Flamboyant and complicit with her audience, Madonna gave of herself for her first Parisian date of the “Celebration Tour”

All generations met in the queues for the first date of Celebration Tour by Madonna at the Accor Arena in Paris. 1983, 1993, 2003, 2013, 2023: four decades of pop carried by the queen of the genre who has definitely touched all generations. “I know his most famous songs, so it’s going to be great”confides Maëva, 22 years old, who accompanies her mother, aged 56. “I grew up with her, she’s truly an icon!”, adds his mother. And an icon, we are ready to wait for hours. At 8:30 p.m., the start time of the concert, a voice announces a 30-minute intermission. Madonna will not deviate from her legendary reputation, and will definitely never arrive on time.

Timeless songs

After an hour and a half delay, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen opened the show in the Marie Antoinette outfit that Madonna wore during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1990. Like a leading lady, the drag queen recalls the highlights of Madonna’s legendary career by asking: “Remember. When did you first fall in love with Madonna?” THE Blond Ambition Tourhis kiss with Britney Spears in 2003, his choreography in the music video Vogueor her performance at the Superbowl, all the great moments of the Madonna are evoked.

Then it’s time for the queen of pop to make her entrance on Nothing Really Matters in a black kimono signed Jean Paul Gauthier, a crown with different crystal bows on the head. Then it’s time for the 1980s with Everybody, the first big hit that launched Madonna’s career. Punk costumes reminiscent of Madonna’s rebellious era reference the star’s irreverence and the style she helped popularize.

“I’m happy that it’s not a concert linked to a new album where there are only two known songs. It’s frustrating when you love an artist.”, slips a spectator. Then place Into the Groove. The dances are particularly fresh and dynamic thanks to the contributions of the French La Horde and Nicolas Huchard. Madonna succeeds in modernizing songs that could be taken for granted.

Connection with the public

The best moments of the concert are those where Madonna speaks directly to the audience. She does not hesitate to take the time to thank him and tell personal anecdotes about her life and her journey to the delight of the public who ask for more. This unpredictable rock & roll side is what we expect from the queen of pop who likes to shake up her fans. “I want to welcome you into the story of my life”says Madonna in French. “I do not speak French well”she adds in her American accent, recalling that her children speak it very well.

This anniversary tour, Madonna dedicates to those who allowed her to become a superstar. “Most of the artists I started with in New York are no longer with us, like musicians and fashion designers. I’m one of the lucky ones, I recognize that and I’m grateful every day. I want celebrate it with you tonight”she said into the microphone, a beer in hand, before starting Burning Up in a rock version that she will perform for the first time at the CBGB club.

“All I want to do is impress you, be perfect. I still care what people think!”, she adds. The journey through the life of Madonna and her troupe of artist, rockers, dancers and rebel friends takes us into the 1980s, an era of freedom and lightness. Madonna walks up the steps of Paradise Garage, the club where DJ Larry Levan has delivered memorable performances. Madonna is turned away at the entrance before passing through accompanied by a dancer playing Jean-Michel Basquiat. Madonna had known the artist in her youth. Under a disco ball, we find the atmosphere of the party tinged with unforgettable notes of Holiday.

Tributes to legends

The party ends when Madonna pays tribute to artists lost to AIDS. Their portraits are displayed as Madonna begins Live to Tell suspended in the air. We see Freddie Mercury, the disco singer Sylvester, Robert Mapplethorpe, the painter Keith Haring, or the physiognomist of the legendary Danceteria and Studio 54 clubs Haoui Montaug, and many others who are dear to the heart of the Madonna.

Shortly before the last scene of the concert, an interlude pays a moving tribute to Michael Jackson, with two dancers with the same silhouette as the superstars, moving like Chinese shadows, mashup of Billie Jean And Like A Virgin. Many photos of Madonna and Michael Jackson as accomplices are projected in black and white.

Concert dedicated to Madonna’s children

How can Madonna find herself on stage after having had a brush with death? She takes the time to explain it to her audience in an unforgettable moment. “I caught a rare disease. I found myself dying in a hospital. I couldn’t breathe on my own anymore.”, confides a moved Madonna in a cowboy hat and stylish cowboy boots. “When I woke up, all my children were at my bedside. I understood that it would be my children who would save me”. Madonna adds that she did not know if she would be physically fit to perform this tour, calling herself Wonder Woman. “My managers came back to me and asked: do you want the tour to go ahead? I was intubated with oxygen in my nose. I couldn’t even walk to the bathroom alone.” she said, having difficulty finding the words.

A feat therefore, to find Madonna on her feet, delivering a live performance, including an excellent and appropriate a cappella cover of the title I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. “I told myself, if I don’t do it now, this moment will never come. My children saved me because they pushed me to keep going. Thank you very much my children for life”, completes Madonna with these few words of French. These children also accompany him on stage in many moments of the show.

The hard choice of songs

Even though it’s a greatest hits tour, Madonna can’t sing them all. This is perhaps the only negative point of the concert, the absence of certain key titles which could have replaced others. We would have liked to hear Madonna sing Like a Virgin, Express Yourself, Papa Don’t Preach, Borderline Or Music instead of Crazy for You, The Beast Within, Die Another Day, Don’t Tell Me Or Mother and Father. To the frustration Madonna is already responding. “These are just pages from my book. There are too many pages, I can’t tell you everything. Come back for part two.”