Written in CULTURE he 5/3/2024 · 1:37 pm
The Celebration Tour, the twelfth tour by American singer Madonna, which has its closing show on Copacabana beach this Saturday (4), has a peculiarity, to say the least, intriguing: the show has no musicians. Yes, dear reader, exactly what you read. This, which claims to be the biggest musical show of the year in Brazil, doesn’t even have a musician on stage. Just dancers, DJs and, of course, Madonna.
The tour began in London in October last year and ends this Saturday, has raised millions, is considered a great success and does not have, nor has it ever had, any musicians.
Recordings are the stars
Madonna’s musical director, Stuart Price, warned at the beginning that the show would have more than 40 songs, all of them performed with pre-recorded bases. At the time, he told the BBC website that “a biggest hit doesn’t have to be a song. It could be a wardrobe, a video or a statement.”
And he added: “what we realize is that the original recordings are our stars. These things can’t be replicated and can’t be recreated, so we decided to just embrace that.”
It’s always good to remember that in Madonna shows and similar shows, the musicians, just like in operas, are always hidden in a pit or any other location. What you see on stage are dancers and pyrotechnics. But at least they’re there. And receiving fees. This time, not even that.
The discussion takes us back to another that exploded recently. The use of playbacks in shows. Without naming names, this type of artist who dances furiously does not, in fact, have the slightest physical condition to sing at the same time. It would be necessary to have two more lungs.
To summarize the story, without further ado or judgment – after all, everyone consumes what they want – shows like Madonna’s are seen differently. The final product, the dances, the attitude and everything else is what counts. Everything else is Paul McCartney and Roger Waters among other eighties.
From all this, there remains a phrase that I once heard from a radio station owner: “jazz that I want to hear on my yacht.”
