LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 14: (Exclusive Coverage) Madonna performs during opening night of The … [+] Celebration Tour at The O2 Arena on October 14, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation)
WireImage for Live Nation
Sitting down to write about the Madonna “Celebration Tour,” the first name that popped into my mind was Bob Dylan. Why? I have seen both Dylan and Madonna multiple times, some shows being much more, let’s call it, artistically successful than others.
That was why Dylan’s name first popped into my head. Then it hit me that for a generation, Madonna, who sold out five nights at the Forum in L.A., is as influential as Dylan was to his generation. Sure, the styles and impact are wildly different. But just as Dylan’s songwriting shaped a generation, Madonna’s videos and remarkable ability to reinvent herself have shaped the pop music world for the last 40 years.
“The Celebration Tour,” which is a recap of that iconic 40-year career, is the perfect vehicle to really chart and understand that impact. The more than two-hour extravaganza, which is one of the tours that finds Madonna at the peak of her stage game, is broken up into seven acts, each a look at a different period of her career.
The Saturday night show I saw, the fourth of the five-night stand, started around 10 PM with Bob The Drag Queen taking the stage to hype the crowd up for Madonna’s entrance by reminding everyone of some of her biggest moments. A few moments later, she appeared for “Nothing Really Matters.” Fittingly, act one highlighted Madonna’s dance side. Among the highlights, a rousing “Into The Groove,” “Holiday” and the finale of the first act, “Holiday.”
The show featured elaborate and compelling production and visuals throughout, especially in act two’s “Live To Tell” and “Like A Prayer.”
As I say, each act was designed to showcase and highlight a different period of her career. So, each section of the show came with its own greatest hits. Among the standout moments of the show were “Erotica” and “Justify My Love,” in act three; “Vogue” and “Crazy For You,” which retained all of the intimacy and sweetness of the original recording, in act four; the acoustic “Express Yourself,” a definite crowd favorite, “La Isla Bonita” and “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” to wrap up act five, and the superb one-two punch of the futuristic dance anthem “Ray Of Light” and the moving “Take A Bow” that not only closed act six, but effectively closed the regular portion of the show, with act seven serving as an encore.
To wrap up the night sometime after midnight she closed the show with “Bitch, I’m Madonna,” and an instrumental rendition of “Celebration.”
Formatting the show almost like a play, Madonna was able to tell much of her story, including paying tribute to friends in her life, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Prince. It is an incredible tale, from being ignored as a young artist to pop superstar and eventually to one of the most important and successful artists in pop music. It is a journey that indeed deserves to be celebrated. This tour does that magnificently.
