Madonna transforms Copacabana Beach into Broadway, combining theater, music and hits | Music

Pabllo Vittar participates in Madonna’s show in Copacabana

It’s surreal to think that the combined audience for the more than 200 shows on Madonna’s last three tours is smaller than the audience that filled Copacabana Beach. This Saturday (4), the American singer performed in front of 1.6 million people.

The biggest active pop star made the biggest show in its history, with appearances by Pabllo Vittar (“Music”) and Anitta (“Vogue”). The two didn’t sing, but they went on stage and performed with the diva.

Madonna turned Rio into the perfect place to say goodbye to the tour that celebrates her 40-year career. Nothing diminished the catharsis, not even the 45 minute delay or the many difficulties involved in an event of this size. But anyone expecting a huge dance floor had to settle for an excellent musical.

Anitta participates in Madonna’s show in Copacabana, Rio

“I’m going to tell the story of my life. It’s not a movie, it’s my real life and you are a big part of it”, she announced, at the beginning.

The setlist is permeated with ironic and unfiltered speeches, as usual. “I thank God for giving a guy a blowjob and for teaching me how to play the guitar”, he recalls, before the rock version of “Burning Up”, in which he plays the instrument.

Anyone who is a fan already knew that the idea of ​​this tour was to use the studio recordings to make new live versions, without a band playing. The use of recorded sounds works, but the presence of voices covering Madonna’s harms the vocal performance on songs like “Everybody”.

“Nothing Really Matters” opens the setlist in a risky way. The song from the album “Ray of Light” (1998) represents a more psychedelic and somber phase, responsible for giving the singer her only Grammy for Best Pop Album.

“Looking at my life it’s clear that I lived selfishly,” she sings, in one of the most personal lyrics in her discography. The unobvious choice of opening has to do with the strength of the lyrics, a kind of editorial or introduction to this super personalistic and self-celebratory tour.

The presentation, however, is far from being a resume show.. There is a reason each song is located in each of the seven acts. They all have memorable images and art direction worthy of someone like Madonna.

Madonna pays tribute to AIDS victims at concert in Rio

The first part is dedicated to the beginning of her career, when an ambitious young woman with US$35 in her pocket left Detroit, in the American state of Michigan, heading to New York, in 1978. The sequence formed by “Everybody”, “Into the Groove “, “Burning Up” and “Holiday” get the show moving.

“Live to tell” opens the second block, which takes a break from the party. To the sound of the ballad, the singer pays tribute to friends and other people who died after being diagnosed with AIDS. Excited, Madonna cried after the song. Photos of famous Brazilians such as Renato Russo and Cazuza, who also died from complications of the disease, appeared on the screens.

In 1989, Madonna included a booklet on AIDS in the liner notes of her album “Like a Prayer”, at a time when talking about the disease epidemic was considered taboo. Not by chance, the track ends this segment.

The third act recalls the most provocative phase. That era of the 90s focused on where looks, lyrics and videos focused on the pursuit of female sexual freedom. The costume for this part is the simplest and with less cloth and accessories: just a nightgown and a robe.

Madonna created concert recipe used by Beyoncé and Taylor Swift

Songs from this phase, “Justify My Love”, “Erotica” and “Bad Girl” are overshadowed by “Hung Up”, from 2005. The excited reaction of the audience confirmed the feeling that many young people in the audience must have known Madonna better from the album “Confessions on a Dancefloor”, an album with a proposal to update disco music.

The dances of New York’s LGBTQIA community in the 1980s are paid homage to in the following sequence, with “Human Nature” and “Crazy for You”. In “Vogue”, when the dancers danced and people gave ratings for the performances, Anitta took the stage as one of the judges.

The fifth block highlights the good instrumental arrangements, a rarity in a show almost entirely done without the presence of musicians. “Music”, for example, gained momentum with the presence of a group of rhythm players from samba schools. Pabllo also participated, but without singing. She danced accompanied by percussionists and sensualized with Madonna.

“La isla beautiful” and “Don’t tell me”, in turn, feature his son David Banda on guitar. Previously, daughter Mercy James played piano in “Bad Girl”. Their dexterity left the impression that it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the next tour was more intimate and family-friendly, like the one Caetano Veloso did with his children.

Madonna ends 40th anniversary tour in Rio