The Celebration Tour (Spoilers)

[MaDöner Kebab 6,879]

5 hours ago, McDonna said:

 

OMFG she literally did what I listed in one of my early dream setlists!!!!

Quote

Vogue (with samples from "Girl Gone Wild", "Walk 4 Me" & "Break My Soul")

https://youtu.be/6owPW_qzAjo?si=zqm45BiROFLKmPIB

 

[Franknkm 220]

13 hours ago, Alibaba said:

Madonna’s vocals have been doubled on many of her recordings since the beginning. Here we have the conceptual dilemma of not having a live band and live backing vocalists, and so I think we have to see the backing track vocals as the equivalent of her previous approach to being bolstered by Donna, Niki et al. Donna would literally shadow Madonna’s vocals on the tours they did together. There was a batch of videos of the full show posted on here late last night Pacific Time that captured the audio very clearly from the floor/pit. It was very clear that her live singing is quite audible throughout. She even did the Vogue rap, and it’s quite obvious from hearing this, as has always been suspected, that it’s impossible without her standing still at a studio mic to reproduce the intimacy and sexiness of her spoken word vocals on the records, thus miming these parts in Erotica and Justify My Love being artistic choices. Could she opt for songs where she doesn’t have this issue? Sure, but the narrative in using these songs works…it’s clearly important to her to express how pivotal the years between 1989 and 1995 were to her trajectory both personally and artistically, eventually throwing it all to the flames, which I also saw as a throwback to Fever in the Girlie Show. 
 

As for her ass, if we are going to discuss it, Id like to offer a positive angle. She looks great. It doesn’t look anything like it did in recent years, and whether that is better costuming or changes to her body seems irrelevant. At 65 she is literally showing so much flesh, and she looks absolutely stunning. As @steady75 stated earlier, there’s something quite extraordinary and artistically important about her removal of the smoke and mirrors…Much as was the case on MDNA when she performed LAV/LS, during the Erotica/Bad Girl/HU/JML section, she is the slightly disheveled chanteuse/showgirl in all her archetypal glory. It’s absolutely captivating! 
 

Did I also notice that she seemed off in her timing on DCFMA? I think she came in too early, and then it threw her a little. Can’t wait for reports and videos from tonight! I love seeing her iron out the parts she struggled with on opening night! 

Love it! agree 100%

[Honey Little 3,996]

20 minutes ago, MPowered said:

OMFG she literally did what I listed in one of my early dream setlists!!!!

https://youtu.be/6owPW_qzAjo?si=zqm45BiROFLKmPIB

 

I told the forum that the twin that is the professional DJ would be spinning in the show. And everyone laughed and bullied me. 
 

as you can see I was right 

[confessed 9,337]

After having rewatched Nothing Really Matters a hundred times I think it's the best and the most powerful opening of all her tours. I would cut Bob's intro though, it's unnecessary. You don't have to introduce MADONNA 😂 

[Adriabs 261]

On the opening night she was on time and last night she was like 30 mins late, which can happen to any artist, so I want to belive she's trying this time and that she actually had technical issues, let's hope she can finish the next shows.

[sidewalktalk 18]

1 hour ago, Ari Interactive said:

Is the backing vocals on the songs still Niki's and Donna's stock vocals? Since she's mostly using album or single version ln the songs

You can definitely hear them on the videos for NRM - so they are there in spirit lol

[missberic 765]

On the bright side I am very happy she was able to put on a polished show even without extravagant dancing. The Maluma performance terrifies me to this day. Even her speeches and "jokes" were nice and I loved how she looked like she was having fun. Her voice sounds good but, you know, it's not really praise deserving.

And the setlist looks kinda great on paper, it even felt like Kylie's Anti Tour with all those non-hits, very refreshing. But the actual live show is a trainwreck, I'm sorry.

People weren't dancing not because they weren't fans but because songs would just end abruptly (i.e. Hung Up) and an upbeat performance would be followed by a ballad or a deep cut. The flow is just really bad and most transitions don't make sense.

I don't really hate what was happening on stage but nothing really stood out as amazing to me. If you watch Holiday clips with no sound it actually looks like a funeral.

Anyway, I know a lot of members here like to think this is great "for her age" or that we should embrace it because she almost died but I'm not impressed by it. We know she could have delivered something at least more cohesive.

[EgoRod 5,453]

36 minutes ago, Adriabs said:

On the opening night she was on time and last night she was like 30 mins late, which can happen to any artist, so I want to belive she's trying this time and that she actually had technical issues, let's hope she can finish the next shows.

Let's don't forget on Sundays the curfew is half an hour earlier and they are tougher . In a Thursday or Friday they might let you go 5 min after but on Sunday is on the clock. They are not gonna pay overtime to anyone on a Sunday. That's exactly the time she was late. So it might be more like a miscalculation

[EgoRod 5,453]

 

 

[EgoRod 5,453]

About singing live (with backing vocals)

You can hear she cough here at some point:

 

[EgoRod 5,453]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8flTOEWsAAmMIv?format=jpg&name=large

[IconicQueen 315]

4 minutes ago, missberic said:

On the bright side I am very happy she was able to put on a polished show even without extravagant dancing. The Maluma performance terrifies me to this day. Even her speeches and "jokes" were nice and I loved how she looked like she was having fun. Her voice sounds good but, you know, it's not really praise deserving.

And the setlist looks kinda great on paper, it even felt like Kylie's Anti Tour with all those non-hits, very refreshing. But the actual live show is a trainwreck, I'm sorry.

What would you know? lmao you obviously only watched a few shitty clips, cause I highly doubt you went to the show. That's not what people WHO WERE ACTUALLY THERE say. In fact I've heard nothing but praise from anyone who attended.

[luluthecat 1,114]

Each to there own........but trainwreck it most certainly was not. Loved it,  Nothing Really Matters, Bedtime Story, Bad Girl, Rain......just unreal!! And I've no idea what vocal trickery she's pulling off this time but she sounded great (apart from Erotica and Justify My Love - I don't get why she uses the album vocal like on the Girlie Show??)

[PM3962 47]

So….. she just adds her live vocals on a track that is already prepared. No backing vocal. No band.
It’s like Britney Spears or Katty Perry in Las Vegas. It’s a new way to see the live shows. Everything begins to be so expensive. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by PM3962 (see edit history)

[Honey Little 3,996]

Just now, PM3962 said:

So….. she just adds her live vocals on a track that is already prepared. No backing vocal. No band.

That’s how pop music concerts are these days since the last two decades or so. Also, in arenas fans singalong and scream and shout and don’t care to pay attention to any details because they are so wasted. 

[PM3962 47]

17 minutes ago, Honey Little said:

That’s how pop music concerts are these days since the last two decades or so. Also, in arenas fans singalong and scream and shout and don’t care to pay attention to any details because they are so wasted. 

Yes in the videos we can hear men having heart attack and scream like a baby just because they see her. 
« It was great » but they didn’t see anything. 
No need to do much.

She can even just pretend to sing.

She can assume 100 concerts without any problem. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by PM3962 (see edit history)

[chaosmen1984mk 800]

I've only seen a few videos of this new tour and everything looks impressive, like everything Madonna does, but...... Where is Music? Where is Rescue Me? Where is Frozen? This is probably Madonna's last tour (I hope not) and it cannot be that these iconic songs are conspicuous by their absence.

Especially Rescue Me. If Madonna does not want or cannot sing it live, she could well have incorporated this song as an interlude with her own video, just as she has already done with Justify my love or Die another day on previous tours: A Madonna lying on her bed caressing herself, overcome by an uncontrollable excitement exacerbated by the prolonged absence of her lover. A chaotic state from which only his arrival at the end of the video will rescue her. That's all. Something as simple as that couldn't have occurred to Madonna's team and given the place it deserves to this beautiful song?

Despite everything, my hopes will still remain intact and dependent on a second part of this tour and where new songs will be included. Rescue Me among them.

 

 

 

[PM3962 47]

You will see a perfect play-back show. I am wondering what would she do if a fan jump on stage? 

Edited October 16, 2023 by PM3962 (see edit history)

[Honey Little 3,996]

8 minutes ago, PM3962 said:

You will see a perfect play-back show. I am wondering what would she do if a fan jump on stage? 

The fan that jumped on stage during the Virgin tour DVD …I am curious to know what happened to him.

[Lorx 344]

5 hours ago, Arckangel said:

 

A little “essay”

This been a hypocritical problem for very long time. If Madonna sounds good, like GOOD, real good singing live, some people (fans included) will automatically assume she’s lip-syncing.

Take “Sooner or Later” at the Blond Ambition Tour, for instance. She fully performed it live with no backing track at all during this performance below and the rest of the tour.
 

But someone commented it must have been mimed, even though some listeners spotted musical imperfections…

Later during the tour:
 

Clearly, it was never mimed at all!
 

This is psychological conditioning. People, fans included, have been conditioned to think of Madonna as a non-singer and not a vocalist or truly professional singer, so if she sounds truly good, people will think it must be lipped.

We have to make a conscious psychological effort to refute that theory and see Madonna as a talented vocalist, taking into consideration her splendid studio work, how good she sounds on record, including all the pre-Auto-Tune records, and how heartfelt and passionate she sounds live, even if there may be some flaws or imperfections.
 

Taylor Swift is not considered one of the top vocalists of the music world, but see how astronomically famous she is. Obviously, there is something about her voice that works—can’t just be the songwriting. J.Lo, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul and Selena Gomez have also had much success and big hits. 

Constantly hearing that a recording artist is a non-singer ends up having a psychological effect. We need to refute that in order to fully enjoy them. They may not be the most skilled vocalists, but they are certainly not non-singers.

Certainly, she's a singer! 

Back in the day, before Autotune became a thing, she consistently demonstrated pretty decent pitch control in her performances. Interestingly, back then, many naysayers (and fans too) claimed she couldn't sing. It's funny how the same isn't said about other popstar today who don't have great vocal abilities.

Madonna has always had her fair share of people saying, "She can't dance, and she can't sing." But that's never been entirely accurate. Right up until the 2000s, she kept improving her skills in both dancing and singing.

In the past, her live singing sometimes led to misunderstandings; many people mistakenly thought she was lip-syncing. Of course, we're talking about folks who weren't well-versed in music and singing, since she often made mistakes that wouldn't have happened in studio recordings if she had been lip-syncing. Her technique was never super-duper amazing, but she could hold her own.

In recent years, Madonna has occasionally used pre-recorded vocals amped up louder than her live ones. Many understandably associate this with lip-syncing, although that's not the case.

During her time in Evita, Madonna started to work on enhancing her vocal abilities, allowing her to explore new aspects of her voice that were previously out of reach. She even had a vocal coach back in the early '90s/late 80's, but she didn't take singing all that seriously until Evita. Up until the Re-invention Tour and Confessions Tour, her vocal skills remained solid However, after that era, she neglected her vocal instrument, leading to a period of really bad vocal performances.

She did get better during the RHT, though she didn't quite reach the levels of the RIT or the CT1.

 

In this CT2 tour, everyone's like, "Madonna's voice is perfect!" But here's the deal: she's dropped the original song keys way down (which makes sense), and she's using Autotune extensively, even in her ballads. Being a singer myself and having spent time in recording studios, I've got a trained ear, and I can instantly pick up on Autotune, Melodyne, and similar effects.

 

[Lorx 344]

1 hour ago, EgoRod said:

About singing live (with backing vocals)

You can hear she cough here at some point:

 

Her dancing in this tour is much better than in the Madame X Tour. She's less energetic and more rigid in her movements compared to the RHT (even the choreography is simpler), but she doesn't move poorly at all! Love this to bits! ♥️

[Scottyx 8,779]

1 hour ago, PM3962 said:

You will see a perfect play-back show. I am wondering what would she do if a fan jump on stage? 

She will have the security guards spayed or neutered.

[Lorx 344]

12 hours ago, cyberrage said:

She does but the missing bridge hurts my soul

Same. I love Rain, but on this tour I would have preferred she didn't sing it. It's a flat version. Without the bridge, the song loses meaning.

[Scottyx 8,779]

31 minutes ago, Lorx said:

 

In this CT2 tour, everyone's like, "Madonna's voice is perfect!" But here's the deal: she's dropped the original song keys way down (which makes sense), and she's using Autotune extensively, even in her ballads. Being a singer myself and having spent time in recording studios, I've got a trained ear, and I can instantly pick up on Autotune, Melodyne, and similar effects.

 

Do you have any recorded music? I would love to hear how incredibly amazing and trained you sound.

[FraP 402]

2 hours ago, missberic said:

On the bright side I am very happy she was able to put on a polished show even without extravagant dancing. The Maluma performance terrifies me to this day. Even her speeches and "jokes" were nice and I loved how she looked like she was having fun. Her voice sounds good but, you know, it's not really praise deserving.

And the setlist looks kinda great on paper, it even felt like Kylie's Anti Tour with all those non-hits, very refreshing. But the actual live show is a trainwreck, I'm sorry.

People weren't dancing not because they weren't fans but because songs would just end abruptly (i.e. Hung Up) and an upbeat performance would be followed by a ballad or a deep cut. The flow is just really bad and most transitions don't make sense.

I don't really hate what was happening on stage but nothing really stood out as amazing to me. If you watch Holiday clips with no sound it actually looks like a funeral.

Anyway, I know a lot of members here like to think this is great "for her age" or that we should embrace it because she almost died but I'm not impressed by it. We know she could have delivered something at least more cohesive.

I was at the opening night. It was beautiful, but I somewhat agree with you. It's as if the show, in some moments, was put together in a confusing manner, without a clear and defined idea. Nevertheless, it was still enjoyable.

Holiday wasn't bad.