madonnalicious says a big thank you to everyone who has contributed tour news, pictures and reviews to the site BUT we still need more!

If you can share tour pictures, stories, reports, and scans of any local press the tour receives as the tour travels around the USA then please contact the site.

We are also still especially looking for HQ scans of the tourbook - if you can help please contact the site at webmaster@madonnalicious.com

madonnalicious visitor Stacia saw Madonna's show last night in Las Vegas. Here us her report - which included some advice Madonna gave to someone who lit up a cigarette in the front row!

It was my first Mo show, and she was AWESOME!!! Sure, she was 30 mins late, but who cares? As soon as the lights when down, the sound from the packed arena was deafening. These girls behind me kept screaming 'I love you!' and 'Madonna!' It was great! I can't believe Madonna's going on 46....you'd never know by the fabulous shape she's in. She started the show in a yoga poses, including a full hand-stand! Can I do that? Hell no!

The set list was very impressive. I was looking forward to 'Burning Up,' one of my all-time favorite Mo songs. She totally rocked out on that song, and she looks so sexy playing the guitar - and, she's gotten really good at it! I also loved 'Deeper and Deeper' sung as a ballad, it was actually very emotional. I also loved 'Lament,' which she sang from an electric chair (right after 'Die Another Day').

'Like a Prayer,' 'Music' and 'Get Into the Groove' had the audience going crazy. The crowd sand every song, and eveyone was up on their feet (mine are killing me today, and I have no voice). I really liked 'Bedtime Story.' It was a video of Madonna on huge screens singing the song. She was gorgeous, as she was during the show - absolutely stunning. She had tons of energy, and danced and sang her heart out.
Eveyone who's seen her show is right....she sounds great! Better than she ever has!

I wish she would have connected more with the audience, although she WAS funny when she told somone in the front to put their cigarette out: 'Uh-uh, put that out,' she said.
Then, later, she said to some people in the front, 'Get up! When I sit down, YOU can sit down!' She actually mixed up the verses for 'Material Girl,' and when she realized she had done it, she had an 'oops!' look on her face, then she just smiled and went forward.

The show was full of energy, and didn't seem like it lasted 2 hours, although it did. I wanted more!!! I could have stayed there all night! Now, I want to ge see her again in another city if I can, cause once was just not enough for me. Long live the QUEEN!

madonnalicious brings you the third in a series of pictures from the new book Madonna In Art
Just check out the left-hand side column of this page each Monday for a new picture. This week the portrait is entitled Merdonna and is painted by Brandi Cola.

madonnalicious visitor Tom took these pictures of the show at the Thursday May 27 show at the Forum, Los Angeles.

 

 

madonnalicious visitor Gary was lucky enough to win tickets to the pits at the first of Madonna's Las Vegas dates. Here is his report from the pits:

I won pit tickets from MTV to last night's concert at the MGM Grand. All I can say is WOW. The show was technically intricate and very lively. Madonna was absolute perfection! She was on that stage about 95% of the 2 hour concert.
We were in the stage right pit, up close and personal. She (and her dancers) made a point of making us feel special. She was inches from all of us throughout the concert, and yes, I did touch her....she high fived us throughout the night. She came over to the pit consistently to make sure we knew we had the tickets to beat.
Let me say one thing, that woman can sing! Anyone out there who says otherwise should keep their mouth shut unless they have seen this show. She sounded fantastic and she looked like she was having the best time. Almost every time she came over to us she was smiling or had a smirk on her face because she knew we were in heaven.
I have been a fan for years and let me tell you it was surreal. The Beast Within is very freaky at the opening and it just gets better from there. Also being in the pit allowed us to see into the stage and what was going on underneath. I live in Chicago and I am so glad I won these pit passes from MTV because I couldn't get any tickets here, she sold out too fast. Thank you Madonna for an absolutely magical night. Madonna is hands down the best entertainer out there! I am still reeling from the experience!

Also thanks to Chris for the picture of the Re-Invention tour poster for Las Vegas which seen both inside and outside the MGM Grand venue.

Here are some more scans from this week's US press on Madonna's tour - featured are Pulse, New York Daily News, New York Post and the USA Today Weekend Edition.

 

 

The Portugese press continue to go mad-for-Madonna.
Here are two newspaper articles about the Re-Invention tour and Madonna's concerts in Lisbon on 12 and 13 September.

 

Mark off Friday, July 16 on your calendar! The Friday before Madonna's three Toronto concert dates, Grapefruit is putting on a massive special edition event. Last time around, Grapefruit did Madonna vs. Cyndi Lauper....well, this time, it's all Madonna, all night long....and nothing but!
We've got a much sought-after performer flying in from New York who is sure to wow you, we'll have door prizes galore and the whole night is a fundraiser for a very important organization in our community.

For more information click here.

94 pictures have been uploaded to the Galleries - including 14 extra-large HQ pictures from the Re-Invention tour - you can view these latest uploads here.

Here are some more fan shot pictures from the last night at the Forum in Los Angeles.

Featured are pictures from The Beast Within, Vogue, American Life, Bedtime Story, Into The Groove, Crazy For You and Holiday.

You can find larger versions in the tour gallery.

   

   

   

   

   

It takes a lot to shock a Madonna fan. Apparently, they have not been shocked by ticket prices that climb above $300 for the artist's new Re-Invention tour. Nor has the show itself proved as shocking as early reports portrayed.
So, it should come as no surprise that the Re-Invention tour is an unqualified blockbuster, even if the second show was scrapped because of the star's stomach flu and tentative dates in Israel have been dropped.
Despite the early snafus, the tour, which began May 24 at the Forum in Los Angeles, is destined to be the top-grossing tour of 2004, with a gross in the $120 million range and attendance of about 920,000.
Almost every show put on sale sold out quickly, and numerous dates were added to the route.
The tour, which is promoted worldwide by Clear Channel Entertainment under the direction of CCE touring president Arthur Fogel, seems to have benefitted from Madonna's assertion that the set list would be a career retrospective rather than focus on newer material, a promise on which she delivers.
Veteran tour production pro Chris Lamb (Eagles, Paul McCartney) is production manager for the Re-Invention tour. He says opening night was the culmination of six months of preparation and came off perfectly.
'That's Madonna - she's a perfectionist,' Lamb says. 'This is a show, not a concert. This is more theater than rock 'n' roll.'
Unique production elements include a center-stage turntable 42 feet in diameter that rises to 10 feet in height and can spin up to 15 miles per hour, as well as a series of conveyor belts at the front of the stage.
'This is an amazing show technically, very precise,' Lamb tells Billboard. 'The movement of the show is very unique; it goes back and forth in the front and rotates on the stage. Nobody has seen anything like this.'
Opening night was well received critically. USA Today entertainment writer Edna Gundersen proclaimed the concert 'a rigorous, fast-paced escapade with bold sets, brazen choreography and sexy but age-appropriate costumes, plus a bagpiper, a skateboarder, a fire handler and acrobats on swings.'
The show is configured at 270 degrees, with no seats sold behind the stage. All seats are reserved, but two pits inside the stage area accommodate about 50 contest winners in each market.
Lighting director Ray Bennett oversees moving lights and three moving LED video screens. There are four major set changes, swapped out through the turntable. There is no encore.
'The entire set design starts with Madonna,' Lamb says. "She says, 'This is what I'm thinking. Tell me what you can do.''
Fogel and his team learned the afternoon of May 25 that the night's performance would be postponed. 'We got the word out pretty well, because only a few people showed up at the venue,' he says. The makeup concert took place May 26.
Though a trio of shows in Israel for late September was once considered, they will not be booked because of security concerns.
The tour comprises 55 shows in 19 markets - 39 concerts in North America and 16 in Europe.
The trek boasts some impressive multiples in major markets, including five shows in L.A., four in Boston, four in Chicago, three in Toronto and eight in the New York/New Jersey region, including six at Madison Square Garden.
Madonna's 2001 tour, also produced by CCE, grossed $75 million from 47 sellouts, according to Billboard Boxscore.

www.ticketmaster.ca have just released a new batch of tickets for all three dates at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

Madonna's dates in Arnhem sold out in record time this morning - the first date of September 08 sold out in about 15 minutes - very soon after a second date of September 09 was added but that also sold out very quickly.

Tickets for Madonna's September 08 date at the Gelredome in Arnhem, Netherlands go on sale Saturday May 29 at 10:00am (CET)

Tickets are available through www.ticketservice.nl, some local outlets and on the ticket hotline 0900-3001250 (this number will only work within the Netherlands).

Madonna.com have announced that the tickets for Madonna's tour date on September 12 in Lisbon, Portugal go on sale on Friday June 11 - more details to follow.

The opening night of the Re-Invention tour has featured heavily in the lastest issues of US published magazines, Entertainment Weekly and People.

Thanks to Jamie at www.madonnamegacollection.com for the scans.

   

   

Madonna's new tour was featured widely in the press around the world - thanks to madonnalicious visitors David and Jorge we can now bring you some more headlines from Portugal and Scotland.

   

   

madonnalicious visitor Ahmad was lucky enough to see Madonna twice at the Forum - here is his story from the last night's show:

I just saw her for the second time again tonight, May 27th. She was superb!! She didn't spin around with the girls at the end of Papa Dont Preach as she got dizzy the night before.
She also apologized again to anyone who might have been inconvenienced with her cancelling the other night. Her voice sounded amazing but not as perfect as the night prior....there were also a couple mess ups: her mic went out during the 'American Life' chorus and also went out when she was telling her fans how much she loves them and thanks them for sticking with her, through thick and thin.

Another fan, Scott was also at the Forum last night and had this to say about the show:

Last night, in my opinion, was one of the best shows. So much energy from Madonna and the crowd.
Only in recordings of shows from Europe have I heard the crowd singing out loud in unison. Last night, Los Angeles sang along with Madonna and sang loud.
You could hear everyone singing during Don't Tell Me, Like A Prayer, Into The Groove and Crazy For You. It felt like we as a crowd were all one.
Madonna apologized again for postponing Tuesday and admitted to not feeling very well before she went on. She stated that she wondered if she would make it through the show. She said all the positive energy we were emitting gave her the energy to keep going.

Madonna fan Frank from West Hollywood sent this report to madonnalicious about his experience of the Re-Invention tour at the rescheduled concert on Wednesday night:

I have been a Madonna fan from the very first day I heard Holiday. It has been a long and amazing journey following Madonna's career!
I have seen all of her concerts live with the exception of The Girlie Show which did not come to the West Coast. The Re-Invention tour is one of her best live shows EVER! If you are a true Madonna fan, you will be in heaven. The song list is amazing and draws from all of her studio albums.
The best part of this concert for me was not the 're-invention' of Madonna's music or image, it was the 're-invention' of Madonna as a vocalist. Her vocals blew the roof off the Forum!
Anyone who has ever complained that Madonna cannot sing, will not be able to say that anymore. She truly proved herself as a singer. She sang all the songs live (take that Ms. Jackson and Britney!), and she did so with the ability and grace that only the Queen of Pop could command. She has truly seated herself on the throne of legitimacy and will forever be remembered as a legend after this concert series has concluded. Congratulations Madonna!

This Steven Klein shot picture is featured in the tour book only as a cropped picture just showing Madonna's face - today the Review Journal published the full version of the picture.

At Madonna's opening-night party Monday in Los Angeles there was Christina Aguilera, in a white T-shirt with the words 'Deep Throat' emblazoned across her bountiful bosom. It had a little giraffe stenciled on it cute, not dirty, see? She also has hair as big as Texas. The tiny pop princess's industrial strength locks are now a deep honey blonde, styled in a Marilyn Monroe-just-got-out-of-bed bouffant. All the men at the party wanted to put her back in bed!
Fran Drescher, looking like a million bucks in a low-cut top and low-slung pants, nibbling tiny turkey burgers. She is newly signed with p.r. powerhouse Nanci Ryder and ready to jump back into sitcom land. Her classic 'The Nanny' is a cult fixture in re-runs. ('The Nanny,' produced by Drescher, was one of the most fully realized and satisfying sitcoms ever, full of sly asides to its audience.)
Barry Diller, so dressed-down in casual concert garb, only the sharpest eyes spotted him.(madonnalicious' reporter at the party spotted him - see yesterday's news)
Debi Mazar, who is simply ageless, was also on hand for Madonna, giving the lie to the rumor that the old friends were on the outs, clashing over Kaballah. Debi said, 'I decided not to fight it. The more you try to correct, the worse it gets. Madonna and I know the truth.' So what is Debi up to? 'I have a wonderful 2-year-old child and a fabulous husband.' Great. What about her career? 'You know, I'm terrible at this. I'm too shy to talk about myself that way.'
Debi is one of the world's sweetest girls, and so talented, but her handlers probably want to wring her lovely neck. When a tipsy fan demanded to take pictures of Debi with his little digital, the actress agreed, with one stipulation: 'You gotta make me look like Lana Turner, honey!'

MEMO TO CBS: You are paying Madonna $11 million to film her concert. I say film it while the star is fresh. HBO aired 2001's 'Drowned World' show on its final night. By then, Madonna had danced herself to a wraith and her voice was strained from months on the road. 'Re-Invention' deserves to be captured at its peak.

Here are the first of some high quality scans of the Re-Invention tour book..

Click on the images to enlarge - 28 MAY - REPLACED WITH SEAMLESS VERSIONS.

     

Here are some more fan shot pictures from the opening night at the Forum.
You can find larger versions in the tour gallery.

   

   

   

Here are two fan stories from the second night of the Re-Invention tour by madonnalicious:

I went to Madonna's concert last night at the Forum. Rescheduled from Tuesday. She came out at around 8:45 pm. She apologised after about half an hour of doing the show, she was GREAT.
I sat on the right side, sideview seats which were terrific I got to see into the dressing area and see Madonna check out the stage 5 minutes before anybody else.
Demi Moore was in the audience enjoying herself to Madonna's glow. When Madonna apologised she said she thinks she is superwoman and could do it all, but she realized she can't, and it wasn't pretty!
I think everybody said in unison you are super to us! In the show her crawling around the stage reset her mike and it went dead and she had to get a new one. And after the twirling she did with her dancers she was so out of breath she just couldn't stop giggling and giggling it was great to see the perfectionist be human. She kept trying to start the song, but she would run out of breath and finally just collapsed laughing beating the mike on the floor laughing. It was so cute!
After the show behind the scenes her dancers gave her a group hug that lasted a couple minutes after the show ended, very emotional.

Here is another story from Scott in Los Angeles:

Last night I saw the show for a second time. I think Madonna actually had more energy and fun the second time. Vocally stunning.
She may have been feeling ill the first night too, which led to her postponing the second.
Guy Oseary and Demi Moore were spotted sitting in the third row.
In Papa Don't Preach, she and the dancers spin during the number. Following their joined-hand spin, Madonna was laughing. She started laughing so much, she couldn't continue the song. She said she was dizzy.
The crowd kept screaming and she kept laughing. It was GREAT to see her having so much fun.

madonnalicious brings all the celebrity gossip from the opening night concert and after-show party:

Guy Ritchie was spotted dancing during the show amongst all the Rabbi's from the Kabbalah Centre - they were all wearing purple von dutch hats!

The actress Jennifer Esposito was seen fondling her boyfriend in a very dirty way all the way through the show!

Madonna's friend Debi Mazar was seen raving about the video backdrops, telling Fran Dreshcer how hard madonna has worked in the last few months on getting this tour ready.

Christina Aguerila (in a see-through top) was sitting in the corner with her boyfriend at the table next to the Kabbalah wives.

Vinnie Jones and another of Guy's London friends were also at the after-show party.

Siedah Garrett (Madonna's backing singer) was friendly and chatting to everyone, so was Monte Pittman.

Also spotted at the party were Jeanne Tripplehorn (Madonna's co-star in Swept Away), one of the Olsen twins, David Spade and TV executive Barry Diller.

Here is the tour advert for the September 08 concert at the Geledrome in Arnhem, Holland.

Tickets for this show go onsale at 10.00am on Saturday 29 May.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Some more fans have sent in reviews from the shows at the Forum, Los Angeles - to read the full reviews visit the fan reviews section.

From Carelia:
First, the show starts with The Beast Within, and after that she comes out from a platform from the ground singing Vogue: Sh*t it was so great that my heart was beating too fast that it almost exploded!

When the face of George Bush appeared on the video screens saying an speech, the whole crowd started to heckle at the screens! Giving Bush a long Booooooooooo!

From Christopher:
I was one of the people that got my seats through the VIP Platinum packages and my seat was great, I could see everything perfectly, the pits I think were very highly over rated as Madonna didn't have too much contact with them as she was busy dancing and singing center stage.

Songwriter and producer Guy Chambers - most famous for working with Robbie Williams was interviewed at the Ivor Novello Awards in London today on UK TV show London Tonight.
When asked who he would like to work with he replied 'Madonna' with a smile on his face - he then quietly said 'Infact I am going to meet with her management in the US in August'.

Here is further newspaper coverage from Scotland of the opening night of the Re-Invention tour. Pictured below are the Daily Record, Daily Star and The Scotsman.

 

   

MTV interviewed Madonna at the opening night after-show party and asked her why she chose to sing John Lennon's classic song Imagine. Madonna replied that she wanted to make a statement with the ultimate peace song.

To download the clip - Right Click And Save Target As

As Madonna resumes her tour, plans for her TV concert special are moving forward as well. The CBS two-hour special looks like it will be filmed in Lisbon, Portugal, and though there's no air date yet, a fall date 'seems probable,' according to the singer's spokesperson.

Here are some more pictures from the first night of the Re-Invention tour - these pictures show all the great video backdrops and lighting featured in the tour.

Featured are pictures from Die Another Day, Bedtime Story, Mother and Father, Into The Groove,Music and Holiday.

   

   

   

   

Here is a look at some of the UK newspaper coverage of the first night of Madonna's Re-Invention tour - most of the newspapers gave positive reviews and most articles were full page.

   

   

New York Daily News - Madonna 'Re-Invents' herself
In the first stop, at the Los Angeles Forum on Monday, Madonna cast herself in a role she has never so forcefully tried before in concert: As a full-on singer.
'Re-Invention' certainly conforms to the music-video-era concert style that Madonna single-handedly pioneered - complete with flashy visual images, detailed choreography and fixed props. But she spends far more time than before simply belting in front of a band, just like an old-fashioned musician.

New York Times - Madonna's Latest Self, a Mix of Her Old Ones
Madonna's clashing identities collided brilliantly during the dazzling second act, a military dream sequence that evoked a world of panic and confusion. It started with 'American Life,' the electro-pop title track from the album, newly pumped up with a roaring guitar riff. She emerged in fatigues and a beret, backed by a troupe of dancers dressed as soldiers and religious figures, including a cardinal and a woman dressed in a spectacularly self-defeating garment best described as a micro-mini-burka.

USA Today - Madonna: The mother of Reinvention
Most notably, Madonna seems to be having a jolly good time. Whereas her last outing had technical strengths but lacked warmth, Reinvention finds Madonna reinvested emotionally. The show doesn't have the degree of flesh, carnal content or shock value that past outings delivered, but this time Madonna is opting for more heart than cleavage and more personality than profanity. And she dances with the bagpiper. You won't get that at a Kabbalah class.

Madonna was featured at the Re-Invention after-show party on US TV last night - with interviews being featured on Access Hollywood and Extra TV.
Both shows asked about her arm bandage and knee support - Madonna replied that she had a calcium deposit on her arm and had a strained leg - she the jokingly said she was falling apart!

It was lights, camera and plenty of action at the opening night of Madonna's re-Invention tour in Los Angeles, Monday, and 'Extra' was backstage where stars like Christina Aguilera snuck in a side door and David Spade and Fran Drescher milled around.
Just minutes after the show, the pop icon came to tell us why she's back on stage. 'To set the world on fire,' she announced. 'I had some things I had to say.'
Madonna told us that she's speaking to fans and is using all of her best songs to get her message across. "That's the whole idea of the show,' she revealed. 'I've taken them and I've reinvented them and they have a whole new meaning.'

Tonight's show at the Forum (25 May) has been cancelled due to Madonna being unwell - here is the note from madonna.com

Tonight's show at the LA Forum is postponed until tomorrow night.
Madonna has the stomach flu and was ordered by her doctor to rest this evening. She will be back at 100% and can't wait to entertain her fans!
If you have tickets for tonight's show, they will be honored tomorrow night.

madonnalicious brings these great pictures from the opening show last night - these pictures were taken when Madonna and her dancers were on the catwalk that extends out over the audience during American Life and Holiday.

Full size versions of all these pictures can be found in the Re-Invention Tour Gallery

   

   

   

   

Madonna.com have just confirmed the date at the Atlantic Pavilion in Lisbon, Portugal for Sunday September 12 - details on how to buy tickets to follow.

Amid images of war and peace, pop star shows she can sing - By Barry Walters

After twenty years in the limelight, Madonna is expected to cause controversy and reinvent herself for every new tour. So for the May 24th Los Angeles opening of her Re-Invention world trek, Madonna did the most unexpected thing she could: She came back as a great concert singer.
Even the most diehard Madonna fan will concede that her live performances have almost without exception been plagued by a multitude of missed notes, breathy passages, and, as of late, fake British accents. But while Mariah and Whitney have of been losing the acrobatic vocal dexterity and lung power on which their reputations rest, forty-five-year-old Madonna, whom few have ever taken seriously as a musician, has never sounded better than she did during the first of several gigs in her adopted West Coast home.
Whether rocking out with classic black Les Paul in hand during a metallic rendition of her early club hit 'Burning Up,' or performing 'Like a Prayer' behind a screen-projected gospel choir, Madonna belted, and did not once seemed strained. In the midst of a $1 million production festooned with a walkway that jutted out from the stage and over the audience, massive moving video screens, a dozen dancers, a bagpipe player, a stunt skateboarder and a whole lot of emotionally charged anti-war imagery, the focus was nevertheless on Madonna, and how she's matured into a truly great pop singer.
Opening with a yoga-trained twist on her famous Louis XIV-inspired MTV Video Music Awards rendition of 'Vogue' and ending on a kilt-wearing finale of 'Holiday' against a video backdrop of national flags that eventually morphed into one, the show was thematically simpler and more focused than her last several productions.
The barbarism of war and the necessity of love were at the heart of the entire show, and both played off each other, sometimes for ironic and decidedly uneasy effect. The original military-themed video footage of 'American Life' that the singer withheld at the start of the Iraq war was finally unveiled, and then expanded upon during 'Express Yourself,' where Madonna sang her anthem of unbridled, intimate communication in front of dancers dressed as soldiers and goose-stepping with twirling rifles.
By contrast, Madonna closed an extended acoustic section of the show with a straightforward and thoroughly committed rendition of John Lennon's 'Imagine' as images of war and poverty-ravaged children eventually gave way to footage of a Muslim boy and his Israeli counterpart smiling as they walked with their arms wrapped around each other.
The heaviness of much of the imagery was balanced by Madonna's own presence, which seemed remarkably fun-loving and self-assured for the opening night of her most technically complex production. Only when she strapped on an acoustic or electric guitar during several songs and repeatedly glanced at her left hand to make sure it was playing the proper chords did she seem at all nervous. "How many people out there really think that I am the Material Girl?" she asked during a break in her most iconic early smash as she strummed with much deliberation.
For the last several songs, Madonna and her dancers donned black and white kilts, an apparent nod to husband Guy Ritchie's Scottish heritage, and black T-shirts that read 'Kabbalists Do It Better,' a cheeky reference to both her religious studies and the 'Italians Do It Better' T-shirt she wore during her video for 'Papa Don't Preach,' a song that was performed without the 'near-naked pregnant women' described in pre-tour reports of the show.
In a number dedicated for the 'fans that've stood by me for the last twenty years,' she sang her earliest hit ballad, 'Crazy For You,' earnestly and without contrivance.
Madonna's continued relevance was impressive, but it was even more striking that she's putting more love and genuine passion into her spectacle than ever.

We are excited to announce a new ticketing pre-sale for Madonna's re-Invention Tour, set to take place on May 26th! As a member of ICON, the official Madonna Fan Club, you will have an exclusive chance at the opportunity to buy tickets early through the Icon Web site members-only ticket page, before they go on sale to the general public.
On May 26th, ONLY existing ICON members will have access to this general Fan Club ticket pre-sale. Pre-sale tickets will be available for the show below:

09/08/04 Gelredome, Arnhem, Holland
Pre-sale: May 26th @ 3:00pm Local

To buy the pre-sale tickets visit www.icon.musictoday.com

Fansite DrownedMadonna has published the Re-Invention Steven Klein shot tour book. To view the entire tour book visit DrownedMadonna - please note - you have to be registered with their forum to view the tour book.

madonnalicious reported on 03 May that ....Members of the audience in the first few rows will be seeing Madonna in an entirely different way during one of the encore songs....stand by for a surprise.

During Holiday (and American Life) a V-shaped catwalk descends from the ceiling and extends out over the audience - Madonna and her dancers then take to this catwalk and the fans in the first 10 or 20 rows will see Madonna in an entirely different way....from underneath!

Madonna makes the cover of both the New York Post and the New York Daily News today - the NY Post has a colour picture of Madonna saying Madonna flauts new bandage gear referring the support bandage she wore on her knee and arm for the show.

To read Liz Smith article Who's that reinvented girl? in the NY Post - click here.

   

Pictures from the first night and after show party are available on these press agency websites - Splash even have pictures from previously unpublished parts of the show.

www.splashnews.com

www.gettyimages.com

London newspaper the Evening Standard featured Madonna on the cover and a full page article on page three.

   

Madonna vaulted around the stage on the first night of her re-Invention world tour in Los Angeles more like her 22-yearold new best friend Britney Spears than a 45-year-old who has been in the business for a quarter of a century.
These extraordinary pictures taken at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles show just how flexible Madonna's devotion to yoga has made her.
In fact, much of the opening of the concert was taken up by Madonna showing off her latest moves - the crab position is instantly recognisable, then maybe....the lobster? It was starting to look like Madonna had gone all moderate on us with less flesh, sex and little mention of her antiwar stance. But an hour-and-a-half into the show, out came Old Sparky, the electric chair.
But even that though was a little of an anti-climax when, instead of sparks, the chair was simply lowered below stage.
A white bandage on her right arm and a black knee support showed signs that the superstar is getting older and she wore her red Kabbalah bracelet throughout.
Husband Guy Ritchie bounced and screamed from his seat on the sidelines. Tom Cruise and Christina Aguilera were among the celebrities in the audience.
Madonna started in a glittery basque for Vogue then changed into a vest and kilt for Into The Groove and army gear for the Bush-bashing American Life.
The tour, Madonna's first for three years, comes to the Wembley Arena in London in August.

All the press reviews are now coming in - click on the links to read - or you can view them all in the press reviews section:

Scotman.com - Madonna Reinvents Herself Again for World Tour

Megastar - Madge takes a bow

BBC News Online - Madonna mixes messages with show

Evening Times - How gymnast Madonna kicked off her world tour in style

Many fans have written to madonnalicious saying if you are going to the next shows at the Forum by car - PLEASE LEAVE EARLY! - there was so much traffic in the surrounding area last night many fans missed the opening numbers of the show.

So if you are going tonight or Thursday please leave yourself extra time to get there - you don't want to miss Mrs Ritchie!

Madonna celebrated a successful first show last night by attending an after-show party at The Forum Club, Los Angeles.

madonnalicious has received some great fan reviews from the opening night show - to read them in full visit the fan reviews section but here is a highlight:

From Vance:
Vogue was great and the crowd was insane. Frozen was terrific and the video behind M was very sexy.
American lfe was the beginning of the military theme....she really lets Bush have it. I think this will play well overseas since everyone hates America now. Express Yourself was great with the rifles and marching.
The rock version of Burning Up was amazing! Madonna has come a long way on the guitar since Drowned World.

From Manuel:
American life - the best performance of all. A major production. Choreography, and a lot of things going on. Very lively and energetic. This is the song that will be most memorable of all of them from this show.
At one point she dances on a platform that hangs over the entire bottom floor of audience members. This was, by far, the best song in terms of performance. Very spectacular.

From Liz:
Woo hoo! Did I have a great time at the Forum! Anyone who saw Madonna's Drowned World Tour of 2001 and left unhappy (well, I was anyway....) fear not!
Because this time around it's a great concert! I was out of my seat singin' and dancin' in the aisle for nearly the entire show!

From Josh:
This show rivals the Blond Ambition Tour with it's choreography and it's set list. She performs everything down to Burning Up and Material Girl, songs I thought I would never have an opportunity to see live. And she sounds great! She has clearly been in vocal training.
It's just as sophisticated and carnival-esque/circus-like as The Girlie Show and it's a Multi-media extravaganza just like Drowned World. It even has elements from the Who's That Girl? and Virgin Tours....

Madonna says she has canceled three Israeli stops on her 'Re-Invention' tour because of violence in the region, including the killing of the leader of the militant group Hamas.
Madonna, who kicked off her worldwide tour in Los Angeles on Monday, told 'Access Hollywood' that her manager wouldn't let her travel to Israel because of the 'attack on the leader of Hamas.'
'It's not a good idea to go there and do concerts,' she told the syndicated entertainment TV show in an interview that aired Monday.
London tabloids had reported that the singer backed out of the Israeli stops, scheduled for September, after an unidentified Palestinian terror group threatened her and her children, Lourdes, 7, and Rocco, 3.
Asked by 'Access Hollywood' if she had been threatened, she replied: 'No, if I had my way, I'd go. My manager wouldn't let me.'

UK TV GMTV station has just had a report from the first night show - featured are clips from Vogue and Frozen.

To download Right Click And Save Target As

   

   

   

   

You can view the pictures from Vogue at the final dress rehearsal which took place on Sunday here.

On the eve of Madonna's launch of her 'shocking' new tour, the singer has quietly settled a federal lawsuit that accused her of ripping off the work of an acclaimed photographer. Details of the financial settlement are confidential and Madonna acknowledged no wrongdoing in her liberal appropriation of the images of the late French photographer Guy Bourdin.
Last September, Bourdin's son Samuel filed a federal copyright lawsuit against Madonna, claiming that her video for the song 'Hollywood' was a blatant visual theft job of his father's racy images. 'It's one thing to draw inspiration; it's quite another to simply plagiarize the heart and soul of my father's work,' Bourdin said at the time.
Included in Bourdin's federal complaint were side-by-side comparisons of his father's work with images with stills from the 'Hollywood' video. Bourdin's lawyer, John Koegel, said the parties reached a 'very, very successful settlement,' adding that terms of the deal did not allow him to discuss exact dollar amounts.

To view the legal stipulation and order of dismissal signed earlier this month by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan visit The Smoking Gun

Here is a look at some of the tour merchandise available for all the fans to buy.
These items also reveal some more new Steven Klein pictures - click to enlarge.

   

   

The much rumoured Arnhem date has now been confirmed by the website of the show's promoter www.mojo.nl for Wednesday September 08.

Is she or isn't she coming? That was the question on every fan's lips the past few weeks. Many rumours spread on Internet forums, but now the speculations finally come to an end. Because it's really true: the one and only Madonna is coming to Holland!
Fourteen years after her much-publicised concert in the Feijenoord Stadium in Rotterdam, Madonna Louisa Veronica Ciccone is returning to Dutch soil. Under the name re-Invention Tour the Material Girl reviews her entire career.
There's no doubt that after the US, she'll also get Britain, France and Holland in her power.
Are you member of the Madonna's fanclub? Then you can buy tickets in the fan club presale - date to be announced. For more info, check Madonna.com.
Attention: there's no opening act. Start of the show at 8.15pm
Tickets on sale: 10.00am Saturday 29 May
Ticket rates: € 56 - € 66 - € 76 - € 77 - € 86. Max. 6 tickets per person.

It looks highly likely that as soon as the first date sells out (08 September) another date will be added (likely to be 09 September).

NOTE: It now looks like the Lisbon dates previously reported for September 08 and 09 will still be the final shows of the tour - but will take place a few days later.

Madonna's long-time back-up singer performed recently at the closing party of the Long Beach, California gay pride festival.
Niki told the crowd that since she was not doing 'that tour' she was grateful her fans are coming to see her at her own shows.
After the show Niki signed CDs and posed for pictures and was again questioned on why she was not touring with Madonna this time - her answer was plain and simple - 'I just want to stay home with my baby'.

Icon, lover, mother, mogul: Madonna has done them all and, along the way, defined stardom. As she reinvents herself again (on stage, naturally), Nick Duerden sifts her greatest hits and misses
Some time later this evening, Madonna will walk out on to a Los Angeles stage, clad only in Chanel and essence of kabbalah, for the first of what promises to be the most extravagant series of shows she has yet undertaken. Given that all pop stars of global appeal invest much of their neuroses in the eternal need to come back bigger-better-more, this isn't a particularly surprising boast, but given that this is Madonna - the Queen of Pop, lest we forget - we should take the claim seriously.
As, presumably, should the British fans who have forked out up to £150 for the privilege of seeing the show when it reaches these shores later this summer....

To read the full article click here.

It's the eve of the premiere of the Re-Invention tour - and madonnalicious has updated the site with some new features.

There are Fan Reviews and Press Reviews sections where will we bring you the press reaction to the show and fan reviews of the concert.

A brand new Tour Gallery is ready for all the lastest pictures from the tour - either from the press or submitted by visitors to madonnalicious.

And last but not least there is a Tour Date Dairy where after each show you can post comments for everyone to read!

So please submit any tour news, views and reviews to madonnalicious - we look forward to hearing from you!

The friends and family dress rehearsal took place at the LA Forum on Friday - to read about it visit the tour spoiler page.

Reuters are streaming a longer version of the rehearsal footage (without any voiceovers) that has been seen around the world - click here to view.

Fellow fansite MadonnaTribe have revealed some more information about one of the songs performed on the tour. To read about it visit the tour spoiler page.

The Dutch press are still full of the rumours that Madonna's re-Invention show will be visiting Arnhem in September.

According to Holland biggest newspaper the Telegraaf, Madonna wil come to Holland in September. Today they placed a article at the bottom of the front page of the paper.
The story said that Mojo Concerts (Holland's biggest concert organiser) are waiting for the comfirmation of the exact date and how many concerts there will be.
The venue would be the Gelredome in Arnhem, a soccer stadium which can hold up to 30,000 spectators. The boss of the Gelredome is saying they are still in negotiation with Mojo about the concert and he has to be careful about any anouncement. He says concerts like this could be cancelled at the last moment.

The latest news now is that an official announcement is expected on Monday.

You can now read the full article from Thursday's edition of Women's Wear Daily - which featured a costume sketch from the tour on the cover.

This article contains a lot of spoilers from the tour regarding costuming - and even alludes to the fact that Madonna may vary her outfits from show to show - similar to what she did in the Punk section of the Drowned World Tour.

To read the article - visit the tour spoiler page.

MTV.com have published a story about the tour rehearsal footage that was aired around the world over the last two days.

Also included in the article are some pictures from the rehearsals - to read the story and see the pictures click here.

Everything you wanted to know - number wise - about the tour is revealed on the tour spoiler page.
From the number of trucks needed to transport the stage equipment....the number of dancers....the backstage drink of choice....the amount of time allocated for Madonna to get her hair and make-up done, you can find them all here.

The re-Invention tour rehearsal footage has aired around the world - but each show seems to show a little bit more.
madonnalicious has two reports for you to download - one from Entertainment Today on GMTV in the UK - and one from Shownieuws on SBS6 in the Netherlands.

US TV program Access Hollywood is taking a tour around one of Madonna's mansions on their show tonight. Please check local listings for the correct air time.

Caresse Henry has now confirmed that Madonna's re-Invention tour will visit Lisbon, Portugal in September.

Visit the Atlantic Pavilion's official website for a virtual view here.

Tickets for Madonna's gig in Manchester went on sale on Friday, May 21 - and all 14,000 sold out within an hour.
Hundreds of Madonna fans queued at the M.E.N. Arena on Friday morning as the rush to snap up tickets for her first concert in the city in 20 years reached fever pitch.
Some had been in line from 9am yesterday morning for tickets for the August 15 extravaganza, which has already been hailed as the biggest Arena show ever.
Meanwhile, online and telephone ticket sellers struggled to cope with the number of users trying to get their hands on tickets for Madonna's first Manchester gig in two decades.
The cheapest ticket was on sale for £75, while the most expensive was £150.

Please note - there are still some tickets available on www.ticketzone.co.uk

Here is the poster that VIP Platinum Package Ticket holders can look forward to receiving in the post - it features yet another new look from the re-Invention tour book.

Click on the image for a supersize enlargement.

Note - the white mark on the pictures is from a camera flash and is not on the real poster.

A quick reminder to UK fans - the tickets for Madonna's 15 August concert at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester go on sale this morning at 09.00am - details on how to buy the tickets are on the tour page.

Here are two low quality - but great - clips of the re-Invention rehearsal footage that was shown on Extra on US TV tonight.

Thanks to Tara for capturing the clips - to download Right Click And Save Target As

Access Hollywood aired earlier tonight in Canada and they showed some exclusive behind the scenes footage from the re-Invention rehearsals.
Local 6 News in Florida also showed some rehearsal footage during their In the Spotlight segment.

Access Hollywood will air later tonight in the US - please check local listings for times.

To read the big spoilers from the shows please visit the tour spoiler section.

Madonna called into MTV's TRL yesterday from her rehearsals at the Forum.
She spoke about what we can expect from the re-Invention tour and also announced the pit passes competition. To download the clip Right Click And Save Target As

Women's Wear Daily featured Madonna on it's cover today - it was a fashion design sketch of Madonna wearing a Christian Lacroix designed crystal-studded corset.

To view the picture click here.

Today's edition of The Sun features some very large tour spoilers - to read the article click here.

BBC Radio 1 online also published a similar article which you can read here.

madonnalicious can now reveal some spoilers regarding the set-list order in the tour spoiler section.

CBS plans to air live Madonna concert. The Re-Invention performance will mark her first special for broadcast TV.
During CBS' upfront presentation of its fall lineup to advertisers on Wednesday, chairman Leslie Moonves emphasized that CBS is 'still the traditional network,' according to the New York Times. Then he announced that the network would air a live two-hour concert special by Madonna sometime this season. Does that mean that the woman who was once pop's top provocateur has become 'traditional,' too? Or is she just a safer bet not to embarrass the network than CBS' last live pop diva, Janet Jackson?
The performance would be Madonna's first concert special safe enough for broadcast TV; three previous concert specials (most recently, from her 2001 world tour) have aired live on HBO. It's not clear when the show, to be shot during Madonna's upcoming Re-Invention Tour, will air; the tour starts next week in Los Angeles and is currently scheduled to run through early September. Viewers will hear such 're-invented' Madonna oldies as 'Papa Don't Preach,' 'Vogue,' and 'Express Yourself,' CBS announced.
Of course, 'live' may be a relative term in the post-Janet era; no doubt CBS will have the concert on some kind of delay, just in case. According to MTV News, Madonna is also shooting a 'Truth or Dare'-style tour documentary for theatrical release. It's being shot by Jonas Akerlund, who directed Madonna's controversial (and ultimately withdrawn) 'American Life' video.

Visit the tour spoiler page to read the USA Today article discussing the costuming for the tour.

The five distinct costuming themes are discussed by one of the designers Arianne Phillips.

Madonna's official website have published this letter from Madonna and her manager in anticipation of the start of the tour:

Dear Madonna Fans,

Wow! There is so much going on right now! Madonna can't wait to tour and see all of her fans again! I have been watching rehearsals and you guys are going to love the show, it has all of your favorite songs, brilliant choreography, and is the most incredible production I have ever seen!
So, as you may have heard we have a special treat for the ICON members. We are randomly giving out pit passes to lucky ICONERS for EVERY Madonna show!!!!! The pit is in the stage and will be a awesome location to see the show!!! Don't bombard us with e-mail's though ICONERS! We are choosing names out of a hat! And . . . NO SOUR GRAPES!!!! This is an amazing opportunity, so cross those fingers!
Speaking of ICON, the ticket pre-order is a huge success with over 18,000+ tickets sold and only a few complaints (whoops!). On a related note, the ICON fan club is growing at an insane pace. As a result we have had a few growing pains and appreciate your patients. We know we can do A LOT better, and we are getting better everyday.
Aside from the tour we have some more good news...We have a signed Madonna Gibson Guitar giveaway we are going to do in the next few weeks, a new ICON magazine coming very soon, a new calendar and some great new Madonna merchandise with amazing new designs and a bunch of vintage Madonna images as well. I think you are going to love it.
Can't wait to see you in the audience!

Love,
Madonna and Caresse

As madonnalicious reported yesterday Israel will not be visited by the re-Invention tour. Today Jeanette Walls MSNBC gossip column published this story about it:

Madonna has crossed Israel off her tour list. Seems the country is too precarious - even for the risk-taking performer.
Madonna made international headlines in March when it was revealed that she had tentatively made plans to give a concert in the war-torn country. Those plans have been cancelled.
'I know Madonna really wanted to go there but perhaps the political climate has been a bit difficult to plan such a huge undertaking in that area,' spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg told The Scoop. 'I think her management decided that having the routing include other European markets would make more sense.'

Here is some great news for Madonna fan club members from madonna.com who are giving away pit tickets:

If you are a ICON member you are eligible for a very special treat. Madonna and her manager, Caresse Henry, called us today and told us to randomly pick icon members and give them pit passes to Madonna's Re-Invention Tour.
The pit is in the stage and will be a awesome location to see the show!!!! Pit passes can not be bought you can only win them. If you have been chosen you will get a email very soon notifying you of the details.

madonnalicious wishes all ICON members good luck in this great give-away!

madonnalicious has just received news that the last two dates of the re-Invention tour will take place in Lisbon, Portugal shortly after the Bercy, Paris dates.

There is no more time in the tour schedule to do further countries on this tour - and this news suggests that the much-rumoured Israel dates fell through.

An official announcement about ticket details should be released soon.

The Everybody Fan Club has set-up an information page for attendees of the Los Angeles concerts.

You will find the details of other fans attending the shows - the page also offers carpool and airport pick-up details, and gives pre-concert party information.

Another new picture from the Steven Klein shot tour book has been published on MTV.com - who are also offering the chance to win Pit Tickets to some of Madonna's US re-Invention concerts. To win tickets click here.

Giving Madonna fans their chance to be front and center with their favorite music superstar, MTV: Music Television and VH1 have teamed to present the MTV & VH1 'Front And Center With Madonna Contest.'
Beginning today, May 19th and continuing throughout June, MTV and VH1 are giving fans the chance to see Madonna live and up-close, really up-close, on her 'Re-Invention' world tour, with exclusive passes to see the show from the on-stage pit area.
Together, MTV and VH1 are making 10 pairs of passes available to win for each U.S. tour date.
Madonna will be calling in to MTV's 'TRL' today, May 19th at 5pm ET/PT to formally announce the contest.
To enter, fans are invited to visit MTV.com beginning today, May 19th through June 10th or VH1.com beginning June 14th through June 28th for the corresponding location of interest.

MTV.com will be offering tickets to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Anaheim, San Jose, Washington DC and NYC.

VH1.com will be offering tickets to Boston, Philadelphia, East Rutherford, Chicago, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

The 2005 Official Madonna calendar is now available to pre-order by visiting www.musictoday.com

The calendar covers 16 months starting from September 2004 and features new pictures by Steven Klein - who also shot the tour book.

US TV network CBS have announced their plans for the 2004-05 TV season this morning and it included a two-hour live concert event with Madonna.

Pre-sale tickets are on sale now for ICON fan club members for the August 15 M.E.N Arena, Manchester concert and the 05 September Bercy, Paris concert.

Visit www.icon.musictoday.com to buy tickets.

Visit www.launch.com for the chance to win front pit tickets for all of Madonna's US re-Invention tour dates. Unfortunately this competition is open to US residents only.

The largest daily newspaper in Israel - Yedioth Ahronot has reported that a whole floor in the Metzudat David Hotel, Jerusalem, has been reserved in late September by the Los Angeles Kaballah Center at the cost of $50.000 USD.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs have stated that Madonna is the guest.
However a hotel spokesman would not confirm who the whole floor was reserved for, but stated that 'they would love to have Madonna as their guest'.

The re-Invention Tour is nearly upon us and madonnalicious.com needs your help.
To help bring madonnalicious' visitors the best tour coverage we are looking for some contributions to the site:

Local/National newspaper reviews of the concert (scanned if possible)
Local/National press adverts for the show
Local/National TV coverage of the concerts
Pictures from outside the venues before the concerts
Details/prices/pictures of tour merchandise
Pictures of or from the tour program
Star-spotting at the concerts - who did you see?
Fan stories/reviews of the show

In short we are looking for any tour-related media that you would like to share with Madonna fans around the world.
If you have anything to share please contact webmaster@madonnalicious.com

80 pictures have been uploaded to the Galleries - view these latest uploads here.

It been announced that Madonna will play the NEC Arena in Manchester on Sunday 15 August. Here is the official press release:

Due to overwhelming demand and to the delight of Madonna fans in the North, Madonna has announced she will play the M.E.N. Arena on Sunday 15 August as part of her world Re-Invention Tour. Tickets for this eagerly awaited show are on sale from Friday 21 May at 9am.
Madonna gave her first UK performance in Manchester at the legendary nightclub the Hacienda in the 1980’s: now, after a long absence, she returns to play to thousands of fans at Europe’s largest indoor arena.
The Manchester date will kick-start the UK leg of Madonna's world 'Re-Invention Tour' and will be the first time she has performed in the North since she played Roundhay Park in Leeds as part of the 1987 ‘Who's That Girl' European tour.
Public demand for the Reinvention Tour has been overwhelming and we expect the concert to sell-out very quickly.

Details on how to buy ticket are available on the madonnalicious tour page

To celebrate the release new book Madonna In Art on 15 August - madonnalicious will be bringing you a preview picture from the book each week in the Portrait of the Week section (underneath the Picture of the Week).
This week's picture is called Coming Out Madonna and is by Tarantola.

What are the most-played recordings in the UK of the the past 70 years? Not just on the radio but in shops and supermarkets, on the jukeboxes of yesteryear and everywhere in between - from coffee shops and tea-dances, to discos and raves?
The PPL - Phonographic Performance Ltd - is the performing rights body that logs the public broadcast of all recordings and administers the royalties due to the performers who play on them.
In celebration of the PPL's 70th Anniversary the organisation have revealed the definite Top 70 most played tracks.

Madonna herself gets two entries in the Top 70 - Vogue at 25 and Music at 69

The Top 5 were:
1 - Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale
2 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
3 - Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around
4 - Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream/Claudette
5 - Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You

UK newspaper the Sunday Mirror features an interview with No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani.
The interviewer asks about her childhood idols, such as Marilyn Monroe and Jean Harlow, and then asks about Madonna:

And what about Madonna?
I was at school when Madonna's first records came out, and to admit liking a pop idol such as Madonna was not something I did.
It was not until later that I started to appreciate what an incredibly talented person she is, and has continued to be over the years. I suppose we do have a lot in common.

Do you and Gavin (her husband) hang out with Madonna and Guy in London?
Yeah, we've had dinner together, she's great. I like it in London - I get lots of attention and better tables in restaurants.
Madonna says she says prefers her life in London because she feels more free. I know what she means. I get to have a break and family time with Gavin.

MTV Total Request Live on Wednesday 19 May will feature the queen mother of music Madonna calling into the show to promote her upcoming re-Invention tour.

Madonna will perform a fourth and final night at Paris Bercy on Sunday 05 September.

The tickets will go on sale on Wednesday 26 May - details on how to buy tickets will soon be available on the madonnalicious tour page.

Confirmation of this date came from an advert in the new issue of French magazine Télé Poche - see picture.

Madonna was photographed in Los Angeles leaving The Kabbalah Center wearing a new t-shirt saying Cult Member - this is following on from the t-shirt she wore last week saying Kabbalists Do It Better. . . .whatever statement will she put on her next t-shirt?

To view the pictures visit Splash News.

madonnalicious brings all it's visitors a chance to download Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell's funny interview with Arsenio Hall from 1992. Madonna's father also makes a surprise appearance on the show, and he tells a few childhood stories which even embarrass Madonna! To download the video clip, Right Click And Save Target As

German magazine Bunte published an article on the total cost of an outfit she was wearing for a trip to her pilates class in Los Angeles.

Wearing Dior, Prada, Puma and Chanel certainly adds to the price of her outfit....the total cost is estimated at €4085 (£2,700 GBP or $4,830 USD) - which even includes the price of the Black-Eyed Peas CD she is carrying!

Click on the image to enlarge.

Buzzers are buzzing that the judge’s decision to allow the Maverick-WMG case to be heard in California rather than in Delaware, where WMG originally filed its suit, is a big victory and a strategic advantage for Madonna’s label and its Bert Fields-led legal team.
Latest scuttlebutt is that the ongoing dispute has the Material Gal blocking the company’s release of a box-set retrospective of her career, including music and videos, to accompany this summer’s red-hot SRO tour. And while Madonna described WMG’s legal action as 'treasonous,' the fact she has otherwise kept the vitriol down is a possible outgrowth of her ongoing study of the Kaballah, according to some. In fact, Mrs. Ritchie has refused to schedule shows on Friday nights during the tour to observe the Sabbath.

The Everybody Fan Club has an exclusive interview with Bill Lanphier, the bassist on Madonna's 1985 Virgin Tour. To read the interview click here.

The Today Show has put a call out for Madonna Impersonators or Look-a-Likes in the New York area.
Please contact Denise at tributeproductions@earthlink.net for all the latest information.
The show is specifically looking for two more look-a-likes and one drag Madonna.
If you got the look, let Denise know! Filming on The Today Show will take place on 02 June.

Several rumours have been circulating recently about the chance that the stage of Madonna's re-Invention tour will have a special shape to include two 'VIP pits' areas.
MadonnaTribe sources are now able to confirm the rumour, but - not to burst everybody's excitement - we understand that the only way to get in the pits will be through promotional giveaways.

The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund are auctioning a pair of these tickets for the last night at Madison Square Garden, for charity on ebay - click here to view the auction.

The pictures below show the layout of the pits at last years MTV Video Music Awards where Madonna, Britney, Christina and Missy performed - this is only an example as the pits on this tour may be different.

Here is a picture of the laminate pass all VIP Platinum Package ticket holders will receive.

Note how the Dublin, Ireland (Slane Castle) date is mentioned on the pass - even though permission has not yet been granted for the concert to be held!

www.fredflare.com are giving two fans the chance to win two tickets each to see Madonna's re-Invention at Madison Square Garden, NYC on 16 June

If you had two free tickets to see Madonna live in NYC who would you take and why?
Tell us about this special person - your best friend, your mom, your neighbor - and you could win a pair of tickets to Mo’s June 16th Reinvention Tour performance at Madison Square Garden, plus a $100 shopping spree at fredflare.com!

The pictures of Madonna in a new t-shirt saying Kabbalists Do It Better taken last week in Los Angeles, have got wide coverage in US tabloid magazines.
The pictures were featured in In Touch (see below), Star and US magazines.

As if 'Truth or Dare' weren't enough, Madonna's delving back into documentary fare once again, this time with director Jonas Akerlund.
The singer has already started shooting for the untitled project, which will chronicle her upcoming tour and the 'new' Madonna, among other things.
She plans to release the documentary in theaters, her spokesperson said.

Superstar Madonna has exhausted herself rehearsing for her upcoming re-Invention world tour.
The Material Girl, 45, has been practicing her stage sequences for several months, but still finding time to attend all-night Kabbalah meetings in Los Angeles.
Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie were photographer leaving a Kabbalah centre in the early hours of the morning, with the singer's gaunt and tired appearance shocking onlookers.
One onlooker says, 'I've never her looking so tired. She looks like she's pushing herself very hard and could do with a good meal.'
A member of Madonna's tour team disputes the star's health is suffering and her aberrance is simply due to working hard.
The pal says, 'The truth is Madonna is putting in a huge amount of work to prepare for her Reinvention tour. She is a perfectionist and doesn't want to disappoint her fans. She looks knackered because she is knackered.'
'Mentally and physically preparing for a huge world tour isn't a walk in the park. It drains the hell out of you. She's maybe been pushing it a little bit hard but she knows her limits.'
Madonna is rehearing 12 hours a day to get in shape for the 48-date tour, which starts at Los Angeles Forum on 24 May (04).

Madonna and Guy Ritchie have fallen so in love with country life that they have started breeding sheep.
The couple are hoping their celebrity name will help to sell a rare breed of lamb called Polled Dorsets.
News that the stars have some woolly friends emerged during a hearing into ramblers' rights to roam across their country estate.
Madonna's £9 million country retreat is a working estate with a nationally renowned shoot.
Ramblers should not be allowed to walk across it, a public planning inquiry heard.
Philip Eddell, a consultant estate manager for the popstar's 1,200-acre Ashcombe House, on the Dorset/Wiltshire border, told the inquiry the impact of allowing public access to 12 plots of land would be 'devastating'.
'The impact on the estate of having the land shown on the provisional map included as open country would be devastating,' said Mr Eddell.
The singer and her film director husband Guy Ritchie claim around 100 acres of land at Ashcombe House, in Tollard Royal, has been inaccurately classified as open country on a provisional map.

The UK edition of GQ magazine have announced their first British Power List, featuring the top 100 most important people and products for 2004.

Madonna is featured at number 38 and has a whole page - featuring the re-Invention promo picture - devoted to her.

She's sold more than 250 million albums, has had more Top Ten singles than any female artist in history (second only to Elvis Presley) while her ever-changing-look still commands as many column inches as the latest Princess Diana installment.
She's been in pop for 20 years, but her re-INVENTION tour still sold out in under an hour (even with ticket prices starting at £70). Expect her to be around forever.

Local Dutch newspaper Rotterdams Dagblad has suggested that Madonna will perform in the Amsterdam Arena sometime in October.

German site www.madonnamusic.de has received this news from Caresse Henry regarding dates in Germany:

We have been trying to visit as many countries as possible and Germany is one of those we have always visited.
The decision not to visit Germany this time is not due to lack of interest by the German fans rather than lack of time during this summer. I am sorry that you are disappointed. I am sure we will visit Germany on the next tour.

Today's edition of the New York Metro features an article on photographer Steven Klein - the man behind the W magazine porfolio and the upcoming re-Invention tour book. He is currently working on video backdrops for Madonna's tour.

In a grimly lit video-editing bay on West 18th Street, Steven Klein is hovering above proofs of his most recent photographs of Brad Pitt—Brad in pasty makeup that makes him look like an albino, Brad in a straitjacket, Brad shirtless and in a sensuous stretch that shows off his rippling back—as flames that Klein has created for Madonna flicker on a nearby monitor.
The editing bay, stocked with computer-generated-imaging hardware that’s churning through the billions of ones and zeroes that will add up to the video backdrop for Madonna’s upcoming tour, hums ominously.
'This is a CGI animation,' Klein says, pointing to a corner of one flaming screen that will debut in front of a live audience when the tour kicks off on May 24. 'It’s not real. This back area is made up of, like, five different pieces assembled together.'
The work—which will be projected onto massive, multistory screens at Madison Square Garden and other venues—is a dramatically expanded outgrowth of Klein’s 2003 Deitch gallery installation, titled 'X-STaTIC PRO=CeSS.' That show featured twitchy images of Madonna in unlikely, revealing yogic poses, all taken in stark interiors. 'These layers are going to make the whole piece,' he continues. 'It’s going to be like a moving painting, in a way.'

To read the rest of the article, click here.

As madonnalicious reported last week Madonna will be singing a cover version of a very famous song during this tour.
Although we tried to keep the song name under wraps for a little while longer, UK tabloid The Sun today published the name of the song - which we can confirm is correct. To find out the name of the song, visit the Tour Spoiler page.

Visit Splash News (search for Madonna) for some new pictures of Madonna leaving her pilates class in Los Angeles and then heading to The Kabbalah Centre.

She was photographed wearing a new t-shirt with the words Kabbalists Do It Better - giving us all a reminder of her famous t-shirt from the Papa Don't Preach video which said Italians Do It Better!

Friends of Madonna don't get to sit around and be lazy.
Madonna has a reputation as a tough taskmaster — even with her friends.
Debi Mazar, the diva's long-time friend, says she doesn't like to work with Madonna because she’s such a hard-driving boss. 'I actually hate doing videos and I really don’t even like working for Madonna because she’s such a perfectionist,' Mazar told Sharon Osbourne for an episode of her show that airs tomorrow.
'The hours are long, it’s grueling, she’s....always like, 'Do this! Do that!' She's — she's, you know, Madonna!....She really works you to the bone.'
Mazar also blasts widespread reports that she and Madonna ended their friendship over Kabbalah. 'When that....broke, I was like, 'Wow, that’s so awful that somebody would try to make it look like we weren’t friendly,' Mazar says on 'Sharon.' 'We called each other immediately when all that stuff came out. We were like, 'Oh my God, did you see that?' She was like, 'Yeah,' and she goes, 'Oh it’s so ridiculous — please!'
It’s just another day in her life but for me, I've never had my name associated in a negative way with her or anybody else. I was kind of like, 'Oh my God!'

The latest issue of ICON has just been shipped to Madonna's official fan club members, contents include a look at the GAP campaign, the promotion of The English Roses and Mr Peabody's Apples and the MTV Video Music Awards.

Also featured is a letter from Madonna to her fans:

Dear fans,
I know I'm a little late but let me wish you and your loved ones a wonderful 2004. This new year promises to be a busy one.
I hope you all watched this year's Grammy's. It was a wonderful pleasure for me to introduce my friend Sting's performance that night. As I said, this guy will always have a special place in my heart for introducing me to my husband.

My new single, Love Profusion was released in mid-March and the video was shot last October with another frenchie, director Luc Besson. I have wanted to work with him for years, ever since I fell in love with one of his movies called Nikita. Ring a bell?

Other than that, this year will be full of more children's books and HOLD ONTO YOUR SEATS, A TOUR! Yes, it's happening so stayed tuned for more details! Talk to you very soon and until then, don't forget to fight for your dreams to come true!

xox Love Madonna

Last week (03 May) madonnalicious published pictures of Madonna leaving her pilates class in Los Angeles - now we bring you a picture of Madonna in her pilates class!

Lots of tour news and rumours have been published this week in the Madonna fansite community - for a round up of the latest spoilers - click here.

UK newspaper the Sunday Mirror features an interview with Maverick singer Alanis Morissette, who's new album So Called Chaos is released on 17 May.

Ten years ago, aged 19, you signed to Madonna's record label, Maverick. Did she give you any advice about the music business?
She very generously offered to, but I didn't take her up on it. I wanted to experience everything in my own time, to trip up where I needed to trip, and to stand on my own.

During the Reality Check part of the article where interviewees are asked questions to see how much they know, Alanis got caught out by one question....

What was the name Madonna's last album?
You bastard! I can't remember....

German newspaper Bild published a story yesterday about the right to ramble case that Madonna is currently fighting in a public hearing in the UK.

The article featured a picture of Ashcombe House completely covered up with protective sheeting due to renovations, and jokingly suggest that Madonna may have wrapped up her house to stop the ramblers looking in!

Click to enlarge the article.

Donna will be backing-up Madonna again on this summer's re-Invention tour - here is a newsletter she sent out to her fans:

Dear friends,
I hope this letter finds you happy and healthy.
I've been busy this spring rehearsing with Madonna for her upcoming ReInvention Tour. The show is going to be so much fun and I hope to see you all out there.
This past year has been a very creative one for me. I finished two CDs, one devotional CD, called 'In the Glow' and one CD of groovy Sanskrit mantras, called 'the Lover and the Beloved.' Many of you may have heard me incorporating these mantras into my performance over the last few years. I am happy to now be able to share this music with you that was inspired by my practice of yoga and meditation.
I will be performing many dates of my own this summer on my days off from the Madonna tour. Please check www.donnadelory.com for updates. Thank you for your beautiful emails and your loving support as always.
Peace & Blessings,
Donna

Madonna's Valentine and birthday presents to her ex-boyfriend Andy Bird have gone onsale on the internet auction site ebay.com

The two items up for auction are a Swiss Army knife Madonna had engraved with the dedication Birdy Be My Valentine Love M and a birthday card with the inscription There once was a fellow named Andy, who's lips were like pieces of candy, if given a lick, me would soon be love sick, in a daze and stinking of brandy

The story about Madonna and Guy taking on the Countryside Agency to court to stop ramblers from accessing part of their Wiltshire countryside estate continues to feature heavily in the UK press.

Tonight's edition of the Evening Standard newspaper featured one of their columnists A.N. Wilson giving his thoughts on the case:

Don't Let ramblers ruffle lovely Madge
Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie, are contesting the rights of the Countryside Agency to designate no less than 17 separate areas on their 1,200 acre estate in Wiltshire as 'right-to-roam'.
This appears to be a case in which two rich people are trying to interfere with the God-given right of the wooly hats to brighten up Nature's cool greens and greys with their violently orange cagoules.
In fact the Ritchies have spent money maintaining the ancient paths on the Ridgeway specifically for the cagoulers.
All Madonna and her husband want is a bit of privacy.
If you are as famous and as beautiful as Madonna, there will be stalkers out there wanting to do to you what they did to George Harrison and John Lennon. Have the Countryside Agency got no bloody sense!

BBC Online published this news story today about the case:

Experts examine Madonna's grass
A planning inquiry hearing Madonna's appeal to ban ramblers from parts of her £9m country estate has heard details of the land's make-up.
The pop star claims 100 acres of land at the 1,200-acre Ashcombe House estate has been inaccurately classified as open country.
The Countryside Agency has classified 12 plots as 'downland', offering public access on a provisional map. Madonna is appealing against the classification in a hearing.
The Agency has been charged with mapping areas of England to implement the Countryside Rights of Way Act, 2000.
Under the act, people will have the right to access any land registered on the final map as open country - mountain, moor, heath or down.
Dr Alan Jones, director of environmental sciences at the RPS planning, transport and environment consultancy, conducted a botanical survey on the estate in July 2003 to classify grasslands. He concluded five of the 12 disputed plots were not downland and should not be mapped as open country land.
Dave Elvin QC, representing Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, has argued that the land was farmland, as opposed to open country, because it contained semi-improved grassland and not semi-natural grassland.
The hearing at the Chase Hotel in Shaftesbury, Dorset, heard Dr Jones claim there were no distinct boundaries between improved and unimproved grassland as it was a transitory process.
The Countryside Agency therefore had to exercise judgment when making a distinction and this would be open to challenge, he said.
Dr Jones said: 'The Countryside Agency is drawing the distinction between semi-improved and unimproved grassland in the wrong place. The test is whether grassland is unimproved or not, not whether it is akin to unimproved.'
Mr Elvin has also argued that allowing public access to the estate would breach the couple's human rights.
Madonna and Mr Ritchie did not attend the third day of the week-long inquiry, which was adjourned until 11 May.

UK newspaper The Telegraph had Bryony Gordon take a journalistic ramble through Madonna's back garden:

The day I rambled through Madonna's back garden
I am strolling through Madonna and Guy Ritchie's back garden and am pleased to report that, as you would expect from the well-preserved queen of pop and multi-millionaire film director, it is beautiful and immaculately kept.
There are bluebells blossoming either side of me, and the calming chatter of birds can be heard in the woodland all around. In the distance, a hawk hovers over miles of rolling English countryside. I do wish you could see it, too.
Actually, you're just as entitled to be here as I am.
I am standing on a public footpath that forms part of the Wessex Ridgeway - a walk that is popular with ramblers and cuts right through the couple's 1,200-acre Ashcombe estate in Wiltshire. Anyone with walking boots, a kagoule and an Ordnance Survey map can stroll through it any time they like.

Madonna herself said in an interview last year when asked about the ramblers: 'When we bought Ashcombe, we did think, 'Oh, there's a path, people are going to be bothering us all the time'. But no one did. I haven't got anything bad to say about the ramblers.'
On arrival at Ashcombe, it becomes clear that the Ritchies might be more concerned about visitors such as myself: members of the press. Other than a few builders, re-roofing the house, and a local man, walking his dogs, the only ramblers I encounter during my walk are journalists. Indeed, when the Telegraph photographer's car becomes stuck in some mud just outside the estate, and we have to call upon Madonna's gamekeeper to tow us out, he asks: 'Which newspaper are you from, then?'
After he has rescued us, he explains: 'It's been made out that the boss wants to get rid of the public footpaths already on the estate, but that's not the case at all. They just don't want people roaming all over their land. You wouldn't want people nosing around your back garden, would you?'

64 pictures have been uploaded to the Galleries - view these latest uploads here.

madonnalicious visitor Gillian, asked Caresse Henry whether Madonna would be visiting Australia and New Zealand on the re-Invention tour, here is the response:

Unfortunately we have such a short window of time for touring and cannot fit this into the itinerary but I know Madonna loves Australia and New Zealand and hope to get her there very soon.
We will be televising the show although know that isn't enough and apologize. There just isn't enough time in the day and the summer in particular!

Extra seats have just been released for all the Wembley Arena dates of the re-Invention tour - visit www.ticketmaster.co.uk

madonnalicious can reveal that one song on the set-list is a cover version of an all-time classic song and it will be performed as a full song, not just an interlude.

Last year madonnalicious called for artists to contribute to a new book that was being produced. Many offers were received by madonnalicious and now some of these fan contributions have made their way into print!

Madonna In Art - Compiled by Mem Mehmet - is now completed and is due for publication on 15 August 2004.

To pre-order and preview some pictures from the book - click here.

Madonna has pushed musical and performance boundaries to the limit, in some cases the artists here have stretched their imaginations to portray her in their own inimitable styles, each page as different to the next as the stages of Madonna’s career. And as with the videos and stage shows here is bold colour, black and white, form and shape, light and shade and everything in-between.
What better tribute could there be to a multi-faceted woman who has delighted the world for over two decades with glamour, fun, surprise and sheer professional artistry than this unique collection of portraits? All of the elements that have made Madonna one of the most endearing and enduring of entertainers are encased within the covers of this book. And what better tribute to someone who once said of herself – ‘I am my own experiment, I am my own work of art’.

Fansite DrownedMadonna has received official confirmation from Madonna's manager Caresse Henry about further tour dates:

Italy and Germany are not included this time around, but there will possibly 2 more countries added. We are sorry but we are limited with the amount of cities we can do in a summer. I apologize. And thank you for all your support.

The two further countries to be announced are likely to be the Slane Castle concert in Ireland (which is still pending local permission) and the rumoured dates in Israel.

Are you still searching for that elusive ticket to see Madonna's re-Invention tour this summer? Or do you have a spare ticket to sell to another fan at face value?

If these descriptions match you, then visit Desperately Seeking Madonna to buy and sell tickets for all tour venues. The site was updated yesterday with even more tickets available.

The site is also offering the chance to win a pair of tickets to see the show in Chicago and to win other Madonna goodies.

Frank at www.divinamadonna.com has passed on this information from Spanish Fan Club member and friend Isla Bonita regarding a possible concert in Barcelona:

Barcelona's Radio Station 'Radio Flaixbac' has told me that Madonna will play an intimate concert in Barcelona, and she will record three songs from this concert for an upcoming live CD, that will go on sale this Christmas.
Also MTV Europe will broadcast to all Europe this show, like they did with the Barcelona Springsteen show in 2001.
Like I've said before, the show was meant to be intimate in a small place, maybe in Barcelona's Music Theatre, but because of the spanish fans reaction it could be changed, and it could be in Palau Sant Jordi, a much bigger venue, so all the fans can get a ticket.

The public enquiry into land access rights on The Ritchie's country estate started today. Even though Madonna will not be present at the hearings taking place in the UK, the story is already featuring heavily on UK TV news programs.

Pop star Madonna has challenged hikers who want to walk across her $16 million English country estate.
The case pits the rights of landowners to keep their domains private, against a large and determined band of English walkers who demand full access to the countryside.
A public inquiry, which opened on Wednesday into the dispute at the 1,200 acre Ashcombe House estate which the singer owns with her British film director husband Guy Ritchie, is expected to last five days, with a verdict due in the Summer.
The couple are appealing against a government Countryside Agency decision which defined 100 acres of their land in Dorset, southwest England, as open country and therefore open to the public.
Madonna and Ritchie claim the land should be reclassified as 'semi-improved' grassland because it is used for shooting game. This would define it as agricultural land and exclude it from public access.
British media have also quoted the couple as insisting their right to privacy must be considered, as they seek to deter celebrity watchers and paparazzi from wandering on their land.
The hikers sense a win. 'We are confident that we are right and the land should stay on the map,' Andy Wistow, a senior Countryside Officer, told Reuters.
The dispute is the latest to hit the couple since they bought the house. They have already complained about low-flying aircraft and were ordered to remove new high security gates after failing to apply for planning permission.
Madonna's fight is one of several currently being fought between landowners and hikers - 'ramblers' as they are known in Britain.
The Ramblers Association describes gaining access to open country as a benefit to the whole nation and one Times newspaper editorial advised Madonna and Ritchie that they should not be feared.
'Ramblers are unworldly types who will - unthinkable as it seems - probably never have heard of her, being far more concerned with their maps in little waterproof covers, their flasks of sweet tea and cling-filmed picnics of cheese sandwiches and fruit cake,' it said.

As the Warner Music Group/Maverick conflict continues, some WMG insiders, finding Madonna's recent verbal salvo a little soft, are spinning that her own career might be her greatest concern at this point, given her recently slumping album sales.
Most, however, consider Madonna a super-valuable icon-a notion borne out by reports of blistering ticket sales for tour dates kicking off this month.
If WMG were forced to walk away as a result of the present legal tangle, insiders say the line of suitors would be a long one, and may have already started forming.

A limited number of tickets (in all price ranges) for Madonna's re-Invention date on 19 August at Earls Court, London, have just been released by the Earls Court ticket website.

For more information click here or call +44 870 998 8888.

The latest pictures of Madonna taken in Los Angeles on 01 May wearing her usual uniform of an Adidas tracksuit and Von Dutch trucker cap are available to view here.

The tour is certainly living up to it's description as a greatest hits tour, as there will be at least one song from ten of her studio albums.

The two encore songs are Madonna classics from both ends of her career and will certainly bring to show to a fantastic climax.

Members of the audience in the first few rows will be seeing Madonna in an entirely different way during one of the encore songs....stand by for a surprise.

madonnalicious exclusively brings you the last three files from the 09 May 2003 HMV Oxford Street, London promotional concert.

To download the files - Right Click And Save Target As

The set-list is finalised with 24 songs/interludes (in full or part) featured.

Rehearsals have now moved to one of Los Angeles largest venues, so the show can be rehearsed on the complete stage set.

Here are the latest pictures of Madonna taken last week while she was leaving a pilates class in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Madonna's Rare Pictures for the photographs.

Madonna says she used to be extremely selfish and was provocative just to satisfy her own ego.
'At the start of your career you've got a message, but then you get distracted with time. You get money, fame and you start to put emphasis on the wrong things,' she told Austrian magazine Woman.
'I had to finally admit that I did a lot of things to satisfy my own ego, for the fun of shocking people and out of an overblown sense of self-importance,' she said.
The 45-year-old singer went on to say that becoming a mother was what finally changed her attitude toward life: 'It happened much too late. I was 38 when my daughter was born. Before that I wasted a lot of time looking for love in the wrong places. I destroyed good relationships and I was a magnet for lousy guys.'
'Before having Lourdes I wasn't at all interested in what I could do for other people,' Madonna added.
'I looked at the people around me and I thought: What can they do for me? Do they look good next to me? Will they give me what I want from them? It was only when I gave birth to Lourdes that I thought to myself: What do I want to teach her?'
Madonna, who also has a son with husband Guy Ritchie, added that now that she's a mother she can't spend most of her day on beauty care like she used to: 'Today I have the choice: I can either play guitar or have a manicure. I can't do both.'
The singer, who attends religious sessions at the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles, says she's even convinced her husband Guy Ritchie to read up on the Jewish spiritual teachings.
'My husband was always a scientific type and a total Darwinist when I met him. He was never interested in spiritual things like God and the Bible. But Kabbalah is based on scientific facts and that captured his analytical mind.'
'My daughter also attends her own spiritual course every Saturday where she learns about sharing and the power of her words. It's changed her a lot - she doesn't overreact as much anymore,' she said.

'To rule the world,' said Madonna in 1984 after being asked what she hoped to accomplish.
Our big question surrounding Madonna's upcoming 're-Invention' tour is - 'Can Madonna still have fun?' She has transformed herself through motherhood, marriage, spiritual awakening and children's books. (Her third one, 'Yakov and the Seven Thieves,' is out this June.)
The pop icon's current persona is a bit prim and matronly, with the lurid exception of her now-passe and infamous MTV smooch with Britney Spears. The girl who rolled around brazenly singing 'Like a Virgin' at the first MTV Awards, or the woman who posed naked on a Miami highway for her 'Sex' book, seems a distant, jaunty memory.
But according to Madonna's sexy, brainy manager, Caresse Henry, the answer is: 'Don't you worry, the overriding theme of this show is all about having fun! This is the ultimate Madonna show.'
The concert, according to others who have seen the star in rehearsal, is absolutely what every fan has been waiting for - Madonna singing her greatest hits. Caresse insists: 'She is having the time of her life going back to her earliest numbers and reinventing them musically and in every other way. She was never interested in a retrospective during past tours, but now she is into it all with a vengeance. She is totally embracing her body of work.'
The idea for the show came when Madonna's longtime director-collaborator Jamie King showed up at her house with a stage set designed in miniature, inside a Gucci shoe box. The set may have been small, but Jamie and Madonna thought big. Madonna is determined to give her fans 'the works' this time around. Every song in the set has been modernized and remixed but is still instantly recognizable. She even belts out one of her first dance hits, 1983's 'Burning Up.' The star will be dressed to kill in Lacroix, Stella McCartney, Prada, Karl Lagerfeld, Gaultier, Yves St. Laurent and Arianne Phillips.
Jonas Akerlund, who directed several of madame's award-winning videos, is already filming a documentary about this tour. It is not in any way a 'sequel' to 'Truth or Dare,' shot during the 'Blonde Ambition' tour in 1990.
That endeavor, full of naughty bits, diva-ish acting out and Madonna 'performing' scenes from her so-called private life, was amusing and mesmerizing. (Remember Warren Beatty exclaiming, 'She doesn't want to live off camera!' Warren's fling with M shocked him into domesticity with Annette Bening.) Akerlund's work will show the 'new' Madonna - still full of fire and creativity, if slightly more conventional. 'But is she a long way from taking her name as her life's vocation?'
I asked Caresse. The manager laughed and then called out, 'Madonna, Liz Smith thinks you've become too saint-like to have fun anymore!'
And then, after a lot of background noise and cackling, a familiar voice was suddenly on the phone, one I haven't heard in several years, 'Liz, I am happier now than I've ever been in my life. I have two beautiful children and a brilliant, gorgeous husband. I have my work and I have my faith. None of that means I've lost my sense of humor or my sense of fun. If that's boring to some people, I can't tell you how much I don't care.'
Madonna spoke with snappy (not snappish) authority. Then she said, 'I've got to get back to rehearsal or Jamie's going to kill me. But I'll see you at the Garden, right?' She meant Madison Square Garden, where her six shows in June sold out within minutes. As did 35 others around the world. And to think, 20 years ago, I asked myself why she was on the cover of Time and mused that surely she could not last. Nice to be wrong.

UK newspaper The Observer featured an article today on Fifty Years Of Pop:

Rock 'n' Roll has come a long way in the half-century since Elvis first stepped up to the microphone at Sun Studios. Here we choose 50 moments that shaped popular musical history - and in the process changed our lives.

Madonna is of course featured, and The Observer even choose her as the cover star of the article along with Elvis! Here is Madonna's moment in history:

1985 - Madonna's Material Girl is released
The single that propelled Madonna beyond the mainstream and made her the most successful pop brand of modern times.
Tied to a video in which she mimicked Monroe, it was the first and most audacious of her various self-inventions, a song that caught the cosumerist thrust of the Eighties, even as it supposedly parodied the same.

Fansite www.mad-eyes.net has reported this news about costumes for the tour:

Mad-Eyes correspondent and good friend Marcin from Paris has had the priviledge today to talk to fashion designer Christian Lacroix about his costume work for Madonna's tour.
Lacroix spoke about a corset, inspired by those of the 19th century but adapted to be more flexible to fit the 'very acrobatic choreography' in the show.
The sleeves have some armour-plating. The costume will be worn during the opening of the show.

Madonna is the cover star of the new issue of The New Republic magazine. Here is an excerpt from the article on Kabbalah in Hollywood:

In the prayer room they call the 'war zone,' where the cosmic battle against Satan is fought, several dozen young men are swaying to the rhythms of the morning Jewish service.
I'm at the international headquarters of the Kabbalah Centre - the new-age movement that claims to have reached over three million people, including non-Jewish pop stars, such as Madonna, Mick Jagger, and Britney Spears. With its fast-paced prayers and separate seating for men and women, the Centre could be a typical Orthodox synagogue, except for a few oddities - like the fact that some men wear yarmulkes and prayer shawls and phylacteries, while others are bareheaded. Or that some of those wearing phylacteries may not be Jewish.
The Centre has transformed Kabbalah - considered by Jews to be the inner sanctum of Jewish devotion and thought--into generic, nondenominational mysticism. It is 'the secret' of life, according to the Centre's website, supposedly studied by everyone from Plato to Shakespeare.
In an interview last year with 'Dateline NBC,' Madonna, who has donated some $5 million to the Centre, called herself 'a Kabbala-ist [sic]' and noted the similarity between Kabbalah and punk rock. Both, she explained, are forms of 'thinking outside the box.'....