Lorx

Totally agree with you!

I think he doesn't even know how to download Photoshop

No, I am not comparing the two photos. The first one is old and was republished two years ago on Madonna's profile but edited with FaceApp, almost certainly by Ricardo Gomes. It's obvious because FaceApp makes everyone look the same in this way. There was even a photo of him holding his iPhone, showing the app icon on his screen. What’s incredible is that the AI failed twice to recognize the sunglasses and created fake, strange-looking eyes. This happens sometimes with FaceApp. See these two examples. It’s embarrassing. It's shocking that someone so incompetent is hired by Madonna, a global pop star with a 40-year career.

I get that he has to follow her everywhere for photos. And she needs someone to do so. But for a star like Madonna, you'd expect someone more skilled for this. Sure, editing her face is part of the job, but not to the point of making photos look fake and ridiculous. He's not a photographer, just a random guy using FaceApp. His main "skill" seems to be exploiting Madonna's dysmorphia. Embarrassing. He's improved a bit over time, probably because he's paid well, but he doesn't see his own mediocrity and luck in being there. Madonna, like many from her generation, might not realize there are many people out there who can use Photoshop. Just a few years ago, she worked with decent photographers like Tom Munro, who did a good job in 2014, now it's just Ricardo. I'm not a photographer, but I love photography and I know how to use a DLSR. Even with just a smartphone, I'd do a better job than he does. A good photographer can take amazing photos with a smartphone. I get that she wants lots of content for social media, but anyone could do that. Picking a random person might actually get better results. Madonna, I understand you might not hire Helmut Newton for this, but at least choose someone with decent skills who can avoid such gross mistakes

I find myself apprehensive about the upcoming biopic Madonna will helm about her own life. I don't want to see a superficial, overly romanticized story. Instead, I hope Madonna will reveal the complexities of her character, including her struggles, flaws, and vulnerabilities. It's essential that the film goes beyond self-celebration and offers everybody a chance to reflect on the deeper, more human aspects of her life. She has always been a trailblazer, and this biopic should be no different—providing an insightful, thought-provoking narrative that showcases not just her triumphs but also the challenges and imperfections that have shaped her into the icon she is today. One of the primary issues with Rocketman (the movie) was its tendency to simplify complex events and omit significant details, resulting in a rather shallow and superficial portrayal of Elton John. I fear that Madonna's biopic might fall into the same trap, focusing more on spectacle than substance.

Stunning Also I loved the blue dress more

They had to sync multiple audio sources and they miserably failed. And they also had to switch between at least 5 audio sources (which had to be synched). I guess it was not that easy to do it in 10 minutes, because they failed. And one of these sources (the audience sound) was not synched from the beginning to the end of the show. There are two things: Either Madonna relied on a team of amateurs with little knowledge of editing audiovisual material (Ricardo Gomes? 😆) or it was not so easy to do so and notice in ten minutes such blatant inconsistencies Totally agree with this:

The consistently out of sync audience should in fact be due to merging the audience recording with that of the soundboard. The timing might have been misaligned from the start and remained so throughout. While the audio feed directly from the mixing console has no delays, the audio reaching the audience through the event's speakers has a slight delay, causing temporal incongruence. They must be synced, because even if you record them simultaneously if you merge them together they're not in sync, obviously. In my opinion, they attempted an endeavor that no one had ever tried before. I believe it's the first time someone has tried to modify an entire show's audio in just ten minutes and then immediately broadcast it. The likelihood of making mistakes or overlooking certain things, in my opinion, is extremely high.

That was the last vocal performance she really studied for, prepared and put effort into. After that, she was always vocally mediocre or ok at best. And sometimes she was even really bad. So bad like she wasn’t even a singer but some random drunk girl at a cheap karaoke bar

Not exactly. He had an amazing voice and showed for more than a decade that he sang incredibly well. That was his reputation. He started lip-syncing when his voice got damaged and couldn't keep up the same level, because he was an obsessive perfectionist (and honestly, it annoys me if it implies losing humanity and authenticity), but nobody doubted he could sing even when lip-syncing because they all knew he delivered perfect vocal performances. Madonna always sang pretty much in tune even though she wasn't always perfect (she sounded ok at BAT, accept it), but she was never at MJ's vocal level. So, every time she lip-synced, it was in a context where her reputation as a good singer wasn't established yet. And they've always been tough on her, even though she didn't sing worse than other popstars in the end. The reason is also that she was always a controversial figure, a woman who exposed her sexuality (even in a religious perspective) and defended the weakest. Plus, she built a reputation as a "mean diva" who treated everyone badly. She's always been a very divisive artist. And through the years she got worse and became a "bad" singer. So for the general public she's either a bad singer or the queen of lip-syncing

She must be extremely insecure about her singing abilities (for good reasons); otherwise, she wouldn't go through all these maneuvers to mask her voice in a live recording. Sometimes I'm almost surprised she chooses to sing live, considering all of this. And the cover-up is worse than the crime. She's really shooting herself in the foot. I was so into this Rio show that I didn't even notice these screw-ups she made with the recordings. That's my super-fan side getting all hyped up and loving her no matter what, but then I take a step back after reading your comments, and I'm like, "Whoa." If it was just a little autotune on her real vocals, I'd get it, 'cause let's face it, she's been off-key in this tour, and her voice would sound awful coming out of a soundboard. But swapping it out with other performances? Disaster. And forgive me for saying she's not as much of a perfectionist as she used to be. Many things she does are extremely contrived and sloppy. Instead of doing this, she could at least work on her technique a bit, or she could just be authentic and unmasked, letting her true voice be heard. You're spot on when you say we're not in the MJ days anymore, where nobody cared about singing to a playback. Nowadays, almost everyone sings live, or at least tries to. People are WAY more tuned in to this stuff now. Some people aren't, but they're minority right now. Or they're just happy fans who watch without paying attention to such details. She's gonna end up being labeled as the queen of lip-syncing when it's not true.

Being pretty observant, I totally missed the mark on this one. Initially, I figured the vocal-video mismatch was due to the strong backing vocals, but on second look, they're not backing vocals at all. You guys are really sharp! After checking out the Holiday video and this one: yeah, they've definitely done some autotuning, cranked up the backing vocals, and in spots, swapped out her live vocals with pre-edited recordings. Pulling all that off in just ten minutes must've been quite the challenge.

My question is: Madonna's choreography in that performance looked something I've already seen before. The question is "Where?" She nectlected her voice after AL/COADF. And 20 years have passed. Nope, DWT voice is real.

Tonight I'll play it in my TV ♥️

Even in the other shows her speaking voice was always noticeable above her old recorded rapped part, only it was a bit lower. Fortunately, they kept it high for this live performance. Also because she had to introduce Anitta and everybody had to understand what she said. Everybody was a total mess, it sounded like Madonna was lip-syncing when she wasn't. Bad Girl was better, but the backing vocals drowned the live ones out. I hope they release the concert worldwide and fix these issues, but knowing Madonna, the audio might only get worse! 😆 It's a shame she rejected Kevin Antunes mix of S&S, opting instead for a fake-sounding studio-like version. I used to think he was the guilty one, since her previous tour have live vocals (I'm Going to Tell A Secret and Confessions Tour audio have some autotune, but they are very similar to the real thing). I think she's very insecure and she doesn't not believe in her voice. Anyway, this audio is still better than MDNA/MX/S&S and RH audio. So I'm quite happy. And I wasn't expecting her to go full live on live TV