The Celebration Tour (Spoilers)

[scallywally 1,122]

3 hours ago, Lorx said:

I don't have any hatred towards you or Madonna, whom I really love.

While I value skilled vocal technique, my affection extends to many many artists who may lack technical prowess.

Madonna was never the best singer technically, but she showed she could sing well for the first decades of her career. She got even better between the late '90s and early 2000s, but after that, she started to get worse, falling below her pre-Evita standards

Imperfections never bothered me; it was her essence I cherished.

Seeing her musical talents fade—struggling with the guitar, losing rhythm, and vocally faltering without the finesse expected of a seasoned singer— makes me a little bit sad. It seems as though she's lost interest, which is disheartening given her magical vocal timbre.

Age isn't the culprit here. Voices can age gracefully with proper care and technique. Even a worn voice can produce beauty with commitment.

I'm a longtime fan and I've only really criticized her vocal care after 2008, notably during the S&S Tour. Yet, I was happy with her efforts during the MDNA and Rebel Heart Tour, where her dedication was palpable.

Her tribute to Prince at the Billboard Music Awards was commendable. However, her performances at Eurovision and the Women's March, along with a missed opportunity for an acoustic set with Jon Batiste in Harlem, left me wishing for better. At times, her performances today are vocally a disaster.

My critique stems from a desire to see her engage more with her music skills. Just a little bit. Regardless, my support will persist as long as my admiration endures. Despite my concerns, my love for Madonna remains.

I hope you understand.

I mentioned Eurovision, her performance at the Women's March (but there I had let go of the criticism because I appreciated her presence and the intention nonetheless). I mentioned the performance in New York in October 2021, where she was with very good musicians but sang very poorly. I could mention the performance with Maluma, where she sang poorly and messed up Music, getting both the initial cue and the chorus cue wrong, as if she no longer knew her own song well.

In this tour, it's not that her voice is a disaster from start to finish, but what I've noticed is that her voice seems to be getting less and less attention.

Hun you didnt answer my question. Its was simply which shows have you been to live in the last 5 years.

[Blue Jean 15,327]

5 hours ago, Burning Up 4 Madonna said:

Her singing this is beautiful to me, even the crackling in her voice.

 

She sounds great here .

 

[Blue Jean 15,327]

53 minutes ago, truerebel said:

 

The woman is giving us her ALL and no matter what she does or does not do, she will NEVER be enough, she will never make YOU happy...IT IS NOT her job

It kind of is actually. Of course she can’t please everyone or be perfect but people are paying hundreds and probably expect better vocals than that. That was an Enrique Iglesias level embarrassment. (And she’s a much better singer than him.) She can do better.

And to the fans saying it is not that bad, really? I’m sure Madonna herself knew. Something was off there.

[True Blue 84 1,861]

8 minutes ago, Blue Jean said:

She sounds great here .

 

Agree 

[Burning Up 4 Madonna 1,037]

From last night 

 

[sara94 2,275]

 

[Blue Jean 15,327]

I’d love to see Rain with those visuals 

[Donna 16,617]

22 minutes ago, sara94 said:

 

Only shows to me, she sounded pretty damn good here.  Thanks for posting. Love the background visuals as well.  I wonder if she just sorta did this because of Valentines? 

[dankpepe 1,042]

Maybe she'll replace TAB with Power of Good Bye as that was originally in that setlist slot way, way back.

I understand that the final song of that section is supposed to represent a farewell but this version of TAB doesn't seem to work. I'm not sure how it sounded in the arena though. When I saw the footage of Rain online, it sounded terrible but when I saw the show live it didn't sound bad.

[Champ 375]

Anybody wanna complain about how Now I'm Following You was lip-synced in 1990 and didn't properly present the audience with a performance that fully demonstrates her vocal range and capabilities? 

 

[Leandro Gomes 276]

This discussion of whether or not Madonna can sing is so 1983, I just can't...

[True Blue 84 1,861]

2 hours ago, Leandro Gomes said:

This discussion of whether or not Madonna can sing is so 1983, I just can't...

That was not the point.

The point was that everytime she has a bad performance vocally it gets 5 to 6 pages attention. While me and many others posted many great video's vocally the past few months and nobody seems to care about those. The good ones barely get attention and that's anoying because there are pretty good ones... 

[True Blue 84 1,861]

Saint Paul 

 

 

[True Blue 84 1,861]

Nothing Really Matters Saint Paul 

 

 

[fmportela 923]

I think to go out and sing to thousands of people for hours on end is a very courageous act, not to mention physically gruelling. Anybody here ever tried to sing in tune to a loud backtrack? See how long can you hold, it's physically exhausting, and if you don't have the technique you will ruin your voice for days. 

So I commend Madonna just for putting herself on the spot and doing it night after night. She is showing a lot of vulnerability on this tour and it is beautiful to watch.

Now, that said, I think she should stick to the songs she can still sing decently (practically all the songs on this tour sound from decent to very good to me, even with the backtracks and live pitch correction). I get why some fans get upset after a botched performance like TAB from the latest tour stop in St. Paul. At least to me, it's about not wanting to see her dragged by the media one more time for her bad singing. 

The main problem with the latest TAB performance is that it sounds like a cheep karaoke, because she's literally singing to a pitched down version of the original single mix, with the original vocals audible in the background. Technically, it could sound a lot better if they had done something interesting and fresh with the arrangement, still using the original elements and maybe some heavy pitch correction on her voice. I'm sorry, this particular performance of TAB is simply lazy, no excuse. It was already lazy and cheap when she did it on RHT, but back then I blamed Kevin Antunes. Madonna and Stuart Price could come with something so much better that this and that is frustrating.

[True Blue 84 1,861]

And again,... lots of awesome video's the last few pages and where still talking about Take a Bow 😅... The great ones get 1 , maybe 2 likes. Cmon people, lets focus on the positive to 🥰.. I do a compilation here of good video's that where posted the last few pages and i want it to have more than 1 like 😁... Lets go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy ❤️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FraP 422]

8 hours ago, Blue Jean said:

It kind of is actually. Of course she can’t please everyone or be perfect but people are paying hundreds and probably expect better vocals than that. That was an Enrique Iglesias level embarrassment. (And she’s a much better singer than him.) She can do better.

And to the fans saying it is not that bad, really? I’m sure Madonna herself knew. Something was off there.

At the start of the tour, Madonna was doing alright with most of the songs in the tour (as you can notice in these videos).
But as the tour went on, what seemed okay in London just started to sound mediocre elsewhere.
I was actually there at the opening night in London. Her voice was audible, but in Lisbon and Milan, it was more audible. I think from the stands you can probably hear her voice more (I'll be watching the next show from the stands).

The performances that were just passable in London? They turned into a bit of a disaster.
But yeah, I'm on the same page about her vocal form not being great. It's been like that for a while. I guess she doesn't fuss over it too much, but it always makes me wonder, especially after those in-ear monitor audios leaked, how does a singer sing with all that background prompter? How do you really get into it? It seems to me she's only really into it when it's a TV performance (though, let's not forget the Eurovision debacle), otherwise her singing is lazy at best.

Anyway, I'm planning to catch the Celebration Tour again, for the fourth time, in San Francisco. I'll be keeping an eye out for these things, but I'm there to enjoy myself, obviously.

[FraP 422]

15 hours ago, Roland Barthes said:

nobody ever say Dave Gahan's live voice is horrible and yet it is. 

to sing a ballad so close to the end of the show was not a good choice for the voice, especially after Ray of light. They also could have remixed the song to make it sound less karaoke like. I keep in mind what Orbit said about her having lost something like half of her hearing because of touring since she sometimes sounds like she does not hear herself. 

A stuart rework of Love Song with Prince Voice as a virtual duet would have been better imo.

I've been looking up some videos of Dave Gahan, and it seems like he's still nailing live performances in 2023. I'm going to dig a bit deeper into this.

I loved this tour as much as I hated the interlude with Michael Jackson. MJ spent a lifetime speaking poorly of her, and there are also many doubts about his being a child abuser, yet she defended him in a way he would never have done for her. Moreover, to say "he's the king and I'm the queen," she put together an extremely forced interlude, where the two tracks weren't even well mashed up. It felt forced. I thought the same thing. A rework of Love Song with a tribute to Prince would have been amazing.

[Leona Helmsley 9,418]

[Leona Helmsley 9,418]

[scallywally 1,122]

'Fans' also dont notice how many MAJOR stars have Autocue screens with the lyrics on, even if the mostly stand still on top of the ear  monitors. Sound man tweaking ect.. Top stars that dont dance or move about have those and mime a few. Even rock stars. 

[True Blue 84 1,861]

3 hours ago, True Blue 84 said:

And again,... lots of awesome video's the last few pages and where still talking about Take a Bow 😅... The great ones get 1 , maybe 2 likes. Cmon people, lets focus on the positive to 🥰.. I do a compilation here of good video's that where posted the last few pages and i want it to have more than 1 like 😁... Lets go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy ❤️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ignoring the honest vocal coaches... 

Im so glad with this tour and im glad the reviews are still great 🥰

 

[Lorx 356]

9 hours ago, scallywally said:

Hun you didnt answer my question. Its was simply which shows have you been to live in the last 5 years.

I don't need to be at 100 shows in person to realize her voice isn't in top shape. And anyway, I saw her in Milan in November.
When you're there live, you're caught up in the moment and only really notice the worst off-key moments, especially since the prerecorded vocals do their part, along with a bit of autotune on some tracks.

I don't ignore the videos where she sounds okay @True Blue 84
She's never perfect, but as others have said, at the start of the tour she was singing a bit better than she is now. The fact remains that her voice has deteriorated and hasn't been in good shape for a while. As for singing with prompts, I agree, I could never manage to sing like that.

8 minutes ago, dave2290 said:

One of the most powerful moments of the show. I loved it.
It's a shame that I was right in front of the cube and couldn't see her; I could only see the screens of the cube. But I love the song to bits and the performance was really good!

[True Blue 84 1,861]

3 hours ago, True Blue 84 said:

And again,... lots of awesome video's the last few pages and where still talking about Take a Bow 😅... The great ones get 1 , maybe 2 likes. Cmon people, lets focus on the positive to 🥰.. I do a compilation here of good video's that where posted the last few pages and i want it to have more than 1 like 😁... Lets go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy ❤️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FraP 422]

2 minutes ago, True Blue 84 said: