about the Luzhniki stadium, where Madonna will sing on Tuesday, Fogel said it is a world-class venue for both sports competitions and shows.
The pop singer’s tour manager Chris Lamb said rain would be an unpleasant occurrence. Madonna will dance a lot during the show and the stage must be dry, he said.
The organizers have been following weather updates. The forecast has been good thus far, he said. sd
Source: Interax.ru

Death threats from the Russian mafia have kept pop star Madonna confined to a hotel room during her concert tour.
The pop diva stayed locked in her Prague hotel room only venturing out to perform two sell out concerts this week following alleged assassination threats by Russian crime bosses.
According to reports in the Czech daily Blesk, Madonna cancelled her original plans to visit the historic town centre and go shopping and instead stayed locked in her room at the luxury Four Seasons hotel.
The newspaper reported that the Russian mafia have threatened to kill the singer and her two young children.
“She is unbelievably nervous and is worried about performing in Moscow. Because of that she wants to get home as soon as possible and doesn’t want to be away a minute more than is necessary,” a source told the newspaper.
The 48-year-old looked pale and anxious, and didn’t smile or wave at dozens of waiting fans as she stepped straight into a waiting car with darkened windows outside the hotel she was staying at during three-day visit to the Czech capital.
She is is to play in the Russian capital on Monday and Tuesday as part of her Confessions tour.
source:contact music

Fourth time’s a charm, right? As her smash concert tour winds down, Madonna has released “Jump,” the fourth single off “Confessions on a Dance Floor.” Maybe its radio fortunes will be better than her last single, “Get Together.” But we’re being realistic here: If programmers turned up their collective noses at the super-catchy “Sorry,” then why would they suddenly come to the table for “Jump”? That said, the song is a pulsing pop tune that has a positive, universal message about believing in yourself, not wasting time and taking a chance in life. Dance clubs will obviously jump all over the single, while adult top 40 radio seems like the natural starting place for the tune to get its footing. – Keith Caulfield

Madonna performs in Prague during ‘Confessions’ World Tour (Sazka Arena, Prague, September 08 2006)

Amsterdam prosecutors said Friday a 63-year-old priest has confessed to phoning in a fake bomb threat to a Madonna concert in the Dutch capital city last week.
The scene, a mock re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ, offended some Christians during earlier concerts in Italy and Germany. Two Amsterdam concerts went ahead as planned on Sunday and Monday, despite a handful of protesters.
The priest was arrested almost immediately after making the threat Sunday, since he used his home phone to make it, and he called an emergency services number where the call was automatically traced.
“Maybe he should have to learn all her lyrics by heart” as punishment, he quipped.
source : ap

Madonna performs in Prague during ‘Confessions’ World Tour (Sazka Arena, Prague, September 06 2006)

Contrary to a previous report, pop icon Madonna will not play the Witch in the Royal Albert Hall’s gala benefit performance of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, which will be presented on Sunday, October 22nd at 3 PM and 7:30 PM.
Into the Woods will star Joanna Riding as Little Red and Olivier Award-winner Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins) as Cinderella. Other previously announced cast members include Anita Dobson and Vinnie Jones.
More casting is expected to be announced in a few days.
source : broadway world

Private meditation with a leader of the 1989 Velvet Revolution helped inspire Madonna Thursday before the pop star strutted onstage for her Prague concert. Vaclav Havel, a former Czech president and communist dissident, joined Madonna backstage for a “small, private prayer just between her and her people” before the Wednesday night show at a Prague arena, Havel spokesman Jakub Hladik told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday.
“Madonna doesn’t usually meet with people before a concert, but Vaclav Havel was the exception,” Hladik said.
The meditation focused on “the humanistic mission which she tries to promote,” he said, adding that compared with similar Madonna warmups “it lasted longer than usual.”
Hladik said that “so far we haven’t heard” whether Havel’s meeting with the controversial singer bothered religious leaders.
But before Madonna arrived for the Wednesday and Thursday shows – her first appearances in Prague – - Czech church leaders joined others in Europe this summer by objecting to her crucifixion stage prop and crown of thorns.
A spokesman for the head of the nation’s Roman Catholics, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, called the show “entirely unacceptable.”
“It is most undignified that millions can be earned these days through contempt for the Christian faith,” he said.
No clergy participated in the backstage meditation, which ended when Havel presented two of his books to Madonna as gifts, Hladik said.
Since the Czech Republic overthrew communism in 1989, Havel has befriended several big names in music including Lou Reed, Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson. He often attends major rock-music events in Prague and, before retiring in 2003, entertained some at Prague Castle.
source : raw story