In 1988, a hyperbolic-combed Joan Cusack told Melanie Griffith in the film Working Girl: “Sometimes I dance and sing around the house in my underwear and that doesn’t make me Madonna. I never will be.” That phrase condensed the spirit of an era and the reality of all the artists who have tried to live up to blonde ambition over the last four decades without success. She is no longer just a star but the high priestess of her own pop religion. This is what the fans who attended the first of the two ‘Madonnesque’ masses at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona felt as part of their Celebration Tour. Nearly 18,000 souls sold out the tickets for each of the days – with prices reaching 400 euros – and on Wednesday they revered in communion the female artist who has sold the most albums to date, the queen, the messiah. Blessed are you.
“This is not a show, nor a party, it is a celebration,” he announced. Bob the Drag Queen, the maestro in charge of opening the ceremony dressed in the style of Marie Antoinette, like Madonna at the MTV awards in 1990. Immediately afterwards (more than an hour late), Ciccione materialized covered in black and a halo of a saint while singinga Nothing Really Matters. It was the first of the anticipated successes, because on this tour the artist has decided to do what her followers have been asking for for a long time: a review of his greatest hits live. At this point in his career he can dedicate himself to whatever he wants and he has chosen to have fun. The recitals only suitable for dedicated students are left for other gentlemen sulking with cell phones and modernity in general.
During about two hours, The singer reviewed a career that began with her arrival in New York with 35 dollars in her pocket and a lot of determination. She welcomed her audience with a formal “I love Barcelona!” and a speech of improvement before picking up the guitar and performing a wild version of Burning Up, as he did in his day at the famous New York gambling den CBGB. They had already sounded before Everybody e Into The Groove and the celebration continued until reaching a theatrical scene that served to remember her role as an actress. That sketch, in which she represents a girl who is not allowed to enter a nightclub, was the preamble to the tremendous party that was unleashed with Holiday but that ends with the symbolic death of a dancer. It is the story of a time burdened by AIDS, which sings in Live To Tell as a tribute to those who died due to the disease whose portraits – some of famous people such as Keith Haring o Robert Mapplethorpe- They filled the screens.
The show on this tour is divided into three acts and one of the few negative criticisms it deserves, in addition to the delay in the schedule, is the excessive length of interludes. Perhaps it is necessary because we must take into account that some look changes, despite the 25 people that make up the wardrobe team, take time. Still, they’re executed quickly, because neither Jean Paul Gaultier’s cone bra dress nor Versace’s crystal jumpsuit look easy to put on. They are not exactly a tracksuit.
It is also possible that these small breaks are good for the artist, who still has consequences of the bacterial infection which almost ended her last June. Although she did not rest on the stage, her movements were less acrobatic than on their previous tours and one of his legs was protected with a knee pad. Madonna has made an effort to recover to give the postponed concerts as soon as possible and, in fact, in the tour equipment there are three portable gyms, but miracles do not exist even for a bionic deity like her.