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I think this is all absurd. Madonna is still very relevant in 2024. How many billions of people are there on the planet? How many have Madonna’s stature, level of recognizability, visibility, accomplishment, and influence? Even if you are looking at it from a point of view of commercialism, she is on the verge of finishing a sold out 81-date tour of Europe, America, Mexico and Brazil. She’s about to perform for the largest audience of her entire career, an event that will garner more press than nearly any other artist’s single concert would. When she was near death last year it made the news globally. Everything Madonna does gets attention. She has influenced practically every popular artist, visual and musical, out there. Her name comes up all the time. The right wing conservatives and MAGAs always have something to say about her…That she’s a has-been or pathetic and desperate, or the devil incarnate. They’re still talking about her! Her music is ubiquitous. She is the 80th most streamed artist in the world on Spotify, 40 years into her recording career. Madonna IS RELEVANT. She just isn’t a contemporary phenomenon any longer. She isn’t young. She’s not interested in participating in the modern fame game. She could literally be on the cover of any magazine of her choosing, appear on any talk show, the cover of newspapers. Everyone would kill to interview her; even Piers Morgan.

So cute! She did a little runway walk for him. She’s crushing!

I suppose it would be fair to point out that often in Mexico, Southern Europe and Latin America she does receive a particular verbal enthusiasm that American audiences are less likely to engage in; not because they are less interested, less invested or disrespectful, but because there is a fundamental cultural difference that perhaps leans towards a more measured approach. As fans in America we go all out, but the more casual audience member is less likely to show the type of reverence that was seen at last night’s show in Mexico City. I’d also say that Madonna is a uniquely global superstar in that her influence spans decades and has never really lost its intensity internationally. When she shows up overseas, people pay attention. Whether or not she has been as commercially relevant on the charts in the last decade is insignificant when she has the type of immediate recognizability of her image and her incomparable back catalog of hits. It hasn’t been celebrated by the media and the masses in America in the way that she deserves for many years, but I do believe all of that is changing. I think there’s a conscious awareness that today’s very prolific major stars of the music industry simply don’t have the type of broad spectrum connection to the zeitgeist in a way that will last with the type of endurance that music from a pre-streaming era did. Madonna is so exceptional in so many ways, and everyone kind of knows it, even if they hate on her.

*Wonder about

I love how at 65 she can convincingly recapture herself at 25 or 40 without looking absurd or caricatural.

Are you in a mood today?! You’ve posted very negative comments about Madonna’s face in Ricardo’s cover photo, and now the meh remix reaction! Sending you a warm hug from Los Angeles. 😂💛

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5vtdbWtkpb/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA== Don’t think I saw this anywhere else on the forum, but Purple Disco Machine closed out his Coachella set with this remix of LAP. Sounds amazing to me!

I think she says that her sound is cutting out. She can’t hear herself.

You never know! She did post her greetings to Austin to her IG Stories to the soundtrack of “Secret”. Maybe our baby does have a secret after all! 😎

Her voice has good nights and bad nights. This has been the case throughout the tour, including in LA where she even had a night when she lost her entire upper register during Mother and Father, stating it herself for the record onstage. I highly doubt she is thinking of canceling her Mexico dates. Sounds like the usual dramatic fantasies people come up with on that absurd platform of bile. She has four nights off after tomorrow’s show, and then another five nights off between Austin and Mexico City. She then has a week to prepare for Rio. She’s gonna be fine.

It is hard to show up for yourself and to learn to parent your inner child when you come from a background of trauma. If she suffers from claustrophobia and panic attacks, clearly her trauma is considerable and she’s been on a long journey toward mental wellness. I can relate, and I am moved by her extreme honesty. She’s clearly been going through some trauma activation since her illness and this speech serves as a reminder that she deserves kindness and compassion. It’s obviously hard for her to be vulnerable, and so for her to be that honest in front of 20,000 is significant.

Okay…I think we are veering a little off course by turning this into an indictment of her entire personality! That’s just too much…Surely she deserves more respect from her fans than that! She probably needs a rest, and it’s understandable after 71 performances. She knows she’s getting overwhelmed and frustrated…She’s literally spelling it out in her pre-Express Yourself speech. That said, venting it all publicly in the way she did isn’t particularly artistically-minded as it takes away from the narrative of her show, which is counterintuitive. I hope she finds some calm in the coming days. It is also the New Moon in Aries Total Solar Eclipse tomorrow, and so maybe she’s feeling it! Her voice does sound strained, and I’m sure that she gets affected by the dryness. No singer welcomes air-conditioning…It’s like kryptonite to the voice, and you don’t have to be doing Mariah acrobatics to feel the pain of it.

How strange that she would express herself that way onstage in front of her audience. I guess it’s not a big deal, but personally I find it really off-puttingly uncharacteristic and unprofessional. She must be feeling under the weather, or maybe her hip or knee are hurting. I’m guessing she isn’t talking about the a/c in the open arena because it’s been hotter than hell at most shows on the floor…she must feel the chill of it coming into her dressing area or under the stage? I’m guessing she’s just over it all and is finding herself feeling exhausted in the last stretch knowing that she still has to ten shows to go. She’s probably angry at herself and it’s her way of getting herself energized.

It’s incredibly unfair to rob Sandra of her own accomplishments. As already stated, she has had a very storied life and she is a talented comedienne and actress. She carved out a very unique style for herself as a performer. Her shows are autobiographical and comical with feisty social commentary, but always served with a touch of emotional tenderness underlined with music. I think she has been mostly gracious considering how much everyone always brings up Madonna when interviewing her. For many years I think she resented it and it may have led to some occasional overt hostility, but imagine being tethered to someone who hurt you (is it really that hard to imagine that Madonna lacked sensitivity in the early 90s?) for the rest of your career despite all of your other achievements! I think that would get under anyone’s skin, and she handled this ning nong’s prying with aplomb in my eyes. Madonna’s star shines so bright that it burns most people who have been in her orbit. It’s like a brand; permanent and unavoidable. I have empathy for how challenging that might be for some.

As far as I can remember, Sticky and Sweet Part 2 was added because she got hammered with an astronomical divorce settlement and wasn’t about to lose that amount of net worth for anyone. Regarding Brazil and the possibility of more shows being added, it was also announced on February 6th that a final date had been added to the tour itinerary in Miami. Clearly that wasn’t true, therefore nothing can be ruled out. As an addendum, I would like to reinforce the sentiment that this forum has become an absolute shambles. It remained one of the last places for fans to have intelligent discussions about Madonna’s body of work, her influence and impact, and her achievements. Then the culture shifted and being a Madonna fan seemed to become increasingly difficult as a collective experience. We went from the pseudo-woke brigade in full force 24/7 being offended by every idea they didn’t agree with to a cacophony of what seemed like bots insidiously telling us how much they loved everything. Critical thinking left the building. Once the tour started it seemed to level out into a healthy discussion centered around the almost daily reports on the corresponding tour dates, but we have once again descended into a chaos of either dual accounts trolling non-stop, or generally unstable, extremely immature individuals posting like they’re back in the sandbox expressing all of their unconscious feelings, personal issues and a need to have someone tell them that it’s all gonna be okay, and that they’re right for being intolerant of someone else they know nothing about having a different perspective or experience. Well here’s the bottom line…It’s all gonna be okay with or without the validation of a moderator, but don’t expect to have much of an audience to participate in your nonsense. I can hardly be bothered sharing anything on here at this stage. Half the people who once contributed actual thoughts to this place have left because of the absurdity of a small but loud minority spouting absolute bile that contributes nothing to the Madonna community and culture, and many others have withdrawn into the rafters, skimming through all the petty squabbling and rambling for some relevant information about the extraordinary woman we came here to discuss. It’s always been a challenge to navigate certain personality types online in relative anonymity, but at least it seemed we used to respect that on a Madonna forum we could invest in Madonna talk that provoked thought and intelligent discussion. Is it because of social media that this has faded out? Is it because we are getting older as a fanbase? Whatever it is, it is both sad and embarrassing. If we can’t muster the courage and determination to show up and actually give value to Madonna’s legacy within the fanbase, it doesn’t bode well for that legacy elsewhere.

Why are people interpreting that he’d be saying this about his employer? He is literally saying that Madonna is an artist and puts her money, fame, artistry and power where her mouth is. I could speculate he means any number of people, none of whom need to be named because it will just incur the wrath of weirdo sheeple…the vast majority of current pop stars are nowhere near Madonna’s level of consistent engagement to her causes. I don’t know why anyone would question Ricardo’s dedication, admiration and devotion to Madonna, nor has he ever given any reason for us to think he isn’t grateful for his position. Clearly Madonna likes him very much (just go back to that French Madame X interview in which the journalist said he was snapping shots of her in the distance and M thought he was a paparazzo to see how much his relationship with her has solidified over the subsequent five years), and if he facetunes her until there’s nothing more than a hint of realism it is because she wants it that way. It’s fame, an inherently deceptive, illusory concept with no substance. I’ve always felt his style was meant to capture the essence of our time! AI, VR…Whatever it is, Madonna is an intelligent, intellectual, mature woman who has her reasons for everything she does. We may not understand them all the time, and she certainly doesn’t explain herself much, but if she’s willing to go on a world tour and be photographed as she truly looks every night she takes to the stage we can at least be assured that she doesn’t have a problem with how she looks in real life or on IG, and neither should anyone else. Now that it’s been confirmed for us all to see that she is still a stunning beauty in the flesh at 65, I’d say it’s even more obvious just how conceptual the IG filters are intended to be in a world obsessed with youth. Whether or not they are necessary is like asking whether or not Where’s The Party should have been a global single. It wasn’t, and so it is! And yes, I think we are all a bit jealous of Ricardo. How could we not be?! What a life he gets to experience!

You’re right. It was a poor choice of genre to use techno. I meant house music. 🙏🏼

I’m not sure I’d agree with that. If you listen to a lot of r n’b, soul and boogie from 1978-1982, all of Madonna’s earliest material is inspired by and derivative of those genres. Reggie Lucas is literally one of the architects of that sound, and Madonna was a regular at clubs where Larry Levan, Jellybean and champions of the genre DJ’d. It’s mostly a case of that music not making it to the pop mainstream because the genre was considered black, and neither radio nor burgeoning video channels and programming like MTV would play it. Where Into The Groove and much of Nile’s electronic influence on Like A Virgin differs is in the slow infusion of techno, which was also already big in black clubs in Chicago and NY. In this sense, Into The Groove is a blueprint for the future of mainstream dance pop. Also, I posted this literally three hours before this post by Chihuahua with the video embedded. It helps to take the time to check if something has already been shared. 😎

I initially thought it was well-researched, but there was a great deal of information left out, and it became tedious beyond the Girlie Show. There was too much of a tendency to stick to a bird’s eye view of her career, with little actual deeper research. I understand that she wanted to make it a historical account of Madonna’s life, and while it is lengthy and I am sure it took a great deal of work, there’s something lacking in the end. In the second half of Madonna’s career there is practically no insight beyond a basic timeline of publicly seen performances and interviews. The author spends far too much time recounting the details of each tour (with occasional glaring errors), barely making any effort to contextualize beyond her own personal discovery of Madonna’s work and dryly conveying what she sees, which is of no interest to fans as we have all seen the shows. The early years are where the book succeeds…It’s a noble effort, but lacks any real depth or style, and the little attention paid to the latter part of Madonna’s career was almost insulting.

Barbra Streisand gave a free concert in Central Park in 1967, as did Simon and Garfunkel in 1981.

This thread is becoming unhinged again. I don’t even know if these are real people at this point. The posts are so trivial and bizarre that I honestly question if they are written by bots. I get that English isn’t everyone’s first language, but not even the worst direct translation can account for some of the lyrical bile I find myself reading sometimes. And it’s pages of it! Either people repeating the same thing over and over again, or random mood fits that should call for compassion and empathy because clearly there is a mental struggle on display, but then I remind myself that this is a MADONNA forum, not a support group. Can we focus on the actual topic of the thread and try to find the most intelligent and unique way to convey our personal perspectives? Humor is always a plus, as is self-awareness, but a critical eye requires knowledge and understanding.

Take A Bow ends with the lyric “Say goodbye”. The Michael Jackson tribute ends with the words “Never Can Say Goodbye” accompanied by the ethereal sounding “Angel” snippet. Madonna as a singer and cultural icon will live on forever, or at least long after she’s gone. Then all the Madonnas appear to demonstrate the breadth of her musical and visual impact while singing LUV Madonna while the real Madonna sings Bitch I’m Madonna. That’s the concept. It’s pretty straightforward.

I think it is extremely likely that she has indeed recorded a good deal of material that is awaiting release. Her initial game plan was to be done with the tour by December 2023. It is entirely possible she had an entire album ready for release prior to her illness. It's also possible that as Stuart Price has been consistently present throughout the tour dj-ing and overseeing sound engineering that they have collaborated musically on new material. He has had plenty of time to present ideas and she has had plenty of time on her days off to record vocals and co-produce.

Yes. I know your take. You have posted her London concert dates a multitude of times. I am not the enemy, I swear! I think she sounds great. I don't need to watch videos to justify my opinion, although I have watched footage of almost every date she has performed. I was at four of the LA shows and I attended two shows in NY. Her live voice is much louder in the mix currently than it was in NY in January, and from my assessment of multiple videos on dates prior to those and after, this was more often the case than not. The London shows were at the very beginning of the tour; her voice wasn't tired yet. It inevitably happens that she becomes hoarse on every tour. Additionally, she shouts a lot between her trying to reach those higher notes, particularly on Burning Up and yelling "rage" nightly in her Mother and Father rap. It isn't great for the vocal cords. She usually has sounded better when she has had a couple of nights off with the exception of the period when she was nursing a cold. This was different in LA because she performed five shows in a week, and yet her voice was strong with the exception of Saturday when she lost her upper range entirely and acknowledged it.