The two-hour show featured hits, sensual and futuristic costumes, fans in costume in the audience and the band replaced by recordings
Fans wearing pearls with crucifixes, lace gloves, tulle skirts and corsets. Some even curled their hair and drew fake spots, while others wore basic white T-shirts with just the letter M on the back.
From multiple generations, the spectators at the O2 Arena in London saw Saturday night (14) as an opportunity to dress up as their favorite phase of Madonna, even if it took place decades before they were born.
Madonna, 65, has been on the road since 2020 with her global “Celebration” tour, a show that covers more than 40 of her hits spanning four decades. The premiere took place in a venue with a capacity for 20,000 people, three months after the date originally planned, due to a health scare for the pop icon.
In June, Madonna was hospitalized shortly before the tour was scheduled to begin in Canada. At the time, her manager said she had a “serious bacterial infection”, which resulted in her being admitted to intensive care for several days.
Madonna swore that the tour – the first dedicated to her complete discography of hits, rather than a specific album release – would continue. In recent weeks, she has filled her Instagram account with provocative images in the best Madonna style, wearing a black lace corset, practicing steps on stage and with her legs covered in fishnet stockings.
Fans faced a 30-minute delay before she took to the stage, opening with a string of hits before acknowledging the challenges that led her to that moment. “How did I get this far? Because of you,” she said, adding: “But I’ll take some of the credit too.”
From the outset, it was clear that the concert would be as much a journey through Madonna’s career as a true ballad. The stage was set up in such a way that it stretched out towards the audience, with several retractable screens overhead that displayed images of the singer. At other times, they showed powerful portraits, such as when she sang “Live To Tell” and images appeared of Freddie Mercury, Arthur Ashe and more people who have died of Aids.
For more than two hours, with the help of her dancers and some of her six children, Madonna sang hits such as “Holiday,” “Like a Prayer,” “Hung Up,” “Ray of Light” and “Bad Girl.” The costumes were sensual, religious and futuristic.
Although the show had been in preparation for months, there was no shortage of technical difficulties. At the start, Madonna interrupted everything so that the sound could be reconfigured. She entertained the audience during the delay, talking at length about her rise to fame while technicians worked backstage.
Later, between songs, she spoke about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. “It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, old people suffering, it’s all devastating,” she said.
She also reflected on her health struggles. “If you want to know my secret, and you want to know how I overcome and survive, I thought, ‘I have to be there for my children. I have to survive for them’,” she said.
The 24 artists on stage notably did not include a live band: Stuart Price, the tour’s musical director, told the BBC that “the original recordings are our stars”. The stage, measuring more than 1,300 square meters, was designed to echo Manhattan neighborhoods, as well as the wedding cake from the performance of “Like a Virgin” at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards.
During the show, it is raised and displayed around the venue in a box nine meters high.
Carla Nobre, 38, said that seeing Madonna was on her wish list, but that she was disappointed. “There was a lot of talk,” she said.
Jenni Purple, 54, said that the show, her first time seeing Madonna live, was “absolutely incredible”. “I loved all the medleys, I loved the costumes, I loved all the dances,” she said.
For Madonna, the 78-date Celebration tour is a chance to assert her superstar power in a year when live music has been dominated by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé – women who, like Madonna before them, have used talent and deep media savvy to reshape pop stardom in their own image.
In July, Beyoncé acknowledged the debt when Madonna, making one of her first public appearances after her hospitalization, attended Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in New Jersey.
“Great tribute to the queen,” said Beyoncé, during a performance of the “Queens Remix” of her song “Break My Soul”, which mixes Madonna’s 1990 hit “Vogue” – another hit that explored and paid homage to the gay dance culture of that era.
Madonna reciprocated the recognition on Saturday (14), playing a bit of the same remix.
Legacy is clearly on Madonna’s radar. Last month, the 1989 Pepsi commercial that introduced her song “Like a Prayer” – before being pulled from circulation due to outrage over the song’s video, which featured an interracial kiss and the singer dancing in front of burning crosses – was finally shown again during the MTV Video Music Awards.
Madonna, who received US$5 million for the promotion, said on social media: “Thus began my illustrious career as an artist who refuses to compromise her artistic integrity. Thank you @pepsi for finally realizing the genius of our collaboration. Artists are here to disturb the peace”.
Aisha and Maia Letamendia Moore, 17-year-old twins, wore outfits inspired by the “Vogue” and “Like a Virgin” eras. “I think she’s such a big influence,” said Maia. “She did so many things that were so controversial. She wasn’t afraid of what people would say.”
There have been rumors that “Celebration” could be Madonna’s last tour. Helen Dawson, 47, who first saw Madonna on the “Who’s That Girl” tour in 1987, disagrees. “Never, she’s not giving up,” she said. “This is just a new celebration, a new era.”