Madonna - American Idol

CONFESSING TO TWO OF MY GUILTY PLEASURES

Madonna kicked off her Confessions Tour 2006 at The Forum in Los Angeles (21/23/24 May).
When the tour/ticket sale dates were announced, I never even considered attempting to buy tickets, since I knew it was going to sell out very quickly. Then I was surprised to hear that my friend, RV, was flying to the U.S. all the way from the Philippines, just to watch her perform. I teased him and told him that I may be a fan, but am not a groupie and not that big of a queen...LOL
Some years ago, Bill took me to a Fleetwood Mac concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and I sat beside this big raging flaming queen, who informed me that he follows the group to all their concerts because of Stevie Nicks. I so cluelessly inquired, "Why, who is he?". To which he replied, "What!... where have you been girlfriend?... she's only the greatest diva of all time!". I immediately mimicked his gestures and waived the finger in front of his face and rebutted, "Ah...ah..no way, Madonna is the greatest diva of all time!". She was the best selling artist aside from MJ, when I was going through my puberty blues during the early mid 80's.
So here I was just about to leave my office, looking forward to the watching the finale of the American Idol Season 5 at the Kodak Theater, knowing that I missed another chance to see Madonna live... I suddenly thought to take a chance to check online at craigslist.com, to see if there were people out there desperately trying to sell tickets they realized they couldn't use. I was shocked to read what people were willing to do, how much people actually paid and were willing to pay for tickets. So I had to contemplate if Madonna was worth two cell phone bill payments, one monthly car payment, or one paycheck. Bill didn't care to go unless it was U2 or Led Zeppelin, so I asked my friend, Bart, to go with me and put the onus on whatever he decided. We decided to screw it and go for it! I ended up getting us a pair of tickets for great seats for a little more than half the price of the face value. So I had to waive goodbye to my donation to the Catholic Church and contribution to the Republican Party (sarcastic). American Idol would just have to meet TiVo ...and we were off to dodge stray bullets and head to The Forum to go Confess on the Dance Floor!

Please click on the arrow at the center of the screen below
to play the video footage of the opening number.

It was an absolutely fabulous show!
It was obvious that a lot of money and concept was put into the stage design, videography, choreography, costume design, etc.
Madonna's body and that of her back-up dancers were lean mean machines!
Those expensive seats were hardly warmed, since everyone was up on their dancing feet from the beginning to the end.
My only regret is that some of my favorites of her earlier work were not showcased. I know...I could have very well waited for the DVD or for it to come out in HBO. But it was a lot of fun and worth giving up funds for a whole month's worth of a full tank of gas!...LOL

Here are RV's pics:
Confessions in San Jose HP Pavillion
Confessions in Fresno Save Mart Center

***

I gather that the finale of American Idol Season 5 turned out to be a great production as well. I have yet to watch it on my TiVo.
If you were like me and missed it, they had a guest list that included performances with/by Al Jarreau, Live, Meat Loaf, Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, Dione Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, and Prince.

Congratulations to the Soul Patrol and
Taylor Hicks, the new American Idol!