MadonnaTribe’s Stage+Songs Guide
The MadonnaTribe team worked on an exclusive artwork that blends the map of The Celebration Tour stage with the list of the songs performed by Madonna that we hope will help the fans who did not attend the concert yet in keeping track of the many things happening during the show.
As you remember, The Celebration Tour presents more than 400 mq of stage, the largest for any Madonna tour. The layout is inspired by the grid of Manhattan with five individual stages: Uptown, Downtown, Midtown, East and West and a combined lenght of more than 75 meters of catwalks.
Where the main stage usually is we find the Downtown stage, a three-layered circular structure that is also a nod to the wedding cake of Madonna’s original VMA performance. The stage is connected to an arc-shaped loop linking the East and West catwalks with two gentle sloping down stairways.
Two more unique elements of this show are the cube that emerges from the Uptown stage, on top of which Madonna performs Bedtime Story, and the illuminated portal frame that transports Madonna 9 meters off the ground around the arena during Live to Tell and Ray of Light.
Some quick notes:
- We tried to make it simple and design the map so that it can be as readable as possible, ignoring the bits of songs incorporated in a main track and sticking to “proper” numbers (with the exception of the Papa Don’t Preach strings that are a sort of mini-act of their own) and not providing a specific location for the interludes, when in most cases multiple things happen in different places at a same time.
- In numbers where several things take place in different parts of the stage we stick to where Madonna is.
- We’re considering the elaborated interlude that leads to Vogue as part of that same number (it all happens in the same place, before moving to the other stages when Madonna starts singing).
- The show begins with Bob The Drag Queen walking through the floor crowd and entering the stage from the pit.
- In the shows in continental Europe only one Pit was available as a separate area – the other one was incorporated in the Gold Circle, the section of the floor close to the main stage. The Pit was either called Danceteria or Sound Factory, depending on the show, but the area remains the same.
- Since January 2024 Express Yourself has replaced I Will Survive on all shows in North America but one.
- Rain trade places with Frozen on three North American dates, and later on was replaced by Take a Bow.
We hope you enjoy the MadonnaTribe Stage+Songs Guide.
The 2024 Version of the MadonnaTribe Stage+Songs Guide aka The Map
- Nothing Really Matters – Downtown
- Everybody – Downtown
- Into the Hollywood Groove – Downton to East
- Burning Up – East
- Open Your Heart – East Catwalk
- Holiday – Downtown
- Live to Tell – The Portal travels from the lower tip of the East Catwalk to Midtown
- Like a Prayer – Downtown
- Blond Ambition interlude (includes elements of Living for Love, Fever, Erotica and Justify My Love)
- Erotica/You Thrill Me – From West to Midtown to East, then back to West for the Papa Don’t Preach strings
- Justify My Love – Dancers in Midtown, joined by Madonna coming from West
- Hung Up – Midtown to Uptown
- Bad Girl – Midtown
- Vogue – Downtown, then Midtown for the rap (Madonna takes the East Catwalk), then Downton for the ballroom scene, then reprise in Midtown
- Human Nature – West
- Crazy for You – West stage and West catwalk back to Downton
- The Beast Within interlude
- Die Another Day – Madonna and dancers in Midtown, more dancers on every stage and catwalk
- Don’t Tell Me – Midtown to Uptown
- Mother and Father – East to Midtown and Midtown-Uptown catwalk
- I Will Survive (in Europe and in one NYC show) or Express Yourself – Uptown
- La Isla Bonita – Uptown to Midtown
- Don’t Cry for Me Argentina – lower tip of the East Catwalk and Downtown loop
- I Don’t Search I Find (intermission)
- Bedtime Story – Uptown Cube
- Ray of Light – travelling in The Portal, starting from the top of the Uptown Cube and around the arena, then back to the Uptown stage
- Rain or Frozen or Take a Bow – from Uptown to Midtown
- Like a Virgin/Billie Jean interlude
- Gimme All Your Luvin’/Bitch I’m Madonna – from Midtown to Downtown via the West catwalk
- Celebration / Music – Madonna Downtown and her dancers on the Downtown loop
