2023-11-24 00:39:41
Madonna once again conquers the hearts of Milan with her excesses and show-stopping transgressions. Everything can be said about her except that she is not the undisputed queen of pop. Here is the proof, if it were needed. At the Mediolanum Forum in Assago Miss Ciccone, in the first of the two sold out evenings of ‘The Celebration Tour’, offers a spectacular event to fans of yesterday and today through a nostalgic journey into her iconic 40-year musical career. Fourteen of hers have passed since the summer of 2009, when her fans saw her ride in a Rolls Royce onto the San Siro stage, and eight since the last time the diva stopped in Italy. “I’m happy to be here – she says in Italian – It’s important not to forget where you come from. I’m happy to be back in Italy after all this time, I missed you.”
11 thousand, including fans such as Elodie, Angelina Mango, Gianluigi Buffon, Marco Mengoni and the stylists Stefano Gabbana, Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace, arrived in Assago so as not to miss this special Amarcord through the annals of music history. And just as many are expected for next Saturday. The extraordinary tour of 78 dates, which will touch all the main cities of Europe and North America (postponed after the serious infection that hit her before the summer and which even caused fears for her life), is a testimony to Miss Ciccone’s influence and impact not only on pop music but also on the history of costume.
Four of her six children follow her on tour, an integral part of a show full of choreography, visuals, changes of clothes and interspersed with some provocation, as is her habit. “This is not a concert like the others – warns Madonna – I want to show you the story of my life and everything that concerns it, together with my children” and tells of when her father told her that she was “crazy, crazy, crazy” to want to be an artist. Everything starts off great, albeit over an hour and a half late, with Madonna appearing on a stage inspired by the wedding cake of the 1984 MTV Awards, organized in three concentric circles and with over 200 meters of catwalk. The set design is a feast for the eyes, and perfectly blends elements from the various phases of her career.
Five acts of the show, plus an encore, which touches on all the pieces that have served as the soundtrack to the lives of each of us, including those who will deny it. After an overture entrusted to Bob The Drag Queen, master of ceremonies, Madonna takes the stage wrapped in a black kimono and immediately sings ‘Nothing Really Matters’. It follows the joy of the beginnings of ‘Holiday’ and ‘Into the Groove’, up to ‘Live to tell’ with the images of her dear friends who died from AIDS such as Herbs Ritts, Keith Haring and Freddie Mercury scrolling on big screens.
The sacred and the profane merge in ‘Like a Prayer’, passing through the sexiest and most transgressive part with ‘Erotica’, ‘Justify My Love’ and the dancers moving topless to the tune of ‘Hung up’. The show is a crescendo of timeless hits such as ‘Vogue’ and ‘Human Nature’, while in the central part it ranges from the ‘Bondian’ ‘Die Another Day’ to ‘La Isla Bonita’, up to the more intimate ‘Don’t cry’ for me Argentina’ and the new age influences of ‘Ray of light’. At the end a medley of ‘Like a Virgin’ which also includes parts of ‘Billie Jean’ by Michael Jackson, while the last chapter of this journey ends with ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’.
The queen of pop navigates safe waters through her discography and each song is not simply a performance but a celebration of the evolution of pop music, in which she has always been one step ahead of the rest, always accompanied by the equally iconic costumes, curated to the occasion from cult brands such as Vetements, Versace and the inevitable Jean-Paul Gaultier, a long-time friend, who revisited the iconic ‘cone’ bra that everyone knows, transforming it into a fantastic bustier.
Many tributes to the artists who inspired her: Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, Billie Holiday. Faithful to her reputation, the former Material Girl does not avoid using the stage to once again confirm her support for the LGBTQ+ community, present en masse this evening and for which she represents a true icon as well as one of the first testimonials in the world of pop and civil society.
It’s true that she is no longer the penniless young woman seeking her fortune that Mick Jagger himself defined, underestimating her, as “a glass of talent in a sea of ambition”. Her confirmation, if there were still doubts, is that the divine is still a talented monster in an ocean of meteors and starlets who in the past have tried, without success, to imitate her. Madonna is Madonna. Not only does she embody the past, present and future of music, thanks to her innate flair for spotting the next trend and the greatest talents to collaborate with, she has kept intact her ability to always reinvent herself while remaining faithful to the artistic vision of she.
For the fans who attended tonight it was not just a concert but a testament to the timeless impact of a woman who has shaped the musical landscape for four decades of our lives and continues, in her own way, to do so again. (by Federica Mochi)
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