A huge, but somewhat robotic show. Madonna’s holiday tour in Paris

A severe infection forced him to postpone his 2023 North American tour, which was due to begin this summer. Finally in the fall and in Europe, Madonna started him Holiday tour, a best-of tour that pays tribute to his 40-year career, described as the most important in terms of production. A moment that was, however, meant to be intimate between the star and his fans;

So here she is in the City of Lights this Sunday, November 19, after making a detour through Munich for her third Paris date. The atmosphere is completely captured by the Queen of Pop, as the public came to show their devotion, sometimes decked out in more or less crazy masks. It is Sunday evening, the mood remains calm.

22:00. Madonna is conspicuous by her absence. As Cher says very well. “She’s rude” (“she’s rude,” as the singer described Madonna in a 1991 TV interview). But the lights soon go down and the tone is quickly set when the show’s winner, Bob Karsh, is queen RuPaul’s Drag Race – here as the Ringmaster – arrives in a Marie-Antoinette costume and wig, inspired by the star’s performance of her song “Vogue” at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. Bob lists the feats of arms that shaped the legend of Madonna, best known for arriving in New York at the age of 19 with just $35, a dream and an overabundance of ambition. This intro packs a serious punch, the whole thing shows a temporal ellipsis that grabs us as the energy here suddenly ramps up. The show begins and it’s a journey that promises to take us far, far…

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The queen, the real one, finally arrives. With a crown on her head, dressed in a black Eyob Johannes dress, she launches into her first song “Nothing really important” from her album (the best in our opinion). A ray of light, whose lyrics awaken his youth. Accompanied by punk-looking dancers from the late 70s, some of whom come from the La Horde company of the National Ballet of Marseille, he evokes the atmosphere of the ballrooms and the exciting spectacle of the time. Dressed in shorts and fishnet tights, a cup bra and a long black faux leather coat, Madonna continues her career-first title track ‘Everybody’ and then ‘Into the Groove’ in her new year’s yorkaises.

Then La Ciccone turns to us. He hopes that we will understand and enjoy the journey with him. “Without dreams, we cannot make the impossible possible,” he declares, a speech that has become his trademark as he single-handedly embodies the American capitalist dream. On “Burning up,” Madonna plays electric guitar and overdrives the speakers. Then the scenography comes to life, the fronts of the shows come up on the screen, still in this underground atmosphere of the eighties, where it stretches its roots.

On the chair, the star recreates the original choreography for “Open Your Heart.” Below is a tribute sketch to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom she attended for two years before becoming famous: Madonna is first turned away by an obnoxious bouncer from a nightclub with an artist, but manages to make her way back to a huge disco. descends from the ceiling “Holiday”. On that occasion, Madonna wore a long black cloak. the audience gets up and dances in this disco atmosphere. He may be 65 years old, but he still moves with the same distant and slightly pretentious respect he had at 28. Deep down “he knows he’s a disgrace” Editor’s note)

Tribute and heirs

Another sequence then unfolds, a long tribute to his fellow AIDS victims. The portraits are shown on the screens to the sound of “In this life” from the album Erotica. There we can see in particular the leader of Queen Freddie Mercury, director and photographer Herb Ritts or singer Sylvester. A chance to remember Madonna as a pioneer of LGBT rights, a fight she supported at a time when very few celebrities dared to do so.

Live to tell leads to a more spiritual sequence. monks march in procession to the background of Gregorian chant. This is the beginning of “How to pray”. She appears as a black-robed virgin in front of an illuminated Christian cross. In “Erotica” he is ready for battle in a boxer’s robe. But public energy does not follow. slow time, one hour after the start of the concert. The star is now surrounded by a canopy of half-naked dancers forming a kind of lustful magma. Great length also in Justify My Lovee”, followed by a multimedia delirium on the big screen, the dark dreamscape of which quickly turns into a nightmare. But the audience flocks to the soundHang up which once again turns Bercy into a night club. A grand piano took center stage, and her daughter, Mercy James, who is obviously quite talented, accompanied her. Now it’s “Bad Girl,” which Madonna sings while sitting on a stringed instrument, somewhat immobilized by a fragile knee that forces her to wear a knee brace.

Esther, another of his daughters, then appears on the DJ deck; time for cult status Vogue: that Madonna is performing… in a suit. The stage turns into a catwalk and the dancers take part in a voguing competition. Then comes “Human Nature” and “Crazy For You” where the stage is literally on fire, followed by a long dance break in the form of a mystical march, which will be broken by the raspy and frenzied sounds of “One more day to die”. . Changing universes as quickly as the album, the star continues a much sunnier set with Don’t Tell me.

Moments of sincerity

In “Mom and Dad,” Madonna specifically features a portrait of her mother, who died when she was a child. “Thank you very much,” she says in faltering French. Our Lady invites us to honor mothers, all mothers, before speaking about her own story and the children she adopted. In this dialogue with the public, we feel for once that it is less mechanical, more spontaneous, almost accessible. Accompanying himself on guitar, he performs an acoustic version of “I’ll Survive” with a chorus by all of Bursey. “La Isla Bonita” then gets the crowd into dancing energy again. The apotheosis of the concert on the theme “Don’t cry for me Argentina”, where the star honors the rainbow flag of the struggle for minorities. The promised journey seems to come true in these rare moments of sincerity. Behind the disembodied machine we can see, here and there, Madonna’s real face and sincere outbursts of generosity.

It’s two hours into the concert, and what follows is a long retrospective on screen of his career highlights. What follows is the very lazy ‘Bed time story’ and the dated ‘Ray of light’, the 2000 techno vibe feels a bit dated today. Then comes The Rain and Like a Virgin, with Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean brought to the screen by Chinese Shadows. The thunderous finale of “Bitch I’m Madonna” takes us by surprise. All the dancers are called, each dressed in the iconic look of a star, just like the Disneyland parade. In his words sent to the final: “Don’t forget Paris, there is only one stain”. Editor’s note) Madonna’s car disappears, leaving us with a sense of déjà vu, and perhaps also a sense of disappointment, at a show that took itself a little too seriously.