CARDIFF, Wales - Even at 50, the queen of pop just can�t stop courting controversy.
As Madonna kicked off her external "Sticky and Sweet" tour Saturday night, she took a none-too subtle cabbage at the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president.
Amid a four-act show at Cardiff�s packed Millennium Stadium, a television interlude carried images of destruction, planetary warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe�s authoritarian President Robert Mugabe � and U.S. Senator John McCain. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain�s Democratic rival Barack Obama.
The rest of the register had the usual Madonna fixtures: sequins, fishnets, and bondage-style outfits drawn from the 3,500 items of wearable reportedly whipped together by 36 designers specifically for the tour. Dancers sauntered across stage in whirligig hats and tail coats, and Madonna tried her hand at break-dancing and pole-dancing.
Some 40,000 fans � many in pinko cowboy hats and boas � were treated to a heavy metal version of "Borderline," while "La Isla Bonita" served as backdrop for a flamenco routine. The show, billed as a musical ragbag of "gangsta pimp," Romanian folk, rave, and terpsichore � was an homage to Madonna�s continuous reinventions over the past three decades.
She took a playful take on her varicoloured career, jeering dancers polished as her previous incarnations � including the "Material Girl" and "Blonde Ambition" � before they sank into the stage to the melody of "She�s Not Me." Madonna finished off the concert with her thump "Give it 2 Me" from her new urban-inspired album, "Hard Candy."
If the world�s top-selling female recording artist is still writhing, shaking and shimmying with the best of them, her personal life has recently been unsettled. Earlier this summertime her brother Christopher Ciccone published a gossipy memoir, and she has faced speculation around her relationship with New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez and rumors that her wedding to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie is on the rocks � which she hotly denies.
Madonna�s tour was eagerly hoped-for in Britain, where the pop genius has made her home, and fans weren�t disappointed.
"We enjoyed it to the max," aforesaid Ruth Henson, 24, world Health Organization works in human resources in London. "Madonna, considering she�s now 50, is so fit. She did a really good job."
Following Cardiff�s possible action concert, "Sticky and Sweet" moves crossways Europe, striking London�s Wembley Stadium on Sept. 11 and Paris on Sept. 20. From there, it goes to North America in October before swathe up Dec. 18 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
It is Madonna�s first-class honours degree tour since striking a deal with concert promoter Live Nation Inc. worth an estimated $120 million over 10 years. The partnership gives Live Nation a post of future music and music-related business she generates, including touring, merchandising and albums. Madonna�s last circuit was her 2006 "Confessions" � in which she staged a mock excruciation only a few miles (kilometers) from the Vatican.
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