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Hi everyone ! I'm a bit late this time but to celebrate the announcement of The Celebration Tour, I feel like it's time to do a Ranking the Tours game. The games i've done last time had a lot of participants, so I count on you for this one as well. Rules: -Send me your vote by PM. Do not post your ranking in the thread (this might influence the ranking of other users). -Rank all 11 tours from favorite (#1) to least favorite (#11). -Send me your ranking before March 15th. Results: #1 - Blond Ambition World Tour #2 - Confessions Tour #3 - The Girlie Show #4 - Drowned World Tour #5 - Re-Invention World Tour #6 - The MDNA Tour #7 - Who's That Girl World Tour #8 - Sticky & Sweet Tour #9 - Rebel Heart Tour #10 - The Virgin Tour #11 - Madame X Tour Good luck and I hope you'll enjoy !

Taglist: @Jet, @TOpher, @Enrico, @Unruhe, @musicinferno, @HC Charge, @frozen78, @Danton, @Brendanlovesu1, @EgoRod, @stefo, @jesus, @Nowheretohide, @Dj Garrido, @deathproof, @Fernando, @chipie, @sidney78a, @Karma, @Inco, @mcat, @Drum Dub, @Daxkoba, @Bjonkers, @Bohh, @mirtillo, @migsou, @truevirgin, @Foreigner, @MDNA22, @desperateK, @Tony Fortin, @Copenhagen Ciccone, @Polaris, @Alexei, @Holger, @MattyMads, @Simeon Penn, @androiduser, @MPowered, @proxy, @Leandro Gomes, @Janinno Salazar, @Roy, @gst6662000, @Andreo, @Voguerista, @Pretender1978, @spinningaround, @poodle, @Frankito, @MadonnasPussy, @GhostOrchid, @mrmadonna, @Fontainebleau, @Levon, @patrice1711, @PanditaRulez, @SuperBicycle, @drunkby6, @Pretty Madonna, @geert, @alfi1973, @mikenmark, @bitchimmadonna, @BringUrLUV, @reinvented_0, @Sven, @The Grey Pilgrim, @zephyr in the sky at night, @konfideinmenow, @PlayPause, @chaosmen1984mk, @panosgk, @Winn, @lennyleonard, @johncba, @ludowillo, @RUADJAI, @Chris Morlock, @Ayham, @Rebel Hugo, @Roland Barthes, @MadonnaLove, @Loru, @DjKingBee, @thehorrors, @theglamorous, @WopaelWopael, @Robertthenurse, @JanekCiccone, @animalinstinct, @Ch3rish, @vadge, @LoveAffair, @Alibaba, @OceanBlue, @rgdlee, @xrayeyes, @mossy, @d2-mac, @Scor-pi-o, @ajwr83, @Steve Collins, @dubtronic, @MusicFreak, @Homogenic79, @Future Lover, @CVMAD, @Fateseeker, @N3onNostalgic, @tscott, @NothingReallyMatters, @olive, @steady75, @Stéphane ROBIN, @Adriabs, @BlondAmbition

Yes, how dare you posting News for Discussion in News X Discussion?

She never lost it. But some fans just lost faith because they have this unrealistic expectation of her. At the end of the day, she's had her fun. Now she's back at work.... having fun.

This is so last week, I do like 'circus antics' though.

Already 23 votes in 12 hours. You rock! Doing a bit better these days (finally), I figured it was time for another game. This one will be a bit easier than a megarate so it helps too.

DailyMail.com can reveal Madonna, 64, is dating 29-year-old boxing coach Josh Popper, who runs Bredwinners gym in Manhattan The pop singer, 64, was pictured cozying up to the ripped boxer at a Brooklyn gym late last month The new romance follows reports that the Queen of Pop called it quits with model boyfriend Andrew Darnell, 23, after five months Madonna has a hunky new boytoy in her life following her split from model boyfriend Andrew Darnell, DailyMail.com can reveal. The 64-year-old Queen of Pop is now dating 29-year-old boxer Josh Popper, who has been training her children at Bredwinners gym in New York City, insiders say. The singer was seen cuddling up to her sparring partner in a series of snaps shared on Instagram earlier this month. Sporting dark shades and the same floor-length black silk coat she wore to the Grammys after-party in early February, Madonna can be seen pressing her lips against Popper's shoulder and squeezing his bulging tattooed right arm as he makes a fist at the gym. 'In a male driven culture, there are always exceptions,' she wrote in the Instagram story post, which followed a photo of the Material Girl embracing a punching bag captioned: 'Hard to ignore the reality... that most women get demolished.' The photos were shared just days after Madonna was criticized for her nearly unrecognizable appearance at the Grammy Awards. The Like a Prayer hitmaker is also now mourning the loss of her brother Anthony Ciccone, whose death on Sunday comes amid her recent breakup with Darnell. Popper also shared the photo on his own account, where he included a second photo with his arm wrapped around the pop star, flanked by three friends as they pose outside a boxing ring. But sources tell DailyMail.com that this public display of affection wasn't just for show and that Madonna and Popper have been seeing each other romantically. The relatively unknown Jersey southpaw had been selling life insurance before opening Bredwinners in Manhattan's Flatiron District nearly three years ago. According to one source, Popper, a star athlete growing up in Egg Harbor Township in Southern New Jersey, has also been teaching one of Madge's six children how to box. Neither Popper nor Madonna have spoken publicly about their romance, only sharing social media photos at the gym together. When approached by DailyMail.com, Popper refused to confirm or deny that he was dating the pop icon who is 36 years his senior. He also played coy on Instagram when he posted the photos with his new woman at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, New York, on February 12. 'Another W for the books!!' gushed the upstart boxer, who added: 'I wanna thank my coaches, my team and my Bredwinners family for pushing me to be my best in and out of the ring. I got some good people by my side.' But when curious fans took to the comments to ask about Madonna, Popper did not reply. In fact, the athlete merely tagged the singer and did not mention the connection between the two, much less why she was joining him at a gym. Unlike his superstar girlfriend, Popper enjoys a relatively low-key life. He was once a promising defensive lineman for Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, from which he graduated in 2015. He later tried out for two NFL teams but failed to make the cut. According to his LinkedIn, he went on to become a licensed insurance salesman at New York Life. It wasn't until the 2020 pandemic that the fighter opened his own modest gym on the third-floor of a building on East 28th street, where he is one of several coaches teaching boxing to adults and children. A brief biography on the Bredwinner's website describes Popper as a 'lifelong athlete and a full-time coach.' 'For Josh, boxing isn't just about teaching you to move in the ring but teaching you how to move throughout life. 'With Coach Josh, you can expect to use your body and your brain to learn a new skill, build strength, and move functionally. 'Whether you're boxing to have fun, to learn a new sport, or to fight in the ring, all levels of fighter are welcome here. He starts where you are,' the bio states. The 6'4'', 240lb heavyweight has only competed in a handful of official fights, but has expressed interest in turning pro at some point. Popper has gained a small following on his social media as a boxing buff, but has also recently dipped his toes in reality television. He appears on the latest season of Bravo series Summer House which follows a group of nine young, attractive friends living a summer house in Montauk in East Hampton. He was featured on Monday night's episode, where he was introduced as the boxing coach and love interest of new cast member Samantha Feher, who later realizes they are not a match. But Popper has apparently moved on with Madonna since, amid recent reports she and her 23-year-old model boyfriend Andrew Darnell have called it quits. Following their split, the singer has reportedly been experiencing a 'crisis of confidence' over their breakup and recent 'ageist and misogynistic' criticism of her appearance earlier this month. 'It was only a very casual thing [with Darnell] so she's not broken-hearted. It's just that it has come at a bad time,' a source told Page Six on Friday. The insider continued: 'She's having a bit of a crisis of confidence and this doesn't help. She had a lot of fun with Andrew but it was never love or anything like that.' The former couple began dating shortly after the end of her three-year romance with former backup dancer Ahlamalik Williams, 28. She was first romantically linked to Darnell in September after they were spotted kissing at a party in New York City. 'They were definitely smooching,' Page Six reported, at the time. 'She and Andrew were being very openly affectionate all night, snuggling and cuddling in the booth.' Her self-esteem is said to have been rattled by haters that took to social media to say she looked unrecognizable at the 2023 Grammy Awards, In response to the backlash, the mother-of-six explained that her face was distorted during the show and looked puffier than it actually was due to a 'long lens camera.' 'Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in,' she wrote on her Instagram Story. In her lengthy caption, Madonna called it an 'honor' to introduce Kim Petras — the first openly trans person to win a Grammy — as well as Sam Smith, who shared the duo award and became the first openly non-binary artist to win in the Best Pop Duo/Group Collaboration category. She noted that she opted to introduce Petras, rather than presenting for the coveted Album of the Year prize, as she thought the former moment would be more important and befitting her trailblazing status. But Madonna was annoyed at how people ignored her words and instead focused on her appearance. 'Instead of focusing on what I said in my speech which was about giving thanks for the fearlessness of artists like Sam and Kim – Many people chose to only talk about Close-up photos of me Taken with a long lens camera By a press photographer that Would distort anyone's face!!' she said. Madonna complained that she lived in a 'world that refuses to celebrate women pass the age of 45 And feels the need to punish her If she continues to be strong willed, hard-working and adventurous [sic].' She continued, declaring that she wasn't about to start apologizing for 'any of the creative choices I have made nor the way that I look or dress and I'm not going to start.' The Like A Prayer singer said that while she felt she has been 'degraded' since she shot to fame in the early 1980s, 'I understand that this is all a test and I am happy to do the trailblazing so that all the women behind me can have an easier time in the years to come.' Earlier this week, she seemingly admitted to getting plastic surgery in a candid new post as she gushed about 'how cute' she looked after 'that swelling from surgery' had 'gone down.' Still, she didn't reveal exactly what kind of procedure she had or when she went under the knife. In addition to facing scrutiny over her appearance and the end to her relationship, her much-anticipated biopic, starring Julia Garner, was scrapped in late January. The U.S. Sun is reporting that the biopic, which was green-lit in 2020, was shelved due in part to Madonna's insistence on having 'near-total' control of the process on top of her bizarre 'circus antics' on social media. The decision followed her announcement that she would be embarking on a 40th anniversary world tour. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11800019/Madonna-dating-NYC-boxing-coach-Josh-Popper-split-Andrew-Darnell.html

Clearly, it's scheduling issues since they all have to get their driving license renewed that day. Adele too. Nobody could possibly not want to be associated with a regressive dying institution at this time.

No offense but... why are you posting these tabloids?

28/02 - 32,958,571 New Peak (+13,186) WW #165 (=)

Welcome back! This one's tough making a honest difference between the ones I've seen live and those I have not. Also the first two will always be slightly less impressive, but I tried to be fair and rate them on where she was at the time. Funny as in the end my top three consist of the only ones that I feel are fantastic all throughout, all the others have great segments and awul ones in the same show. Though I'm quite sure mine won't be the final top three as usual

I have 7 other siblings. I can’t imagine losing a single one of them. It’s must be painfully surreal experience to lose someone you have such a long shared bond with. My heart goes out to Madonna during this time. I hope the family finds healing. I wish to God there was a pill one could take to cure their addiction. During the pandemic, the stress was too much for one friend of mine. I was the one who finally confronted him about it. He was stark raving mad that I did. Said the nastiest things to me. I just sat there and took it because even though his words hurt, I knew it was the addiction talking. Cut to months later and I finally hear from him again. Turns out, he tried to quit cold turkey and it nearly killed him. His body couldn’t take it. Scared me half to death thinking I almost lost him. He thanked me for being the first person to confront him about his drinking. He’s still struggling though and my heart breaks for him. All this to say that addiction is not black and white and it’s not easy for people to just walk away from it. Be kind.

I love your games, it's so good seeing you back! 😘

So happy to hear you're feeling a lot better! <3

Our dearest @Curtains! We miss you so much, love! How are you?

i havent seen most of them

Oooo this was a hard one. Can't wait to see what all you Bishes voted xo

I did. The magazine was sold 3 years ago (or 2 i don"t remember) they fired the whole staff of journalists and put the editor of the Daily Beast, a tabloid, as senior editor in chief. They now have only freelancers for in depth articles but like every media, everywhere in the world now, they need content to keep trafic, to make money, so they make these cickbait listicles. We chose to close the magazine i was working at because we were fed up with doing this, to be enslaved by social media, basically, some days we were just feeding the machine, it was depressing. Many publications are calling it quits or reducing their publications and staff. It's terrible what's going on and it's exactly the same in the US. The New York Times is now largely dominated by clickbaits (8 different articles on Beyoncé theday after the Grammys and 6 on Rihanna after SB, like they are Popjustice...but even Popjustice does not do this) and advertisments disguised as articles where they promote a produce but it looks like a regular article. It's terrible.

The Tablet story from 2014 is still available in cache : Madonna’s Homeless Brother Dishes on the Pop Queen’s Childhood Passover Seders Exclusive footage of Anthony Ciccone singing his sister’s hit ‘Like a Prayer’: ‘It means something to me,’ he says BY ADI GOLD AND TAL MILLER APRIL 09, 2014 Anthony Ciccone, 2013, and Madonna, 2011.PHOTOILLUSTRATION TABLET MAGAZINE; ORIGINAL PHOTOS ADI GOLD, GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE BFI, AND SHUTTERSTOCK Anthony Ciccone didn’t take his shoes off once last summer. It was the first lesson he learned in the school of the streets: When you’re homeless, the closest thing to a weapon you have is your shoes. “If you try me, you’ll find out that I have strong and accurate kicks,” he said. Ciccone, 57, who has lived on the street or in shelters for the past four years, doesn’t attract much attention in Traverse City, one of the wealthiest cities in Michigan and a base to hundreds of homeless people who wander the riverside. Ciccone has a deep radio voice and is an occasional gimmick host on a local rock station, WKLT. His sister is Madonna, an affiliation that follows him 24/7, tighter than his shoes, heavier than the plastic bag in which he carries his belongings. While the biggest pop star in the world has a net worth of several hundred million dollars, her older brother is barely able to beg a few quarters to enable him to get some tobacco in his rolling papers. “The homeless here chase me because I’m too intelligent,” he explained. “The police chase me because they have no real crimes to handle. The media chase me because you want to hear the shit about my sister. This is why I need good shoes; there is always something to run away from.” In March 2013, a local female police officer attempted to arrest Ciccone on an outstanding warrant for trespassing. Ciccone resisted. His mugshot made the rounds of the tabloids. He was sent to Grand Traverse County Correctional Facility for 30 days, after which he disappeared. “I have no idea what happened to him since he got out,” said Ciccone’s Traverse City lawyer who we called from New York to ask for help in finding Ciccone. “I don’t even know if he’s in Traverse City or not. I suggest that you save your time. It’ll be like searching for a needle in a haystack.” It’s hard to overstate what Madonna symbolizes for the people of Israel. She is still arguably the most popular American singer in the land, an image that is bolstered by her fascination with Kabbalah, and her public support of the Jewish state. Like many Israelis, we had listened to Madonna’s music all our lives and felt a predictable mix of feelings about her brother’s story. How could such wealth permit such povertry? How was it possible that a brother and sister could have grown up in the same house and ended up so far apart? When Anthony popped up in the news again—and once the lawyer told us the man couldn’t be found—we decided that we didn’t have a choice. We hit the road to Michigan. The homeless we ran into in Traverse City confirmed Ciccone’s lawyer’s concerns. “Anthony moves from place to place by foot and by bike,” they said. “He doesn’t sleep in the same place more than one night because once he settles in the police kick him out.” But a man who called himself Polish Dave, and identified himself as a senior member of Traverse City’s homeless community, didn’t hesitate: “Get me some vodka, and I’ll find him for you.” His credibility seemed shaky, but we had nothing to lose. Polish Dave took us to one of the local churches. He went in and then came back out with both good news and bad news. The good news was that Madonna’s brother was in the church. The bad news was that he was unwilling to speak with us. We offered Dave a pack of cigarettes, and he went back in to convince Ciccone. A few minutes later, three people snuck out of the church’s back entrance: Polish Dave, Ciccone, and another homeless man named Michael—Ciccone is as experienced in losing the media as his sister is. Like papparrazzi, we gave chase. When we finally reached him, he stopped and started screaming that we should give him $10,000 or leave him alone. I said, “We came here from Israel just to talk with you.” Something in his expression changed. Three and a half hours later—after talking with him at the church, in a park, and under a nearby bridge—while sipping a beer we had bought for him, he explained why Israel mattered to him. And then he announced: “Until my mother passed away, we celebrated Passover every year.” Passover? “Right. I know it’s strange, but my mom insisted on it,” he said. “She felt comfortable with Judaism, so we learned about the Ten Commandments and all the Jewish customs. Our Passover wasn’t kosher but it impressed me very much. I have no doubt that Madonna was affected by it and that it related to her Kabbalah studies. Both of us have a lot of respect for your country; you fight against endless enemies that want to crush you, and you don’t give up because you’ve got balls and a heart. I hope that one day I can visit the vineyards in Israel. The women, too.” *** Twelve miles away from the soup kitchen where Ciccone often finds a hot meal is Tony Ciccone’s thriving family vineyard. Tony is Anthony and Madonna’s father. The vineyard was the last stop for Anthony, in his former life. It still symbolized what he said was his biggest wound—his tense relationship with his father—a wound that goes back to 1963, when his biological mother, Madonna Louise, died of breast cancer. That death was a turning point in the Ciccone children’s lives; Madonna refers to her father in many of her songs, particularly on the album Like a Prayer. The difference between Madonna and her older brother is that, while she used this open wound to create what Rolling Stone magazine called “the greatest album a pop artist can create,” Ciccone may be digging deeper and deeper into that wound on the Traverse City streets. “The problems with my dad started after our mom passed away,” Ciccone said. “We had a lot of nannies, and they all tried somehow to take advantage of him. The last one, he ended up marrying, and he is still married to her to this day. The only problem was my siblings and I hated her guts. She was only 12 years older than me; it was like your older sister becomes your mother. This was the main reason Madonna left home. She got a full scholarship from the University of Michigan, and she left for New York to be a starving artist. She did that in part to fulfill her dream, but in part because she couldn’t live at home anymore. My dad almost got a heart attack when he heard she was dropping out of college, but it turned out to be the right move.” Until the 1990s, Ciccone’s life was pretty normal. In 1993, while he was living in L.A., his only son was born. “I really liked being a family man,” he said. “I waited for it my entire life. My wife and I were together for seven years. She was the love of my life. After the birth of our son she got depressed. I worked in Hollywood, a tough physical job, long hours. I came back after an entire day and found her still in bed after she did nothing all day long. Then we started to fight; one day she just took our kid and took off. She got a restraining order against me. I got depressed, lost my job, started drinking, and my family, my brothers, and my father stopped talking to me because they accused me of all of that. I had no support, even though I was the one who tried to make it work again. Today she is married to some new guy, and I haven’t seen my kid since 1999. I went from being a full-time family man with a car, a house, and a wife to being homeless on the streets of L.A. I lost a part of myself there, with all the things I witnessed. I saw people get murdered, women get raped, horrible things. I guess you can call it education, but I don’t wish anybody to get that kind of education.” After a long period of estrangement, Ciccone and his father’s relationship improved, he said, and Tony decided to let Anthony join the family vineyard. “For a long time, I worked there. I learned how to make wine, how to treat the vines, the whole deal. There was a time when things went pretty well; my father took me on a tour and told me, ‘Son, someday all this will be yours.’ So I asked him, ‘You mean all of that is going to be Mario’s, right?’ Mario is my stepbrother, who for some reason my dad preferred, but he told me, ‘No, it will be yours.’ Well, who’s running the vineyard today? Mario. And where am I? On the streets.” His father’s choice wasn’t just professional, Ciccone said. Anthony was deep into his alcoholism, and one day, Tony found him passed out with an empty bottle of wine in his hand. “I remember my father’s voice. He looked at me and said, ‘Well, I think that Anthony is done for today.’ Since that day, he has not allowed me to work in the vineyard again. He wanted me to go to rehab, and I said no. He’s hard on me. I’m hard on him. We don’t get along; we can’t agree on anything. After I left the vineyard, I couldn’t find another job. I didn’t have any money to pay my rent, and I couldn’t stay at my parents’ place, so I moved to the street.” Tony Ciccone declined to be interviewed for this article. (Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, did not reply to repeated requests for comment, while a rep from her agency said, “Liz does not comment on anything regarding Madonna’s brother.”) But someone who is identified as a close family friend and neighbor, Kathy Meteyer, working in the wine-tasting room, told the Daily Mail that Tony is heartbroken about his son’s situation: “He did work here, they found things for him to do in the cellar, there’s all kind of work on a daily basis, in the summer there’s all kinds of pruning and picking to do. But he would sneak into the cellars and he would lay on the floor, open up one of the big tanks and drink the wine, with a glass. He just can’t come back until he stops drinking, because they think it will kill him; it already kind of has.” *** The oldest of eight siblings (one died in infancy)*, Anthony is two years older than Madonna. He keeps a close relationship with his sister Paula (“she’s my buddy,” he said), but he and Madonna are not close. “I have a lot of respect for my sister’s success. She started from nothing and made her way to the top. I never asked her for anything, and I never will,” he said, when we asked him about why he never sought help from his wealthy sibling. “It’s her money; she earned it. Why should she give it to a stranger?” In the 1980s, he said, he did have a relationship with his younger, cooler sister. “I remember that I went to visit her when she lived in a loft in SoHo before it became fashionable,” he recalled. “I show up at her doorstep and I’m looking like Joe Dork. And I was supposed to eat in a restaurant with her. She looked at my clothes, she looked at me, she goes: ‘Maybe we’ll go on the roof and order Chinese.’ And we did. And it was great.” He last saw Madonna, he said, two years ago, at the Super Bowl in Indianapolis where she performed. (He was sent there by WKLT on a promotional stunt.) He didn’t have enough money for a ticket, he said, so he sat in the parking lot with a friend and drank beer. When he looked up, he could see his sister on the Jumbotron. While Ciccone’s not particularly a fan of his sister’s music, or of pop music in general, he does have a favorite Madonna song. “There is one song that got condemned in the ’80s by the Vatican. I like that song. ‘Like a Prayer.’ You know that song?” he asked. Ciccone started to sing spontaneously, in a voice that sounded like a combination of Madonna and Johnny Cash. “ ‘When you call my name it’s like a little prayer. I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there.’ I like that song,” he continued. “Because it means something to me.” His dream was to go back to work at his father’s vineyard, but he said his stepbrother clearly didn’t want him around. Otherwise, he said, “I hesitate to dream because when you dream you get your hopes up. And then you get your heart broke. And so when this happens so many times you hesitate to dream.” He would like to get married again and have a family, but he said he knew that the odds were against him, given his situation. “I pray for one more chance, but the truth is that there is a good chance I’ll never live to witness that day,” he told us. “No one will be surprised if I’ll die before my 60th birthday. Neither will I.” *She previously talked about the child her father and Joan lost in infancy, another dark moment in her childhood (Q magazine in 2003)

This is my favorite version. I even remember buying it. Such a shame we have never had a cd or digital source, but we do have some good rips. It's quite similar to the Immaculate Collection version. The Remix was a Number 1 in the UK. [Hidden Content]

You have no evidence that she didn't help him. STOP. Madonna hired him on a film she worked on in the 90's as a "location scout" when he had no experience doing that. She paid for his rehab at least twice. You can only do so much and no amount of money or influence can help when someone isn't willing to change and has an addiction. He lost his mother early on which is hard enough. But then his sister was the most recognizable, successful star/woman in the world. We have no idea what that struggle was like for him or what that comparison can do to someone's mind. And none of us know the totality of what she did or didn't do to help him. Shame on you. Someone died. Unsubstantiated statements like this should be off limits on this forum.

Yeah it's very tough to deal with. My sisters and I have spend thousands on my mom and we all individually gave her a place to stay and she screwed us over for so many years that eventually we had to let her take responsibility for her own actions. Sadly she just passed away of an accidental drug overdose and that guilt Wil always be present but we know deep down inside there was nothing we could do.

Why are u doing this?

Promise To Try Time Stood Still or Rain?

Voted! Welcome back.

Impressive Instant mother and father or promise to try

Her current Spotify Top 10 - no big changes lately: "Sorry" BLOND:ISH never entered her Spotify Top 10 since its release.

Voted. And her best tour better win!

March 15 is a special day for me..

My favorite is the album version.

This pic/dance break reminds me of S&S Like a Prayer and Frozen part, which I love. Such a f strong badass classic M pose/dance

MADONNA PAID FOR BROTHER'S CARE IN FINAL YEARS Despite Complicated Relationship 2/28/2023 1:00 AM PT Madonna was taking care of her late brother, Anthony Ciccone, before his death -- and despite their complicated history, they were far from estranged ... TMZ has learned. Family sources tell us Madonna was actually footing the bill for Anthony's stay at a Michigan rehab center before he died this weekend. We're told he'd been there for a while, and that 2 days before he passed ... Anthony himself removed the feeding/breathing tubes doctors had him using. Our sources say he was in failing health toward the end -- having lost a lot of weight -- and he knew the consequences of removing the equipment, which ultimately resulted in his death. We're told some family members -- including his sister, Paula, and his father -- had been visiting in his final days, with Paula being at his bedside throughout most of it. Anthony's rehab care wasn't just a last-ditch Hail Mary ... our sources tell us Madonna and other relatives have been actively trying to help Anthony for years, but, by and large, he rejected assistance, as living on the streets and drinking had become a way of life. But, in the last stretch ... we're told the 66-year-old couldn't fend for himself, and the fam stepped in. We're told he suffered from alcoholism, which led to homelessness -- and, as a result, his relationship with his famous younger sister had always been challenging. With that said, our sources tell us Madonna never considered herself on the outs with him, per se. As we reported ... Anthony's passing was announced this weekend by the husband of one of Madonna's sisters, Melanie -- who remembered him in a sweet eulogy on social media. Despite Anthony himself having gone on record to slam his family -- including Madonna -- our sources say they did, in fact, have his best interests at heart. https://amp.tmz.com/2023/02/28/madonna-paid-brother-anthony-ciccone-care-before-death/?fbclid=IwAR1GSd7SXiWLWOZHBbZMoUC6EbYlUWLAkx6NDOI6SqyhkoxfBVAPX56Kt9o

Madonna does not owe us - the public - any explanation on a private, complicated family matter that is, frankly, none of our business. She posted a tribute on Instagram a few hours ago.

https://www.vogue.com/article/josephine-baker-90th-anniversary-banana-skirt

So sad. Addiction is so cruel.

Let us also not forget that Anthony, too, lost his mother at a young age and undoubtably struggled with this, possibly in correlation with his unfortunate addictions. RIP.

It's true. My mum was an alcoholic - I wish I knew now what I didn't know then, that it's a disease - I did as much as I could to help her, but in the end, realized that all I was doing was subsidizing her addiction. Addiction is a complex problem - it's not strightforward, and just because the person 'washes their hands of them' - doesn't mean they don't love them any less -

I woud have not rated Power Of Goodbye so high.

Yeah because we all know when something is "all over the news", it must be 100% factual. LOL! I can't with some fans who come in here only to twist things and only comment pessimistically. Of course, she and her family helped Anthony. In fact, he was working for his father a few years back. We all know that when someone wants to live a certain way and it concerns others, and they're not receptive to intervention, they will say things that make them look like a poor victim. It's very possible that Anthony had some legit issues with his family, but we can't accept someone who is known to be addicted to substances to be 100% truthful especially when they are trying to narrate their story as "oh poor me, I'm homeless under a bridge, while my rich sister carries on without a care in the world". I just don't buy she never tried to help. She may have some unresolved beef with her brother, but we know she tried to help Christopher and we saw how that turned out. He wrote a book about her. Addictions can be nasty and can bring the worst out of even the best intended people. Many people who have addictive tendencies are always looking for enablers.

She helped him NUMEROUS times. She bailed him out of jail several times and paid for rehab and he still went back to drugs and alcohol. You can only help somebody so much until you are betrayed. Stop with the ignorance.

Stop. You obviously NEVER had a brother or a sister with an addiction. You have no FUCKING clue what you are talking about and should really shut the fuck up. You don't know how it is and how it works. I do, sadly. You don't know the pain and heartache, no matter what you do to help. The disease is very strong. There's nothing you can do except wait for them to ask for help. Most of the time they don't think they are addicts, they refuse the idea. Because shame and low self esteem are part of what makes one drink. You can't force someone into rehab and if you do they will go back to their addiction right after they're out. Because it messes with the biology of the brain, it erases fear and pain and the body keeps memory of that so whenever those two strikes, the brain asks for acohol to numb them AND sugar in alcohol is another very addictive substance. With drugs it's the same without the sugar addiction. They are not proud of what they are doing or to be what they are and it makes them drink or do drugs even more. It's a lifelong disease they must deal with. It destroys all their relationships. Right now i'm at odds with my sister since i confronted her. We don't speak since november. She's super violent when she drinks, she lost everything, i have close friends who work in addictology, i turned to them for help, there's nothing i can do, we can do, until she wants to be cured but what's stronger than the addiction is the shame of being an addict. I'm in misery EVERY single day, forced to watch someone i love destroy herself. We never had an argument even though she has been an alcoholic for a long time, i've always been by her side, even sacrificing my life, relationships for her, to help her, i even chose her over a boyfriend once, but i had enough because i was just enabling her by protecting her, especially since now it is destroying her health. There you go. If they don't want help there's NOTHING you can do and if you decide to have them institutionalised it does not work in the long term. The fact that it is Madonna, a billionaire, shows ONE thing, is that ALL the money in the world can't cure an addiction if the addict is not the one wanting to be cured (and that word is wrong, you're never cured). Addiction should be a bigger concern and topic in the world because it touches every category of the social spectre. And yet we have not find something to fight it or to facilitate help. Instead we shame addicts and their family...then one day, you are one of these families. Also remember Amy Winehouse. How she was publicly shamed before her death. Nobody could save her. Not her family, not her label and they tried. But she did not want rehab. Sorry for oversharing but i guess it's time for people who don't have an addict in their family to know what it's like instead of judging familes and also realize how by ourselves we are, no matter how much money you have. Our society created addictions and has yet to find a way to prevent it and help people with this disease. Things are very dark now, the world is in a very bad place, it is breeding addictions and we have no solution. There's a wave coming over us. We already see it with the opiates crisis that took Prince from us. Wether you're in the US or Europe, it's the same. I don't know for the rest of the world because i have not experienced it. As for Anthony specifically, he had a rough life. He was destroyed by their mother's death. Him and Madonna were the only ones allowed to see her dead as they were the eldest of the boys and girls. He never accepted Joan because they were like not 10 years apart in age.In school he was very violent and doing mischief all the time. A real tortured soul. He drank early on (Martin chose drugs). Madonna had her siblings all have a hate/love relationship with each others, not just with Madonna. It's because when their mother died for a year they were dispatched over family and relatives, they were not together for a long time. Right after madonna Sr. died like 2 months, her older brother died, some children were over at his place in their care. Others at Elsie's (maternal grandmother) so the atmosphere was very gloomy. Sylvio then had several nannies, one in particular was very close to the children, she was Madonna sr. good friend, she got pregnant by Tony but lost the baby, the children , including Madonna, wanted their father to marry her. Losing the baby broke their relationship. Tony hired another maid, Joan. The children and the Fortins hated her. Not a mean person but very young and kind of unworldly, plain. To the surprise of everybody he married her. Anthony joined Madonna in New York but ultimately chose California instead. At one point ALL her siblings work in the entertainment business : Mario and Melanie worked at Warner Records. Paula worked at Propaganda (the company that produced Madonna's videos), Anthony worked as a carpenter on movie sets. I don't know if this was Madonna related. Anthony and Martin are both really independant and machos. Martin went into the military. Anthony had a wife and a son, Angelo, but his drinking broke his family, he was violent. She had a restraining order against him after one last violent event. It is weird Sylvio chose to make wine (a passion he had, he was already making wine at their house in Rochester, it always had that acidic smell) with two brothers who died of alcoholism and so did his father. Anthony was already an addict and Martin was following into his brother's footsteps. Before Anthony ended up living in the street in Traverse City, he was working at the winery, they found him drinking from the barrels. When he was drunk he was hyperviolent. So Mario who was in charge, fired him. He chose to live in the street. Under a bridge. Of course they reached out to him. Even Madonna. She paid for his prescription glasses then. He wanted nothing to do with the family because he refused to admit he was an alcoholic. He ended in a program in Michigan that was housing homeless people. He destroyed the place and threatened physically his roommate. He got into fights when he was drunk. He was fined for swearing in a church full of people. He had a prison sentence after a fight in bathroom with 5 times the alcohol limit in blood authorized by Michigan, he fought the cops and ended with a cut on his head. The brothers and sisters but also the extended family, checked on him, trying to convince him to come back and get cured. For years he refused. Finally he accepted to join a program. All this i know from reading ALL the books on Madonna, including Christopher's and Athony's varous awful interviews the rags sent people to gt out of him in exchange of a drink. But also many Madonna interviews. It's ALL out there. After Christopher posted about Anthony coming back to them and joining a special rehab program there was no news. I think it's in the Advocate interview, the journalist points out her brother who is visiting her is reading in the kitchen or another interview from the TOD era promo. As for his son Angelo no idea if he had a relationship with him in the end or if Angelo (who is around 30 now) has a relationship with the Ciccones at all.

Stop!

Just Stop!!!!!

It’s possible he had an incredible meaningful life. It’s possible he was a good man. And if he was at odds with his family, it’s possible he was in the right. If he was alcoholic, it’s still possible it didn’t cause his death. And if it did it’s possible he lived a full life and didn’t regret anything. RIP Whoever you were.

Madonna is probably undone. I feel for her. Siblings constitute a unique relationship, even the troubled ones.

As long as it doesn't involve Ricardo Gomes as an art director or whatever

The Drowned World Tour version. 🥸

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