By Greg Kot / Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO—Even before Madonna took the stage on Monday at Chicago’s United Center, the senses hit overload. Warrior dancers hoisted crosses,
Mike Tyson issued threats from the video screen, fake blood streamed as if from a tabloid murder photo, and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” provided the soundtrack.
Music isn’t quite incidental to the spectacle that is a Madonna show, it’s more like an ingredient in a multimedia melting pot of outrageous fashion, noir video, theater, dance, performance art and social commentary. There were 20 dancers and three musicians, 22 videos and a whopping 60 people backstage taking care of costumes that ran from Cotton Club fringe to a long, flowing royal cape. There was even a Britney Spears look-alike pulled from the audience.
More difficult to find on many of the singer’s tours was an emotional center. But that wasn’t a problem on Monday—“Rebel Heart” is the most intimate Madonna tour yet. It’s tough for any pop entertainer, let alone a 57-year-old female artist, to retain her chart appeal for one decade, let alone four. Madonna may still be the most famous woman in the pop world—Beyoncé might take issue with that—but she’s had only a few top-10 singles in the new millennium.
Though she could easily live off greatest hits tours or Vegas residencies, Madonna somehow remains engaged. Her latest album, Rebel Heart, is a mess, a tangle of proclamations and confessions.
She wants it all. There are songs that expose insecurities and fess up to narcissism. And then there are the tunes that basically say, “I’m old enough to be your mom and I can still do anything you can do better—got a problem with that?”
She set the tone within minutes of arriving on stage: “Who do you think you are?” she barked. Later she demanded, “Get off my pole!” during a profane ode to oral sex that also quoted one of her biggest hits, “Vogue.” What’s a Madonna concert without a little blasphemy? “Holy Water” staged the Last Supper as an orgy, including a stunt where Madonna mounted a spinning cross while standing atop a dancer dressed as a nun. It’s probably just as well that Pope Francis avoided Chicago on his American visit.
The defiant attitude, the provocative posturing that defined her early rise to stardom played a part in the show, but these poses felt tired—yesterday’s shock is today’s act of desperation. Fortunately, the attitude became more playful and introspective as the show proceeded through its four major set pieces.
Half the set list was drawn from the commercially underperforming Rebel Heart, even though the singer has more than three dozen top-10 hits, mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. But even the hits she reprised were often reconfigured, from the jazzy “Material Girl” to the ukulele-led “True Blue.”
Whereas her 2012 tour flirted with darkness and death—yes, Madonna can do Goth, too—the current two-hour performance had a lighter, warmer, more personal tone. There were smiles and something approaching vulnerability.
For “Like a Virgin,” Madonna dialed down the bump and grind for a solo performance that came across as quietly celebratory, as though dancing by herself in a darkened bedroom. A solo “La Vie en Rose” may not have approached the towering heartbreak of Edith Piaf’s signature version, but Madonna delivered it with a rich tone that would’ve been beyond her during her hit-making prime.
With fans packed closely around her on a heart-shaped stage in the middle of the arena, she prefaced “Who’s That Girl” with a statement: “I’m still trying to figure out who I am.” Who needs shock appeal when you’ve got Madonna psychoanalyzing herself on stage?
SET LIST:
Iconic
B*tch I’m Madonna
Burning Up
Holy Water
Devil Pray
Messiah
Body Shop
True Blue
Deeper and Deeper
Heartbreak City
Like a Virgin
S.E.X.
Living For Love
La Isla Bonita
Dress You Up
Who’s That Girl
Ghosttown
Rebel Heart
Illuminati
Music/Candy Shop
Material Girl
La Vie En Rose
Unapologetic B*tch
ENCORE:
Holiday
So you wanna see Madonna live in Manila…or LA?
Madonna is set to give her Philippine fans the bes tmusic experience of their lives when her Rebel Heart Tour arrives in Manila on February 24 and 25, to unfold at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The Manila concerts are presented by Globe, the country’s top mobile brand and purveyor of the Filipino digital lifestyle.
Globe kicks off the Manila concerts early with the “Globe Madonna Rebel Heart Tour Raffle Promo”, the biggest of its kind in the country. With the promo, customers can get the chance to see the Queen of Pop in her concert stop in Manila—or in Los Angeles, USA, giving Madonna fans multiple opportunities to see her perform live.
The Globe Madonna Rebel Heart Tour Raffle Promo is open to Globe, TM and Tattoo customers for a chance to win tickets to Madonna’s Rebel Heart concert in Manila or an all-expense paid trip to catch Madonna’s tour stop in Los Angeles, California, on October 27.
“Music is an integral part of the Filipino digital lifestyle and Globe is here to make the music experience even better. As the exclusive presentor of the Madonna Rebel Heart Tour in Manila, we are committed to providing a complete immersive experience for all Madonna fans out there, one of which is this exciting raffle promo that aims to give lucky Globe and Tattoo customers the elusive privilege to see their idol for free, whether in the country or in Los Angeles,” Globe Telecom Senior Vice President for Consumer Mobile Marketing Issa Cabreira shares.
One million pesos worth of prizes are up for grabs, where two winners will be flown to Los Angeles to watch Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour in the US inclusive of roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodation, pocket money, and a backstage tour experience. Meanwhile, 16 lucky Globe customers will get the chance to see Madonna in Manila on February 24 or 25, 2016.
To register to the raffle, Globe Prepaid, TM, Globe Postpaid, and Tattoo Nomadic customers can text MADONNA REG <Name>/
<Address>/<Email>/<Age>/
<Gender> to 2662.
Globe Platinum and Tattoo Home customers are automatically registered to the raffle.
Promo period is from October 1 to 31. Draw date for the LA concert package is on October 16. For the Manila concert tickets, draw date is on November 6.
For more details, visit www.globe.com.ph/BeOnewithMadonna.