"[C]oncert crowd sizes can be difficult to gauge; Riotur, the municipality’s tourism department, estimated that 1.6 million people flooded onto the 2.4-mile stretch of sand on Saturday that had been turned into a roughly $12 million playground surrounding the 8,700-square-foot stage. It was the culmination of days of Madonna-mania in the city, where talk of the singer, 65, was inescapable. Her songs spilled out of stores and car stereos. Fans assembled outside her hotel and shouted her name. Updates about the concert, which was broadcast on the network Globo TV, dominated local media reports...."
"'Here we are, the most beautiful place in the world,' Madonna announced.... 'This is magic.'... 'You have always been there for me,' she said. 'That flag: that green-and-yellow flag, I see it everywhere. I feel it in my heart.'"
Madonna has based her entire career on her Catholic upbringing. She's in her early 60's doing the same visual shtick without any reflection on why she can't leave this subject and why it still resonates for her audience.
Kudos to Madonna for her career. What a fabulous one it has been! I recall when a friend returned from Europe all jazzed up about hearing her first hit over there, and describing this new artist. I don't quite get all the hate for her. She is a brilliant self-promoter. I would only complain about the work she's had done that alters her physiognomy, but that's showbiz.
The idea of getting oneself to that beach (finding parking, walking to it with all the stuff you think you have to have to be there for hours) and then hanging around (standing up?) for hours and then standing up for more hours in the middle of a bunch of strangers while trying to not lose your stuff and then realizing you or one of your companions needs to find the porta-potty which might require you to lose your narrow place in the crowd and the concert hasn't even started yet as it dawns on you that all you're going to be seeing is the big video screen. What in human evolution over the last 350,000 years has led people to want to do this.
This is probably the first song of hers I ever heard-sometime in the Spring of 1983, but she had an earlier one than this "Everybody" from late 1982. Both songs are on her debut album which I bought just after she released the single "Borderline". I have been a fan for over 40 years.
I guess she's not a flash in the pan, and she won't die broke and alone. She was never on my playlist but she certainly knew how to package and sell whatever it was that she packaged and sold. I just don't understand how she turned out to be a bigger star than Debbie Harry.
As girl singers go she's no Taylor Swift. Of course Taylor's success is supposed to be owed to Madonna as is the case with every girl singer (aka woman pop/rock vocalist) after Madonna. But I think's all down to Cher more than anyone.
Support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.
Amazon
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Support this blog with PayPal
Make a 1-time donation or set up a monthly donation of any amount you choose:
Posts
29 comments:
Antonio Carlos Jobim is sadly shaking his head somewhere in the Other Place.
The most beautiful place in the world? Guess she’s never been to Nebraska.
Free is the correct price for that show.
What proportion of those 1.6 million people thought the show was worth the price of admission?
I always thought she was more of a Buenos Aires girl, but I guess they voted against people like her, so Rio it is.
Free is a good price.
She has no band, instead the music comes from prerecorded tracks.
Much of the time she is lip syncing to prerecorded vocals.
It is not a concert.
It's been all downhill for Madonna since her Marylin Monroe imitation years.
Madonna has based her entire career on her Catholic upbringing. She's in her early 60's doing the same visual shtick without any reflection on why she can't leave this subject and why it still resonates for her audience.
I, for one, look forward to a future concert wherein her head in a jar, a la Futurama, lip syncs to her biggest hits.
Kudos to Madonna for her career. What a fabulous one it has been!
I recall when a friend returned from Europe all jazzed up about hearing her first hit over there, and describing this new artist.
I don't quite get all the hate for her. She is a brilliant self-promoter. I would only complain about the work she's had done that alters her physiognomy, but that's showbiz.
The idea of getting oneself to that beach (finding parking, walking to it with all the stuff you think you have to have to be there for hours) and then hanging around (standing up?) for hours and then standing up for more hours in the middle of a bunch of strangers while trying to not lose your stuff and then realizing you or one of your companions needs to find the porta-potty which might require you to lose your narrow place in the crowd and the concert hasn't even started yet as it dawns on you that all you're going to be seeing is the big video screen. What in human evolution over the last 350,000 years has led people to want to do this.
Did they hire Hamas to do the headcount?
The most beautiful place in the world? Guess she’s never been to Nebraska.
Awesome.
Jaw-dropping crowd images. Personally, I hate crowds, but that is really an amazing scene.
Her costume was Virgin Mary/witch. Interesting.
This is probably the first song of hers I ever heard-sometime in the Spring of 1983, but she had an earlier one than this "Everybody" from late 1982. Both songs are on her debut album which I bought just after she released the single "Borderline". I have been a fan for over 40 years.
"The most beautiful place in the world? Guess she’s never been to Nebraska."
No one has ever been to Nebraska.
I guess she's not a flash in the pan, and she won't die broke and alone. She was never on my playlist but she certainly knew how to package and sell whatever it was that she packaged and sold. I just don't understand how she turned out to be a bigger star than Debbie Harry.
MadisonMan:
She is a brilliant self-promoter.
Yeah. She can use anything at hand like, say, a pop bottle.
Artistically I don't care for her one single bit, but I'm always impressed by anyone who can pull off a feat like that.
She looks and sounds good in this clip. There were pictures floating around that made her look really freaky...glad she is better!
I have never understood her appeal.
She has a terrible voice, and while OK to look at, no stunner.
Don't get it at all...
No one has ever been to Nebraska.
Sounds even more attractive.
"I just don't understand how she turned out to be a bigger star than Debbie Harry."
Fate undermined Harry's music career- Chris Stein's illness ended the band just when it had taken off like a rocket.
She's just creepy.
As girl singers go she's no Taylor Swift. Of course Taylor's success is supposed to be owed to Madonna as is the case with every girl singer (aka woman pop/rock vocalist) after Madonna. But I think's all down to Cher more than anyone.
Impressive. The entire gay population of Rio out for Madge.
The Brazilian flag features the green of the Portuguese-Brazilian royal house of Braganza, and the yellow from the colors of the Hapsburg family.
Designed by Leopoldine (1797-1826), one of Emperor Francis I's daughters and wife of Prince Pedro.
Did she show up 90 minutes late like all of her other concerts?
Post a Comment