Saturday 20 September - Stade de France, Paris
From Adam:
We had the privilege of attending the first date on Saturday just gone, and again the experience was simply amazing. I had a few misgivings in the days leading up to the concert primarily with the reports that came out after Wembley. I need not have worried though.
First of all I think Wembley Stadium and London Transport in particular should take note! The French know how to organise things like this with absolute ease and professionalism. The Stade de France is served by three train/metro stations which serve different points around the site and these all run till the early hours of the morning, with plenty of extra services laid on when major events take place! It was such a breeze getting to and from the site and so cheap.
The concert itself was superb, the continental crowd in particular seemed to be so appreciative, people in the seats were dancing as well as the crowd on the pitch, Bob Sinclair did a good job of warming up the crowd first and Madonna came on around about 9:15pm to raptuous applause. Before this the Mexican wave must have gone round 10 times non stop!
Generally, the sound was of very good quality, there were a couple of minor glitches but the tech people must have been on to these quick as they were soon rectified. Our seats were up in the Gods to the right hand side of the stage, so although we coudnt see the rear of the stage, we were looking right down from above on the catwalk and front part of the stage,you could also see the right hand screen so it made for interesting viewing, albeit from a scary angle! You could also see the Paris sky line through the large gap between the roof and the main body of the stadium, this was a breathtaking sight.
It was interesting seeing a lot of back stage movements going on aswell, like the platforms moving things up and down, also during 4 Minutes, we noticed that the small screens that Madonna climbs on whilst moving around the stage are moved about by dancers. (At Cardiff, we were on the pitch and these screens look as if they are automated).
Highlights again for me were Like A Prayer, You Must Love Me, La Isla Bonita, Devil Wouldn't Recognise You and Miles Away. There was a lot more interaction and chat with the crowd and she threw in a reasonable amount of French which I liked. It was strange hearing so many people of different nationalities singing the same words with different accents, I was awestruck at the request section when so many people sang Express Yourself to perfection, I think Madonna was very touched by this, I certainly was.
So, all in all a tremendous experience and one which I will treasure for the rest of my life.
I hope I wasn't the only one to be amazed by this. The size of the stadium was definately fitting with an artist of Madonnas callibre. Heres to the her next outing in years to come, I hope she keeps this up! Bravo Madonna and thankyou Paris and the French for being such wonderful hosts....Merci Beaucoup!
Sunday 21 September - Stade de France, Paris
From Jeroen:
I was at the second show in Paris this weekend. And this show was even better than the show in Amsterdam. Her voice was absolutely perfect. I really loved when she did Like A Virgin before singing Hung Up. And the jump rope bit went excellent this time (in Amsterdam she stepped on the rope).
Because I decided to go to Paris at the very last moment, my seats were way in the back. But even from that far away I could see everything very well. The sound was incredible too.
The show, together with two days in Paris, made this a weekend to never forget. I really want to see the show again, but it's gonna cost me too much to go to America unfortunately.
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