acolyte
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Posts posted by acolyte
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8 hours ago, Salida said:
I guess that after the tour is done, she'll take a few weeks to rest and will start working on something new immediately. Be it the movie or the album. I can't imagine her spending more than a month doing nothing.
I completely agree. She seems more reflective than ever and I can see this culminating in a new body of work sooner than we might expect, whatever form it'll take.
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I just saw the speech she gave right before "I Will Survive" and I honestly don't understand why people are so upset that she didn't acknowledge (whatever that even means) Niki and Donna during the show. Clearly M had very different things on her mind last night.
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Having seen the tour a few times in person now, I'm not so sure we'll get an album that soon anymore. She seems extremely humbled, somewhat melancholic and still a little shaken by her recent death scare. It's just a feeling on my part that the musical focus may have changed to something entirely different at this stage or that whatever she may have recorded and planned thus far doesn't really represent where she's at emotionally right now...
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If I remember correctly, Guram Gvasalia's principal role for the tour was costume direction. I suppose these were perhaps initial ideas given to Eyob Yohannes and Versace for their final execution?
Judging by the detail shots on his Instagram, I can see why the mirror catsuit was abandoned. It seems as if his creation is made of actual mirror pieces which would have been far too heavy and inconvenient to perform in. Versace's version appears to be made of more stretchable and lighter PVC.
As for the black ball gown: I can see this being intended as the opening outfit and how it could have worked with the height-adjustable circular main stage. The lace detail and material depicted in Gvasalia's design also looks a lot like the material used for the inside of the kimono sleeves designed by Eyob Yohannes.
Edit: According to this Vogue piece, "For the most part, Yohannes and Melssen created and designed all of Madonna’s costumes themselves, though they also enlisted designers such as Vetement’s Guram Gvasalia, Donatella Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Dilara Findikoglu to create special one-off looks for her, too. “We wanted to reference everything that she’s done, and make something new out of that,” says Melssen. “We created a whole new world.”
So I guess Gvasalia submitted his ideas but they were then further developed by other designers...
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30 minutes ago, Markdonna said:
I love how people keep judging her singing from bootleg YouTube clips with amateur hour shot through an old iphone audio, but I guess plenty of people on here really are THAT fucking dumb…
...and just as dumb are the people who believe that the heavily engineered front-of-house mix reproduces what is actually being sung and performed. That's the wonderful thing about the devices used for audience recordings: they don't quite capture what the actual audience member's ear is supposed to pick up on.
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She may significantly struggle vocally during some portions of the show for reasons that @Lorx explained really well, but I do have to say that I find it remarkable regardless that she's singing live at all on this tour.
Yes, her vocal performance for the last ten years or so hasn't been particularly impressive from a technical point of view, but I think we all should bear in mind that three months ago, she didn't only find herself in an induced coma but had also been intubated. Vocal cord paralysis and prolonged hoarseness after intubation are very frequent side effects.
I had my doubts as to whether she'd be able to sing at all. Given that she's only three months into her recovery from all this, most of it spent resuming rehearsals and actually kicking off the tour, I'm surprised that she doesn't actually sound worse than she has in the past few years which makes me wonder if she's had specific vocal coaching this time.
- FraP, rlittler81 and stefo
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Is anyone else getting the vibe that the brief "Crazy for You" moment is meant to be a tribute to the Something to Remember period? I don't know how else to explain her being escorted off the stage by her "Human Nature" persona as well as the tone of the show suddenly softening and turning romantic after the Erotica/"Vogue" segment.
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I can actually see why she chose to include the Tokischa bit in the Erotica section of the show. That video is the only time in a long time that she's been outright sexually provocative with that "girl on girl" action and it was a little shocking to the general public when it came out. The way that bit is placed in the show forges a bridge between her being sexually provocative then in her mid-30s and being sexually provocative now in her mid-60s. Segueing into the original version of "Hung Up" was a smart move to lift up the somewhat dark and sombre mood of the "Erotica" and "Justify My Love" performances. At least in theory. My complaint with that whole section doesn't concern the Tokischa part itself, which does make sense to me and works quite well, I think, but the placement of "Hung Up" in that section to begin with. It just feels a bit odd because lyrically and musically it has absolutely nothing to do with her Dita era...
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51 minutes ago, dankpepe said:
One idea I had that would be interesting would be what if the movie opened with her hospital scare from this year, her getting rushed to the hospital, going into an induced coma then in that coma she has a flashback of her life which then is the movie, at the end of the film she has a super fast flashback of everything but is woken by the kiss of an "angel" on her lips (could be implied that this is Martin Burgoyne or her mother while 'Angel' plays in the background similar to her Michael Jackson interlude on the Celebration Tour). Since it's a dream, it could be a way to mesh various time periods all into one film.
I think that's a genius idea. But I also think that this would work wonderfully in book form!
- Voguerista and dankpepe
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I should really go to bed because I'm terribly sleep-deprived and my antipsychotics are starting to kick in making me feel a bit woozy BUT I just listened to the Bad Girl performance and it's quite heartbreaking how differently those words hit now following her self-destructive behaviour these past few years AND her near-death experience with her children by her side...
- Pootz333 and Voguerista
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Perhaps the catwalk is being reduced because they're trying to fit more people in to compensate for financial losses caused by the re-routing of the tour? Just a theory.
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Besides, I think it's perfectly possible that Stuart could be this tour's MD. He probably won't be out on the road, so it makes sense that Kevin would take on the bandleader position for the duration of the actual tour.
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3 hours ago, subversive said:
That man is stuart???? It's not the same stuart that I remember...
Are you sure guys?
3 hours ago, wyrweo said:quite sure this is not Stuart! This guy is Younger and thinner looking and camp as knickers too! Would love to PROVEN wrong though! Need more than just a grainy picture.
The pictures below are from 2014 if I'm not mistaken. That was seven years ago. If you compare these with the ones from M's Instagram story, you'll find that this is without a doubt the same person.
- Honey Little, Donna and BuggedOut
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Doing the entire tour now. Who wants to buy a kidney?
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3 minutes ago, madgefan said:
Oh, I was almost certain he was kind of involved in the making of the military outfit.
The military section was designed by Arianne Phillips, I'm afraid. At the time, Gaultier had just started working for Hermès and therefore couldn't really participate.
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49 minutes ago, madgefan said:
And not just the cone bra. Remember that JPG also worked on the DWT, RIT and CT!
The minute she stopped recruting him to make the designs, we started to get some really questionable costume choices... 4 Minutes at the S&S anyone? And let's not even discuss how she ruined that beautiful jacket for God Control at MXT
Sorry to say, but Gaultier wasn't really involved with Re-Invention. He did a couple of t-shirts, but that was it. However, I'm very excited to hear that he'll be designing for the Celebration Tour. Hopefully he'll be the main designer for the whole show!
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Do we think she sported last night's look because that's what non-fans and TikTok people would recognise via the cover art for "Back That up to the Beat"?
This is the first time since 2012 that she's gone for a completely different look at an event (MET Gala bob wig excluded) in general, isn't it? The more I see her with that hairdo, the more I love it!
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2 minutes ago, VogueMusic said:
I think this is a very interesting thing to point out, and I rarely see it being talked about enough. It's always beating the dead horse about all the usual things...but, just a possibility, what if it's just part of aging, particularly for a woman...and even more so, personal health issues that are her private business (and that we may never know about). It's so easy to judge because we're all on the outside looking in, but knowing plenty of folks in my own life whose appearance has changed as often come down to various health issues (that were ultimately out of their control) that they eventually disclosed in confidence. It was was so easy to judge or "be concerned" when I didn't know the whole story. There's just so many different things that can affect someone's overall appearance and body shape, even if they've had 'work' done. Anyway, just something to consider.
And I've had a parent recently have a hip replacement (like M's) and it's taken a LONG time to recover. It's been hard as hell on them.
Yep. Me too.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said!
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5 hours ago, sara94 said:
Fillers can be removed and Botox dissolves after a few months so she could totally have her 2018 face back if she / her teams wants to.
While it's true that Botox only offers temporary tranquillisation of muscles that produce wrinkles, fillers are a lot more complicated to dissolve than people think.
All of this is mostly speculation, but it's pretty obvious that she's undergone several different filler and possibly even fat transfer procedures through the years. It starts to get messy when filler is placed on pre-existing filler. After a while, some (old) fillers tend to spread which makes them difficult to localise and dissolve effectively using hyaluronidase. Combined with a fat transfer, it becomes nearly impossible to really control and "revert" someone's facial appearance. The result is a puffy and overfilled look.
The main question, after many years of filler getting placed on filler after filler, is – even if it were possible – whether someone's skin is even in a condition that would aesthetically benefit from previous filler getting dissolved. Patients above 40, due to the natural ageing process, often encounter a significant loss of skin elasticity. If a significant amount of filler volume were to be dissolved, the face would be at risk to notably sag which isn't exactly what those who get fillers to compensate for natural loss of volume want to achieve.
Her full face might as well, and I think this is far more likely, be due to natural weight gain. She's been through hip replacement surgery and months of pain leading up to it. Combine pain killers with an obvious lack of exercise and it is what it is. I don't doubt for a second that she will or probably already has undergone extensive physiotherapy and training in preparation for the tour. I'd be surprised if she hadn't lost two stones by the time the tour starts.
Those images across the past one and a half years were just a coverup to hide her procedures if you ask me. It makes sense time-wise with regards to the tour as well. By the time she hits the road in July, she will look the way she’s "supposed" to look thanks to the nip and tuck. Facial surgery takes at least six months up to a whole year to settle in. Swelling, especially in older patients, can linger around for a very long time and it takes a while for the skin to reclaim its natural elasticity.
Personally, I really don't think she's ever looked that different. Throughout it all, she always looked like herself, I think.
- sara94, madaboutM and VogueMusic
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Hopefully someone from the team is taking notes from everyone's setlist ideas. But could we please keep the setlists to their respective threads in the 2023 World Tour section? I love how everybody is getting creative, but those long lists kind of clutter this discussion thread. No harm intended!
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2 hours ago, stancherry said:
has anyone visited the Lanxess Arena. How is the view from the seats in Block 217 (row 3) Is it close?
https://aviewfrommyseat.com/photo/167669/LANXESS+arena/section-217/row-8/seat-22/
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I'm excited to see whatever she has in store for us. But the one and only thing I find myself begging for is "Nothing Really Matters" and "The Power of Good-Bye". The latter recently received some attention with the Vanity Fair short film, but "Nothing Really Matters" has been neglected since its Grammy performance in 1999. It hasn't even appeared on any compilation until last year's Finally Enough Love. I could really see this working next to or around "Holiday" for some reason...
The Celebration Tour (Spoilers)
in The Celebration Tour
Posted
Mercy is definitely playing live. Those supposedly "unplayed" notes are actually percussion sounds from the backing track she's playing to. The five or six piano notes heard in the studio recording before the first verse begins are omitted in every single performance on this tour.
However, she's not playing an actual acoustic instrument. It's an average-sounding keyboard built into a mock-up of a grand piano body. If you look closely, there's no functioning pedals but simply a standard keyboard pedal hooked to the built-in keyboard she's playing. There's also no hammer and damper movement whatsoever during her performance.
To properly mic an actual piano for one single performance would be a nightmare scenario for any sound engineer. In order for an acoustic piano to pick up as little surrounding noise as possible (sound disturbance being immense given the position of the B-stage and the nearly 360 degrees placement of the sound system), the lid would need to be closed at all times. There are specific piano microphones that perform miraculously under such circumstances and are able to bypass a lot of distracting resonance from drums on stage and audience noise, but obviously the lid is wide open for most of the performance.
Settling for a MIDI-controlled mock-up makes sense since wheeling around an actual grand piano from underneath the stage wouldn't be economical due to its weight, transport needs and tuning delicacy. In an unstable A/C (or lack thereof ) environment, a grand piano would detune within minutes and sound off very quickly after being tuned.
That said, Mercy certainly is a very good and notably skilled player. She's very consistent in her interpretation of Mayer's "Le regret" but she does add a little extra nice grace note here and there from time to time. She also plays with a sense of urgency and fervour that would be nice to hear on a future studio album of the Madonna family band...