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*Screens introduce us to the 90s*, Erotica - Madonna is fighting back against those who say she couldn't be overtly sexual in the early 90s Justify My Love - a continuation of that theme {now this is my own interpretation} Hung Up - Madonna is seeking someone to have a child with because her biological clock is ticking at this point in her career Bad Girl - she's sorry for hurting lovers / being "bad" Vogue - she finds new life in the gay scene of the 90s Human Nature - she's not sorry for being herself Crazy for You - she's crazy about that inner devil inside of her The Beast Within - this is about pregnancy and giving birth to something new; she got pregnant from the last section Die Another Day - her career rebounds after the sex backlash Don't Tell Me - she won't stop her career Mother & Father - she reflects on her mother and now that she's a mom I Will Survive - continuing the theme of survival in her career La Isla Bonita - she's inspired by Latino culture while trying for the role of Evita Don't Cry for Me Argentina - she finally lands the role of Evita which changes her career Bedtime Story - she finds a new awakening in dance music (we're at about the late 90s / early 2000s of her career thematically) Ray of Light - she finds spirtuality Rain - after all the sorrow that has happened in her life / career she has finally rebounded and can enjoy the sun Like a Virgin - its just a silhouette of her without showing her face because if you recall during Holiday, they didn't even know her name, she was a nobody. Now you don't even need to say her name, she has achieved fame as the Queen of Pop, next to the King of Pop. Since the King has died, in royalty, the Queen now takes over Bitch I'm Madonna - basically she's Madonna and there's no one else like her

<3

Popular holds at #18 on the Global Spotify chart with 2,703,154 streams!it beats itself, becoming, again, the 4th best streaming day! Madonna goes up one to #147 (+1) on the Spotify Top Artists chart.

It tells a story when combined with the visuals based on the setlist. For instance: Nothing Really Matters - Madonna in present time looking back on her life *Screens count back from 2023 to 1982* - Everybody - this is the start of Madonna's career Into the Groove - her making it in NYC getting into the groove of things Burning Up - her early days when she was finding her sound Open Your Heart - the lyrics have always been about working hard and getting people to love you Holiday - she's finally made it and is celebrating but her friends die of AIDS Live to Tell - paying tribute to the friends she lost from AIDS Like a Prayer - questioning her faith based upon what has just happened *Screens introduce us to the 90s*, then you get the idea

This is cute: The amount of great songs we've got with this tour. God, I love her.

Can we stay on topic here? Would be great. ❤️

03/01 - 41,656,330 (+88,969) WW #72 (+1)

I had a very different interpretation of this segment. To me Erotica, JML and Hung Up were all about her exploration and expression of her own sexuality through her work. Vogue is directly relating to her support of the Queer community, (you see that on the screens at one point.) and the whole performance is an homage to queer culture. She is arrested and taken away for both of these crimes leading to Human Nature and the whole backlash period. She faces her self during Crazy for You, essentially expressing love and appreciation to her rebellious “I’m not sorry” self from those years. The Beast Within represents damnation to hell as there is the lake of fire, the song quotes the bible etc. I think this is reflective of the guilt she still carries from her Catholic upbringing. Die Another Day is her discovery of Kabbalah and I think that’s pretty clear with the imagery that is incorporated into that performance, not to mention the lyrics of the song itself are all Kabbalah related.

The problem is that the narrative kinda falls apart after this part in the setlist at least that’s how I felt when I saw it live.

I love hung up but the Celebration performance is not that great imo. It's not bad, but it's not one of the highlights to me. Hung up on The Grammys or Ema or Star Academy or confessions tour is iconic 😎

Not just this topic. In general, this end of the year has been quite "dead" in terms of leaks or unreleased musical material if we compare it to previous years. We couldn't even get a special video of Madonna wishing us a happy new year at the end. I can't imagine how busy Madonna's life must be so that she couldn't have a few free minutes to make a video with an end-of-year message for all those millions of people who love her. Videos should not be dedicated only to when we buy and sell out tickets to her shows. Anyway, maybe by the end of this year 2024 things will be different and we will have a more communicative Madonna with her fans or some collector fan who does not lack empathy and decides to share some unpublished material with all those millions of Madonna fans that are scattered throughout the world. It is not for nothing that they say that the feeling of well-being that comes from sharing something with others is something incomparable.

God Control ("almost official" Offer Nissim Rosh Hashanah Remix - was comissioned but single as a whole got scrapped). You can download it through this post: https://madonna-infinity.net/forums/topic/37419-i-dont-searchifindoffer-nissim-requiem-remix-wav/?do=findComment&comment=1203660 (I won't embed link for obvious reasons - right, my idol @Would You Like To Try?) I Don't Search I Find (Honey Dijon Remix) × I Don't Search I Find (Offer Nissim Remix)?

Leaving out the bridge "Here comes the sun..." makes this meaning so empty to me though - unless the sun is the ending which is Celebration. But then I don't see how that silhouette Like A Virgin part fits in between. I get she needs to do a costume change... but an extended Rain ending like the Girlie Show, to me, would have been more effective. So many questions lol

#Popular re-enters at #17 on #NewZealand Official Singles Chart on this week. Peaked #6 Total 29 weeks Platinum

I hope she'll reach 50 M this year 😍

For Hung Up I think this is her lesbian/bisexual side

the song order itself doesn't tell the story, but together with the choreographies, videos, iunterludes, spoken introductions, narrating etc, it tells the story much more clearly. And it's much easier to understand seeing it in person than watching the youtube videos. I will make a separate topic about the narration in the tour.

Question is that ALL THESE SONGS HAVE A MEANING TO HER (once screaming, always screaming, can't help myself). All these songs, TOGETHER AND IN THAT EXACT ORDER, tell THE STORY OF HER LIFE. She could've gladly to present all songs she eventually rehearsed before and after the rebirth but, besides such endeavour being beyond fatigueé, the songs she scrapped wouldn't do any favour to herstory as the ones who did the cut do. And about them, So, irrespectively of charts, these songs - even and esp Mother and Father and Burning Up - are ACTUAL NUMBER ONES TO M.

What I wanna know is, What determines the winner? It's like, I upload my favorite pic and they're like, "No that's not the one!"

Those alternate "Church synth" chords towards the end are great. Also there's some more prominent synth in the first section.

Let's discuss narration and narrative techniques in the tour. Obviously the tour narrates the story of Madonna's life and career, but it does so in many different ways, sometimes very literally so it's easy to understand, and sometimes it's much more abstract and requires knowledge of Madonna's story to connect all the dots. The setlist is not presented in the chronological order, so it is not fully reliable to follow the story, and many times songs from different eras and different musical styles are placed together, making the story feel more abstract. Nothing Really Matters serves as the prologue (←link) to the story, describes Madonna's personal journey and sets the tone of the show, giving much importance to her spiritual life. Madonna is alone on stage, and it has a separate costume and stage setting, so it is clearly meant to be separated from the following songs. After NRM, the real story begins with the first chapter. Here the biographical element becomes most obvious, with a series of songs from the early/mid 80-s, a similar sound, the same outfit throughout the whole segment and a variety of different narrative techniques: - a more or less chronological order of the songs (not entirely chronological, but most songs are from the early 80's and describe the same NY club setting) - Madonna giving a speech about her early days and explaining her start (in some shows even going as far as explaining the era, the characters, the setting and other minor details) - a spoken part with Madonna, Bob and the dancers reenacting the club scene (Madonna convincing Bob to let her into the club) - the only part that is probably directly lifted from the screenplay Madonna was writing. - Photos from 80's NY displayed in the background - Madonna's younger self appears on stage with her - Dancers representing her real-life friends with mock-ups of ID cards displayed on the screen - the story transitioning into the era of the real life AIDS crisis, with an homage to her friends, colleagues and then thousands of people we lost to AIDS, with actual photos. Then the story gets a bit more abstract with Like a Prayer.. Is this supposed to represent religious cleansing after the life of partying and fun? I don't really think this is Madonna's way of thinking, but I do find it interesting that the AIDS segment transitions into a performance with strong religious tones? The Catholic Church had a very negative stance during the AIDS epidemic, but this is not really described in Madonna's performance and there are no references to it. The naked bodies could possibly represent AIDS patients/victims, but from the narrative point of view, it wouldn't make much sense, because we already saw the people alive in the club scenes, then slowly dying of AIDS during Holiday, and then dead in Live To Tell. The only explanation I can think of is that in Like a Prayer they ended up in Heaven, but the stage set looks more like some sort of purgatory. Does anyone have any ideas about how Like a Prayer ties in with the very literal narration in the first segment? The best explanation I can come up with is that it represents spiritual life after death? But the Catholic imagery after the AIDS segment could carry different connotations that don't align with Madonna's views. Another technique used here is the appearance of the Prince character, both a nod to him and the actual fact that he played guitar on Like a Prayer. His voice is also used in the interlude that follows, the spoken part of Let's Go Crazy is played over the Living for Love instrumental. Is the combination of these two songs a reference to their love affair? After Like a Prayer, we are moving to the next era, using the (loose) chronologial narrative - Erotica / Justify My Love / Fever / Bad Girl clearly represent the Erotica / Sex book era, but I don't see how Hung Up fits in the story. There are no previously seen narrative techniques used to tell the story - no spoken narration, no real life footage, news reports etc, no reenactment of real life event... the narration becomes much more abstract and it seems almost absent if the viewer doesn't know Madonna history. The only narrative technique used previously is an abstract one - Madonna's younger alter ego appearing on stage with her in the Blond Ambition Like a Virgin costume - referencing another sexually provocative performance to tie in with Erotica. Vogue tells the story of the LGBT club scene and the movement with photos of LGBT icons, activists, scenes from LGBT history (preceeding Madonna's arrival to NY, so it's not entirely biographical). The police then comes and the harassment of gay and trans dancers ensues and Madonna is arrested and harassed too - an obvious reference to how she was treated in the Erotica/SEX era, and how sexual minorities were treated by the establishment in that era. Madonna's Human Nature character appears next to Madonna and interacts with her. Is Crazy For You a love song to herself? This is the only explanation I can think of, because Madonna is singing to her younger self and leaves the stage with her. My interpretation is that she is saved by herself and her own resilience, she made it through the backlash on her own, and she owes it all only to herself. What do the match and the flame represent? Madonna starts the fire to purge all the negativity? Again, an abstract telling of the story with few narrative techniques used. In the next section, the narration goes back to being more literal again, with songs about family life. Die Another Day as the opening is a bit more abstract, as it doesn't really tell the family story, but I guess it ties in to the backlash storyline from the previous set? Surviving the negativity and coming back much stronger. I don't think it has anything to do with Madonna surviving the bacterial infection because the choreography is so complex that there wouldn't be time to create such a complex performance, laser show etc so quickly after the health scare, so I assume it's been on the selitst from the start. Mother and Father is quite literal, and tied with David's story and his relationship with his own father. In Don't Tell Me Madonna dances with her daughter Stella, and again performs with David for La Isla Bonita. Strong family ties all throughout the segment. There is also a long speech with the story of her family life, so it makes the narration and the autobiographical element much more literal and easier to follow. Don't Cry for Me Argentina is quite metaphorical, as it's backed by photos of Madonna's heroes and revolutionary artists, historical figures etc. Not entirely connected to the family element... maybe pointing out that her heroes are her spiritual family? Next - the IDSIF video interlude - an important narrative technique is used very effectively - news clippings from her life, with multiple quotes, videos, photos etc. telling Madonna's story through the media's eyes. This is very effective and makes her story much easier to understand, especially to fans who might not know the full story and all the details. I just feel it would have made much more sense earlier in the show, some time after the Erotica/SEX era, because it references so many news reports from that time, and it was the time when the media was the cruelest to her. I don't think it fits so well between the family story and the spiritual section that is following? Bedtime Story and Ray of Light are a metaphorical representation of Madonna's spiritual journey. Again, not many narrative techniques are used, and it requires some knowledge of Madonna's career to tie everything together. Bedtime Story was indeed a preview of Madonna's more spiritual music and her fascination with electronic music, which developed fully with Ray of Light. It gives a nod to her musical journey and doesn't just serve to tell the story of her life outside the music. Rain is another nod to M's emotional side. Frozen (originally in place of Rain) would have fit the spiritual segment perfectly, too. The whole segment doesn't use any of the narrative techniques we saw throughout the show - no newsclips, no voiceovers, no narration, no speeches, no younger Madonna character on stage... The whole segment is much more abstract, probably to tie in with the spiritual theme, avoiding any of the real life elements, making it fully spiritual, like a dream. The Michael Jackson tribute goes back in time again, maybe to chronologically tie in with his death in Madonna's post-spiritual era in 2009? The main narrative technique is again the use of real life footage and media clippings, with dancer silhouettes representing Madonna and MJ. Bitch, I'm Madonna represents the current Madonna (welp! ) and her connection to her life and career, represented by all the dancers wearing her iconic costumes. I'm wodnering - since NRM was the prologue to the show - is Bitch, I'm Madonna the epilogue? Interestingly, in operas and musical theatre, prologues are very rare, even in pieces that have the prologue. And in movie biographies, the epilogue is usually just presented as a short text describing what happened to the subjects of the biography. So I'm not really sure if its supposed to be a true epilogue, or just the final segment tying everything in? It's definitely about connecting the present (newer song, current look) with the past (dancers representing previous eras). Overall, it's interesting to see how Madonna approached narration in the show, ranging from narrative techniques to make parts of the show very literal, to using them sparingly later on, or even abandongn the use of any narrative techniques towards the end of the show. Some parts, mostly the 80's section in the beginning, is obviously inspired by and taken from the scrip Madonna was writing. Some parts don't seem very autobiographical and require knowledge of Madonna's life to connect all the dots. I wonder how much of it was fully intentional, and if any parts would have benefited from a more literal approach to storytelling, or - vice versa - a more abstract one. At some points in the story is jumping back and forth a lot and some songs don't really have the same autobiographical narrative as some of the others do. Did I miss anything obvious, what other interpretations and ideas do you have? I'd be happy to hear them so we can construct a deeper analysis of the show!

again when a remixes is nice..... both borderline or iconic

Rescue Me. Rescue Me (Houseboat Vocal) × Rescue Me (Alternate Single Mix)? https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rRjwFqQmJvw&si=5mYoU7YCb0W5Eoqo https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0N4EMRY5Afw&si=ZcUc5sN6B4x-gVrS These are my favourite Rescue Me remixes! Btw, after the monopoly of Spofity, feels like I need to promote YouTube Music more often here too, hehe!

Frozen (both Stereo MC's Remix and Victor Calderone Drumapella)... https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4fxgWTD0nGw&si=wEP5wytM8owyCMLk https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjd7px7dhd8&si=tiOaM77x_80rJjOI ...and NRM (Club 69 Vocal Club Mix). https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSLiCwkPCyw&si=UYpiI71cyKmTOYZi So I give you back the challenge, this time however... ...which one of these 3 remixes I have just talked about you do enjoy more??? Remix #1 × Remix #2 × Remix #3?

Yes, this is what I meant regarding Interscope had no obligation to service her to radio and do the usual promotion that record companies do for their artists they are distributing. I swore I read that they were strictly a distributor and nothing else and this is why they didn't put forth any of the typical promotion. And they seem to have not as Madonna's management was behind all of the promotion. MDNA definitely had a great promotional tool with the Superbowl, but unfortunately her management only made a deal for GMAYL be serviced to radio stations only during the week of the Superbowl as we know how radio dropped that song right away after the superbowl. I would assume if Interscope had obligations to promote, they would have probably made sure that song remained on radio stations, long after the Superbowl.

frozen or nothing really matters

living for love or love spent

Live to Tell. Keep It Together (album version) × Keep It Together (BAT version)?

BOOOTH AMAAAAAATO!!!! Secret × I'd Rather Be Your Lover?

yes! heartbeat or into the groove

Jump (Extended Mix). https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx0mYN32Kps&si=wEBvoxZrVEEvG6wq And Future Lovers/I Feel Love (Live): https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=n80QXNRIV6c&si=SVRgwz2Wo_6e7L6K Frozen S&ST 2009 (Live) should have been released as a third bonus track to Sticky & Sweet Tour live audio (after Heartbeat abd Borderline)? Yes × no?

fever.... all the versions god control or future

living for love Holiday or lucky star

For me, the Crazy For You seems to point to the media/fan frenzy that surrounds her. I feel it's kinda like I described in how everyone gets crazy for her, some as fans, some as her critics and others who just hate her. It being human nature in how people act that way. Turning into ...trying to silence her. The song Human Nature is about people trying to suppress her, even those crazy for her. Like mentioned, trying to either get something from her or shut her up.

Or this:

I was under the impression that Interscope was merely the distributor and the promotion was up to Madonna and her team. This is why we saw very little promotion with Interscope. If you recall, when Madonna left Warner and made the Live Nation 360 deal, the idea was that Live Nation was going to distribute and promote music as well. It just never happened. Therefore, left Madonna scrambling for someone to distribute her album. So I really don't blame Interscope for lack of promo because I don't believe it was part of the deal. You'd think at the stage of her career, she could have easily just distributed the album herself through her own company.

Anyway, back to M's Spotify numbers, right @milingo83???? The hen is much alive (and in process of being kosher), the mistakes from past were erased and now we have a fvcking multiyear deal which is making M having some Spotify success - ofc, most because of us lil'medonsters.

wow thanks for the infos between 1st and 2nd market , pre sale, this or that ..... its all messy.... i buy my ticket and after i buy it..... i stop it..... i dont wanna know nothing else..... so thank you for your explanation

Falling Free MY ASS. Love Spent really deserved a single treatment to a double killer music video (one for album version, another for acoustic iTunes one). Would love to see how M envisioned the moment of her life this song came to her aside from MDNAT performance.

I hope her marketing team didn’t pay anything for this service. I kind of think this company paid Madonna to allow them to do it.

.@madonna's "Confessions On A Dance Floor" re-enters at #74 on #Greece Official Album Charts on this week. Peaked #1 Total 51 Weeks 2xPlatinum Also #Popular is #15 (=) on the Official Single Charts on this week. Peaked #3 Total 26 weeks Platinum

In general, the pics being uploaded that website are not so interesting or attractive to say the least.

Why is this being resurrected without it being posted

When I was a kid I always thought she had giant pine cones in her hair here

Ballroom bitch for VOGUE? OBVIOUSLY = Shep Pettibone!!!!!

Be patient, the owner's most likely in the process of digitizing the tapes so he can share it with us.

Yeah back to this tape...