20 April 4 - 10, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents way dressed in vintage fashion and her youngest daughter, Estere, stood at the DJ booth on the top of the stage. Her 11-year- old child then danced skillfully, close to her mother. Then came the Western portion of the show, punctuated with the theme song of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Madonna wore a cowboy hat, starting off with “Die Another Die” and continuing with “Don’t Tell Me,” which got a surprisingly enthusi- astic response. She dedicated the next song, “Mother and Father,” to her own mother and her son David’s biological mother. And once again told the audience to be more enthusiastic so she didn’t have to repeat herself. “I sound like a crazy person,” she said. “And I am. Who else would do this fucking job?” Madonna has two biological kids (Lourdes, 27, with Carlos Leon, and Rocco, 23, with director Guy Ritchie) as well as four adopted kids. The criticism she received af- ter adopting kids from Africa, she has said, was the most painful of her career. Still, the singer told the audience that motherhood has been her greatest accom- plishment, before making an unrelated joke. “What’s the difference between a terrorist and a pop star? You can negotiate with a terrorist.” She then requested that everyone turn on the lights on their phones as she played a solo acoustic rendition of “Express Your- self” followed by “La Isla Bonita,” accompa- nied by a Spanish guitar and cello as she circled the crowd again on a rectangular lift. The sound of recorded applause and street drums introduced “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” with onscreen photos of former Argentinian first lady Eva Perón and revolu- tionary Che Guevara. This would begin an “In memoriam” seg- ment that included photos of Martin Luther King Jr., Nina Simone and David Bowie. The clips of interviews that followed no doubt were meant to remind us of Madon- na’s radical stance against war, sexism and discrimination well before it was expected from celebrities. As a cultural pariah, Madonna’s grandest act of defiance is that she holds firmly onto her throne despite sharing the seat with newer pop queens such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. There’s been endless online chatter about Madonna’s surgically lifted face, but we reiterate the point that you can blame patriarchal standards for an aging pop star accommodating the aesthetic expectations that come with the job. Madonna would’ve likely earned similar criticism had she let her estrogen-lost facial hair loose and wrin- kles take over as has Patti Smith — to each woman their own brand of rebellion. Whether as a response to this or not, the last portion of the show featured AI art, add- ing to the overall celebration of culture, art- istry and activism and the many messages like “No Fear” and “Resist.” The song “Ray of Light” was treated to more of an industrial sound. In the box that moved above the crowd, wearing Kanye shades, a silver catsuit and a long, pink- tinted straight wig, Madonna sang “Take a Bow” in its entirety as a figure resembling death came up behind her. The final segment was dedicated to Mi- chael Jackson, showing photos of the King and Queen of Pop together while interpolat- ing “Like a Virgin” and “Billie Jean.” About a dozen dancers then appeared dressed from Madonna’s differing eras: in the shiny black catsuit and cornrows of “Human Nature,” a red kimono, a baseball player (from A League of Their Own), the “Virgin” dress, in “Material Girl” pink. The theme of loss, the message of resis- tance and the retrospective, jukebox-musi- cal-type show felt much like a farewell tour. And it should be. After fighting a serious in- fection last year — not to mention a world that wasn’t ready, for 40 years — this would’ve been a high note on which to exit. But if B.B. King could pack arenas even after his fingers lost most dexterity and Bob Dylan can keep touring as his song lyrics be- come entirely unintelligible, as long as she’s still moving — even with a knee brace — Ma- donna damn well can do the same. And the truth is, we still need Madonna. With a steady avalanche of regressing poli- tics burying progress, the artist is still using her stage to spotlight important issues. She closed the 2.5-hour concert with “Cel- ebration” and “Bitch I’m Madonna.” “And don’t you forget it,” she sang, all the versions of herself dancing off the venue’s catwalk. Then, as she tried to lift her veil, which she aspirated into her face, her parting words would become, “God damn it.” Bitch, it’s Madonna, don’t forget it. Eva Raggio Madonna lit up the stage on Sunday night, at the first of two Dallas dates of her Celebration tour. Music from p19
