Madonna's last tour? How to summarize four decades of successes, scandals and cultural milestones in two hours

The

tour will review the four decades of Madonna's career (Detroit, 64 years old) with her greatest hits, as announced by the promoter Livenation.

Madonna had never toured without a new studio album to promote, nor a greatest hits concert.

In this project, the intention of remembering that Madonna, in recent times more for what some consider erratic behavior on social networks than for her music, is intuited, not only is she the woman who has raised the most money with her tours in history but, with the

, in 1990, he invented the pop concert as we know it today: a theatrical event divided into acts that draws both songs and visual spectacle.

Now that after 40 years without doing so, she allows herself to be nostalgic and self-homage, one wonders how she will manage with such a wide catalog that also includes so many impersonations of herself.

It was common for her general concept tours to obey her character at that time (the new age techno on

, the disco diva on

, the ghetto colorism on

, the muse of

's sad after-party ), but what? how to mix everything in a concert of about two hours?

How to tell the genesis

If this review of her live career were chronological (it doesn't seem likely), Madonna could start with her most successful song on Spotify, the current thermometer of musical trends:

, from her second album

(1984).

A TikTok miracle and

(which featured her in a scene, the same series that turned

by Kate Bush in a planetary success 37 years after its publication) that raised a song that in its day did not reach number one in the most important markets (it stayed at number 2 in the United States and number 3 in England).

But it is perhaps her first big event song, because she gave Madonna a nickname (she was known as the material girl for decades) and a legacy to destroy (several songs from

1998,

and

, from 2003, dedicated themselves to annulling that message that claimed the money, whether it was ironic or not).

Madonna on the 'Virgin Tour' (1985).Michael Ochs Archives (Getty Images)

That Madonna was presented as a blank canvas on which to project the fantasies of a decade.

Her first album,

(1983) had achieved moderate success thanks to disco songs when disco was dead, properly mixed with electronica, and had presented her to the world as an irreverent disco diva, who could just as well sing about going on vacation.

than on burning with sexual desire

.

But it was

(1984) that began to build the character: the single

, her first number one, introduced us to her love for double meanings in her titles (the

entire

It gave her as much satisfaction as headaches when in the following decade she wanted to make it clear that she was not, that she was not that woman.

She has only sung the song on two tours in almost 30 years, although in 2022 she released a cover of the song (almost a new song, actually) as a duet with rapper Saucy Santana in which she clarified "a materialistic girl is not a girl without taste".

If Madonna honors New York on her tour and she wants to tell the genesis of her story as it happened, she should do it with all these songs.

I mean, dancing.

The Madonna that you and I know

The first record (

is a hit, the second record (

is a huge hit, and by the time

(1986) comes along, Madonna is already a superstar.

Recorded during her first year of marriage to Sean Penn (Madonna was already a social media star then, too),

is the mold in which Madonna herself (and all her successors) will cast themselves at any time. to make a record.

, the song that released that album, is one of the strangest in pop history: a danceable number about a young woman who confronts her father because he refuses to have an abortion.

Family planning associations criticized the singer, while she endeared herself to conservatives, both parties seemingly oblivious to the possibility that the singer was simply claiming the right to choose.

In any case, in the video clip for the song, directed by James Foley, Madonna invents her first meme: the T-shirt with the phrase

Italians

).

If he doesn't use it in the locker room on this tour it will be a missed opportunity.

Almost four decades later there would be an independent Los Angeles music label called Italians Do It Better and would end up releasing an album of Madonna covers in which

was an icy, whispered ballad, as if that woman so sure she was carrying a baby to the world in 1986 I wasn't really sure about doing it in 2021.

Madonna and Sean Penn, married, in 1987.Ron Galella, Ltd. (Ron Galella Collection via Getty)

By the way,

, another Madonna classic included on this album, had a base offered to Michael Jackson to be part of his

album and rejected by him.

Madonna's career not only begins here to intersect with Jackson's, but she begins to play in the same league as hers.

Madonna climbs into the pulpit

True Blue

outsold

.

Her fourth album,

(1989), was preceded by the single of the same name, one of the songs that Madonna has never tired of singing (the artist has an ambivalent relationship with her own hits: there are some that she has not returned to). to sing almost never again).

The video for

, in which Madonna dances in front of burning crosses and kisses a black saint who comes to life, angers conservatives (who now realize that perhaps Madonna was not pro-life, just provocative). ) and paves the way for another of his greatest successes.

But on the album

, today on several of the lists of the best in history (such as that of

) there is much more than controversy.

For example, a revenge song against Sean Penn (

) that today, in full hangover from the success of Shakira and Bizarrap, seems like an elegant chamber piece.

And an emotional ballad on piano in memory of her mother (who died when Madonna was five years old) called

that if she sang today, at 64 years old and having become the mother of six children (and after a very complicated relationship with one of them), could paralyze a stadium.

For the same reason,

would also be a must if Madonna wants to get personal in the middle of the celebration.

was the subject of controversy in 2011 when many (and Madonna herself) considered that

, by Lady Gaga, was too similar to it.

She came to sing the two songs followed by her on her MDNA tour as a taunt towards the artist.

At this point, and when they are now supposed to have a good relationship, it is clear what would have to happen to win over social networks forever and create one of those epic stadium moments: that the two of them sing it together.

Madonna gets naked

In the soundtrack of Dick Tracy Madonna demonstrated something unprecedented until then: that she sang

according to what programs like

consider to sing well

stands today as her great exercise in vocal virtuosity (she demonstrated it at the Oscars), but no one goes to a Madonna tour because of her vocal virtuosity.

On that soundtrack, and as an epilogue, was

, the closest thing to a flagship song that Madonna has, actually owner of ten or fifteen flagship songs.

If it is emblematic, it is because she herself seems very comfortable with this theme: she always sings it, claims it, covers it and pays tribute to it (there is not a later song from her discography, but three, which she

or cover in part).

It is possible that any other great Madonna hit could be left out of this greatest hits tour if the artist appeals to the format, her artistic vision or the timing of the show, but without

there could be a real riot.

Madonna on the 'Blonde Ambition Tour'. Jim Smeal (Ron Galella Collection via Getty)

This song is from 1990, but we could say that with it he closes his imperial phase of the eighties to enter a new era in which he decided to provoke something even more uncomfortable and delicate than religion: free sex without guilt.

It is not that the singers were not sexualized before, it is that Madonna decided to sexualize herself and according to her rules.

In

(1990) the artist lists her sexual fantasies on a basis produced by Lenny Kravitz (he should also go on stage).

And when

arrived , everything would be like that.

(1992) actually talks about love, loss and AIDS, but the public will always associate him with provocation and his book

.

This album, it would seem, made Madonna uncomfortable for a few years due to the setback it caused in her career, but lately she has claimed it because, at 64 years old and being sexual and ambiguous, she is touching the same buttons and bothering the same people as then. : those who think that a woman, no matter how old she is, should not talk about her desires.

madonna dresses up

The post-

stage is very divisive.

For some she becomes a serious and respected artist capable of sweeping with a ballad (in 1994's

is

, her biggest hit on the Billboard chart but which she has almost never sung again);

to others, she just picks up cable and becomes a bit of a boring song lady.

It is difficult in a festive atmosphere to fit anything from the soundtrack of

(1996)

and, if anything from

(1998), considered his resurrection and best album by much of the critics, comes in, it should be

anthem

that he recently turned into an

anthem by just two minutes for the TikTok era.

This is one of the intrigues that the tour arouses: will we see that Madonna who in the last two years has tried to capture a new

idols

and reconverting some of her hits (

) in pieces ready to perform choreographies in front of the mobile?

Common sense would dictate that that would be crazy, but Madonna's grace has always been in not being guided by common sense.

Madonna on the 'Drowned World Tour'.New York Daily News Archive (NY Daily News via Getty Images)

This spiritual and luminous era of Madonna closed with

, which was already showing much more playful ways.

is another of those pieces that Madonna performs and celebrates whenever she has the opportunity and that would be said to be essential on a greatest hits tour, although her fans would possibly appreciate the inclusion of

, sad, evocative, catchy and whose video clip got that in 2000 and 2001 all the

stores in Europe sold cowboy-style women's accessories, something that given the market cycles we could already recover.

madonna keep dancing

In recent years and tours, Madonna has been introspective, remembering albums and moments in her career that were less successful but that she values ​​more than some of her hits.

Will she remember at this greatest hits concert that in 2003 she released an album called

, her second big misstep after

and from which no one except her followers remembers a single song?

In his last two tours (

and

, the latter a

with only two dates) he recovered songs from this album, but all to the point that a large audience expecting great successes could take advantage of this moment to go to the bathroom. bathroom.

So pull

, his return to the charts and massive success in 2005, will be his thing.

is his obligatory theme (let's just hope it's not in his tiktokera version with Tokischa).

And since he has announced that the tour will be a tribute to New York, the presence of

seems obligatory.

He might thus include some of his political anger at the time, directed at George W. Bush most obviously in

and much more cryptically here: "If you don't like my attitude, fuck you / Go to Texas, play golf." ”.

Madonna during the 'Rebel Heart Tour'.

Cord Press

In

(2008) Madonna continues to dance, albeit in an r&b key, and it is worth asking if she will sing

, which we could consider her last great success for now, since it was a duet with Justin Timberlake, who does not exactly enjoy a peak of music. popularity.

, the closest she has been to bakalao, she and we have always liked it much more.

A strange blank space

The last decade of Madonna, the one that goes from

(2012) to today and goes through the albums

(2015) and

(2019), has left jewels, rarities and discoveries, but hardly any successes.

Another of her great enigmas is how she will include this last decade in her career review, or if she will include it.

If we go by the numbers, Madonna should sing

(her last single to reach the top 10 on the US Billboard chart),

(the only thing close to a hit that

left behind , thanks in part to to his star-studded video clip) and

, which despite not being a

became a hit on Spotify thanks to Anitta's presence.

But if something is memorable about this last decade, it is that Madonna becomes human, fragile and afraid of failure, as she demonstrates in

or

, true hidden gems of this era.

In any case, the vindication of this late Madonna is implied by her mere presence on stage, in the fact that she is going on a tour that, against all odds, will bear no resemblance to the complacent self-homage that other artists have paid to her. age who are about to review their catalogue.

Madonna has not been characterized in the last decade for opening new musical paths, but for leaving a path open to other pop artists who are not willing to retire, to leverage themselves in Las Vegas or to reconvert themselves into ladies of light song.

Madonna, with her presence making her uncomfortable on social networks for many (sometimes sticking out her breast, or inhaling popper) is doing what she always did: making her uncomfortable.

Before, apart from bothering, she also sang.

If she complies with this tour and she does both again, we will be able to verify that she has returned.

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