all about Madonna

Touring in support of her 2005 album, Confessions on a Dancefloor, Madonna’s 2006 tour is an all out disco spectacular that sees the Material Girl dancing her way across North America and Europe through the summer.
Perhaps this summer’s hottest concert ticket, this is Madonna’s second tour in a row in which lighting designer Roy Bennett has turned to a Martin lighting package. PRG’s Las Vegas office has supplied 47 MAC 700 Profiles, 31 MAC 2000 Washes, 82 Atomic strobes with Atomic Colors and other automateds for the tour.
“Some of what we did this year was based on what was done on the previous tour but we expanded on that,” Roy explains. “We have a combination of MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 2000 Washes and other automated lights both in the rig and on the floor, all over really, doing a lot such as the soft good washes over and around the stage area.
“The physical staging extends far out, it’s massive, with a lot of lights that come way out into the audience. It’s a huge video show and we use the moving heads to support the video elements – an extension of what’s going on video wise.
“All of Madonna’s shows are very theatrical with a lot of subtleties but with big, in your face looks too. The show has a prominent disco theme so we wanted to turn the venue into a huge disco at times. It’s a very dynamic show.”
source : lsionline

After falling off a horse, most pop stars would cancel their tour, halt production on their album, freeze all promotional activity and stay in bed. But not Madonna. The music icon fractured three ribs after a riding accident at her home in England, but managed to squeeze into a slinky outfit and shoot the video for “Hung Up,” the single from her latest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor. “I have a high pain threshold,” explains Madonna, 47. “It’s remarkable.” It sure is. As her new tour ruffles feathers with it’s controversial content, we delved into the mind of the mother of two and wife of British movie director Guy Ritchie.

Misunderstood Madonna
I’m constantly, forever, defending sound bites. People are always taking things I say out of context, and then I have to defend that one line, when, if they had done their research, they wouldn’t jump to the conclusions that they jump to. You end up spending entire interviews saying, “I didn’t say that…. No, that’s not true.”

Free Time
I don’t have a lot of free time, so when I do, it’s all about being with my kids. The ice-skating rink, pizza, movies, being in the countryside watching my daughter ride her horse, going for walks… kind of boring, right? Times have certainly changed, but it’s all good.

Out on the Town
Last week I went to a club and danced with my friends, and it was really fun. I do it sometimes. When I’m on tour, I go to clubs with a few of my dancers. I don’t do it as music as I used to. Who’s got free time? Who can stay up all night?

My Latest Album
I’m ecstatic that people are digging the music. I just feel that my enthusiasm and my joy in connecting with people and that’s a great thing. I play the album when I’m in the gym or when I go for a run or am doing yoga.

Why a Dance Album?
Why not? I guess because I’ve been making records for 20 years now, and dance music is where life began for me– in a disco. My first love is dance music, and I wanted to get back to that.

Finding Inspiration
I think it’s about paying attention. For instance, I say David LaChapelle’s movie “Rize”, and it had incredible dancers in it. I found out who the dancers were and put them in my next video. I have an insatiable hunger and curiosity to find out about new things. Inevitably those things find their way into my work. I think that’s what we all do as artists and creative people. We’re all plagiarizing!

Going Back in Time
I didn’t go back and listen to my own old records, but a lot of my music and lyrics are a part of my unconscious and they come up without me even thinking about it.

My Producer, Stuart Price
We’ve known each other for five years now, and I think that working together on many things has helped us to feel more familiar with each other. When we started, I think there was a little of that intimidation factor and Stuart many have been nervous. Writing music with people is very intimate; you have to feel comfortable– famous or not. We spent a lot of time in the studio together. In all honesty, I got nervous being around him in the studio because when you write lyrics and then come into the studio and sing them for someone for the first time, it can be very nerve-wracking. You wonder if they might think the lyrics stink, or they may thing the melody is crap. You really have to make yourself vulnerable.

‘Hung Up’ — the Song
“Hung Up” came about when Stuart brought the track to me in the very rough form about a year ago. He asked me what I thought. I heard the ABBA sample and loved it. I cranked it up in my car and drove around the city. I told him I loved the track and that we needed to turn it into a song. I wrote the lyrics to it in about 10 minutes.

‘Hung Up’ the Video
The inspiration for the video was mostly “Saturday Night Fever”. I hope I was channeling John Travolta! I watched it about 20 times with Jamie King, the choreographer, and Johan Renck, the director, and we just wanted to create [an atmosphere] where everyone’s world revolved around dance music.

Dominating the Dance Market
I’m not claiming ownership over any territory. I’m just making music that I love to make. I didn’t start it. Chic started it, Donna Summer started it. It’s not mine. I don’t take the credit.

Before I Was Famous
I miss the freedom of going out to a nightclub by myself, walking in there, onto the dance floor, and dancing the night away without anyone bothering me or noticing me.

Family Feedback
My kids love all the stuff I’ve done, they love dance music. My husband, on the other and, is not a big dance music fan, so he likes some of the tracks, but not all of them.

Getting Philosophical
We live in a society that values fame and fortune. At the end of the day, will these things matter? Will it really matter how many records I’ve sold? Or how many times I was number one? Or how pretty or foxy I was? Or how popular I was? Will any of those things matter? I think lots of people ask that question.

Is It Worth It?
I think a lot of people in the public eye who are constantly being judged, putting themselves out there and taking risks, having highs and lows, all have to ask themselves that question at some point. You have to ask yourself, “What am I doing this for and how important is is to me?” because you have to make a lot of sacrifices along the way.

My Next Move
I just want to do more of what I do and be better at it. There’s nothing specific I want to achieve. I could do another dance album, but I don’t like to repeat myself. Maybe I could do a ballad album, or maybe I’ll write a musical, or I might direct a film and do all the music in the film, you know what I mean? Anything’s possible.

My Style
I consider myself to be a chameleon. I can be working on an Olivia Newton-John or a Farrah Fawcett look, it just depends. It’s all about changing and evolving. I never see myself as making one particular fashion statement. Any one of my looks is just one side to me. When I wandering around my house in the country, I’m not wearing polka-dot chiffon dresses, okay?! As soon as you think you’ve got me pigeonholed, I’m going to surprise you. There are many sides to my personality– there always have been and there always will be.

Crazy for You, but Not That Crazy
Madonna gives us the world, but suddenly it’s not enough.
We should worship Madonna for her perpetual willingness to look, sound, and act ridiculous. For if we do, she will never disappoint us. So here we sit, our furniture, cars, and first-born bartered on Craigslist for tickets to Wednesday’s opening night of her robustly scalped Madison Square Garden six-show residency. And there she hangs. In the early stages of her two-hour extravaganza/ordealafter a maudlin intro wherein interpretive dancers flail about during the solemn audio testimony of, say, a child-abuse victim or a former gangbangershe emerges crucified on a life-size sparkly cross, with a mic helpfully attached so she can croon a draggy, canned-sounding version of “Live to Tell” while surrounded by Jumbotron images of destitute, AIDS- orphaned African children who’re occasionally swallowed up by CGI fireballs.
Holy shit.
This is my professional reaction. Holy shit. It’s a sequence unparalleled in its combination of blasphemy, absurdity, melodrama, humanitarian grandstanding, and preposterous narcissism, all set to her second-best ’80s torch ballad. (“Crazy for You,” dawg.) This alone should justify the $12,000-per-seat admission. So why does it feel so unsatisfying? A Madonna concert dependably supplies (a) at least one hilariously offensive religious image, (b) a bit of Bono-bred social-cause pandering, (c) copious backup-dancer copulation, and (d) a few golden oldies to balance out the “Here’s one from the new album!” hostage taking. The “Live to Tell” assault combined ‘em all for maximum impact . . . to incoherent, disastrous effect. I’ve seen Cher in concert, folks, and I’m telling you: This was ludicrous. But somehow bad ludicrous. Incoherent, disoriented, garish, light-all-the-firecrackers-at-once-and-just-see-what-happens ludicrous. The world is an infinitely more fascinating place with Madonna in it, turning empty spectacle into sincere emotion, and trendy pop bandwagon-jumping into timeless, profound beauty. Ironically, we sincerely adore her sincere attempts at irony. But she’s desensitized us to excess and lunacy merely throwing orphans, fireballs, pelvic thrusts, and crucifixion tableaux at us randomly doesn’t cut it anymore. We demand a more thought-out and sophisticated brand of mindless spectacle.
Too bad. The new album in question, last year’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, is a deliriously vapid disco assault, charming in its relentless doofiness. Even a dopey tune like “I Love New York”a less articulate ode to NYC than, say, Andrew W.K.’s, and man is that saying somethingcan sound transcendent if she sells it shamelessly enough. And she sure did Wednesday, thrashing haplessly on an electric guitar and climactically flipping off the thrilled, whooping crowd for a solid 20 seconds. That one stole (back) a bit of Kelly Clarkson’s arena-stomping thunder, as did triumphant jazzercise single “Hung Up,” though Madonna’s militaristic insistence on forcing us to shout “Time goes by! Slow slowly!” over and over and over felt less like a proud declaration and more like a desperate plea to halt the aging process. With all the retro poses she’s striking these daysof the show’s innumerable visual motifs, the Wednesday Night Fever disco phase, fusing her 2000 electro hit “Music” to “Disco Inferno” as she struck her best John Travolta pose in a shimmery white suit, hit the hardestMadonna’s eager to prove that backward is the new forward.
At 47, she remains as thin, lithe, and profoundly attractive as science (and Pilates, or whatever) will allowher outfits not too skimpy, but certainly skintightand she holds her own amid all the copious backup-dancer copulation, flailing about as they whiz by on roller skates or leap ecstatically through a maze of chain-link fences, IKEA-worthy metal office tables, and sinister-looking gymnastic equipment. She slaps one around and stands triumphant over his body as “Sorry,” Dance Floor’s finest hour, climaxes, but the Garden’s sound system fails her, watering down its bombastic, bass-heavy melody and rendering it wan and sleepy. Occasional breakdancing interludes aside, the tunes shouldn’t sound like they’re bleating from a boombox.
Even the golden oldies suffered: “Like a Virgin” earned orgasmic applause upon recognition early on, but wound up saddled with the same sweeping, robo-orchestrated Stuart Price treatment as all of Dance Floor, a newfangled clumsy chord progression robbing it of its cheesy simplicity. Undaunted, Madonna cavorted on a mechanical bull saddle/stripper pole hy-brid as the Jumbotrons flashed saucy images of . . . horse-racing accidents. Like the crucifixion debacle, you could write a term paper on that moment: precocious virginal musing vs. fear of breaking a leg and getting shot, a dorky ’80s pop classic ruined by 21st-century space-synth meddling, etc. But shit, man, it’s Madonna. Can we have the fun along with the dumb? “Ray of Light” (with more hapless guitar thrashing) got a few fists pumping, “Erotica” benefited from more Stuart Price sleaze, the “La Isla Bonita” choreography was Tony worthy, and “Lucky Star” was, uh, “Lucky Star.” Acceptable, but can you imagine a greatest-hits tour? As quietly great as Dance Floor is, will Madonna ever tour again without ramming a half-hour’s worth of feeble filler trackslike the “controversial” “Isaac,” embellished via Middle Eastern wailing into a very poor man’s take on Enigma’s “Return to Innocence”down our throats and indulge our lust for “Like a Prayer” or “Vogue” instead? How can someone so wed to outrageous decadence and shameless joy possibly not do this?
Instead, we settle for these brief flashes of old-time bravado and, even rarer, vulnerability. At one point our heroine sat down on the catwalk steps, visibly exhausted, content to merely look like an out-of-breath hot mom for a few seconds, apologizing for “fucking up words” and “falling all over the place”: a quick peek at the perfectionist insecurity that drives all this grandeur. She then sang a limp “Drowned World/Substitute for Love,” profoundly inferior to “Crazy for You” or even “The Power of Goodbye.” She gave us everything she had, but not what we wanted.

Madonna madness gripped Montreal on Wednesday and fans paid up to $600 to see the pop star on stage.
Fans lined up hours before the doors opened at the Bell Centre, where the singer descended onto the stage in a giant crystal ball just before 9 p.m. in the first of two concerts that are the only Canadian stops on her current world tour. Earlier in the day, they paralyzed a section of downtown Montreal as they staked out the hotel where the pop star is staying.
Police had to shut down a section of historic Old Montreal due to the number of fans congregated outside the St. James Hotel in hopes of catching a glimpse.
“The only reason we’re here is for Madonna,” one fan said.
“She’s an icon,” her friend told the television station.
Madonna smiled but didn’t otherwise address the mob of fans as she walked a red carpet from the hotel door to a waiting limousine around 3:30 p.m.
Fans came from as far as Mexico and Florida to take in the show.
The music superstar, who last performed in Montreal 13 years ago, is to perform Wednesday and Thursday nights at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
Some 36,000 tickets, costing as much as $360 at the box office, sold out in 40 minutes. Scalpers reaped as much as $600 per ticket.
Madonna is scheduled to perform 54 such sold-out concerts around the globe.
In addition to her own formidable private security, Montreal police also escorted the 47-year-old singer from the airport to her hotel and from there to the Bell Centre.
No less than 24 trailer trucks pulled into town with the massive amount of equipment needed to mount the show. It took technicians 15 hours to set-up.
At previous concerts on the tour, Madonna has been accompanied on stage by 22 dancers. Approximately 600 costumes were used in the spectacle and the singer herself made at least seven costume changes.
More than five million copies of Madonna’s latest CD, Confessions on a dance floor, have sold since it was released in November.

source : 570News

Remember the old Madonna?
The one who used to simulate masturbation on stage and fellatio off in the days of her Blond Ambition tour, immortalized in the Truth Or Dare documentary?
Or later the gal who gamely appeared naked, in various states of undress and sexual positions with both male and female partners, in a book called Sex?
Then it seemed to be just about provocation for provocation’s sake.
Now the grown up Material Girl — a twice-married 47-year-old mother of two children — shocks us to make a point. Or so the lapsed Catholic — now a Kabbalah follower — claims about crucifying herself on stage during her latest so-called Confessions tour.
The show touches down in Montreal tonight at the Bell Centre for the first of two sold-out shows, which sadly, given her huge Toronto fanbase, are the only Canadian dates of the trek.
Naturally, the 17,000 available seats for each night at the Bell Centre sold out in the blink of an eye and you can expect lots of Torontonians to be making the trek to La Belle Province to catch Madonna in all her glory.
But back to that crucifixion.
According to reports from her May 21 tour launch in Los Angeles, the stunt occurs during the fifth song of the night, Live To Tell, with Madonna wearing a crown of thorns and rising out of the stage on a six-metre-high mirrored cross.
Behind her on huge video screens are images of Third World poverty, reminding us that 12 million African children are now orphans due to the AIDS epidemic.
Madge has claimed that the iconic image was only to spur audience members to donate to her AIDS relief charities.
“I don’t think Jesus would be mad at me and the message I’m trying to send,” she told New York Daily News. “Jesus taught that we should love thy neighbour.”
But the crucifixion immediately raised the ire of the Church Of England.
“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.
Frankly, I’m just glad to see that Madonna has tongues wagging again after two completely entertaining, highly theatrical, but far from shocking tours — 2001’s Drowned World and 2004’s Re-Invention.
Her latest live show, in support of the disco-soaked Confessions On A Dancefloor, begins with her making an entrance via a one-ton disco ball.
From there, it gets all horse-set-meets-S&M-bar as Madonna — dressed in a Jean Paul Gaultier riding outfit with top hat and mane of black hair — disciplines dancers decked out in kinky, S&M leather equestrian gear. At the same time, X-rays of her broken bones from a horse riding accident last summer are shown on video screens. And that’s just the first four songs.
It’s all a nice contrast to her new yawn-inducing documentary, I’m Going To Tell You A Secret, which hit stores yesterday, along with her first live CD of the same name.
Secret is no Truth Or Dare, part two. Instead, Madonna is seen interacting with her daughter Lourdes and son Rocco, her husband Guy Ritchie, and spewing a lot of Kabbalah philosophy when she isn’t singing and dancing her little heart out on the Re-Invention tour.
Montreal nightclub Parking — capacity 1,500 — is hosting a concert afterparty tonight in celebration of both releases, with Warner donating five copies of the album and some singles for giveaway prizes.
The first 50 people with Madonna concert tickets can get in for free, but before anyone gets too excited, there are no plans for Madge to attend the party, which is similar to the event that Woody’s on Church St. had last November to celebrate the release of Confessions On A Dancefloor.

source : toronto sun

Madonna wraps up her two-concert visit to Arizona tonight at Glendale Arena, and judging from reaction from critics and fans who attended Thursday’s nearly sold-out show, the 47-year-old superstar is delivering the goods.
Some tickets remain for tonight’s performance, which should last nearly two hours and spotlight Madonna’s new dance-heavy album, Confessions on a Dance Floor.
If you’re headed out, be aware that Madonna has asked for minimal air-conditioning, resulting in temperatures reaching 87 degrees in the floor seating Thursday. Also, construction around the arena is slowing the flow of traffic in and out, so allow a little extra driving time.

Arizona Republic music writer Larry Rodgers writes in his online review (entertainment.azcentral.com): “Madonna may be 47 and the mother of two, but on Thursday night, she was the hottest, wildest woman in Arizona. Showing off her well-honed physique, an array of costumes ranging from naughty to amusing, the energy of an aerobics instructor and some choice expletives aimed at the president and the audience, the superstar left no doubt that her Confessions tour is the summer’s biggest concert spectacle.”

AzCentral blogger Theresa Cano (madonna.azcentral.com) writes: “Madonna seems to be in a great mood tonight, laughing, talking and interacting with crowd more than I’ve ever seen her do. . . . I’m ready to buy a ticket for Saturday night’s show. I have to see it again to catch what I missed the first time. If you didn’t make it (Thursday), hopefully you’ll go Saturday because it cannot be missed for any music and especially any Madonna fan.”

Here are other quotes from fans and Republic staffers:
“I thought it was a flawless performance. I compared it to a high-end Broadway musical. It was such a treat, the costumes and the dancing. I enjoyed her joke when she was asking everybody if they could sing and dance at the same time.”
- Sharla Hartgraves, 41, Tempe
“Her performance was like she was 20 years old. She was just unbelievable. It was worth every penny. Her energy and her look – she hasn’t changed at all. She’s got the whole package.”
- Debra Berg, 47, Scottsdale
“She was in incredible shape and her voice was so good. All her songs were great, the dance-themed stuff was incredible. It’s the second time I’ve seen her . . . she’s just so comfortable onstage. I’ve never seen her in this good of shape.”
- Kathy Ortez, 53, Paradise Valley
“I love the Confessions CD. I was glad she did that mainly. When she mixed in Disco Inferno (from Saturday Night Fever) with (her own) Music and she had the dancers on roller skates, that was the best one.”
- Timothy Stewart, 38, Youngtown
“Some people burn crosses; others merely bear them. But to retrofit one with mirrors and dangle from it while singing a ballad about AIDS, well, for that you need Madonna. But the world’s most glamorous martyrdom was only the second-craziest thing she did; Number 1, of course, was her sadistic campaign against the air-conditioning. I soaked through my shirt about 10 minutes into the show.”
- Casey Newton, 25, reporter, The Republic
“Madonna helped me hate my body in new and exciting ways Thursday night. After watching her squat-thrust her way through a two-hour show, my friends and I are embarking on a new, squats-only workout regimen, punctuated by marathon hot-box yoga sessions and ritual starvation, all while listening to the Immaculate Collection, so as to purify ourselves for the next tour.”
- Megan Finnerty, 26, fashion writer, Yes
“As the least hip person at the Madonna concert (read: no floor seats, not dressed like Madonna at any age, not doing shots and not dancing – even when Madonna commanded it), this is what I have to say: Wow! At 47, this mother of two kicks butt onstage. Women 20 years younger couldn’t keep up.”
- Kelly Ettenborough, 39, editor, Yes
“She sure knows how to make an entrance. Her opening scene was spectacular, with an equestrian motif, the sound and images of horses stampeding in the background and her dancers roped up like horses running on stage, combined with Future Lovers from her newest album. The heat in the arena didn’t bother me at all; in fact, I couldn’t stop jumping up and down, even the times when she didn’t ask us to. The visual effects she used with the show were mind-boggling; you just won’t see it anywhere else.”
- Sarah Muench, 23, reporter, The Republic
“My favorite part of the concert was when she put on her white disco suit and danced like she just kicked John Travolta off the dance floor. She exudes so much energy, you just want to join her on the dance floor. I also loved that she flipped off the crowd. She’s so bad!”
- Michelle Saldana, 37, Republic advertising artist

source : azcentral

Confessions Tour website has published an interview with Tony Villanueva, Madonna’s dresser on Confessions tour. Click here to read it.

Every night, Jason Harvey pushes Madonna’s buttons.
No, he’s not the pop diva’s latest boy toy. He’s “the video guy.”
Backstage, the 36-year-old engineer from Milton Keynes, England, works multiple keyboards in a booth that is a virtual traveling TV station. This is where he pushes her buttons. Using software from San Jose’s Adobe Systems, he sets in motion multiple video streams that fill giant screens hovering over, around and beneath one-inch plexiglass stages the preening Madonna dances on.
“The biggest one is at the end. You mess up and the show wouldn’t end properly. That’s the one I always worry about,” Harvey said hours before Madonna’s second San Jose performance Wednesday night at the HP Pavilion, and minutes before the 47-year-old cultural icon breezed by for a sound check. (Her arrival followed a quick security sweep: Everyone was asked to clear the walkway to the stage.) Click here to read the full article.

source : Mercury News

Mariah Carey has dismissed suggestions her upcoming tour will be a theatrical extravaganza inspired by Madonna, insisting her biggest priority is song choice.
The Honey hitmaker sparked concern among die-hard fans after her musical director – American Idol judge Randy Jackson – revealed on a US talk show they had been inspired by the Madonna’s Confessions tour, which kicked off last month.

But Carey is adamant her show will be more focused on classic vocals than publicity stunts, and is spending hours deciding her set list.

She tells MTV, “It’s about the music, the songs and connecting with the fans.
“Here’s the thing, a lot of people just do their new stuff, and I can do that, but I’m the kind of person who hates to disappoint people, and there are just some people who won’t be happy unless they hear a specific song.

“So I’m trying to take certain songs that are, dare I say, classics, to new places.
“We’re going way back, and it’s not necessarily all number one hits.”

source : yahoo

When Madonna hits the Save Mart Center on Monday, she will turn up the heat – literally.
The singer reportedly wants to keep the air conditioning off at the Save Mart Center and other concert venues she’ll visit while on tour.
That’s because cooler temperatures can dry out vocal cords more quickly.
While the heat may be good for her throat, it’s not the same for the audience.
At Madonna’s concert in Los Angeles, fans complained about the sweltering heat.
Will it be the same for Fresno fans?
Save Mart Center officials say just because the air conditioning is off, doesn’t meant for the entire arena will heat up.
Officials say the arena will be cooled before the show starts.
Still, they advise concert fans to dress for summer-like weather.
Madonna will play two shows at the Save Mart Center on June 5th and 6th.

source : CBS47