“Time goes by so slowly,” goes the first line of Madonna’s silver-anniversary-or-so-in-showbiz collection, and she doesn’t quite make the case for that pronouncement. At the end of every decade, she puts out a greatest-hits set: 1990’s The Immaculate Collection was the kind of perfect straight-into-orbit retrospective pop artists dream of achieving, and if 2001’s GHV2 felt a little less epochal, it still collected a lot of magnificently melancholic dance songs from the following decade. Since then, she’s fallen off a bit– which is a strange way to describe eight years in which she’s recorded a dozen #1 dance singles, but “Hung Up” is really the only song from the post-GHV2 period that’s lodged in the American pop consciousness.

What Madonna is ostensibly selling here– the “celebration,” with its echo of her first hit, 1983’s “Holiday”– is 26 years of being Madonna, which does get a big gold star. (The chronological 47-video DVD version of Celebration is a lot closer to the mark: A lot of the fun of her career has always been its visual side.) But what she’s actually selling is an album, made for repeated listening, and that’s a trickier proposition. The 2xCD edition collects roughly half her singles, including everything on Immaculate except “Rescue Me”. For its first 12 minutes or so, it’s incredibly strong– the opening sequence of “Hung Up” into “Music” into “Vogue” is a convincing argument for her genius.

Then the sequencing turns random or even unfortunate. Following that opening salvo with the pallid “4 Minutes” kills the first disc’s momentum. Beginning the second disc with eight pre-1988 tracks can’t help but suggest that she peaked earlier than she actually did, and the “Take a Bow”/”Live to Tell” pair that follows a little later drags it into ballad purgatory. Putting “Erotica” next to “Justify My Love” has the peculiar effect of suggesting that sex was just something Madonna was interested in briefly (and following them with a new one in which she sings, “My sex is a killer/ Do you wanna die happy?” sours them in retrospect). And the title track (the other new one), a pro forma trance collaboration with Paul Oakenfold, comes off as less celebratory than obligatory: where the new songs on Immaculate pointed Madonna’s way forward for the next decade, these just sound like throwaways.

One critical line on Madonna was once that she was merely a trend-jumper, an appropriator of subcultural and dance-musical developments that she treated like so many berries ripe for the plucking. As it turns out, that’s exactly what’s made her special in the long term: Behind that not-quite-lovely bleat and the image she manages as carefully and transparently as, say, Cindy Sherman, her chief weapon is an unbelievably dead-on sense for what sounds and styles and sexualities are ready for the big time, and a sensibility that lets her spin four minutes of pleasure or melancholy out of anything. The Madonna singles that hold up best over time, though (”Ray of Light”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Don’t Tell Me”, “Secret”), aren’t just celebrations or ballads; they’ve got a sense of sadness or gravity that’s illuminated by the glimmering light of the disco ball. There’s a lot of remarkable music on Celebration– the work of an artist who’s spent a quarter-century in a passionate body-lock with the question of what exactly makes pop music popular. She deserves a retrospective more interesting than this haphazard piece of contract-filling product.

4 out of 5 stars

Confession from my own private dance floor: I’ve never been a fan of The Immaculate Collection, despite the canonization accorded it in the absence of any competing career compilation up until its companion volume GHV2 in 2001. In almost every case, I found Immaculate’s QSound makeovers by Shep Pettibone (at the time, Madonna’s go-to guy thanks to his revelatory work on “Express Yourself” and “Vogue”) to be earsores, if not total desecrations, of the original works. The winningly tremulous qualities of her earliest hits were all but obliterated by Pettibone’s glossy remixes, and don’t even get me started on the deadening house beats he used to kamikaze “Like a Prayer,” a song which, like no other song from her first decade, did not exactly want for urgency. The upside of the album was and remains this unique feat: how its obligatory new tracks, the simmering “Rescue Me” and the aromatic “Justify My Love,” are considered by most fans to be among the singer’s best work. Full Article

For some, the time when Madonna had something halfway interesting to say has long since gone, but when it comes to her back catalogue (almost 40 Top 10 UK and US chart smashes), it’s hard to argue with the quality and status. Or, indeed, the impact and influence she has had on contemporary music over the past 25 years. So if the albums of the last decade ( Ray of Light, Music, American Life, Confessions on a Dance Floor) haven’t done it for you, then bask, surely, in the remastered glory of Material Girl, Into the Groove, Justify My Love, You’ll See, Express Yourself, Ray of Light and Hollywood . In a nutshell: top pop tunes from the world’s most successful female chart act.

Download tracks: Material Girl, Ray of Light

Madonna’s Celebration shows just how consistently she delivers the goods.
Telegraph rating: ****
Warner, 2CDs

As Madonna delivered her tribute speech about Michael Jackson at the MTV Video Music Awards this week, she assumed the role of ambassador for her generation, reminding us that she was born in the same year as Jackson, 1958. Yet she is still here, still touring, still making music, keeping up with the latest trends rather than trading on nostalgia.

As her extensive new greatest hits collection reminds us, there is talent there, too. There are 36 tracks on this double CD, only a couple of which feel dispensable. Both are among the newest – the current single Celebration is infinitely forgettable and Revolver, featuring New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne, shows off his skills better than hers. On the other hand, 4 Minutes, a duet with Justin Timberlake from last year’s album Hard Candy, stands up surprisingly well. It may be lyrically silly, but it’s eminently catchy and that has always been Madonna’s strength. I could live without Take A Bow, but since it was her longest-running US number one, I suppose it deserves inclusion.

This compilation is heavily weighted to her glory days – everything on The Immaculate Collection of 1990 is also here except, weirdly, Rescue Me. But the selection from the rest of her career reveals just how consistently she has delivered the goods, with tracks such as Music, Ray of Light, Frozen and Don’t Tell Me.

The CD sleeve shows Madonna as a latter-day Marilyn Monroe. She hasn’t yet attained such legendary status, but as the collection’s title suggests, she deserves her moment of celebration.

Click on “more” to see over 150 pictures and read Gabriel’s reviews of the shows
Madonna performs during her Sticky and Sweet tour in Gothenburg (August 08 2009)

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Madonna performs during her Sticky and Sweet tour in Gothenburg (August 09 2009)

Reviews:

August 8:

I met up with my friend Carola early in the morning. We queued from 9:45 in the morning. We heard that they played most of the songs from the arena but didn’t sound like a soundcheck because nobody sang in the verse…

It was so nervous right before we got in and when we saw the stage it looked so small comparing to last year… don’t know if they build it smaller or what but we ended up front row, in front of the catwalk at the left side. We had a very good spot on the catwalk and the main stage. Only bad thing was that the 4 rounded stages around the catwalk, one of them was in front of us and blocked a bit of our view.

Later around eight in the evening Paul Oakenfold started. It was good and we danced but you got tired of it in the end until celebration was played and Hypnosis and Jaron Boyd danced on the stage!

At the same time Guy O walked around the catwalk and took pictures of the fans. He signed a girl’s Confessions book next to us and took a picture of me in my revolver tee from Luka who does great Madonna art! It had M-dolla written on the back but I forgot to show him that. I was to happy haha! That was one of the highlights and felt so amazing!! (I have a video that Carola filmed will upload it later). :)

When Madonna camed on the stage everybody went crazy! She did faces just before she started candy shop and looked amazing!!! We saw everything so good and when human nature was on and she pointed the finger and we pointed it back to her :P

In into the groove after she jumped the rope Sofia kissed her right bicep and so did Madonna haha! Dj Inferno touched her back to!
Then holiday was on and it was so good!!! I loved it and Antboogie got on the stage at the end of the catwalk in front of us and I screamed “Antboogie” and he reacted and looked at me and took my hand, made me so happy!
Later on in she’s not me when Madonna was in front of us I screamed “WE LOVE YOUU!!!” and she turned her head back and gave me a mean bitchy look haha :D!

In miles away we all clapped our hands and sang “so far away” so loud just like in the broadcast from Buenos Aires, and we sang along thru the whole song. Later on in you must love me she had the black jacket on and had a small speech before she started saying:
During La isla bonita she was in front of us at the small rounded stage and tried to reach our hands and everybody went crazy in that moment. But the lady only touched a guy’s fingertip haha!
“I have a special place in my heart for Sweden. Swedish people are very creative people, very sexual people, and they like to party…”
It was funny haha and during you must love me she sang “you must love me…even when I play the wrong chords and everybody laughed haha! Then in the end she said you muuuuuuuust looveeeee…. And the crowd said both me and you and she said me or you? And then continued…” meee or yooouu – funny and great moment!

It seemed like the last section went down the best. The whole audience went crazy!! Frozen was to die for and during ray of light she didn’t let us stand. And right before this song the audience did the “uuuah uuuah” sound and she did it too! She wanted us to jump all the time, it was hard haha!
Everybody seemed to love Give it 2 me as the last song. She got of the stage in the end of the song and we regret we didn’t stand where she got of… but she camed almost to our side later and we did the give it 2 me dance the whole time and sang until she was gone!

It was an amazing night and the fact that it was in Sweden made it more special for me! We had this long discussion of how she can put up with 2 hours of dancing, singing, jumping and everything. We were dead half thru the show!

August 9:

I slept for 1 and a half hour and then went back to the arena to meet up with a friend and start to queue again. I got number 27 this time. We heard frozen and give it 2 me from the arena don’t know if it was a soundcheck or what…
This time I wanted to be where she goes off the stage on the left side of the long catwalk and that was where I ended up :D !

This view was much better here! It was raining so much when they let us inside the arena. It was like the rain in Oslo and it rained so much for 2-3 hours!
Guy O didn’t take many pictures of the fans because of the rain and Paul Oakenfold really bored me. Paul, Charles Parks IV and Norman was on the stage dancing with Paul. Right before Madonna started the rain disappeared for the whole show!

I saw everything that was going on the main stage and was so close to it! And when she was on the catwalk I had a great view of her back lol !
Hypnosis pointed at me in beat goes on, great moment! I Saw her so good when she was dancing on the catwalk, so close!!
Right before devil we could see her getting up on the piano from under the stage.
In the doli doli song the dancers made everybody at our place sang along and I mean everybody! Charles Parks IV gave a air kiss to my friend and a welcome gesture to me haha! She didn’t have any speech before You Must Love Me but many people were crying during this song!

Rave section went down really good this time too! We were so freaking close I can’t believe it!!! Frozen was awesome and so was like a prayer!!! And in ray of light she asked us, are you frozen?? – NOOOOO, Are you hoot? – YEEESSS! We jumped so much during ray of light again!!!

And now the best part!!!! GIVE IT 2 ME! They started to remove the things from the floor down the stage before she went down and was cleaning it!
She started at the left side taking a hat from a person and then she camed to our side and it was a once in a lifetime moment!!!
Everybody was crazy and she had the microphone in front of me and many people around me. We sang so much and jumped and I saw her hand without the white glow and touched it for a second! It was hard to reach it but I made it! I was so crazy after that!

The crowd was crazy both nights …didn’t thought they would be so! This was by far the best concert of the sticky and sweet tour I’ve been too!!! And I had an amazing view! She had so much energy and was on fire!!! She didn’t have a speech no, BUT she gave us more than that and yesterday!
And the fact that Guy O took a pic of me and posted on madonna.com and that I was face to face to her when she got off the stage and touched her made it dreamy! I will always remember this day and these two concerts! It beat last years show and the one I went to in Frankfurt and everything she has ever done for me!

Im amazed over how tiny Madonna is in real life! She looks so much bigger in photos and more muscular etc. But in real life she looks like she weighs nothing and she’s so beautiful I can’t believe it!!!

Thanks to Gabriel

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Tonight’s show finds her emphasising her strength and power above all else. Madonna comes across not so much as the Queen of Pop, but its Iron Lady, intent on bending it to her will. She summons up specially recorded video images of younger superstars – Kanye West, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake – with a snap of her fingers. The choreography is designed to display how limber she is. It is undoubtedly impressive on occasion: during the show’s centrepiece, She’s Not Me, Madonna abuses four immobile dancer mannequins – ripping wedding veils from their heads, French kissing them, finally strangling one – in a compelling display of alpha female superiority.

But this also has an increasing tendency to manifest itself in tiresome ways. There’s no reason why a 50-year-old shouldn’t flaunt her gym-sculpted body or express her sexuality; what disappoints is the mundanity of how she does it. Cutesy cheerleader skirts, vague S&M signifiers and choreographed pole-dancing are far from transgressive, especially from a woman who has been genuinely bold in pushing sexual boundaries. Elsewhere, a montage of senselessly arranged “humanitarian” images, from Iranian rebels to Mother Teresa, elicits groans from the audience.

Trying to prove her youthfulness, trendiness and good heart are goals which should be beneath Madonna. She has a back catalogue like no other, and it serves her well enough to redeem tonight’s show. A rave version of Like a Prayer, mixed into Felix’s Don’t You Want Me, is electrifying, the kind of thrilling live moment that few others could match; there’s a brilliant perversity in reimagining the bubblegum Dress You Up as a metal guitar-fest.

These are reminders that Madonna is not a woman to be written off, but they also highlight the paucity of interesting ideas elsewhere. Madonna’s undisguised questing for immortality comes off as an empty pursuit because she has already achieved it – a fact that her own Jackson tribute should have made clear to her.

3 out of 5

She said as much during her livewire two-hour concert, sprinkling hometown sentiment and “it’s good to be home”-isms throughout the show. But she let her feelings really be known near the end of the night, before a sing-along portion of the show which included a karaoke-style version of her hit song “Material Girl.”

“I don’t come here very often,” she told the crowd of 30,000, “so please make a big deal about it!”

It wasn’t hard to. The homegrown superstar — way before she became the biggest star in all the land, she was just a kid from Rochester Hills with dreams of ruling the world — put on a stadium-worthy celebration that was part concert, part block party, and all fun. Whereas past Madonna extravaganzas have served to titillate or provoke, the focus here seemed to be on having a good time, plain and simple.

Madonna offered up a fair number of selections from her latest, April’s “Hard Candy.” Whereas the record is a bit of a stiff, in person it sounded positively vital, with an explosive, show-closing “Give It 2 Me” sounding nothing less than apocalyptic in its urgency.

She dipped into her back catalog, as well, offering revamped, reinvented versions of some of her biggest hits, including a thrashing, punk rock take on “Borderline” and a gypsy-style take on “La Isla Bonita” that would make her friends in Gogol Bordello proud.

The concert briefly delved into politics with a video montage showing images of famine and villainous world leaders, which later gave way to images of Bono, Oprah, John Lennon and yes, Barack Obama. Earlier tour stops included images of John McCain on the “bad” side of things, which have thankfully been excised post-election.

Madonna didn’t always sing — she oftentimes made no attempt to mask her piped in vocals — but she constantly danced and always entertained. Her performance was tireless, and her ultra-fit, 50-year-old build continues to impress while gleefully mocking the rules of nature.

The homecoming was only slightly dampered by the crowd of 30,000, which was far from a sell-out (the entire upper deck was blocked off with a black curtain). The attendance figure can be blamed on several factors, including Michigan’s down economy, the high ticket price and the fact that the local date wasn’t announced until three months after the rest of the tour. Many local fans likely made the trek to shows in nearby cities such as Toronto or Chicago, thinking that like on Madonna’s last two tours, there would not be a Detroit stop.

But it was good to have her back, if only for a night. And on that night she proved that despite her various personas and endless reinventions, there is still only one Madonna.

source : detnews

An ostentatious Vegas-worthy presentation, replete with arresting visuals played on giant, morphable Time Square-esque JumboTrons and half a dozen dexterous dancers, the show was heavy on spectacle, if light on musicianship. Although Madonna offered up some serviceable rhythm guitar work on several numbers (most notably on the rocked-up version of “Borderline”), her crack band mostly held things down, particularly vocal doppelg