HNS

Back after my Parisian concert this monday.
I am still in shock and I lack words to express what I felt during this concert.
It's one of her best tours for me (but I didn't attend the MX and RHT). Everything is here. So worked. And really surprised by her physical form because she moves a lot. After reading the reviews and some videos I had watched (I wanted to keep surprises), I thought it would be more static. But it's incredible at her age and after what she's been through to see her in such good shape. Everything is well thought out so that she doesn't get too exhausted.
Stuart did a wonderful job. The versions are so good. Her voice is excellent (and good effects). It’s technically, visually and vocally stunning.
My testimony is probably boring but I loved everything about it. My level of enthusiasm reminds me the one I had leaving the Grilie Show at the same venue 30 years ago 

Had one amazing night! Seeing her live for the first time! Loved every second of it.
 

So glad you enjoyed. Your pics are beautiful. Thank you!

Had one amazing night! Seeing her live for the first time! Loved every second of it.
 

Had one amazing night! Seeing her live for the first time! Loved every second of it.
 

Had one amazing night! Seeing her live for the first time! Loved every second of it.
 

Detail of M's boot for the Don't Tell Me segment

I love Madonna's voice, sure she is not Celine, Whitney and Mariah, but Madonna has something else and unique to her voice... a warmth and a emotional tone that makes it very pleasant to listen to... that is why most people fall flat when trying to cover her songs... and why I always loved her voice...

So I've been waiting all of this time for an official announcement of a South American leg. Meanwhile, I tried to avoid spoilers at all costs (I managed to do this for S&ST and MDNA and Brazilian stops where the last ones in both tours, so almost everything was a surprise for me then).
But this time I failed... I watched the clip she posted in her social networks from the opening night and then I discovered SHE'S FINALLY PERFORMING LIVE MY FAVOURITE SONG OF HERS OF ALL ERAS <o>
Fuck my credit card, I can't risk losing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I just bought my tickets for both nights in Lisbon (where there were still available tickets near the stage at reasonable prices).
After 12 years, here I am, only two weeks away from seeing her again. I'M COMING FOR YOU, MOTHER.
(sorry, fellow fans, if this post is somehow annoying, I'm on cloud nine right now, I was truly believing until yesterday that CT2 was a way too far away dream)
 

I-D Magazine did a very good article about The Girlie Show:
As her Celebration Tour launches in London, we look back at Madonna's 1993 dark and inventive concoction of interwar burlesque.
https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/n7eqgq/madonna-girlie-show-queer-utopia
I loved the last paragraph:
‘Queerbaiting’, a term thrown around increasingly in the 2020s to describe LGBTQ-adjacent but apparently straight celebrities, makes sense in the context of faceless executives selling TV shows. The accusation loses its potency when applied to personalities who know the bends and brooks of gay culture of their own accord, and intimately enough to frolic around in them. This knowledge becomes more impressive the further we move from the public health crisis of the 80s and early 90s, leaving the canon behind in a brave new world of queer politics that does not always acknowledge its precursor. With the Girlie Tour, Madonna wasn’t so much using these drips of subtext to sell albums and concert tickets as she was to make a profound and prescient statement about gay culture itself — its all-encroaching existence, and its slow decline during a period of political neglect and tragedy. It was her extraordinary visual and historical literacy — the greatest of any popstar - that allowed her to do so.
 

I-D Magazine did a very good article about The Girlie Show:
As her Celebration Tour launches in London, we look back at Madonna's 1993 dark and inventive concoction of interwar burlesque.
https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/n7eqgq/madonna-girlie-show-queer-utopia
I loved the last paragraph:
‘Queerbaiting’, a term thrown around increasingly in the 2020s to describe LGBTQ-adjacent but apparently straight celebrities, makes sense in the context of faceless executives selling TV shows. The accusation loses its potency when applied to personalities who know the bends and brooks of gay culture of their own accord, and intimately enough to frolic around in them. This knowledge becomes more impressive the further we move from the public health crisis of the 80s and early 90s, leaving the canon behind in a brave new world of queer politics that does not always acknowledge its precursor. With the Girlie Tour, Madonna wasn’t so much using these drips of subtext to sell albums and concert tickets as she was to make a profound and prescient statement about gay culture itself — its all-encroaching existence, and its slow decline during a period of political neglect and tragedy. It was her extraordinary visual and historical literacy — the greatest of any popstar - that allowed her to do so.
 

I-D Magazine did a very good article about The Girlie Show:
As her Celebration Tour launches in London, we look back at Madonna's 1993 dark and inventive concoction of interwar burlesque.
https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/n7eqgq/madonna-girlie-show-queer-utopia
I loved the last paragraph:
‘Queerbaiting’, a term thrown around increasingly in the 2020s to describe LGBTQ-adjacent but apparently straight celebrities, makes sense in the context of faceless executives selling TV shows. The accusation loses its potency when applied to personalities who know the bends and brooks of gay culture of their own accord, and intimately enough to frolic around in them. This knowledge becomes more impressive the further we move from the public health crisis of the 80s and early 90s, leaving the canon behind in a brave new world of queer politics that does not always acknowledge its precursor. With the Girlie Tour, Madonna wasn’t so much using these drips of subtext to sell albums and concert tickets as she was to make a profound and prescient statement about gay culture itself — its all-encroaching existence, and its slow decline during a period of political neglect and tragedy. It was her extraordinary visual and historical literacy — the greatest of any popstar - that allowed her to do so.
 

I'm a total emotional mess after seeing Live To Tell - the fact that Howard Brookner is featured - she has usually not talked about him, but he's someone that's always been close to my heart because I love his work and his life was cut so short....
Goosebumps during Papa Don't Preach and seeing that choreography. Chills during Rain.... NRM, Bedtime Story... Just....wow!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/madonna-london-concert-review-celebration-tour-1234854520/
 
 

I am just so proud of her - her first concert in 4 years - and after almost dying.
Looking forward to better quality videos ! 

On defense of Bob. I think she works a bit like a crutch and to take some weight away from her.
Instead of a Madonna out of breath and panting trying to get people up, Bob balance up that MC side and give her a breather.
I also think is relevant for her history and upbringing in the NY scene. Really representative and perfect for the Vogue part.

Yeah…it’s me, one of the novel writers! Scroll on if you don’t have the patience or interest. 😂
 
As I scrolled through comments here and elsewhere, I noticed a good few that were simply callous, dismissive and more a reflection of whatever misery resides in the commenter’s mind, and perhaps a nod to their total disenfranchisement as “consumers”. I think the culture in which we live post-social media has rendered people impossible to please, vicious and in constant search of the negative. It’s a social disease, and many people have it. Enjoy your misery - and if you’re triggered by this being said, you know it’s on you!
 
To put the experience of opening night into context, I’d like to share that I remember seeing Sticky and Sweet in Cardiff fourteen years ago, and I found the show underwhelming. With time, Madonna loosened up, and by the time I saw her back home in the US she was commanding that stage with aplomb and gusto. I believe this can be said of her initial performances throughout her years of touring. 

It’s clear that Madonna is somewhat limited in movement by injury, and whether or not her choreography has been adjusted to accommodate this will eventually become clear if she manages to recover while touring. 

All that said, she looks amazing! She’s 65. Most people 20 years her junior would look ridiculous doing what she is doing here, and yet she looks an absolute powerhouse. I saw a lot of vulnerability in her performance this evening. I don’t know if that will stay as prevalent as her confidence increases. Let’s not forget this is her first global tour since having not only a near fatal health crisis, but also significant hip and knee surgeries. She is bound to be uncomfortable. She also has the scrutiny of haters en masse to contend with when committing to exposing herself publicly for all to see night after night! She’s been ridiculed constantly for years, and so I can only imagine the amount of inner work she must do to prepare herself for this type of experience! 
 
As for the flow of the show, I think we need to see it in person and observe everything that is being conveyed before making assessments about what is superfluous and what is lacking. Maybe it’s a work in progress to be fine tuned in the coming shows, but Madonna isn’t dumb. She doesn’t commit herself to projects of this scale mindlessly! There is a narrative. Maybe you’re just not seeing it yet! The audacity of anyone to question her vision as if she’s some bar singer who is taking to the arena stage for the first time! It’s not up to any of us to say what should or shouldn’t  be done in her show. That’s a matter of personal preference, and we established long ago that it is impossible for Madonna to fully please even a large minority of her hardcore fans. It’s not a conventional Madonna show. It’s not a conventional show on any level. The power of suggestion along with negative feedback creates a loop of ugliness. It happens on here and on other platforms all the time. It’s like needing to put down your phone. It requires a type of self-discipline to not feed into it or have your point of view altered by it. As previously stated in another post, it is one thing to offer a critique (and if you want to make it interesting and worthwhile you have to use your intellect and knowledge), but to be immediately focused on her ass, the songs she didn’t perform, the parts you didn’t like…it’s just lazy in my opinion. I have to accept it, and unfortunately I often get caught up in reading it, but for the record, and I will put it in CAPS for emphasis:
I AM SO PROUD TO BE A MADONNA FAN TODAY. I AM PROUD OF HER; HER TENACITY, HER VISION, AND HER LEGACY. 
 
This tour probably won’t be able to match the cultural impact of its 80s, 90s and 00s predecessors because it is totally retrospective. To me, it serves as a reminder of the fragility of life within the construct of time. In this way, I found there was a kinship with The Girlie Show; something ironically uncelebratory lurks throughout the show. Maybe that’s inevitable given the brush with death Madonna had earlier this year and the general malaise in the world as it stands today. That said, there is a warmth to it that I found lacking on Rebel Heart and Madame X. A sense of the transcendent, I guess. The fast pace of the setlist in order to fit more songs in is a little jarring, but we also live in a time when the average pop song is no longer than 2.5 minutes, and so it may also be that this is a throughly modern approach that we aren’t comfortable with because we come from a time when the longer a song was, the deeper it went! That’s my take, anyway. 
 
I didn’t expect to be mesmerized by the livestreams today, especially when the first one showed the ceiling more than anything else and was accompanied by some of the most classic fan “vocals” my ears have ever had the displeasure of experiencing, but there were obvious showstoppers, even rendered in poor quality…NRM, Live To Tell and Bad Girl come to mind. I realized in seeing many other fan videos that Madonna makes references to past performances and videos (Open Your Heart, for example) that I didn’t see in the live stream. I imagine there’s a lot of these moments, and so I am very much looking forward to eventually seeing all this up close and in the flesh! 
 
I’ve read a lot of speculation about her vocals. “Is she singing live? Is the entire show mimed?” 
It seems quite obvious to me from any of the videos from the floor audience that she is singing live. You can hear when she’s relying heavily on the backing track, but it seems like there’s some technology being used to blend her voice better with the track vocals. The only exception to this for me was Everybody, which was just too obvious because the original vocal is too girlish for her now. To anyone questioning if she’s singing live, she even messed up the vocals on a couple of occasions…Bad Girl for example. I think she’s in fine voice for the most part, but she did sound a little croaky and strained on some songs…I don’t remember exactly which ones, but I think Vogue was one of them. She definitely doesn’t have ease with her higher register anymore, and that’s just fine. They’ve done a great job of choosing and arranging the songs to suit her comfort. 
 
FINALLY, THIS IS DEFINITELY A SHOW THAT NEEDS TO BE PRO SHOT LIKE BLOND AMBITION IN TRUTH OR DARE! 
 
🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

The music was anything but cheap lol! The fact they are basically the original song versions or 12" mixes is incredible...

Can’t believe she has provided a setlist that few could ever dream of and people are still finding room to bitch. This fanbase will never be pleased. Ever. We’re damn lucky she even gives us anything anymore. 

This will be remembered as her finest tour. It will evolve and a month from now all doubt will be gone. As for her physicality, shes 65 and she knows it, she's accepted her physical change with grace and humility and the outcome is an excellent stage ability where she's doing the best with all skill set. Im thrilled ♥️

And with images like this, I think we can just bow down to her and close this amazing comeback night!!!

I'm not trying to tear anyone down to lift Madonna up, but remember that NO OTHER POP BITCH will be giving this high level of artistry, commitment, motivation, drive, fire and love 40 years into a career and at 65 years old.

BE THANKFUL MOTHERFUCKERS, we stan the best pop artist ever and we still have her.