Review: Queen of Pop Madonna Lives to Tell at Xcel Energy Center
Originally published in Twin Cities Gay Scene
The ever-provocative musician took St. Paul, Minnesota on an epic quest through her hit-filled songbook as part of The Celebration Tour
By Derek Murawski-Harguth
Four decades. One artist. One show. Madonna’s The Celebration Tour stopped in St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday, February 13 to the delight of its Xcel Energy Center audience. The show told the life and career story of the undisputed Queen of Pop, Madonna, while re-inventing what a greatest hits tour can be.
Whereas typical greatest hits tours tend to focus on musical hits, Madonna took it a step further, adding her visual iconography to the mix. Anything iconic was fair game. Actors even popped up throughout the show dressed as eerie, near-faceless incarnations of Madonna — wearing only red lipstick. This included her classic “Madonna wannabe” look from the early ‘80s, and the black catsuit from her ‘90s music video for “Human Nature.”
An actor later dressed up in Madonna’s iconic, Jean Paul Gaultier gold corset from the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. Here, Madonna took her concept of making any career highlight a "greatest hit” one step further, grinding on her 1990-self in a recreated red bed from that groundbreaking tour. Here Madonna proved that any successful past incarnation of herself was fair game to titillate her audience — even specific “hers” from past tours. This scene is famous for simulating masturbation on stage.
If you’ve never been to a Madonna concert, you may not know she likes the venue environment to feel like a nightclub. This means noticeably warm temperatures, and warnings at entrances about haze, pyro and strobes being used in the live production. The club floor-like stage reflected this, taking up almost the entire floor section of the arena. It’s no surprise; Madonna has always been at the cutting edge of tour video screens and video interludes, ever since her touring career began.
The stage consisted of a back video wall, a large carousel stage with a giant, tilted ring light above it, and various runways with end stages attached to them. It was nothing short of the most exciting pop concert stage the Twin Cities has seen in quite some time — maybe since Madonna’s own Rebel Heart Tour at the same venue in 2015. The stage was capable of so many configurations and special effects, it was mind-blowing.
Comedian and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen was billed as Madonna’s Special Guest, playing various roles throughout the sprawling, two-hour-plus show. He opened the show, walking through the crowd wearing a stunning tribute to Madonna’s Marie Antoinette-inspired 1990 MTV VMAs “Vogue” performance look. Many audience members were confused where Bob the Drag Queen’s voice was coming from. Catching on, the boisterous comedian teased the crowd by mimicking them, asking, “Where’s that soft, dainty voice coming from?”
Bob the Drag Queen explained that Madonna arrived in New York City in 1978 with $35 in her pocket, only to "become the undisputed Queen of Pop.” This made Madonna’s grand entrance feel even grander, as she spun on the carousel stage singing a surprising opening tune, the impeccably-selected “Nothing Really Matters." Her entrance look was an ornate, draping black outfit with large, hanging sleeves. The sleeves featured large circular cutouts midway down.
Bob the Drag Queen appeared several more times throughout the show, playing a club bouncer, a sad clown with a red balloon, a rodeo clown during “Don’t Tell Me,” and a Ballroom emcee during the “Vogue” section. His fellow RuPaul’s Drag Race star Manila Luzon joined him and Madonna on stage. Manila Luzon and Madonna rated dancers 10s or “CHOP” as they came down the runway, including Madonna’s young daughter Estere, duck walking and vogueing. Estere received 10s across the board.
Estere wasn’t Madonna’s only child on stage; in total, four out of six of the Queen of Pop’s children performed in St. Paul. Daughter Mercy played piano during Madonna’s sizzling performance of “Bad Girl.” Daughter Stella was one of the many dancers recreating the iconic “Don’t Tell Me” country choreography. Son David played guitar throughout the show, and even sang verse two of the 2003 deep cut “Mother and Father” solo, as pictures of his and Madonna’s mothers played on screen. Tuesday night, Madonna proved her children are some of her greatest hits as well.
Not every artist can pull off big sing-a-long moments in an arena concert. Not every artist is Madonna. Whereas many musicians desperately point their microphones toward their crowds and beg, Madonna achieves better audience participation results by just being herself. Her songbook stands for itself. Throughout the night, the crowd roared along to her hits from the ‘80s (like “Crazy for You”), ‘90s (like “Vogue”), ‘00s (like “Hung Up”) and ‘10s (like “Bitch I’m Madonna”).
In a surprise setlist change, Madonna performed “Take a Bow” in the spot where she usually sings either “Rain” or “Frozen.” It was a special treat, as she hasn’t performed “Take a Bow” since 2016. The audience loved every second. She even did acoustic renditions of “Express Yourself” and Prince’s “Kiss.”
On Minneapolis-St.Paul’s own Prince, Madonna said, “I’m in the birthplace of Prince Rogers Nelson. I’ve been here so many times.” She went on to speak of spending time with Prince, Michael Jackson, and all the fallen icons she pays homage to. “There’s death everywhere. So let’s celebrate life.”
During an emotional, vocally-stunning performance of her ballad “Live to Tell,” many screens came down from the ceiling all around the stage. The screens featured photos of legends and friends of Madonna that died of AIDS — many of whom were queer. As the song came to a close, the screens were flooded with countless images of those lost to the virus. It was heart-wrenching.
Just when the stage couldn’t get any cooler, the final end stage of the furthest runway grew into a cube on an epic scale. This was for “Bedtime Story,” containing elements of its Sound Factory Remix. A strawberry-blond Madonna was depicted floating in a dream world. She achieved this by being filmed from above the cube, with said video of her being pasted over other-worldly CGI visuals on the sides of the cube. There were also CGI visuals on the back video wall, creating a further world-building effect.
Madonna was then picked up by a flying black square window, which served as a visual for a time portal. This led to my favorite performance of the night —“Ray of Light (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix)” — featuring Madonna donning a holographic catsuit, and the black, Alien eye-shaped sunglasses featured heavily on her Instagram. Madonna went wild with her dancing during this, free-styling to the beat in an energetic and flashy way.
The Celebration Tour was given deeper meaning after the North American leg was rescheduled from summer 2023, due to a viral infection Madonna had. She has explicitly spoken about her previous illness on this tour, stating she had to survive for her children. We are so fortunate that she lived to tell her story on stage with her children, and share her hits in such a profound way.
5/5 stars
