Saturday, May 20, 2006

This Summer, the World Is Madonna's Dance Floor

Tomorrow, Madonna embarks on her "Confessions Tour" in Los Angeles, for which she promises to "pull out all the stops" as she makes her way across major U.S. cities (including Las Vegas, Phoenix, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Miami), Canada, Europe, and Japan.

Yet I cannot help but wonder if perhaps it’s too much too soon. After all, her hit "Reinvention Tour" was only two years ago. Is it really necessary for her to tour again after a couple of summers?

"I'm going to turn the world into one big dance floor," Madonna said back in April when the tour was announced. (Oh, yeah? Then how come there’s no South America or Australia on the schedule?) Surely, if anyone can do this it is the Queen of Pop, who at 47 has never looked or sounded better.

Am I excited about the tour? You bet your leotard I am.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that she’s coming to town. I just think that Madonna could’ve spent a little more time building up the success of her last album, Confessions on a Dance Floor
, stateside, before touring, since it was such a smash hit everywhere else.

For one, she should not have waited four months between the release, as singles, of the catchy "Hung Up" and "Sorry." Why was that? Oh, and get this – she's not releasing "Get Together" until the end of July.

And why hasn’t she tapped into some sort of advertisement tie-in for "Jump"?

These aren’t questions that only I am thinking about. Other fans are, too.

Also, since the whole premise of the "Confessions Tour" is to make the world into "one big dance floor," why has she reportedly included the undeniably slow numbers "Live to Tell," Drowned World/Substitute for Love," and "Paradise (Not for Me)" on the set list?

(Hey, at least she's doing "Like a Virgin" – I should just shut my trap, even though she's not doing "Holiday" for the first time ever – and who knows, perhaps she's re-invented those numbers for this tour.)

Again, Madonna can do whatever she wants (as she does remarkably well so often); I’ll try to be there to dance and sing, get up, and do my thing.
But, couldn’t she have included more upbeat, dance-y songs like "Physical Attraction," "Love Profusion," "Everybody," and "Keep It Together" in this upcoming outing?

In the end, none of it really matters – the "Confessions Tour" will be the hottest ticket this summer. I just wish I didn’t have all these questions. It’s called anticipation, I suppose, which is something Madonna still manages to create every step of the way.

P.S.: Rumor has it that Guy Ritchie will accompany the missus on the road, and that he will document the tour on film à la Truth or Dare and I'm Going to Tell You a Secret. Not for nothing, but that sounds like a really cool rumor.

Photo: CBSNews.com.

1 comment:

Ecstasy Made Me Gay said...

Madonna couldn't release "Jump" as a single because She was contractually obliged to wait until the "The Devil Wears Prada" flick was released.

I caught the friends & family performance of Confessions, and you are going to LOVE the show.