Pop Queen: Feast for the eyes: Madonna celebrates the start of her tour in London

“I’m not a quitter!” (I’m not giving up!) shouts Madonna to the crowd of almost 20,000 people at the O2 venue in London. The US pop icon kicked off her world tour “The Celebration Tour” with a concert in the British capital on Saturday. It’s an anniversary tour in two respects, because she turned 65 this year and it’s been 40 years since she had her big breakthrough with the song “Holiday.”

But the “Queen of Pop” had to struggle with setbacks this year. She had to postpone the start of her tour, which was originally planned for the summer in the USA, due to a serious bacterial infection. “I didn’t think I would make it,” she says looking back.

But she did it. And contrary to what some commentators have already predicted, it doesn’t look like Madonna has reached the end of her stage career. Although she struggles with technical problems at times during the show, the way she twirls around the stage with her backup dancers makes it clear: Madonna can still dance, Madonna can still sing and Madonna can still be sexy.

Looks, costumes, show

Earlier this year, her appearance at the Grammy Awards ceremony, with severely swollen cheeks, forehead and lips, caused concern. In London she seems to be her old self again: long legs, peroxide blonde hair and the familiar facial features. But the person Madonna, who always talks about starting difficulties as an artist, her parents, her children and also the situation in Israel and Palestine, seems more vulnerable than before.

Elaborate costumes based on previous outfits, as well as artistic choreographies and large-scale projections make the show a feast for the eyes. Madonna sometimes floats meters high above the audience in a huge picture frame, sometimes she lets herself sink into a mountain of seemingly naked bodies.

Huge projection surfaces and three-dimensional, movable elements transform the room into another place within seconds: during the 1989 hit “Like A Prayer,” the stage looks like a mixture of a medieval altarpiece and a sado-maso dungeon. In “Dont’t Tell Me” from 2000, the huge room looks like a prairie with mustangs seemingly galloping through the hall.

However, there is hardly any live music at the show. Madonna is only accompanied by instruments a few times, such as in the song “Bad Girl”, where her daughter Mercy sits at the piano. Madonna herself picks up the guitar several times. But there is no live band among the 200-strong touring crew.

An audience member dressed in a Madonna-inspired pink outfit feels more like she’s at a Westend show than a concert, she says – but she’s thrilled nonetheless. Madonna is a bit lost in the whole spectacle, says a man who boasts that he has seen all of her shows live so far.

Ian Champkins, a 57-year-old bank employee who traveled from Cornwall with his husband Dean to see Madonna live, believes that the “Queen of Pop” has once again “showed the middle finger” to all her critics. He said she did an excellent job of covering up the technical problems with the sound system, and it also suits Madonna that when faced with adversity she says: “Now more than ever!”

Madonna really has the crowd in her hands during “La Isla Bonita” (1987). As the concert builds to a rapid climax with the song “Music”, released in 2000, it ends almost abruptly. The conclusion should still be that the most commercially successful singer, with around 330 million records sold, remains a force to be reckoned with.

The “Celebration Tour” takes Madonna through twelve countries in Europe and North America. Of the 78 planned concerts, four are to take place in Germany. Madonna will perform in Cologne on November 15th and 16th and will be seen in Berlin on November 28th and 29th.