The Celebration Tour (Spoilers)

[Robertthenurse 2,938]

3 minutes ago, Blue Jean said:

Lord knows it’ll be another drag queen nobodies heard of

I do appreciate she is showing the community respect. Now I want Celine lol

[Donna 16,723]

Recent review from SF review....

After a series of late starts in Europe and the United States, there was one question on everyone’s mind at Madonna’s “Celebration” tour at Chase Center: What time would the Queen of Pop hit the stage? 

Yet looking at the sold-out crowd on Tuesday, Feb. 27, with fans across generations dressed in various eras of Madonna’s iconography from “Like A Virgin” bridal to BDSM “Erotica” fetish wear, it was clear the devoted were willing to wait. 

Madonna’s original Oct. 4-5 San Francisco dates were postponed due to a bacterial infection, and a makeup show Jan. 15 was moved because of a scheduling conflict. So after a few months, what was a couple more hours?

“This was on our bucket list,” said Karen Nickoli, 64, of Burlingame, who attended the arena show with her 54-year-old sister, Rae Ann Reichmuth. “We’ve been rocking to her for years.”  

Nickoli was gifted $2,000 floor seats by her nursing colleagues for her birthday, and said after waiting 40 years to see the star, she didn’t care if Madonna showed up late. Stories about her tardiness are well-known; there’s even a lawsuit filed by two concertgoers because the pop icon reportedly began the opening night of her U.S. tour at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn more than two hours late. (Tour promoters Live Nation and Madonna’s management blamed an issue with sound check.)

Madonna and Bob the Drag Queen perform during her “Celebration” tour at the O2 Arena on Oct. 15, 2023, in London. The tour visited San Francisco’s Chase Center for two nights, Tuesday-Wednesday, Feb. 27-28.

True to form, Madonna made her entrance at 10 p.m., roughly 90 minutes late. But when the 65-year-old singer opened the show with “Nothing Really Matters,” wearing a flowing black Jean Paul Gaultier kimono, the only thing that really mattered to fans was that she was finally here. 

In the past 40 years, there have been few stars who have controlled and transformed their image as expertly as Madonna, and “Celebration” was a testament to that. The first hint of this meta quality was when Bob the Drag Queen, as the evening’s emcee, took the runway wearing a version of the Marie Antoinette costume Madonna performed in at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. It was a clear message to fans that they would be rewarded by plenty of insider references, aided by designer Eyob Yohannes’ stunning re-creations of the singer’s most beloved costumes.

The two-hour production highlighted many of the singer’s various artistic phases, starting with an excursion through Madonna’s early career. 

Her ’80s hits “Everybody,” “Into the Groove” and “Burning Up” brought to life the decade’s club scene. While her vocals seemed to be prerecorded (there was a noticeable difference in her voice during her later guitar sets), she moved as vigorously as ever.

The singer and her backup dancers then performed Bob Fosse-inspired chair choreography in a sexy, acrobatic staging of “Open Your Heart” that referenced Madonna’s previous tours as well as the 1986 song’s peep show-themed music video directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

Madonna performs during opening night of the “Celebration” tour at the O2 Arena in London on Oct. 14, 2023. Her tour stop at Chase Center on Tuesday, Feb. 27, was sold out.

Closing out that era, Madonna sang the haunting “Live to Tell” suspended above the stage as images of friends and artists lost to AIDS — Herb Ritts, Keith Haring, Freddie Mercury, Robert Mapplethorpe and San Francisco disco performer Sylvester — populated the screens.

“Erotica” was performed amid boxing-themed choreography that transitioned into Greco-Roman wrestling, both thrillingly showing off Damien Jalet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s choreography. The act concluded with Madonna in a barely-there slip dress singing “Bad Girl” while her daughter Mercy James played piano with her mother on top of the baby grand, smoldering like a torch singer. 

Her eldest daughter, Lourdes Leon, who was incorporated into Madonna’s “Madame X” tour the last time she came to San Francisco in 2021, wasn’t present, but family was a frequent theme. Madonna’s mother (also named Madonna), who died during her childhood, appeared on the screen for different songs, while her son David Banda accompanied for “Mother and Father” on the cello. Another standout moment was the tribute to the uptown New York queer ballroom scene that inspired the song “Vogue,” which saw Madonna and Bob the Drag Queen acting as judges, rating each dancer with solid 10s. Among the dancers was the singer’s daughter Estere.

Madonna performs during the “Celebration” tour at the O2 Arena in London on Oct.15, 2023. 

The singer kicked off the final portions of the show with a thrilling, techno-imbued “Ray of Light” before scaling back the effects for an intimate rendition of the ballad “Take a Bow,” which she collaborated with Babyface on in 1994. 

Following an imaginary duet between Madonna and Michael Jackson to their respective hits “Billie Jean” and “Like a Virgin,” which saw silhouettes of the performers singing on the screen, the singer ended just before midnight with “Bitch I’m Madonna” and the tour’s namesake “Celebration.” 

While the Jackson moment was cringeworthy, the finale stunned with snapshots of Madonna’s iconic moments, with backup dancers costumed as various versions of the singer, from her “Material Girl” pink gown to her role of “All the Way Mae” in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” and her 2012 Super Bowl halftime warrior goddess look. 

Throughout the show, the singer frequently said the concert was “the story of my life.” Last year, Madonna abandoned a potential biopic with “Inventing Anna” star Julia Garner in order to devote her energy to creating the concert, and it seems like she made the right decision. It’s hard to imagine a film succeeding at sampling the singer’s greatest hits as brilliantly as this expansive and self-referential “Celebration.”

[Donna 16,723]

13 hours ago, sara94 said:

Her Speech in SF, don't know if anyone already shared this here

 

Thank you! 

[deathproof 10,636]

5 hours ago, Blue Jean said:

Why ? Spill the tea 

Racist. Maga. Trump lover. Anti-Vaxxer. Miss White Lives Matter.

If You’re any of that, you shouldn’t be a Madonna fan. Peridot.

[Blue Jean 15,475]

12 minutes ago, deathproof said:

Racist. Maga. Trump lover. Anti-Vaxxer. Miss White Lives Matter.

If You’re any of that, you shouldn’t be a Madonna fan. Peridot.

Juxtaposition !

[Pedro Beltran 4,632]

43 minutes ago, Blue Jean said:

Lord knows it’ll be another drag queen nobodies heard of

Are you talking about me?

[RebelMe 3,260]

I’m truly hoping that Kylie shows up on stage with Madonna in one of the Las Vegas shows. 🤞🏻
 

Edit: It might not happen at all. Kylie’s in London, rehearsing for Brit Awards. 

[Pedro Beltran 4,632]

Inside  Sound Factory Pit in case anybody cares 

[Pedro Beltran 4,632]

The nobody drag queen has arrived she’s the one who moderated the q&a at the madame x premiere in NYC 

[Pedro Beltran 4,632]

She’s being briefed by a cute guy 

[True Blue 84 1,900]

1 hour ago, McDonna said:

Recent review from SF review....

After a series of late starts in Europe and the United States, there was one question on everyone’s mind at Madonna’s “Celebration” tour at Chase Center: What time would the Queen of Pop hit the stage? 

Yet looking at the sold-out crowd on Tuesday, Feb. 27, with fans across generations dressed in various eras of Madonna’s iconography from “Like A Virgin” bridal to BDSM “Erotica” fetish wear, it was clear the devoted were willing to wait. 

Madonna’s original Oct. 4-5 San Francisco dates were postponed due to a bacterial infection, and a makeup show Jan. 15 was moved because of a scheduling conflict. So after a few months, what was a couple more hours?

“This was on our bucket list,” said Karen Nickoli, 64, of Burlingame, who attended the arena show with her 54-year-old sister, Rae Ann Reichmuth. “We’ve been rocking to her for years.”  

Nickoli was gifted $2,000 floor seats by her nursing colleagues for her birthday, and said after waiting 40 years to see the star, she didn’t care if Madonna showed up late. Stories about her tardiness are well-known; there’s even a lawsuit filed by two concertgoers because the pop icon reportedly began the opening night of her U.S. tour at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn more than two hours late. (Tour promoters Live Nation and Madonna’s management blamed an issue with sound check.)

Madonna and Bob the Drag Queen perform during her “Celebration” tour at the O2 Arena on Oct. 15, 2023, in London. The tour visited San Francisco’s Chase Center for two nights, Tuesday-Wednesday, Feb. 27-28.

True to form, Madonna made her entrance at 10 p.m., roughly 90 minutes late. But when the 65-year-old singer opened the show with “Nothing Really Matters,” wearing a flowing black Jean Paul Gaultier kimono, the only thing that really mattered to fans was that she was finally here. 

In the past 40 years, there have been few stars who have controlled and transformed their image as expertly as Madonna, and “Celebration” was a testament to that. The first hint of this meta quality was when Bob the Drag Queen, as the evening’s emcee, took the runway wearing a version of the Marie Antoinette costume Madonna performed in at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. It was a clear message to fans that they would be rewarded by plenty of insider references, aided by designer Eyob Yohannes’ stunning re-creations of the singer’s most beloved costumes.

The two-hour production highlighted many of the singer’s various artistic phases, starting with an excursion through Madonna’s early career. 

Her ’80s hits “Everybody,” “Into the Groove” and “Burning Up” brought to life the decade’s club scene. While her vocals seemed to be prerecorded (there was a noticeable difference in her voice during her later guitar sets), she moved as vigorously as ever.

The singer and her backup dancers then performed Bob Fosse-inspired chair choreography in a sexy, acrobatic staging of “Open Your Heart” that referenced Madonna’s previous tours as well as the 1986 song’s peep show-themed music video directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

Madonna performs during opening night of the “Celebration” tour at the O2 Arena in London on Oct. 14, 2023. Her tour stop at Chase Center on Tuesday, Feb. 27, was sold out.

Closing out that era, Madonna sang the haunting “Live to Tell” suspended above the stage as images of friends and artists lost to AIDS — Herb Ritts, Keith Haring, Freddie Mercury, Robert Mapplethorpe and San Francisco disco performer Sylvester — populated the screens.

“Erotica” was performed amid boxing-themed choreography that transitioned into Greco-Roman wrestling, both thrillingly showing off Damien Jalet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s choreography. The act concluded with Madonna in a barely-there slip dress singing “Bad Girl” while her daughter Mercy James played piano with her mother on top of the baby grand, smoldering like a torch singer. 

Her eldest daughter, Lourdes Leon, who was incorporated into Madonna’s “Madame X” tour the last time she came to San Francisco in 2021, wasn’t present, but family was a frequent theme. Madonna’s mother (also named Madonna), who died during her childhood, appeared on the screen for different songs, while her son David Banda accompanied for “Mother and Father” on the cello. Another standout moment was the tribute to the uptown New York queer ballroom scene that inspired the song “Vogue,” which saw Madonna and Bob the Drag Queen acting as judges, rating each dancer with solid 10s. Among the dancers was the singer’s daughter Estere.

Madonna performs during the “Celebration” tour at the O2 Arena in London on Oct.15, 2023. 

The singer kicked off the final portions of the show with a thrilling, techno-imbued “Ray of Light” before scaling back the effects for an intimate rendition of the ballad “Take a Bow,” which she collaborated with Babyface on in 1994. 

Following an imaginary duet between Madonna and Michael Jackson to their respective hits “Billie Jean” and “Like a Virgin,” which saw silhouettes of the performers singing on the screen, the singer ended just before midnight with “Bitch I’m Madonna” and the tour’s namesake “Celebration.” 

While the Jackson moment was cringeworthy, the finale stunned with snapshots of Madonna’s iconic moments, with backup dancers costumed as various versions of the singer, from her “Material Girl” pink gown to her role of “All the Way Mae” in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” and her 2012 Super Bowl halftime warrior goddess look. 

Throughout the show, the singer frequently said the concert was “the story of my life.” Last year, Madonna abandoned a potential biopic with “Inventing Anna” star Julia Garner in order to devote her energy to creating the concert, and it seems like she made the right decision. It’s hard to imagine a film succeeding at sampling the singer’s greatest hits as brilliantly as this expansive and self-referential “Celebration.”

Her ’80s hits “Everybody,” “Into the Groove” and “Burning Up” brought to life the decade’s club scene. While her vocals seemed to be prerecorded (there was a noticeable difference in her voice during her later guitar sets), she moved as vigorously as ever.

 

She sings live with those " pre-recorded " vocals on all three of them though , especially Burning up and Into the groove 

[Blue Jean 15,475]

1 hour ago, RebelMe said:

I’m truly hoping that Kylie shows up on stage with Madonna in one of the Las Vegas shows. 🤞🏻
 

Edit: It might not happen at all. Kylie’s in London, rehearsing for Brit Awards. 

Yes she will be very busy with that

[Blue Jean 15,475]

59 minutes ago, True Blue 84 said:

She sings live with those " pre-recorded " vocals on all three of them though , especially Burning up and Into the groove 

That review had a lot of errors but at least it was positive 

[Blue Jean 15,475]

1 hour ago, Pedro Beltran said:

The nobody drag queen has arrived she’s the one who moderated the q&a at the madame x premiere in NYC 

I seem to recall that being someone fairly well known?

[Alibaba 1,527]

5 hours ago, McDonna said:

Not true, and a pretty shitty thing to say.  She's obviously fighting a disease a lot of people don't suffer from.  If anything, her showing up would be more about showing her strength and to show how agile she still is, even though she is diagnosed with such.  It's weird you even went there.

I’m sure Celine is enjoying life, and I have nothing but respect for her and wish her the very best in her promising recovery, but the idea of her getting onstage to have her legs raised and spread while a nearly naked dancer pretends to eat her out seems like a stretch to me given her persona and her recent health journey. Sorry if that seems offensive to you. It really wasn’t my intention, and so hopefully that should reassure you enough. I literally qualified the comment I made as sounding odd myself, and so I’m not sure how much more deferential I could have been. Also, I believe we should be able to laugh at life’s tragedies otherwise they consume us, and I’m quite sure Celine would agree. 

@VogueristaThere was nothing about my post that was sexist or misogynistic in my opinion. I don’t share anything about who I am, my gender, my sexuality, what I do, or what my opinions are of anything other than Madonna on this forum because it’s what the forum is primarily for. I do not approach anyone differently for being a man, a woman or non-binary. It isn’t intellectually important to me as I treat everyone equally based upon their intelligence, and I’m pretty sure that is what Madonna does too. 
 

 

[Donna 16,723]

50 minutes ago, Alibaba said:

I’m sure Celine is enjoying life, and I have nothing but respect for her and wish her the very best in her promising recovery, but the idea of her getting onstage to have her legs raised and spread while a nearly naked dancer pretends to eat her out seems like a stretch to me given her persona and her recent health journey. Sorry if that seems offensive to you. It really wasn’t my intention, and so hopefully that should reassure you enough. I literally qualified the comment I made as sounding odd myself, and so I’m not sure how much more deferential I could have been. Also, I believe we should be able to laugh at life’s tragedies otherwise they consume us, and I’m quite sure Celine would agree. 

@VogueristaThere was nothing about my post that was sexist or misogynistic in my opinion. I don’t share anything about who I am, my gender, my sexuality, what I do, or what my opinions are of anything other than Madonna on this forum because it’s what the forum is primarily for. I do not approach anyone differently for being a man, a woman or non-binary. It isn’t intellectually important to me as I treat everyone equally based upon their intelligence. 
 

 

Let's not twist what is at issue here. I never said I think she would be up to participating as guest judge here.  The "offense" is how cavalier you are to joke about her situation. You know nothing about her her life to assume she may be "enjoying life" at her current state. And no, I don't think it's something we should "laugh at" nor would I think Celine would think it is humorous for you to make light of her situation.

 

[GregVsMatt 3,736]

 

[Alibaba 1,527]

25 minutes ago, McDonna said:

Let's not twist what is at issue here. I never said I think she would be up to participating as guest judge here.  The "offense" is how cavalier you are to joke about her situation. You know nothing about her her life to assume she may be "enjoying life" at her current state. And no, I don't think it's something we should "laugh at" nor would I think Celine would think it is humorous for you to make light of her situation.

 

Well as neither one of us knows her, let’s just move on. I’m not going to be schooled by you on how to communicate in any capacity. I tried to address you respectfully, but it clearly wasn’t good enough for you. Please just ignore me going forth. I certainly usually ignore you.

[rga98 381]

26 minutes ago, GregVsMatt said:

 

@Blue Jeanyou were right

[Pedro Beltran 4,632]

2 hours ago, Blue Jean said:

I seem to recall that being someone fairly well known?

Yeah she was a RPDR winner or something of sorts. But also Detox and some others have been more or less well known. 

[Pedro Beltran 4,632]

@Blue Jeanand others that wished me a great show, thank you very much it was magnificent indeed, I truly needed to see some numbers live to be convinced as ROL and it surely did elevate the number to a whole new level.

Being surrounded by all the b&w pictures and her singing LTT gives you goosebumps.

I’ll give you my thoughts tomorrow but as mentioned before M A G N I F I C O ! 

[MattyMads 5,552]

It would be nice if RuPaul was to be judge I really hope he’s at one of the LA shows 

[FraP 435]

6 hours ago, True Blue 84 said:

Her ’80s hits “Everybody,” “Into the Groove” and “Burning Up” brought to life the decade’s club scene. While her vocals seemed to be prerecorded (there was a noticeable difference in her voice during her later guitar sets), she moved as vigorously as ever.

 

She sings live with those " pre-recorded " vocals on all three of them though , especially Burning up and Into the groove 

I hate when they say this

Okay, I think prerecorded vocals are loud, but you can hear her voice too. In Burning Up, it's obvious she's singing live over a prerecorded vocal track

27 minutes ago, MattyMads said:

It would be nice if RuPaul was to be judge I really hope he’s at one of the LA shows 

I read Madonna doesn't like RuPaul. He said that, at least.

[FraP 435]

3 hours ago, Pedro Beltran said:

@Blue Jeanand others that wished me a great show, thank you very much it was magnificent indeed, I truly needed to see some numbers live to be convinced as ROL and it surely did elevate the number to a whole new level.

Being surrounded by all the b&w pictures and her singing LTT gives you goosebumps.

I’ll give you my thoughts tomorrow but as mentioned before M A G N I F I C O ! 

Have an awesome night with Madonna 🥳♥️

[deathproof 10,636]

28 minutes ago, MattyMads said:

It would be nice if RuPaul was to be judge I really hope he’s at one of the LA shows 

That’s not happening anytime soon 

https://x.com/queerty/status/1763719620840526166?s=46&t=w137tvHHJQVlhd120YNtQg