Dazzling Madonna returns to stage with banger after banger - set list in full
At one point, all I can see is Madonna’s bottom floating above my head.
The Queen of Pop is suspended mid-air above my seat gyrating on a perspex platform and, frankly, I don’t know where to look. It’s one of many wonderfully barmy moments that just kept on coming during a two and a half hour set, that brimmed with originality, controversy, and endless talking points.
The biggest one perhaps was just how does she do it..? For a 65-year-old who cheated death in the summer following a stint in Intensive care after being found unconscious in her apartment, this was a comeback worthy of Lazarus.
And you couldn’t take your eyes off her as she simulated sex with topless dancers, shared a lingering kiss with another, all while clad in her de-rigueur fishnets and negligee. Talk about putting the sex into sexagenarian.
The Queen of pop made a stunning return to kick off her London tour (WireImage for Live Nation)
Madonna was in intensive care over the summer (WireImage for Live Nation)Illuminated by a vast halo of lights suspended from the ceiling, she opened with Nothing Really Matters in a black replica of the Gaultier kimono from the song’s video. Into the Groove saw Madonna sashaying down a 50ft runway with a gaggle of colourfully-haired, NYC punks, while she seductively straddles a chair during Open Your Heart, Christine Keeler-style.
Strictly's Molly Rainford and Tyler West fuel romance rumours while on tour
After performing her hit Burning Up, Madonna had to stop the show briefly as she explained there was a problem with the sound and they had to “press the reset button”. “This is exactly what you don’t want to happen on your opening night,” she laughed.
But the mishap didn’t faze her and she deftly regaled the crowd with moving anecdotes about her early days in New York as she found her musical feet. “I was an anorexic dancer for a couple of years,I was broke and homeless and hungry but I was not about to go back cos I’m not a quitter,” she said. “When I was broke I had no money to take a bath or a shower so I would actually date men who had showers and bathrooms.”
Madonna put on a five-star display (WireImage for Live Nation)After the minor sound hiccup, there were other similarly reflective moments interspersed among the hits such as Holiday. “I didn’t think I was going to make it, neither did my doctors,” she recalled of her brush with death this summer. "I forgot five days of my life, or my death, I don’t really know where I was. But the angels were protecting me and my children were there, and my children always save me every time.”
She added that her secret to her survival was thinking of her children before leading a rousing singalong of I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Up close, as well as on the unforgiving big, high-definition screens, Madonna showed no ill-effects from her health drama.
If you can't see the poll, click here
In fact, during a particularly high-tempo Hung Up, at one point she was crawling cat-like on all fours along the floor, before energetically springing back up again. Earlier she was blindfolded as four half-naked female dancers wrapped their legs around her, one of whom received a long kiss for her troubles. And the male dancers were equally lascivious with one over-attentive chap grabbing her breast, and pretending to lick it.
It was an all-action performance (PA)
Madonna admitted 'I didn't think I was going make it' when she fell ill (PA)It was raunchy stuff but nothing we wouldn’t come to expect, and it clearly wasn’t too X-rated for her kids as her daughter Estere proceeded to appear on stage to steal the show. Resplendent in a gold jumpsuit, the 10-year-old displayed some remarkable dance moves worthy of her mother during Vogue, after earlier hitting the DJ decks.
Then it was 27-year-old Lourdes’ moment who joined her mum for a sweet segment where they pretended to rate dancers, Strictly-style, with score cards. After singing her song Little Star, Madonna also turned to the conflict in the Middle East.
“It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, elderly people suffering. All of it is heart-breaking,” she said. “Even though our hearts are broken, our spirits cannot be broken.”
There were other quieter, more poignant moments, including a tribute to public figures and stars who have died of AIDS, including Freddie Mercury, and tennis ace Arthur Ashe And a photograph of the late Sinead O’Connor got a wild reception when it was shown on the large screens, before a medley of Celebration and Music riotously upped the tempo again
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman 'sign deal' to host Strictly for two more years
After 40 years, Madonna would have been excused for dialling down the live performances, and taking life at a more sedate pace. But after this bombastic and all-action affair, it seems she’s only getting started.
Madonna put on a typically raunchy display (WireImage for Live Nation)Set list in full
- It's a Celebration (video intro)
- Nothing Really Matters
- Everybody
- Into the Groove
- Burning Up
- Open Your Heart
- Holiday
- In This Life (intermission)
- Live to Tell
- Like a Prayer (including elements of Girl Gone Wild, Act of Contrition, Unholy and Let's Go Crazy)
- Blond Ambition interlude (including elements of Living for Love, Fever, Erotica and Justify My Love)
- Erotica
- Justify My Love
- Fever
- Hung Up (including elements of Fever, Hung Up on Tokischa and Gangsta)
- Bad Girl
- Ballroom interlude (includes elements of Up Down Suite, Break My Soul (Queens Remix), and Vogue)
- Vogue
- Human Nature
- Crazy for You
- The Beast Within
- Die Another Day
- Don't Tell Me
- Mother and Father
- Little Star (a capella)
- I Will Survive
- La Isla Bonita
- Don't Cry for Me Argentina
- I Don't Search I Find (intermission)
- Bedtime Story
- Ray of Light
- Rain
- Like a Virgin (includes elements of Billie Jean, The Way You Make Me Feel and Angel)
- Bitch I'm Madonna
- Celebration / Music
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
