Lorx

It's not wow, but I remembered it being worse. Not that bad actually, even though there are some bad mistakes.
It's immensely better, even though she seemed to strain a bit, compared to how she does it now in the Celebration Tour.
It worked better at a slightly lower key in the higher parts like "one lonely star", but maybe I prefer this one because it's the complete song. The only time she performed it in full, besides the one at the AMAs.
And here, even though she strains a bit, it's clear that with some practice, she could improve it in the original key. She could reach that notes.
Audio here isn't the best, though. Unfortunately, many YouTube videos of the first performance don't have audio, as it has been removed due to copyright.

I love her but... that someone this far into her career as a performer should be so unbothered by pitch is crazy to me. She sounds like a drunk karaoke singer in a bar on those recent videos. Sigh. Go back to Rain please....

This tour is very obviously blending her live voice with a LOUD backing track. She's always used this technique during CERTAIN songs on other tours but this tour she is using it for MOST songs. After 40 years of recorded music, and some amazing live performances where there is absolutely no backing track I don't feel a need to defend her that she most definitely can sing. But also.... after numerous ok to bad live vocal performances we know that she's not 100% consistent. And I'm not gonna try and pretend like these things don't exist. It only makes someone look delusional. 
Even during one of her peak vocal eras of Ray of Light... she gave an amazing vocal performance on Oprah of Ray of Light and then a pretty bad vocal performance of The Power of Goodbye on the Fashion Awards.... Nothing Really Matters on the Grammys was somewhere in between. 
She will always be the queen of pop. No one is taking that away from her. Even if she never gives another good vocal performance again... her accomplishments will never be erased. 
 

You really don't need trained hearing to hear she's singing live here... She even fucks up the lyrics completely later on, if someone can't hear that they have serious hearing problems... They are just lazy delusional haters 

Because she's not.
Granted, it's a difficult song to sing.
Bring back Rain. It was more uplifting going into the finale and she can sing it properly.

Here you can see better how she fell
A minor fall, nothing serious. She took it lightly and professionally
 

Here you can see better how she fell
A minor fall, nothing serious. She took it lightly and professionally
 

Here you can see better how she fell
A minor fall, nothing serious. She took it lightly and professionally
 

Here you can see better how she fell
A minor fall, nothing serious. She took it lightly and professionally
 

Here you can see better how she fell
A minor fall, nothing serious. She took it lightly and professionally
 

Here you can see better how she fell
A minor fall, nothing serious. She took it lightly and professionally
 

I think Take a Bow actually fits better in the show at this point but she sounds embarrassingly bad. So I hope she switches back to Rain or Frozen or does a lot of rehearsing.

I found a clip of her Seattle Take a bow performance ... only for the bravest  
 
I'm afraid we're still gonna get it tonight, but let's get back to Rain then, thanks  

Amazing new pictures from last night by That Blonde Lad on PopJustice forums:





Iconic.

Thank you guys so much! Here are some others of mine that I really love and think about printing in a larger size:
 






 
 
 

That's a beautiful photo ❤️
I've taken quite a few myself, but none as stunning as yours. Still, I treasure each and every one of them because they're memories. Some of them I took from really close up. Like this one:

That's a beautiful photo ❤️
I've taken quite a few myself, but none as stunning as yours. Still, I treasure each and every one of them because they're memories. Some of them I took from really close up. Like this one:

That's a picture I took. It's really special to me. 

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.
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!

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.
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!

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.

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.

I think we should allow negative critique just as much as positive. It's a Madonna discussion forum. Anything can be discussed, with any perspective. Doesn't even have to be fans. We could welcome Madonna haters here too if they'd like to offer their two cents.

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.