Madonna is embarking on her first greatest hits tour with direction from sought-after producer Stuart Price, and the event is expected to include 40 of the legendary singer’s best songs spanning her four decade-long career.
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Price told the BBC recently that Madonna’s greatest hits aren’t limited just to her music. “It can be a wardrobe, it can be a video, or a statement,” he said, sharing that the tour will blend archival footage and costumes with studio recordings to create the one-of-a-kind, sold-out Celebration Tour.
Madonna recently experienced a health scare that landed her in the hospital with a severe bacterial infection after she was found unconscious in her home. She has since recovered, stating that she’s “lucky to be alive” after her ordeal. The Celebration Tour was postponed from July until October to give Madonna time to get back to full strength, and both Madonna and Price have shared that she’s back and ready to embark on her tour, which kicks off at London’s O2 Theater on October 14.
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“The person that is going to take the stage looks incredible, sounds incredible, performs incredible,” said Price. According to the producer, the delay gave them time to perfect and polish the show, so fans are in for a spectacular experience.
“Madonna has very high expectations of how much hard work people will put into something,” Price continued. “It’s very uncompromising — but she’s equally as hard on herself. So when she took a break, that pause created an opportunity to further enhance the show. And I’m sure the opportunity [for her] to focus on being 100% well was greatly received as well.”
Choosing 40 songs from Madonna catalog is a great undertaking, but Price was confident in the choices even as he admitted to the difficulty. “That was the big challenge,” he confessed. “In two hours, can you get all of it in? That’s hard. But every great moment she’s had, we took a bit of it.”
And Madonna has had a lot of great moments. She exploded onto the U.K. charts in 1984 with “Holiday,” and has gone on to have 13 No. 1 singles and 71 total hits. Some of those career-defining hits include “Vogue,” “Ray of Light,” “Like a Virgin,” and “Material Girl.” Since the set list is so involved, Price explained that some songs will be incorporated together into mash-ups, while others will be used as bridges between performances. Overall, Price estimated about 25 songs would be performed in full, with 20 more being employed in other ways.
Madonna is known for her tight, precise performances and for being highly choreographed, so a tour of this scale is sure to be a spectacular, cohesive experience for fans. While it posed a challenge for Price as producer, it was a challenge he was thrilled to take on. There’s a necessary rigidity to the planning process of the tour, but, Price explained, “there’s one thing that’s always dynamic, and that’s Madonna herself. Her personality is so strong, her interaction with the audience is so strong, that it creates opportunities for variation from night to night.”
Get ready to dance and sing along with the iconic Madonna! Grab your tickets today for an unforgettable experience at the Madonna Celebration 2024 Tour.
Photo by Michael Campanella/Getty Images
