Madonna’s canonicals of pop and spectacles for redemption

BANGKOK, Thailand – It is telling that the most notorious pop-religionist decided to open her latest world tour in Tel Aviv.

And, for the first time ever, she performed not one but two shows at the cradle of progressive Middle East: Abu Dhabi. 

Madonna’s MDNA World Tour is rich with religious imagery, references to past eras (think early 90s Erotica era) and, more vividly, performance art that strongly depicts Madonna — 30 years at the top — as a scorned woman still dealing with a lot of demons. 

One thing’s for certain, however: after a highly-charged, two-hour spectacle, the Queen of Pop would leave one realizing that “in the midnight hour, you’d indeed feel her pow’r.”  

A Madonna concert is not just a typical diva showcase; it is an indelible pop-culture experience. 

But, boy, it wasn’t an easy one to partake of.

I had to fly 7 hours from this side of the world to Abu Dhabi, spend my hard-earned pink dollar on a visa, an air ticket, her tour merchandise (Material Girl always wins, you see); not to mention put up with nearly 50 degrees of urban desert heat. 

World-renowned Italian DJ Benny Benassi, who produced the club-banging songs on Madonna’s latest album, MDNA, was the opening act.

It was a decent set, but it would have been more appropriate in an enclosed club venue than a concert arena. After Benassi played, the real crowd action began.

And it wasn’t because the main act was already onstage. 

Madonna made the crowd wait for a good hour and a half, with only Michael Jackson’s Thriller album playing in the background as finishing touches were being made to her stage.

The Queen paying homage to The King? It was a sweet gesture, but it didn’t matter to the crowd.

Jeers and boos filled the arena. During this waiting period, some fans in the jam-packed Gold Circle (VIP section) started fainting and fighting — literally — as the Abu Dhabi nighttime humidity became increasingly unbearable.

But all that quickly wore off the moment Madonna hit the stage.

Known for her grand concert entrances, Madonna may have done her best to date: deafening chanting from robed monks, smoke blowing onstage from a ginormous incense chalice, human gargoyles and the most famous Catholic rebel in pop-culture history — inside a confessional box reciting her now signature Act of Contrition. 

And then she came onstage, poignantly between giant visuals of breaking cathedral murals. Madonna sang (with generous help from backup singers) and break-danced to Girl Gone Wild.

The entire first set was filled with non-stop singing and dancing, with a theme that was also glaringly dark and violent.

The second performance, Revolver, saw her adopting an assassin vibe, complete with an all-female backup dance troupe and gun-toting choreography. This mood continued throughout Gang Bang where she broke into a dance-(and kill)-off routine with masked dancers as she drank from a Jack Daniels bottle.

If there was a pop spectacle version of a Tarantino flick, that would have been it.

Madonna in recent tours has also started to incorporate a guitar segment.

For MDNA, she kicked this segment off with an album highlight, I Don’t Give A. This is a song about the multi-tasking life of the busiest woman on earth. Despite the absence of a dance routine, Madonna managed to rock the crowd; a special video appearance from Nicki Minaj gave it an even harder oomph. 

The concert greatly benefited from the large, movable LED screens, where images and visuals that accompanied every song was played, giving the audience an out-of-this-world experience. Think of Madonna’s now-legendary Super Bowl half-time show, and imagine that kind of production quality tailored for a concert crowd. 

Of course, a Madonna performance wouldn’t be one without a societal message.

One of the highlights came from a video interlude of Nobody Knows Me, a moving abstract of Madonna collaged with images of famous and notorious leaders and icons. It was a fitting tribute to the victims of bullying around the world. 

Madonna has often been berated for her supposedly limited vocal ability, and though there were backing-track-assisted parts (only when she was dancing her derriere off), her voice soared beautifully in the more somber songs — particularly in the Golden-Globe-winning Masterpiece.

Those who expected to see Madonna sing most of her classic hits would have been disappointed; the set list contained songs mostly from her latest album. Though she’s probably the most non-nostalgic star of the rock era, Madonna, almost uncharacteristically, served the audience with 3 of her lesser-performed classics: a few verses of Papa Don’t Preach, an all-out Open Your Heart and — the most controversial — Express Yourself, brilliantly mashed up with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. 

Perennial favorites Vogue and Like A Prayer still remain as crowd-pleasing as ever. It was in singing these songs that Madonna appeared the most comfortable and powerful.

Closing song Celebration officially ended the dark tone of MDNA, as if symbolically telling the audience that Madonna’s redemption from her sins has finally arrived. The mood was perfected by the scene-stealing appearance of her son, Rocco Ritchie.

The Madonna and son looked genuinely gleeful onstage. 

Much has been said and written about Madonna’s place in pop-culture history. At several points during the concert, there were collective oooohhhs and aaaahhs from the crowd, and so much of “OMG she’s amazing!” “We love you Madonna!!!” and, my personal favorite, “How old is she again?”

As if the crowd needed an affirmation that, at 53 years old, Madonna is, indeed, our musical star equivalent of a superhuman. – Rappler.com

Nico Marco is a Filipino expat in Bangkok. He heads the PR team of online hotel-booking company, Agoda.