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Highlights -


I had a few favourite songs.  One of the things that I love about Madonna is when she performs lives, she does these fantastic revisions and remixes of her greatest and oldest tracks.  If you’re note sure, you have to check out The Confessions Tour CD. Like a Virgin and Music Inferno are perfect examples of what she did with some of her very well known songs.   On this tour, she did some great remixes.  Like a Prayer was awesome.  She did a really rockin’ version of Human Nature (one of my all time fave songs) and Rain with a little help from Eurythmics. As someone who has performed in Evita, I loved that she did You Must Love Me, that was a real treat for me.  Hung Up, Give it 2 Me, Ray of Light. And watching her attack mockeries of her former self in She’s Not Me... GENIUS!  Love it!


One of the stand outs was Devil Wouldn’t Recognize.  It’s beyond explanation, but it’s so vivid in my head. It’s a simple song with a simple premise. Madonna singing on top of a piano, inside a massive cylinder, lights projecting water and rain falling. It was very powerful imagery.


As for the album it was promoting, at first I really didn’t like Hard Candy. In fact I thought it was kinda crap.  Not one of her best works, and following Confessions on a Dance Floor, it was a real let down.  However, after watching a significant number of these tracks performed, I discovered a new fondness for the album. Some new standouts for me on the album are Devil Wouldn’t Recognized, She’s Not Me and Give it 2 Me.  So if a tours job was to promote an album in terms of sales, it didn’t work with me; I bought the iTunes Preview version of the album.  But if it’s aim was to make me appreciate the album more, then it succeeded.  It’s still not a great album, but there are a few gems on there. 


There isn’t much in the way of pictures for this event.  Unfortunately I don’t have a very good camera so I can’t take decent photos of this type of event.  I did get a few that showed up. You can get a very good sense of what the show was like if you search for Sticky and Sweet Tour - Buenos Aries Argentina on YouTube.  It’s worth looking if you’ve read this far.


Getting a chance to see Madonna live was a dream come true.  It was also one of those dreams I never thought would actually come true.  So thanks to my friends for the ticket and thanks to Madonna for coming to Vancouver in my 30th year.  It was just one more event that made this year unforgettable. 


The concludes part 3 of my series.  The next posting is a little bit on the heavier side.  I will talk about how I made peace with my younger brother.   He sits in a jail cell in Central Alberta serving a sentence for dealing drugs. Should be interesting.

  1. 1.Candy Shop

  2. 2.Beat Goes On

  3. 3.Human Nature

  4. 4.Vogue

  5. 5.Die Another Day

  6. 6.Into the Groove

  7. 7.Heartbeat

  8. 8.Borderline

  9. 9.She's Not Me

  10. 10.Music

  11. 11.Rain

  12. 12.Devil Wouldn't Recognize You

  1. 13.Spanish Lesson

  2. 14.Miles Away

  3. 15.La Isla Bonita

  4. 16.Doli Doli

  5. 17.You Must Love Me

  6. 18.Get Stupid

  7. 19.4 Minutes

  8. 20.Like a Prayer

  9. 21.Ray of Light

  10. 22.Hung Up

  11. 23.Give It 2 Me

But I’ll also compliment when I think it’s deserved...


Tina - Great legs, amazing talent, boundless energy. 

Kelly Clarkson - Unappreciated deluxe class superstar.

Lady Gaga - She looks like the Witch King of Angmar.  Don’t believe me?   See for yourself!

You’ll notice this is in the compliment section. I think being creative enough to make your freakishly bizarre costume look like that deserves a thumbs up.


So where does Madonna fit in?  She’s a category all by herself.  She’s a creative genius, with the foresight to know not what will be hot today, but what is underground and just itching to explode on the mainstream.  Ray Of Light, arguably her best album was about 3-4 years ahead of it’s time.  That type of music was always played in the clubs and embrace by a small subsection of music lovers, and Madonna took it and infused it with her own brand of pop and made it not only marketable, but accessible.  The first time I heard that album it blew my mind.  It was a music I had never been exposed to, and knew virtually nothing about.  It was intense, and brilliant. 


I will say this... for the most part her critics are right.  She’s not the best singer, and she’s not the best dancer.  She is however one of the best performers.  Her videos are top notch, her music is compelling and riveting.  Her movies are awful, but I go see them anyway.  Her criticisms are plenty, but they don’t take away from her as a performer.  I’ve listened to all of her music, I’ve seen most of her movies, but the one thing I had never had a chance to do was to see her live.  It looked for a while there like she would never come back to Canada after her little incident in Toronto.  So what if she was faux masturbating on stage.  This is Canada... everyone does that.  Some people make a good living that way.


She did come back though.  She did shows in Montreal, Toronto, and my town Vancouver. 


I can remember way back when I was but a wee little gayling, I always wanted to see Madonna perform live.  I saw tons of concerts - Paula Abdul, U2, Janet Jackson to name a few, but I always came back to Madonna as being at the top of my list of concerts I need to see.


Needless to say, when it was announced that the Sticky and Sweet Tour was coming to Vancouver I was ECSTATIC!   I just about jumped out of my skin.  As a birthday present, Jenn and Ty bought me a ticket to go with them.  It was SUCH an awesome show, and worth the 18 year wait.

My Ticket to Madonna!

I’ve been accused of being SO friggin’ cute in this picture

Setlist