Tonight...

The cover of the brand new tourbook for the new Madonna tour! Love it!

Madonna is set to vogue her way around the world on her MDNA concert tour, which kicks off Thursday in Tel Aviv — and she’s enlisted a cadre of designers to create an array of showstopping looks for the stage.

The Material Girl’s parade of costume changes includes outfits from longtime collaborators Jean Paul Gaultier and Jeremy Scott, shoes from Prada and Miu Miu and pieces from Alexander Wang. Dolce & Gabbana made suits for the band and background vocalists, Fausto Puglisi created menacing bandolier vests and rams head masks for the backup dancers and even J Brand whipped up custom-made jeans.

Bras and panties — including one heart-shaped style from Madonna’s new intimates line Truth or Dare — are incorporated into some numbers, as are shoes from the new Truth or Dare footwear line, at retail this fall. A somber, elegiac version of the usually peppy “Like a Virgin” will be sung by Madonna in an Agent Provocateur bra.

Costume designer and stylist Arianne Phillips, who oversaw the entire wardrobe design for Madonna, her backup singers, musicians and 22 backup dancers says…

“It’s a real journey from the first act to the fourth, and the way she constructs her shows is like a theater piece.”

The original Gaultier design is worn during the “Vogue” number and includes a white shirt, black tie, opera-length black gloves and a rigid skeleton corset. The getup references the iconic pink bustier-with-pin-striped suit look the designer created for Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition world tour, widely considered a pinnacle of both of their careers.

Gaultier explained…

“We played with the ideas of a suit and a corset. But the corset is now like a cage.

What I have done this time is a nod to the conical bra corset of the Blond Ambition tour but reinterpreted in 3-D, in patent leather on the outside with metallic leather on the inside.

It’s all about masculine and feminine, Madonna and Jean Paul Gaultier classics reinterpreted for 2012.

I love Madonna. She is the only woman I have asked to marry me. She refused, of course. But when she asked me to do a costume for her for this tour, I couldn’t refuse.”

The designer and Phillips also re-created some archival Gaultier pieces for Madonna’s dancers, as an homage to his long relationship with the iconic singer. Gaultier was also responsible for the kinky equestrian and “Saturday Night Fever”-inspired looks of Madonna’s 2006 Confessions tour, and she once walked his runway with her nipples exposed.

Prada created high-heeled shoes for the male dancers in the gender-bending “Vogue” performance, which includes imagery of the Vogue magazine logo on massive video screens — similar to Madonna’s Super Bowl performance of the song, which was viewed by 117 million people.

Arianne Phillips added…

“This show is epic and bigger than anything she’s done before. There are many more costume changes. We’re taking 700 shoes on the road. Madonna changes outfits seven or eight times and the dancers change 10 to 15 times, depending on the dancer. Prada have been generous for so many years. Her relationship with them is really special. Everything is specially made and they made some incredible high-heeled boots for the boys.”

Phillips, who has done the costumes for Madonna’s four previous tours, designed a number of looks herself, delivering a wide range for her famously chameleonlike boss. The lineup veers from a forbidding Joan of Arc-inspired outfit fashioned from metal mesh and Swarovski Elements to a vernal, miniskirted majorette getup for the 53-year-old “Girl Gone Wild” singer.

“It’s inspired by a 1940s majorette and I was looking for something playful and fun.

The show explores the idea of stripping away layers of identity and discovering the layers of who you are.

This is her brainchild and her concept. We have a 15-year relationship and there’s a rhythm to how we collaborate. She’s very open-minded but she expects a lot.

Madonna herself was closely involved with the show’s costume design. She’s always challenging herself and pushing herself constantly to learn new things and she pushes me further than I would myself. When you’re on the world stage with her, you really have to bring your A game.”

Masks are a big component to many outfits, with dancers hiding their faces behind gargoyle and bunny guises. There’s a menacing streak to some looks, with themes of violence explored in certain segments, which are accessorized with swords, guns, armor and holsters.

As for the media dustup this week when Madonna supposedly lobbed a grenade at Lady Gaga by mashing up her own “Express Yourself” with Lady Gaga’s allegedly reductive “Born This Way” in rehearsals, it wasn’t just a ploy for attention and it’s part of the permanent show. At the end of the song, Madonna throws in the line “She’s Not Me,” from her recent song of the same name.

Liz Rosenberg said…

“Whether it’s an homage or a smack in the face or just being funny, I don’t know, People can decide what it means. Madonna isn’t one to explain herself.”

Madonna has donated 600 tickets to her show in Tel Aviv to members of the Israeli and Palestinian peace camps, who who are set to take part in a special tribunal on peace.

The singer met with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists on Wednesday, ahead of her concert in front of an estimated 30,000 fans in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Madonna, who has termed her show a "peace concert," met with activists including veteran journalist Ron Pundak, and Yariv Openheimer, director of Peace Now, and pledged to talk about peace during her show at Ramat Gan Stadium.

Pundak told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that aside from Jewish peace activists, "there will be many Palestinian and Arab-Israeli activists" at the show tonight.

Madonna's Tel Aviv concert is the first in a world tour to promote her new album, MDNA. The Tel Aviv show is expected to start at 20:45, after performances by DJ Ofer Nissim and DJ Martin Solveig.

Terror...

AZERBAIJAN foiled an attempt to stage "terrorist" attacks while it was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest last week and arrested dozens of suspected plotters, the security ministry says.

"The main goal of the group was to stage terrorist acts in Baku during Eurovision," the National Security Ministry said today. "As a result of the measures taken, 40 members of the group were arrested."

The group was planning attacks on the concert hall where Eurovision was held, on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, police buildings, hotels used by foreigners, mosques and other religious sites in the ex-Soviet state, it said.

The plotters "obtained Eurovision tickets with the aim of (committing) a terrorist act at the Baku Crystal Hall" where the pop competition was held, it said.

They were allegedly planning to hit the oil-rich, mainly Muslim country's strongman leader Aliyev during his visit to Azerbaijan's north-western regions last month.

They also intended to target the luxury Hilton and Marriott hotels in Baku by blowing up cars packed with explosives, according to the statement.

Security services detained the alleged gang during operations in the cities of Baku, Ganja and Sumgayit as well as several other regions of the country, the ministry said without giving dates.

"The National Security Ministry opted not to disseminate information about neutralising the group during Eurovision in order not to provoke panic among citizens and foreign guests," it said.

Some of the alleged plotters put up armed resistance and two suspects were killed, both of them Azerbaijani citizens, the statement said.

A large amount of firearms and explosives was also allegedly seized when the suspects were detained.

The plot was said to have been hatched during a meeting between three of the suspects and what the statement described as "Dagestani emirs" across the border in the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan in February 2011.

"The goal was to create an atmosphere of anarchy, to spread panic among citizens," the ministry said.

After the attacks, the group was planning to hide in the forests of Dagestan and wait for more armed militants to join them, it said.

Eurovision, watched by more than 100 million people worldwide, was the biggest cultural event staged in Azerbaijan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.



Also:

Each year, in Australia, broadcaster SBS holds an unofficial televote during the live shows of the Eurovision Song Contest to see who the Australian public think should win Europe's Favourite TV Show. This year, like the rest of Europe, they agreed that Sweden was the best song.

Australia broadcast the three shows over the weekend of Friday 25th to Sunday 27th May. Although the shows were not screened live, the majority of Australians stay away from the internet and news channels to avoid finding out the results prior to the shows being aired.

Broadcaster SBS also avoid putting any spoilers on their website, so that fans can watch as though the shows are live without finding out the results first.

The resuls of the Australian televote for the Final:

Sweden 72,186

Russia 55,270

Ireland 50,314

Italy 36,130

Denmark 33,638

Cyprus 27,538

Germany 24,958

Greece 22,328

Ukraine 22,172

Iceland 21,430

Moldova 21,220

Malta 20,878

Turkey 20,402

FYR Macedonia 18,842

Norway 17,694

Serbia 17,160

Lithuania 15,472

Spain 14,164

Romania 13,424

United Kingdom 12,862

France 12,150

Estonia 11,824

Albania 10,902

Azerbaijan 9,400

Bosnia & Herzegovina 8,776

Hungary 7,336

Immense...

We remember when we first heard about it. A Time Out colleague, complete with wide ‘I’ve-got-a-secret’ grin, murmuring that someone ‘immense’ was coming to Abu Dhabi; so immense, that no one in the building was supposed to say the artist’s name yet because it was all still very, very, strictly confidential. We knew instantly it could only be one person. Who else lives up to the hype? Well, who, bar perhaps Stevie Wonder, Prince, Metallica or a Beatle, all of whom have graced us with their presence already.

No, it had to be Madonna. It had to be the best-selling female artist of all time. Love her, hate her, shrug your shoulders at her, obsess fanatically over her: the 53-year-old US star has made cultural and artistic history with her chameleon-like image and musical styles. This, along with her knack for enlisting the right co-artists at exactly the right time, and her ability to both flout social codes of acceptability and outrage religious leaders and authoritarians the world over – often during her live tours.

Right now, however, all anyone wants to know about her estimated 50,000-strong two shows is how event organiser Flash is going to keep us all cool, outside, in Abu Dhabi, in June. So here we bring you the inside track on the Madonna shows, direct from the horse’s mouth: aka Lee Charteris, the man who runs Flash Entertainment operations…

So, those ‘H’ words: ‘heat’, ‘humid’, ‘hot’. The weather forecast at time of going to press was a high of 44˚C on Sunday June 3. ‘How’ are you going to stop us all going ‘hysterical’? ‘We’re bringing in a whole series of fans, water and cooling stations. The du Arena [formerly Yas Arena] is not far from the water, so there’s always a fair amount of breeze up there. Misting stations and cooling domes will be in place around the arena, there will be a two-for-one deal on bottles of water (Dhs10 for two), and ice lollies and other cool items will be available at the food stands. Our message is: drink lots of water, dress accordingly and, if you’re coming in a group, make sure you look after each other.’

And what about Madge herself? Fit she may be, but coping with 85 percent humidity while dancing around in five-inch heels would be tricky for a woman half her age… ‘There will be special air-conditioning units and large fans on stage blowing at the star and her performers throughout the show.’

Didn’t anyone think that putting on an outdoor concert in the UAE June might not be a good idea? ‘When Madonna announced her world tour, we had the opportunity to book her in June. It was either these dates [or no dates]. So we made the decision to take them. Why would you not want to bring an artist of this stature to the UAE?’

Hear, hear. So that’s temperature tackled; next we want to know what’s going on with all those cranes we saw at the arena when we sailed past last weekend? ‘We’re installing new grass areas and tarmac roadways. We decided to upgrade the venue’s infrastructure prior to the arrival of the Madonna technicians. Even before the start of the build-up to the concert, there are already about 200 people working on the site.’

How much of the show is micro-managing Madonna organising? ‘She’s bringing everything, including the kitchen sink. For most concerts the promoter invariably provides the infrastructure (the toilets, the fences, the bars, the barriers – all the bits that make up the workings of the show) and the artist will bring their own musical instruments. Madonna is bringing three 747s full of equipment in the next three days. There will be hundreds of people working at the airport prior to and after the event loading all this stuff on and off planes. That in itself is a gargantuan effort.’

Goodness. Does she carry a lot of spares? ‘There are allowances for breakages, of course. But when Madonna is out on tour, with all her bells and whistles, the message is that every element of her show is the same in every territory. The show that people see in Abu Dhabi will be identical to the show they would see in New York, London or wherever.’

A special 800-meter stage was built in Belgium. It includes hidden stages and its design will change for each song. A special section called the "Diamond" was built to protrude from the stage into the audience. In addition, a tent city was built, including bedrooms, a game area for the singer's children.

She’s not been told to tone down her lyrics, dancing or outfits for Abu Dhabi audiences, then? ‘We don’t talk to artists about these things; we don’t impose on artists what they can and can’t do. That’s the art of the performer.’

So what does Madonna herself have to tell us about her show? ‘It’s a little under two hours long, and the choreography is entirely new,’ the star said recently. ‘I’ve been training to slack-line [a type of balance on a nylon rope] for the tour. There’s a lot of violence. I work out some aggression during the first part of the show, before it gets to the happy part.’ One word: immense.

Madonna, supported by Benny Benassi plays the du Arena in Abu Dhabi on Sunday June 3 and Monday 4. Doors open 7pm, Madonna takes to the stage from approximately 9pm.


Time Out

He Put A Spell On Us...

I went to see Bryan Ferry in concert on Sunday night. And what can I say, except that he was fantastic!

He played to a full house (which included the president of Iceland and his wife along with several of the main politicians of the country). We had excellent seats and loved every single song he performed, although to be fair there were a few that we were not totally familiar with. No matter, they were all great! The absolute highlights for me were the performances of "Jealous Guy", "I Put A Spell On You/Slave To Love", "Love Is The Drug", "Avalon" and "Reason Or Rhyme".



Sadly there was no signing session, although he did sit outside a cafe close to the concert hall on the day of the show and signed autographs for people that happened to walk by (of course I was at that same cafe, just a  few hours later - grrrr). I did however manage to get a tour program....





Ferry arrived in Iceland on Saturday and had a meeting with the current president. He did a few interviews - click here for one of them. He mentioned during one of the interviews that he is currently working on two new albums! Massuer, Dom Perignon champagne and Evian water are said to have been his only backstage requirements. He mentioned in interviews that he planned to check out Reykjavik (especially the art museums) and that he really liked the building that he was playing in.


He played another sold out concert on Monday before leaving the country on Tuesday.






Newspaper Fréttablaðið gave the concert a glowing 5 out of 5 review. Here are parts from it, loosely translated to english:


It was a packed hall that welcomed Bryan Ferry and his band on Sunday night. The first song was "I Put A Spell On You", then the megahit "Slave To Love", followed by "Don't Stop The Dance" and then three Bob Dylan tracks in a row.


There were 13 people on the stage, including dancers and two of Ferry's old pals: Paul Thompson (Roxy Music drummer) and Chris Spedding, who guitar played on several of Ferry's older albums. Other players included the excellent guitar player Oliver Thompson and Jorja Chalmers on saxophone.


Bryan Ferry performed tracks from hiw whole career, including four tracks from his 70's Roxy Music albums, three from Avalon and two from his most recent album, Olympia - total of 21 tracks. The concert was fantastic and filled with highlights. The biggest audience reactions were for hits such as "Love Is the Drug", "Jealous Guy" and "More Than This", but lesser known tracks (arranged to highlight the band) were just as good. These included "My Only Love", "Reason Or Rhyme" and Ferry's version of the Neil Young track "Like A Hurricane". 

Much has been made of the look and style of Ferry through the years, and he looked fantastic on stage. The band was all dressed in black and gold.

The lights and the screen projections were great as well. But what really mattered was the music. The arrangements were authentic, the band was brilliant and a good tracklist, although old fans such as myself felt that a couple of songs were missing form the setlist. Ferry was in great form and showed that he is far from finished. Overall, a fantastic concert that met the very high expectations!

The setlist:

I Put A Spell On You - Slave To Love - Don't Stop The Dance - Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues – Make You Feel My Love - Don't Think Twice It's All Right – If There Is Something - Casanova - Alphaville -  Reason Or Rhyme - Like A Hurricane – Tara – Carrickfergus - Chance Meeting - Bitter Sweet - More Than This - Avalon - My Only Love - All Along The Watchtower - Love Is The Drug - Editions Of You – Let's Stick Together -Jealous Guy - Hold On I'm Coming

SOTD....

The summer is here for good it seems. So this little number, which just happens to be one of my favorite summer songs of all time, seems very appropriate:

Footage...

New footage from the rehearsals of the new Madonna tour!

Details...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Tracks...

Time for some tracks. We have a couple of utterly delicious Eurotracks, the confirmation that Kate Ryan IS in fact a robot (no human could stand so much time in the tanning boots), a tacky summerhit and everything in between.

My favorite of the bunch is surprisingly a cover of a Taylor Swift song! Just goes on to show you once again how the production and (especially) the singer can make or break a song.

 

Live And Learn...

A very happy birthday Kylie Minogue! She turns 44 years young today!

TV Bomb...

Kylie Minogue performed her new song "Time Bomb" on The Voice UK tonight. The track entered the UK singles chart today at #31 after just 2 day sales and with no physical release (at least not yet!). Not bad, especially considering that it is really not one of her best tracks (I love everything she does, this one just isn´t quite up to her standards IMO). Still, it may not be "All The Lovers" or "Confide In Me" but it is a new Kylie song!

The princess will be releasing a new album next year, and I hope she will move into a different direction with that record. She has released an amazing amount of pop classics over the last 25 (!) years, but she is very capable of other things as well! I would love to see her do a bit darker and more serious music for an album or two, without totally abandoning her "discopoproots". Her 1997 album "Impossible Princess" is without a doubt one of her strongest releases to date and I would very much like a follow up to that (and then perhaps a triumphant return of PopKylie again after that).

No matter what she does I will follow. This just seems like a good time for her to try out something new.

Sh'e's Not Me And She Never Will Be!...

Leave to Madonna to set the record straight! This clip (and the photos) are from the rehearsals for the new tour, which starts in Israel on Thursday!







Also: the final setlist????

Behold - I Am Coming Soon...

International music icon Madonna arrived in Israel on Friday to kick off her hotly anticipated world tour with a sold-out performance in Tel Aviv.

She arrived amid tight security on a chartered El Al flight from New York, accompanied by partner Brahim Zaibat, her four children and an entourage of 70, local media reported.

Thursday's Tel Aviv show is the first of 84 dates across Europe and the Americas, according to her website.

They are to be followed by a visit to Australia, where Madonna has not appeared in 20 years, it said.

The tour -- Madonna's first since her wildly successful "Sticky and Sweet" outing in 2008 and 2009 -- will support her new album "MDNA." She last performed in Israel in 2009, on the Sticky and Sweet tour.

During that visit she met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visited the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.

Although not Jewish, Madonna is a keen follower of the Jewish mystic discipline of Kabbalah. She visited Israel in 2004 and 2007 on private trips. 

Have a look at some pics from the dress rehearsals! This will be a fantastic show for sure!!!







































Paparazzi photos from Israel:

US TV host Conan O'brien will come to Israel a day before Madonna's MDNA TOUR starts, to have a special coverage of the queen of pop's opening night show in Israel.

His "Conan" late night show got the exclusive deal to have a full covarage of the event, and it will be featured in a dedicated TV special. O'Brien will come to Israel with a crew of 20 people and will have 3 broadcasting teams.

The Conan show is being broadcast on US cable channel TBS.