20th Anniversary of Re-Invention Tour!

[Adonna 20,700]

2024 marks TWENTY years since The Re-Invention Tour.  I know many fans loved this tour.  I know I did!  I attended three shows with my very best friend @Voguerista  We had a BLAST!!  I recall one show we were approached by the venue for better seats near the stage.  We jumped at the chance. I still remember how I felt when Madonna was performing "Don't Tell Me" and she was staring and pointing right at me.  Of course, she could have been pointing at anyone in my section, but I still felt like I locked eyes with Madonna.  What a moment to have!  So let's share our favorite moments from this tour and feel free to take the poll I provided here, sharing your favorite segment from the tour.  Feel free to share other fun tidbits of your memories from this tour. There were FIVE acts, so which was your favorite.  Feel free to share your experience with this tour. Love to hear your stories.  And react with a HEART if you think this tour needs a full official release beyond the documentary "I'm Going Tell You A Secret"!

Act 1: Marie Antoinette

"The Beast Within" (Video introduction; contains elements of "El Yom 'Ulliqa 'Ala Khashaba")

"Vogue"

"Nobody Knows Me"

"Frozen"

Act 2: Military

"American Life"

"Express Yourself"

"Burning Up"

"Material Girl"

Act 3: Circus

"Hollywood" (Remix; interlude)

"Hanky Panky"

"Deeper and Deeper"

"Die Another Day"

"Lament"

"Bedtime Story" (Remix; interlude)

Act 4: Acoustic

"Nothing Fails"

"Don't Tell Me" (Contains elements of "Bitter Sweet Symphony")

"Like a Prayer"

"Mother and Father" (Contains excerpts from "Intervention")

"Imagine"

Act 5: Scottish-Tribal

"Into the Groove" (Contains elements of "Susan MacLeod" and "Into the Hollywood Groove")

"Papa Don't Preach" (Ends with a reprise of "American Life")

"Crazy for You"

"Music" (Contains reprises from "Into the Groove")

"Holiday" (Contains elements of "She Wants to Move" and "Physical Attraction")

 

[stefo 7,599]

Oh what are the elements of Phisical Attraction in Holiday? I never noticed them, so curious 

[Voguerista 13,107]

Awww thanks for the mention. DITTO!! Unforgettable  @Adonna! So many great many great memories! Thank you!  I think this was my absolute favorite tour (but I seem to say that about all of them on a different day lol)!  But seriously, I literally freaked out for the way she performed "Nobody Knows Me" with the moving side to side cat walk. Indeed a huge highlight. I was DYING!!  The whole show was just fire, but, then she came out with all the Bag Pipers for the last act. I'll never forget how the whole arena VIBRATED! It was such a powerful moment. I loved her Music performance as well in the last segment. So quirky and electrifying. What a perfect and magnificent way to end the show. I could go on and on. Just unforgettable!!

 

[musicinferno 3,919]

18 minutes ago, stefo said:

Oh what are the elements of Phisical Attraction in Holiday? I never noticed them, so curious 

It's evident on the Paris footage from the documentary when she goes on the catwalk 

[BoyToyMark 683]

Such an incredible show. This is when I became a fan and I always wished it visited Australia.

I was so excited seeing the doco for the first time too.

[BoyToyMark 683]

9 minutes ago, musicinferno said:

It's evident on the Paris footage from the documentary when she goes on the catwalk 

One day, I hope we get the full Paris recording; if it exists.

[Agent Cooper 1,314]

You are so lucky @Adonna and @Voguerista 

I voted for ACT 5, because Papa Don't Preach and Crazy For You are so beautiful and nostalgic here. Music and Holiday are out of this world. She looks beautiful beyond words. I think this is my favorite tour, everything about it is just magical. I'm not even mentioning Deeper and Deeper, Hanky Panky and Nothing Fails. The setlist is a perfect combination of all the Eras, until then. To me, it's the peak of her voice and creativity. All the backdrops are stunning.

I hope someday her team release this officially. Or at least, we get a chance to watch the full unreleased DVD. I don't know if her team would care if we are seeing some footage from 20 years ago, anyway.

[Adonna 20,700]

3 minutes ago, Agent Cooper said:

You are so lucky @Adonna and @Voguerista 

I voted for ACT 5, because Papa Don't Preach and Crazy For You are so beautiful and nostalgic here. Music and Holiday are out of this world. She looks beautiful beyond words. I think this is my favorite tour, everything about it is just magical. I'm not even mentioning Deeper and Deeper, Hanky Panky and Nothing Fails. The setlist is a perfect combination of all the Eras, until then. To me, it's the peak of her voice and creativity. All the backdrops are stunning.

I hope someday her team release this officially. Or at least, we get a chance to watch the full unreleased DVD. I don't know if her team would care if we are seeing some footage from 20 years ago, anyway.

First... thanks!  And yes, @Vogueristaand I have attended multiple Madonna concerts together.  It's been a blast.  I agree this tour is her peak.. if not Confessions.  Up until those tours, you really got a lot of live vocals, especially in the concert films. I agree the SETLIST was great. Many of the Re-invented songs were superb.  I also love how she sounded when singing FROZEN.  She sounded so great even though many could pick at her pitch and vocals.  But I prefer a live vocal like that than something sounding like the studio version.

 

[LoveAffair 372]

it's crazy how both COADF and (partially) Hard Candy were conceived around this period.

[Adonna 20,700]

6 minutes ago, LoveAffair said:

it's crazy how both COADF and (partially) Hard Candy were conceived around this period.

How so?

[Veronica-Electronica 277]

I only just rewatched I’m Going To Tell You A Secret yesterday for this first time in over 10 years thanks to some very kind members here who shared me a link to do so as I haven’t had access to anything that plays a dvd in a decade so my copy is essentially useless to me!

It was great to relive one of my favourite Madonna eras. A beautiful tour. I still hold out hope (as many others do) that eventually the full tour gets an official release (although I have of course seen the Lisbon pro shot). 

I voted for the Circus segment because I think she looks so beautiful in that red and white striped corset, her vocals on Lament are heartbreakingly beautiful and the Hollywood interlude really shows how she cast dancers with special talents and built the show around them to showcase them as mush as to showcase herself in a way. 

Perfection. 

Edited August 18 by Veronica-Electronica
RIT pro shot was filmed in Lisbon, not Telaviv (see edit history)

[DiegoLCL 5,705]

The first tour I followed, I remember thinking the setlist was a fever dream!

I think it's a perfect show, still. Sleek, almost minimal with a great emotion arc and catharsis. Amazing backdrops, I still think her best tied with Confessions Tour (winning on some days for me) and on top of that the collaboration with Stuart price is *chef kiss*.

Too bad we only got IGTTYAS officially, Jonas' footage of it is great, imagine the whole show!

[Veronica-Electronica 277]

I’d also just like to add how much I enjoyed her having a band on stage with her. It seems on more recent tours she has moved more to backing tracks if my memory is correct. I really liked the energy of a live band. 

[stefo 7,599]

2 hours ago, BoyToyMark said:

One day, I hope we get the full Paris recording; if it exists.

Yeah the Paris show from the ReInvention tour, the Florence one from Who's That Girl and the Toronto night from the Girlie Show are my most wanted live files. But do we have Holiday from Paris? I only remember about Like a Prayer, wich is by the way the best version ever in terms of live arrangement and vocals of the song.

This tour for me is the last one where she had really everything wich made me love her and took me there till that point of the journey: GREAT SONGS, interesting and provocative visuals and ideas (from the video intro to the American Life scene, wich is among her peaks in terms of performing greet and message incisiveness), clean, expressive vocals for the majority of the songs, a good amount of live instruments sound, a real and coherent genres experimentation of the songs (if Deeper and Deeper is amazingly seductive and original, the rock version of Material Girl still makes me feel the song as nothing before and after, the whole building jumping at the chorus is so funny and powerful). I didn't and still don't like the album, I consider it the beginning of the "normalization", from then on she tried things and made some very good stuff but never really got experimental and deep diving into creating something unique as she did with Erotica, Ray of Light and partially with Music imo (Confessions was good but it was quoting something that was new in the past, it had that vintage vibe that worked perfectly but that I felt was not really talking about me). Nobody know me is among the highlight performances of her career, it's one of the tracks I show when people ask me about her. The further tours started to miss something and to repeat themes (Confessions still remains a kind of masterpiece of its own). Till the last one ... wich actually got me back in such a full form 

[LoveAffair 372]

50 minutes ago, Adonna said:

How so?

she wrote them around that time.

[NRMX 5,570]

Saw this show at MSG and still remember how chilling (yeah the arena was AC cold back then) and impressive the opening was, then the yoga pose, nobody fucking knows me!!! Those were the times that I questioned everything so the backdrop to Material Girl was so puzzling to me, like why??? Then I learned years later it was for another song I don’t remember right now… hated everyone in the pit and wondered if I could be so close to Madonna someday… I was right where the end of the descending catwalk stopped so I was close to her in someway that day. Everything was so magical and so impactful, not that it’s not like that right now but American Life was one of my interest peaks in Madonna… I loved the documentary and loved all Kabbalah stuff too… 

[RUADJAI 15,911]

1 hour ago, stefo said:

Oh what are the elements of Phisical Attraction in Holiday? I never noticed them, so curious 

2:00 Minute mark you can hear the Physical Attraction Synth. 

[Adonna 20,700]

1 minute ago, LoveAffair said:

she wrote them around that time.

I think you're confusing the time.  Yes, IGTYAS came out right about the same time as Confessions On A Dance Floor, but there were a year or two in between it all.  It's just her projects between those times were very quick.  Which is weird to think since many call albums like MDNA rushed?  Especially knowing LAP album was produced very quickly when she had multiple projects going on and on the horizon as well as a high profiled divorce happehing.

[Voguerista 13,107]

This is my favorite thread right now. I love reading every word. What great memories! It had to be one of her best tours for costuming as well! Everything and every detail was just off the hook! 

 

[RUADJAI 15,911]

1 hour ago, Adonna said:

How so?

 

This is the birth of Confessions visually. The leotard, the corset.... Then obviously the horses which came back for the opening of the Confessions Tour. 

 

and the musical breakdown of MUSIC (Reinvention Tour) is the beginning of the sound of Confessions.... Or at least very similar to the breakdown of Hung Up. Every time I see/hear it I think of the birth of Confessions.  Even the same Disco Ball is used in the backdrop that comes back for Hung Up Confessions. 

 

 

[Veronica-Electronica 277]

4 hours ago, RUADJAI said:

 

This is the birth of Confessions visually. The leotard, the corset.... Then obviously the horses which came back for the opening of the Confessions Tour. 

 

and the musical breakdown of MUSIC (Reinvention Tour) is the beginning of the sound of Confessions.... Or at least very similar to the breakdown of Hung Up. Every time I see/hear it I think of the birth of Confessions.  Even the same Disco Ball is used in the backdrop that comes back for Hung Up Confessions. 

 

 

@Drownedboy mentioned in the Angela Becker thread in the last couple of days that Confessions is probably her most Kabbalah influenced album, even though most would argue that is ROL.
 

I also noticed when rewatching IGTTYAS yesterday that near the end when she is in Israel, she is comparing and contrasting Catholicism and Judaism, and she states that Rosh Hashanah (specifically the process of looking back at your whole year and where you fucked up and hurt people) is “the real version of Confession”. 

Obviously Madonna has used Catholic language and imagery throughout her career, but considering the timing (IGTTYAS coming out just seven months after the release of Confessions, she must have been working on both simultaneously a while) and in context with the points above, I really could see for the first time the genesis of these ideas coming at the same point in time instead of totally separate projects.
 

Each of her eras usually feel so distinctly different from what has come before and what eventually comes after that it feels easy to consider them little capsules, separate from influence on each other. But obviously that is not the reality, and she would be in a constant state of development, little by little inching towards the next incarnation. 

Edited August 18 by Veronica-Electronica
Initially was unable to remember the user who made the point about Confessions being a Kabbalah album, came across the post again and edited to reflect that it was @drownedboy (see edit history)

[Mmmhum 27]

Excuse me for my stupid question...

but is the Re-invention Tour considered a greatest hits tour like the Celebration Tour  ? It feels like one looking at the setlist... ? Or did she tour to promote American Life ?

Thank you for your answers !  

[Robertthenurse 3,337]

Hearing her sing a near original version of Frozen was what I needed on this tour. I loved the Beast Within. I went with a very mediocre boyfriend I had at the time — we popped a Molly. Luckily I saw the same show the next day

[Veronica-Electronica 277]

26 minutes ago, Mmmhum said:

Excuse me for my stupid question...

but is the Re-invention Tour considered a greatest hits tour like the Celebration Tour  ? It feels like one looking at the setlist... ? Or did she tour to promote American Life ?

Thank you for your answers !  

I think it was actually a combination of the two.

American Life wasn’t received the way she wanted so she sort of shifted the focus of the tour to be a greatest hits tour to make it more appealing, while still showcasing a lot of material from the current album to hopefully promote it. 

Even the name re-invention, while she has certainly been known to re-invent herself many times over, I took to mean more as her re-inventing her older songs. 

[Blue Jean 16,992]

1 hour ago, Mmmhum said:

Excuse me for my stupid question...

but is the Re-invention Tour considered a greatest hits tour like the Celebration Tour  ? It feels like one looking at the setlist... ? Or did she tour to promote American Life ?

Thank you for your answers !  

Depends who you ask. It was promoted as a greatest hits but a lot of fans argue that it’s not .