Ivan Z

I think the fact she does Die Another Day, then Don't Tell Me (please don't tell me to stop), then Mother and Father with David into I Will Survive/LIB which she preceded with a speech about how her children saved her, DCFMA (I had to let it happen, I had to change) is pretty compelling in terms of that section being about how becoming a mother changed her and gave (and gives) her strength to carry on. Then Bedtime Story opens with her in a pose which recalls Frida Kahlo's My Birth, a painting she owns, which has obvious connections to the theme of the previous section but here leads into a creative rebirth.

I took hung up as her experiencing her sexuality which she did with Sandra B etc the topless female dancers,  hung up on Tokisha is quite sexual so I feel it fits in well at the end of that erotica/ justify my love section. 

I think because her support for the queer community is part of the theme of that section and it's basically her gayest song (with Vogue, which she also does in that section) and brings it bang up to date with Tokischa.

Great interpretation!
Could anyone explain why Hung Up is in the 90s section?

Great interpretation!
Could anyone explain why Hung Up is in the 90s section?

Yes, Nothing really matters serves as a prologue.
In the second section, I don't totally get Crazy for you (although it's one of my favourite ballads and I am sorry that it's shortened). If it's about criticism and censorship and overcoming the backlash, wouldn't  Secret or I'll remember be better maybe? They would also fit the 90s section better. After "peace" going back to Beast within doesn't make much sense either.
Say goodbye to not knowing when
The truth in my whole life began
Say goodbye to not knowing how to cry
You taught me that
And I'll remember the strength that you gave me
Now that I'm standing on my own
I'll remember the way that you saved me
I'll remember
After solitude, family comes in. The third section is a little chaotic imo. It's about death and family, not stopping, so I don't get La isla bonita and DCFMA.
I see the fourth act as "the future", rising up in the sky. But Rain is just there as a gift for the fans...
 

I'll have a go since I've not seen it anywhere else.
Intro/Nothing Really Matters - an overview of her career, a thank you to the fans and an acknowledgement that she's now at a place of peace and maturity.
Everybody through to Holiday - her early years in New York, both as an artist and as a person with her friends. This ends with AIDS hitting at the end of Holiday which takes us to...
Live To Tell/Like A Prayer/Unholy/Act of Contrition - AIDS wreaking havoc in New York and the world, taking many of her friends and many others. Gay men are trapped inside this nightmare and face a society which thinks they deserve it. Madonna tries to help, not just her friends but by challenging moralism and speaking up for sexual liberation and tolerance. She is a warrior ally, which takes us to...
Erotica through to Vogue - Madonna being transgressive, pushing boundaries, celebrating the underground and the queer community and then...
Human Nature/Crazy for You - the backlash hits, both in Madonna's career and in society which sees a resurgent moralism. Though it's painful and turbulent at the time, Madonna embraces herself from that period, accepting everything she did and that she experienced with love.
Die Another Day through to Don't Cry For Me Argentina - Coming out the other end of the backlash, Madonna keeps going. She is a survivor and keeps going no matter what. A huge part of what enables her to do this is her family, which lays to rest the demons she has always battled regarding her mother's death.
Bedtime Story/Ray of Light/Rain - her embrace of electronic music sees her still pushing forward and breaking boundaries but ultimately takes her back to her roots. She feels the love of her fans again, which brings her peace.
Bitch I'm Madonna/Celebration - ending again with an overview of her career, a celebration of her iconic career, legacy and everyone who's been part of it on the way. But it ends abruptly, because she's not done yet. The future is still unwritten.

I think the discussion and confabulations during months had created some ideas in people and they were open for disappointment.
There's a story-line and storytelling, as she clearly says using her music. There's lots of references to so many iconic moments in her career and so many we can't see. Like the futuristic part with ROL mix and Bedtime Stories, that's for me is Veronica Electronica.
Bringing Vogue to the ballroom scene after being criticized of stealing from it. The whole Erotic-Fever- BA Like A virgin moment is lush.
So many figures that were important for her featured in one or another way.
And whatever people wants to make of the MJ part. He was considered the King of pop while she was the Queen, he was a referential for her and she felt like she couldn't gave him proper farewell. I personally don't care much for MJ but is her story and I can see the value, it was a  nice take (with the Angel bit included)
I was'nt expecting a panto show and the more I see about this one the more excited I am about seeing it live. Love it
 

Very happy with it musically, I guess boxing can be sexy to some, problematic really. Weird for erotica. Would have worked better with give it to me and a story woven in about all the times she has been counted as down and out and fought back

After this AMAZING night I wrote the setlist. I tried to be the more accurate possible. You can help me to write the setlist every night if there will be some changes or not.
Main Setlist:
 
It’s a Celebration – Intro (contains elements of “Deeper and Deeper [Shep’s Deeper Dub]”, “Lucky Star”, “Celebration [Benny Benassi Remix]”, “Erotica”, “Vogue”, “Express Yourself”, “Bitch I’m Madonna” & “Material Girl”)
Nothing Really Matters (contains elements from the Club 69 Remix)
Everybody (contains elements of “Where’s The Party”)
Into the Groove (contains elements of “Into the Hollywood Groove”)
Burning Up
Open Your Heart
Holiday (contains elements of “I Want Your Love”)
Live to Tell (contains elements of “In This Life”)
Like a Prayer (contains elements of “Birjina Gaztetto Bat Zegoen”, “Unholy”, “Girl Gone Wild”, “Act of Contrition” & of the 12” Club Version)
 
Living For Love – Remix Interlude (contains elements of the Offer Nissim Remix, “Let’s Go Crazy” & “Fever”)
Erotica (contains elements of “Justify My Love”, “You Thrill Me” & “Papa Don’t Preach”)
Justify My Love (contains elements of “Gangsta”, “Erotica” & “Fever”)
Hung Up (contains elements of “Hung Up on Tokischa” & “La Isla Bonita”)
Bad Girl (contains elements of “Le Regret, op. 332”)
Vogue (contains elements of “Up Down Suite”, “Deeper and Deeper [David Klub Mix]”, “Break My Soul [The Queens Remix]”, “Walk 4 Me” & “Let It All Out 2012”)
Human Nature/Crazy for You
 
The Beast Within – Remix Interlude
Die Another Day
Don’t Tell Me (contains elements of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”)
Mother and Father
I Will Survive
La Isla Bonita
Don’t Cry for Me Argentina
 
I Don’t Search I Find – Remix Interlude (Honey Dijon Remix)
Bedtime Story (contains elments of the Sound Factory Remix)
Ray of Light (Sasha Remix)
Rain
 
Like a Virgin/Billie Jean – Remix Interlude (contains elements of “Express Yourself”, “Celebration”, “She’s Not Me”, “You Rock My World”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Smooth Criminal”, “Dangerous” & “Angel”)
Bitch I’m Madonna (contains elements of “Give Me All Your Luvin’”)
Celebration – Outro (Benny Benassi Remix; contains elements of “Music” & “Bitch I’m Madonna”)
 
Notes:
- Little Star: acapella snippet for Lola birthday on 14/10/2023.
- Madonna on 15/10/2023 didn’t perform the last act - “Like a Virgin” to “Celebration”. Show started late due to camera issues and ended early due to O2 curfew.
- Into the Groove: after the first two nights in London, from the third one the small rap of Missy Elliott was cut out from the song.
- Live to Tell: from the third night, a thunderstorm sound effect was added during the intro.
- Causing a Commotion: on 22/10/2023, M sang acapella the chorus of the song before “Burning Up”. She did it again on 15-16/11/2023 shows in Cologne; Amsterdam 02/12/2023; London 05-06/12/2023; Brooklyn 14-16/12/2023; Washington 18-19/12/2023; Boston 08-09/01/2024; Toronto 11-12/01/2024.
- Sodade: on 06/11/2023 and on 07/11/2023, in Lisbon, M and her son David performed a short version of this song on guitar before "I Will Survive".
- I Love New York: she sang the chorus of this song during “Burning Up” on 02/12/2023 Amsterdam show and during the 05/12/2023 London show. During the 3 shows in Brooklyn (New York), 13-14-16-/12/2023, she performed a mash up of these two songs: First/second verses and choruses of “I Love New York” sang on the instrumental of “Burning Up”, then she started to sing the last one from the bridge.
- Express Yourself: from 08/01/2024 M replaced “I Will Survive” with an acoustic rendition of this song.
- Frozen (contains elements of the Sickick Remix): from 11/01/2024 M replaced “Rain” with this song.
 
Rehearsals:
- Candy Perfume Girl: rehearsed at the very early stage on rock guitar.
- Burning Up: rehearsed at the very early stage on acoustic guitar.
- Celebration: originally the opener followed by "Nothing Really Matters", then rehearsed as an outro and it didn't have elements from "Music".
- Nothing Really Matters: considered also as the final song and "Everybody" as the opener.
- The Power of Good-Bye: rehearsed as one of the final songs.
- Ghosttown: rehearsed on guitar with her son David.
- Mother of Creation: considered as an interlude, probably before "Bedtime Story".
- Papa Don't Preach: rehearsed in full.
 
- Three weekd before the opening night she deleted the first act that had songs like "Music", "Candy Shop", "Back That Up to the Beat" & "4 Minutes". She also replaced "Frozen" with "Rain", changed the original choreo (with chairs) of "Live to Tell" and also changed few remixes.
 
- During the final dress rehearsals in London she deleted:
Oh Father: supposed to be performed after "Like a Prayer" or in the "Don't Tell Me" section.
Sorry: probably performed after "Hung Up" or supposed to be performed in the "Don't Tell Me" section.
Hold Tight: performed after "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"; deleted for "La Isla Bonita".
 
- Joan of Arc: on 01/11/2023 during the soundcheck, M rehearsed this song two times.

I can answer this now. Yes she was.

Hidden Content
Give reaction to this post to see the hidden content. This is the Hollywood cover I did,without borders in full glory

I'm gonna be seriously pissed off if we don't get The Passengerz Hell's Kitchen Mix!! 

American Pie 100% fits on Music for my money. It’s still orbit produced and isn’t a million miles away from Amazing, WIFLFAG or I Deserve It in tone or soundscape and the whole theme of Music was cowboys, chopped guitars and Americana. Madonna was doing way too much with that one. If any song is out of place it’s the French tones of Paradise (not for me) but the music is sublime. 
 
Now Beautiful Stranger I always see as a Ray Of Light era song but there’s no way it should be on that record. It could however have been another additional track on Music making it a five single album. 

Yeah, it’s like saying American Pie was a Music single just because it was tacked into Music the album. 
 
But at the same time, slapping it into the middle of the album instead of at the end for a deluxe version etc doesn’t help that perception. 

Wow the Luke Slater remixes are really just noise aren't they. Embarrassing.

Hopefully we get a 5 second freedom comes bathroom clip on the Instagram story if we are lucky 

Warner UK truly said "no f way we're releasing those Berlin underground hardcore drug sex club mixes, Europe can keep them. Let us keep the Dallas Austin mix and add "Little Star" ".

It worked though: #6 in the UK.

Freedom cums, you gworllls!

Despite the fact that Hung Up wasn’t a huge chart hit (largely bc of airplay), I personally remember COADF being really well received- fans, casual fans, dance music fans; a lot of people seemed to really embrace it as a return to form for her.
They really tried to give HC more US appeal, and 4 Minutes was a bigger chart hit (largely bc of JT), but there was also a fair amount of criticism that era- she was following on the Timbaland & Pharrell trends, she seemed more like a guest artist on her own album, the cover was highly criticized at first, etc.
For what its worth the US leg of the Confessions Tour did roughly twice as many shows in all the major markets as S&S did.

Yeah the "Calderone & Quayle Edit" is actually a different mix, instead of just an edit of "Calderone & Quayle Glam Mix". It was originally included on this promo CD: https://www.discogs.com/release/216223-Madonna-Hollywood
It's the same situation with "Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Radio Mix)" and "Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Club Mix)".

Ugh I want the full length version of that edit whatever it is. Thanks for clarifying fam!

Yeah the "Calderone & Quayle Edit" is actually a different mix, instead of just an edit of "Calderone & Quayle Glam Mix". It was originally included on this promo CD: https://www.discogs.com/release/216223-Madonna-Hollywood
It's the same situation with "Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Radio Mix)" and "Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Club Mix)".

Yeah the "Calderone & Quayle Edit" is actually a different mix, instead of just an edit of "Calderone & Quayle Glam Mix". It was originally included on this promo CD: https://www.discogs.com/release/216223-Madonna-Hollywood
It's the same situation with "Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Radio Mix)" and "Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Club Mix)".

I absolutely love the Vission remix of Don't Tell Me. I think it's the best of the bunch. It's sexy. Bouncy. Groovy.