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I think this is all absurd. Madonna is still very relevant in 2024. How many billions of people are there on the planet? How many have Madonna’s stature, level of recognizability, visibility, accomplishment, and influence? Even if you are looking at it from a point of view of commercialism, she is on the verge of finishing a sold out 81-date tour of Europe, America, Mexico and Brazil. She’s about to perform for the largest audience of her entire career, an event that will garner more press than nearly any other artist’s single concert would. When she was near death last year it made the news globally. Everything Madonna does gets attention. She has influenced practically every popular artist, visual and musical, out there. Her name comes up all the time. The right wing conservatives and MAGAs always have something to say about her…That she’s a has-been or pathetic and desperate, or the devil incarnate. They’re still talking about her! Her music is ubiquitous. She is the 80th most streamed artist in the world on Spotify, 40 years into her recording career. Madonna IS RELEVANT. She just isn’t a contemporary phenomenon any longer. She isn’t young. She’s not interested in participating in the modern fame game. She could literally be on the cover of any magazine of her choosing, appear on any talk show, the cover of newspapers. Everyone would kill to interview her; even Piers Morgan.

So cute! She did a little runway walk for him. She’s crushing!

I suppose it would be fair to point out that often in Mexico, Southern Europe and Latin America she does receive a particular verbal enthusiasm that American audiences are less likely to engage in; not because they are less interested, less invested or disrespectful, but because there is a fundamental cultural difference that perhaps leans towards a more measured approach. As fans in America we go all out, but the more casual audience member is less likely to show the type of reverence that was seen at last night’s show in Mexico City. I’d also say that Madonna is a uniquely global superstar in that her influence spans decades and has never really lost its intensity internationally. When she shows up overseas, people pay attention. Whether or not she has been as commercially relevant on the charts in the last decade is insignificant when she has the type of immediate recognizability of her image and her incomparable back catalog of hits. It hasn’t been celebrated by the media and the masses in America in the way that she deserves for many years, but I do believe all of that is changing. I think there’s a conscious awareness that today’s very prolific major stars of the music industry simply don’t have the type of broad spectrum connection to the zeitgeist in a way that will last with the type of endurance that music from a pre-streaming era did. Madonna is so exceptional in so many ways, and everyone kind of knows it, even if they hate on her.

*Wonder about

I love how at 65 she can convincingly recapture herself at 25 or 40 without looking absurd or caricatural.

Are you in a mood today?! You’ve posted very negative comments about Madonna’s face in Ricardo’s cover photo, and now the meh remix reaction! Sending you a warm hug from Los Angeles. 😂💛

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5vtdbWtkpb/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== Don’t think I saw this anywhere else on the forum, but Purple Disco Machine closed out his Coachella set with this remix of LAP. Sounds amazing to me!

I think she says that her sound is cutting out. She can’t hear herself.

You never know! She did post her greetings to Austin to her IG Stories to the soundtrack of “Secret”. Maybe our baby does have a secret after all! 😎

Her voice has good nights and bad nights. This has been the case throughout the tour, including in LA where she even had a night when she lost her entire upper register during Mother and Father, stating it herself for the record onstage. I highly doubt she is thinking of canceling her Mexico dates. Sounds like the usual dramatic fantasies people come up with on that absurd platform of bile. She has four nights off after tomorrow’s show, and then another five nights off between Austin and Mexico City. She then has a week to prepare for Rio. She’s gonna be fine.

It is hard to show up for yourself and to learn to parent your inner child when you come from a background of trauma. If she suffers from claustrophobia and panic attacks, clearly her trauma is considerable and she’s been on a long journey toward mental wellness. I can relate, and I am moved by her extreme honesty. She’s clearly been going through some trauma activation since her illness and this speech serves as a reminder that she deserves kindness and compassion. It’s obviously hard for her to be vulnerable, and so for her to be that honest in front of 20,000 is significant.

Okay…I think we are veering a little off course by turning this into an indictment of her entire personality! That’s just too much…Surely she deserves more respect from her fans than that! She probably needs a rest, and it’s understandable after 71 performances. She knows she’s getting overwhelmed and frustrated…She’s literally spelling it out in her pre-Express Yourself speech. That said, venting it all publicly in the way she did isn’t particularly artistically-minded as it takes away from the narrative of her show, which is counterintuitive. I hope she finds some calm in the coming days. It is also the New Moon in Aries Total Solar Eclipse tomorrow, and so maybe she’s feeling it! Her voice does sound strained, and I’m sure that she gets affected by the dryness. No singer welcomes air-conditioning…It’s like kryptonite to the voice, and you don’t have to be doing Mariah acrobatics to feel the pain of it.

How strange that she would express herself that way onstage in front of her audience. I guess it’s not a big deal, but personally I find it really off-puttingly uncharacteristic and unprofessional. She must be feeling under the weather, or maybe her hip or knee are hurting. I’m guessing she isn’t talking about the a/c in the open arena because it’s been hotter than hell at most shows on the floor…she must feel the chill of it coming into her dressing area or under the stage? I’m guessing she’s just over it all and is finding herself feeling exhausted in the last stretch knowing that she still has to ten shows to go. She’s probably angry at herself and it’s her way of getting herself energized.

It’s incredibly unfair to rob Sandra of her own accomplishments. As already stated, she has had a very storied life and she is a talented comedienne and actress. She carved out a very unique style for herself as a performer. Her shows are autobiographical and comical with feisty social commentary, but always served with a touch of emotional tenderness underlined with music. I think she has been mostly gracious considering how much everyone always brings up Madonna when interviewing her. For many years I think she resented it and it may have led to some occasional overt hostility, but imagine being tethered to someone who hurt you (is it really that hard to imagine that Madonna lacked sensitivity in the early 90s?) for the rest of your career despite all of your other achievements! I think that would get under anyone’s skin, and she handled this ning nong’s prying with aplomb in my eyes. Madonna’s star shines so bright that it burns most people who have been in her orbit. It’s like a brand; permanent and unavoidable. I have empathy for how challenging that might be for some.

As far as I can remember, Sticky and Sweet Part 2 was added because she got hammered with an astronomical divorce settlement and wasn’t about to lose that amount of net worth for anyone. Regarding Brazil and the possibility of more shows being added, it was also announced on February 6th that a final date had been added to the tour itinerary in Miami. Clearly that wasn’t true, therefore nothing can be ruled out. As an addendum, I would like to reinforce the sentiment that this forum has become an absolute shambles. It remained one of the last places for fans to have intelligent discussions about Madonna’s body of work, her influence and impact, and her achievements. Then the culture shifted and being a Madonna fan seemed to become increasingly difficult as a collective experience. We went from the pseudo-woke brigade in full force 24/7 being offended by every idea they didn’t agree with to a cacophony of what seemed like bots insidiously telling us how much they loved everything. Critical thinking left the building. Once the tour started it seemed to level out into a healthy discussion centered around the almost daily reports on the corresponding tour dates, but we have once again descended into a chaos of either dual accounts trolling non-stop, or generally unstable, extremely immature individuals posting like they’re back in the sandbox expressing all of their unconscious feelings, personal issues and a need to have someone tell them that it’s all gonna be okay, and that they’re right for being intolerant of someone else they know nothing about having a different perspective or experience. Well here’s the bottom line…It’s all gonna be okay with or without the validation of a moderator, but don’t expect to have much of an audience to participate in your nonsense. I can hardly be bothered sharing anything on here at this stage. Half the people who once contributed actual thoughts to this place have left because of the absurdity of a small but loud minority spouting absolute bile that contributes nothing to the Madonna community and culture, and many others have withdrawn into the rafters, skimming through all the petty squabbling and rambling for some relevant information about the extraordinary woman we came here to discuss. It’s always been a challenge to navigate certain personality types online in relative anonymity, but at least it seemed we used to respect that on a Madonna forum we could invest in Madonna talk that provoked thought and intelligent discussion. Is it because of social media that this has faded out? Is it because we are getting older as a fanbase? Whatever it is, it is both sad and embarrassing. If we can’t muster the courage and determination to show up and actually give value to Madonna’s legacy within the fanbase, it doesn’t bode well for that legacy elsewhere.