Madonna at the Forum: 5 thoughts on her button-pushing show
Madonna performs Tuesday night at the Forum in Inglewood.
Throbbing beats, bare-chested men and a whole crew of pole-dancing nuns: It was clearly Madonna’s time to shine Tuesday night at the Forum, where the veteran pop star brought her “Rebel Heart” tour for 2 ½ hours of gleefully profane pageantry. We’ll have a full review later, but until then here are five quick thoughts on the show.
1. Katy Perry put in an appearance near the end of the concert when Madonna brought her onstage during “Unapologetic Bitch.” After spanking the younger singer (who pretended to tear up at the attention), Madonna presented Perry with a banana-shaped flask and invited her to have a sip of whatever was inside it. “I love you, Mom!” Perry said.
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2. The set list pulled deeply from this year’s “Rebel Heart” album, opening with “Iconic” and moving through eight more of Madonna’s new tunes, including “HeartBreakCity,” which she performed on a spiral staircase, and “Living for Love,” presented here in a thumping trance remix.
3. The focus on fresh material meant that Madonna skipped some of her biggest hits, such as “Papa Don’t Preach” and “Express Yourself.” (And no “Ray of Light”? Madness.) But the singer did find time for lovely renditions of “True Blue” and the French standard “La Vie en Rose,” both of which had her accompanying herself on ukulele.
4. Can we talk about Madonna’s dancers? With more than a dozen of them, the show had plenty of elaborate choreography to go along with the sparkly costumes and flashy video elements. Most impressive was a routine during “Illuminati” that had a group of dancers spinning atop long, flexible poles.
5. As always with Madonna, no culture was safe from her appropriation, be it the samurai warriors she battled in “Iconic,” the flamenco moves she tried during “La Isla Bonita” or the Jazz Age flapper dress she donned for a supper-club makeover of “Music.” Watch and learn, Katy.
Twitter: @mikaelwood
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