Religious leaders may have snubbed Madonna, but Italian fans cheered the pop star as she staged a mock crucifixion at her concert in Rome.

A crowd of 70,000 attended Sunday night's performance at Olympic Stadium, some two miles from the Vatican. The scene of Madonna on a mirrored cross and wearing a crown of thorns, part of her worldwide "Confessions" tour, had drawn fire from religious leaders, who condemned it as an act of hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church.

"She does it to play, not to offend," said Benedetta Mori, a 31-year-old fan wearing a T-shirt with an image of Madonna on the cross. "If they allowed her to stage the show here they must also play by her rules."

Madonna's representatives have said the performance on the cross, which has been included from the outset of the tour in May, is not disrespectful toward the church.

The 47-year-old singer is known for her theatrical, action-packed shows. Besides her rendition of "Live to Tell" while on the cross, her two-hour performance included two dancers with a Star of David and a Muslim crescent painted on their torsos who embraced and held hands.

A figure wearing a robe and turban did a solo on the shofar, a ram's horn traditionally blown during the Jewish high holidays, then joined Madonna, who is a kabbalist, to perform "Isaac," a song about Yitzhak Luria, a 16th-century Jewish mystic and kabbalah scholar.

"Two miracles have happened," Madonna told the crowd. "Italy won the World Cup and it stopped raining before my show."


Keeping in touch with her Material Girl side, she got the crowd moving with her gyrating dancing and disco-flavored numbers.

"Ciao Roma! Are you ready to ride with me?" said the equestrian-styled singer as she opened a concert that included "Hung Up," "Music," "Like a Virgin" and "La Isla Bonita."

http://music.yahoo.com/re...s/12176836

Krytonite said:

does this mean she has a face like a horse

I'm glad they cheered. Controversy just never hurts Madonna, it draws more hype towards her.

ElCapitan said:

So boring you just needed to post in this topic

The org is so typical.

jayaredee said:

These antics are boring (as are some of Prince's). She can be quite interesting at times.

Didn't realize I wasn't allowed to have that opinion. Never mind.

Madonna rocks out with her cock out! Go Madge!

Here's some more boring reading which i'm sure everyone will read every last word of. The irony is people saying Madonna used sex to get where she is and then they insult her looks now. So what is it that's keeping her going so that she is about to break another touring record?

-----

August 12, 2006
ON THE ROAD: MAD FOR MADONNA
Artist Likely To Post Top-Grossing Tour Among Female Acts

BY RAY WADDELL

OK, I confess: I wasn't always the biggest Madonna fan. While her pop culture influence is undeniable, her ability to reinvent herself remarkable and her box office feats easily quantifiable, I have always considered her not a musical lightweight, but as something perhaps less than the rock titans of her era.

No more. All respect to the mighty M.

Madonna is on what will likely be the top-grossing tour ever for a female artist. The Confessions tour, which just wrapped in North America, is putting up heavy-duty numbers. The 34 shows on the North American leg drew 467,312 people and grossed $85.8 million. The tour has moved on to Europe and then heads to Japan.

The tipping point for me regarding Madonna's musical viability was in attending the last of six sellouts at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Big Apple is Madonna's kind of town, obviously, and she laid it all down with a performance that was equal parts Broadway, discothèque and rock'n'roll.

This is an athletic, kinetic, enormously energetic show, with inspired choreography, an ambitious stage design and highly creative use of video. The tour travels on 27 trucks, in the league of a Rolling Stones stadium tour, and the convoy's load mostly goes into the production.

If the music is sometimes not so memorable, the delivery is always riveting, and Madonna herself leads a vigorous dance team that expends an impressive amount of effort. This thing rocks, ebbs, flows and erupts, a truly compelling concert experience. And Madonna is a seriously charismatic presence onstage, from the time she emerges from her giant glitter ball well past when she hangs on her disco cross and rides her leather carousel pony.

"She works incredibly hard and expects everyone around her to work hard as well," tour producer Arthur Fogel mused before the Garden show in the "Arthur Fogel" wing of the venue, where he has presented 14 shows in the last year between U2 and Madonna. "I admire and respect her drive for excellence."

Madonna began her European tour July 30 in Cardiff, Wales, and will play the region until Sept. 11 at Vorobievy Gory in Moscow. Then it's off to Japan toward a gross that could make $200 million—and history.

jayaredee said:

because she was such a big star we all have to watch the super nova explosion that marks the end of her carear.

granted these people have been waiting since Everybody in Oct of 1982... 23years and 10months later the super nova is due at any point in time.

I'd accept the point she's trying to make -- that of drawing attention to suffering and pain around the world -- but for the fact that the act itself draws attention to no one but Madonna. Madonna's not reconciling the world to God, as Jesus did. She's reconciling her ticket projections to her actual sales. And comparing herself to a deity, lest we be confused about the esteem in which she holds herself.

She could have accomplished the same thing had she juxtaposed images of a crucified Jesus with those of today's "crucified" around the world.

But, by drawing all this attention to herself, she has her reward.

That being said, to my fellow Catholics, especially that blowhard William Donohue, speak your clout and move on. We have too much work to do and we're running behind.

Jesus can take care of Himself. He doesn't need us to defend Him.

namepeace said:

seeing as the tour was sold out, except the dates that were added after the start of the tour, before anyone knew of the cross it really didn't help her do anything but start people talking.

She has always used religious imagery on her tours. I'm still surprised people give her that much power.

ehuffnsd said:

It's a self-indulgent ploy, as her bastardization of religious imagery always has been. And she'll increase her sales of merch and CDs AS WELL AS her already-high Q rating.

Why would Madonna fans boo her

lilgish said:

That's a great question.

namepeace said:

Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It's a painful religion. We're all gluttons for punishment.

It is difficult to believe in a religion that places such a high premium on chastity and virginity.
Madonna

ehuffnsd said:

These ploys by Madonna are not exclusively devoted to Catholicism. She's used sacred Henna tattoos as fashion accessories. Her ballyhooed conversion to Kabbalah did nothing but draw attention to her own self-piety.

My criticism lies strictly with Madonna's self-aggrandizement in general, which is disguised as "artistic expression."

As I said, Jesus, who went through the real thing, so to speak, can take care of Himself.

Madonna is bigger than Jesus...

namepeace said:

Yay!!! My first Madonna thread in months and I'm reading something sensible! There is one message behind everything Madonna does; "Look at me!" That's it. Nothing more. There was a time when she was refreshingly shameless about that, but then her pretentiousness got the better of her, and she started trying to palm herself off as an artist rather than just a good pop star. Blame Camille Paglia and the academic brigade in the early 90s. The moment they started taking her seriously it was all over. Madonna started playing to them and they dumped her pretty soon anyway. These days Camille Paglia can be heard talking similar nonsense about Britney.

M in ROME was INCREDIBLE..

The place went nuts..

namepeace said:

I understand why she did it, and I can respect that too, but it doesn't come off they way it's supposed to and therefore, it's just in bad taste.

Madonna on the cross was my favorite part of the show. It was deeply emotionally affecting. You need to see it, not just hear about it. To put herself on the cross has far more power than having some statue or image on the cross, besides she's the star of the show and singing the song. The crucifix image is a symbol and by her being within in it, it brings the audience's attention to the symbol. When I only heard about it, it sounded strange and awkward. When I actually saw the performance, it was breathtaking. The focus was far more on the message she was giving than on herself, and the impact was deeply emotional. (the crucifix image supports a video about African orphans, and the words appearing on the video are the main focus.) It was very tastefully done.

namepeace said:

That is very much down to the view point of the beholder. Those who claim to be offended I can only assume have not seen the performance, as they rarely make reference to the context within which it is performed. People see what they want to see, and catholics, always eager to be offended and outraged, have zoned in on this performance - completely ignored the message - to use as their own platform to gain attention. If they think its such a despicable thing, then why draw such attention to it?

Its theatre at the end of the day, and the freedom of expression within the arts is fundamental to the freedoms we enjoy everyday in society. The way i see it, madonna is caught in a conflict between her own narcissistic instincts, and a genuine desire to do good, spread a positive message, be a better person. This often results in confused messages, and aren't helped when aided by half baked ideas like this one.

From what i can see she's wanting to help promote the raising Malawi Charity she's become involved in, and saw this as an appropriate way of doing so. Hate her for it if you wish, but there are far greater evils in this world to be directing your energies towards, and Im sure Madonna isn't losing any sleep over it.

CrozzaUK said:

which is a great cause and i'm glad she is still very supportive of HIV/AIDS. She has been a big donorer to the cause for many many years.

I said:



Crozza jumped out there and said:


The context is fine. She found various imagery to illustrate her point, juxtaposed with the "performance" of the crucifixion. But when it came to making the point -- that of the suffering being "crucified" around the world, a point which any sane Catholic would agree with -- she didn't use video or photographic imagery. One thinks that in Rome she could have found some depiction of the Crucifixion to run with the rest of the imagery. I hear there are a few lying around there somewhere.

And I think I made that point about the "context" in my first post.



So, let I get this straight. Your beef with the Catholics (apparently Madonna's teachings against biases didn't register with at least one of her fans . . . ) is that they are using a performance, designed by Madonna to get attention, to grab attention themselves. So who's the cause-in-fact of this?

Crucifixion/Passion imagery can be used in context for artistic means. Nirvana's use of it in the "Heart-Shaped Box" video and Kanye's use of it in "Jesus Walks" were poignant. Puffy's use of it in the "Hate Me Now" video and Madonna's use of it now is crass and self-aggrandizing.







You might want to read my first post again.



[Edited 8/9/06 16:35pm]
[Edited 8/9/06 16:36pm]

Madonna used the Crucified Jesus picture and images of the Scared Heart and Immaculate Heart on her last tour... so in her diffence. She needed something new to do.

namepeace said:

I totally disagree.

ehuffnsd said:

You mean . . . something new to draw attention to herself.

She's a brilliant self-promoter.

I wish she wouldn't try to insult the public's collective intelligence by disguising it as "artistic and social expression."

Her heart's in the right place. But her ego smothers it.

The same could be said of several artists.

Pissing off people of several different faiths doesn't always mean you're doing something right.

heartbeatocean said:

That's what the org is for!

namepeace said:

She's always been a shameless self promoter, thats always been part of the appeal. What I cant get is why this performance is offensive? She doesnt mock christianity. More like she is trying to encourage people to think about some of the teachings in christianity and apply them to the world around us.

Its simply a peice of performance art that is there to encourage us to think about a cause she is helping promote. You say she could have acheived the same thing by projecting images of the crucifixion, well she couldnt really could she. It wouldn't have been entertaining nor interesting, which is ultimately what she's interested in when putting on a show.

As I said before people will take what they want from the performance. I dont see anything provocative or insensitive in what she's done, those who were offended by it chose to be offended by it - for whatever reason.

CrozzaUK said:

Well, if being a self-promoter and a mediocre talent is appealing to one, then that's one's business. But I digress.

I don't think you've been reading my posts very carefully. "Offensive" isn't a word I used. She can do whatever the hell she wants. It doesn't offend me per se because Jesus can take care of Himself.

Madonna's use of Jesus' Passion to draw attention only to herself is the antithesis of Christ's teaching.




So why not promote the cause outside of her performance? If it was a cause she felt seriously about, then she should have done it seriously than in the context of her show (she did that before with some pretty effective PSAs on AIDS and STDs).

Do her fans REALLY need to be entertained and interested to pay attention to a cause? Seeing a pop star crucified on a golden cross with a glittering crown of thorns is what y'all need to pay attention to the world? She's either indicting or insulting you then.



So she wants to make it interesting and entertaining but you don't see it as provocative?

And some people don't want to call BS on Madonna's fake righteousness. For whatever reason.
[Edited 8/10/06 7:47am]

namepeace said:

But your the one who's determined to draw all the attention only to her. Those who've criticised her have completely tried to seperate the message from the visual, when the two are intended to go hand in hand - its the simplest form of manipulation. I ask you a question: If her sole intention really was - as you so vehemently insist - to generate as much attention as she could for herself - why have you chosen to take the bite?

Could it be your own fake self righteousness? Your snide comments about her sincerity may well be accurate, but as far as we can know they are nothing but pure conjecture. As you infer she's used this stunt to sell more tickets, if this were true would it justify the $3m or so that it's helped donate to the charity involved? Life is complicated, just as people are. Madonna's charitable acts may not manifest themselves in the most palatable way for you, but does it make them wrong or misguided?