Review: Madonna heats up the X with a late-night greatest hits show

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
Updated ·4 min read
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Madonna has never been afraid to make her fans wait. She said as much in her 2005 banger “Hung Up”: “Time goes by so slowly for those who wait.”

It took her 40 years to stage her first greatest hits show after focusing each of her previous 11 tours on the then-new album, while skipping her many smashes and offering the few oldies that made the cut in often radically rearranged takes. Oh, and she also took a whopping seven and a half years off from touring in the ’90s.

Tuesday night, the 65-year-old Michigan native brought her Celebration Tour to St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center more than six months after it was initially scheduled. And, true to form, she took the stage at 10:10 p.m., far later than the advertised start time of 8:30, which pushed the show well past midnight.

It’s exceedingly rare for arena concerts to run so late into the night, particularly now that even Axl Rose can get on stage at a reasonable hour. Some may excuse Madonna as she’s always been like this, but others are correct to note that it’s pointless and even rude to stage a tardy weeknight concert attended almost entirely by Gen Xers and Boomers.

While Madonna can be accused of many things, no one can call her lazy. She’s notorious for her rigorous rehearsal schedules and keen attention to detail, which was once again made clear during Tuesday night’s dazzling, if occasionally flawed, concert. (Indeed, the reason for the Celebration Tour’s delay was that she was hospitalized with a “serious bacterial infection” during brutal tour preparations last summer that, by her own account, could have killed her.)

Madonna also knows exactly what she wants and Tuesday’s concert was very much Madonna’s take on a greatest hits show. That meant she skipped some of her biggest smashes, including “Borderline,” “Dress You Up,” “True Blue,” “Cherish,” “Frozen,” “This Used to Be My Playground,” “Deeper and Deeper” and “Secret.”

That also meant no live band beyond some guitar from Madonna and her son David along with piano from her daughter Mercy. Instead, Madonna turned over her original masters to Stuart Price (co-producer of her final truly essential album, 2005’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor”), who created a new, bass-heavy sonic bed by tweaking the mixes, incorporating bits and pieces of other songs and adding sounds that didn’t make it into the initial recordings. Case in point, “Like a Prayer” included a chunk of Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ Madonna-inspired “Unholy” along with some previously unheard guitar work from Prince, who worked with Madonna on portions of her album of the same name.

With “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Bob the Drag Queen acting as emcee, the show told Madonna’s story — her version of it, anyway — through a loosely chronological series of acts, each decorated with the distinct visuals and costumes from each era and presented on the largest stage of her career. And she never broke a sweat, despite some occasionally murky sound and the sweltering 80 degree heat in the arena that’s apparently one of Madonna’s contractual demands.

It started with her early days in New York City (“Everybody,” a rocked-up “Burning Up,” the mashup “Into the Hollywood Groove”), moved into her late ’80s/early ’90s embrace of queer culture and her own sexuality (“Erotica,” “Justify My Love,” “Vogue,” complete with a mini drag ball featuring her daughter Estere), explored both her strength and vulnerability (“Die Another Day,” “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” “Mother and Father”) and took a quick dive into sheer bliss (“Bedtime Story,” “Ray of Light,” “Like a Virgin”).

She dedicated her early ballad “Live to Tell” to those who died from AIDS, ranging from her own friends (former roommate Martin Burgoyne, dance teacher Christopher Flynn) to famous faces (Freddie Mercury, Keith Haring, Arthur Ashe). Large screens began with the photos of the big names that were replaced with smaller photos of dozens and then hundreds of other people who died. It was a powerful moment in an evening filled with lighter, more bawdy fare.

Later, she recreated the cowboy dance from the video for “Don’t Tell Me,” one of her best, and most unusual, singles. She spoke briefly of her friendship with Prince and followed with an acoustic “Express Yourself” and cover of the Purple One’s “Kiss.”

Madonna wrapped the evening with “Bitch I’m Madonna.” Some two dozen of her dancers emerged in unique Madonna drag, turning the stage into a hall of mirrors reflecting and, yes, celebrating all aspects of her remarkable career.

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