Why Madonna’s career is at a crossroads during her Australian tour
The Australian leg of the Rebel Heart Tour that opened in Melbourne this past weekend, continues in Brisbane on Wednesday and Thursday before wrapping it all up with a double in Sidney on March 19 and 20 keeps bringing us great and very well written articles able to stick to the facts, avoid easy gossip and clickbait, and look deeper inside the Rebel Heart of the one and only Queen of Stage.
Two of them were published today, the one you’ve already read by Cameron Adams on The Daily Telegraph and this one, written by Nick Bond from news.com.au.
If you believe some of what you’ve heard in the past week – Nick writes – Madonna’s first Australian tour in 23 years has been a trainwreck.
But reports of her wild and erratic behaviour have been greatly exaggerated. She’s not been drunk on stage – she sipped a cocktail. Yes, she’s kept fans waiting as she takes her time starting the show – but for better or worse, elastic concert times are as intrinsically Madonna at this stage as Like A Prayer and her conical bra.
And remember, those who waited for hours to see her Melbourne Forum show Tears Of A Clown last week were given their tickets for free -and rewarded with a two-hour show in an intimate setting.
Australians are notoriously hard to please concert-goers, particularly when it comes to the big touring acts who visit us infrequently – so expectations are high. Britney Spears has toured Australia just once, and attracted a fan backlash due to the fact she mimed her entire show. Whitney Houston’s 2010 final Australian tour was touted as a triumphant comeback, but met with audience walk outs and bad reviews as the toll her lifestyle had taken on her voice was laid bare.
In contrast, reviews for Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour have been glowing, with fans agreeing it’s been worth the 23-year wait to have the Queen of Pop back on our shores.
The tour leans heavily on Madonna’s most recent album, Rebel Heart, which is in itself an odd beast. Weighing in at a bloated 20 tracks, it combines classic Madonna balladry (GhostTown, Joan of Arc), with flimsy party jams (Unapologetic Bitch, Bitch, I’m Madonna). It has sold 650,000 copies worldwide, a fraction of the multi-million sales figures she commanded only a few years ago (2005’s polished Confessions On A Dance Floor sold 12 million worldwide).
Those sales figures don’t paint the whole picture, though: nowadays, Madonna makes music to tour it, with her worldwide jaunts raking in staggering box office figures (thanks in no small part to her eye-watering ticket prices). The real question is: What kind of music does Madonna want to make now?
Continue reading this story by Nick Bond from news.com.au.
