Rumours & Spoilers

21 May - Report from the dress rehearsal
Yesterday Madonna held a dress rehearsal for family and friends. Among celebrities attending the rehearsals were Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Ellen, and Portia De Rossi. Fansite DrownedMadonna reports with tons of spoilers.
The show starts with the video of Madonna doin the photo shoot for W. It's live film, unlike Re-Inventions pics pieced together. You actually see Madonna walk up to the horse... it's done like a movie.

Equestrian
Future Lovers - Madonna appears at the end of the middle runway and performs the entire song at end near the audience. She comes from inside a giant disco ball (like what we've seen). There are 4 or 6 dancers that join her at the end of the stage. The video continues on the screens in the background. She sings the lyrics to a Donna Summer song "I feel love"...
Get Together - is just Madonna. She sings it from the main stage. The screens behind her are mainly red.
Like a Virgin - is indeed on a merry-go-round of sorts. She basically does a combination striptease/pole dance and rides a saddle all while the pole goes in circles. She grinds the saddle quite a bit. Very sexual.
Jump - GOES INSANE. A huge platform comes down from the ceiling over the center catwalk. There are guys doin acrobatics and gymnastics everywhere. It's a great number. The highlight of the Equestrian section.
Live to Tell - Is on a big, white cross. She hangs for the entire song. Before the song you see the story of 3 differnet people who have been abused. You hear their voices as they tell their stories. It's quite moving.
Forbidden Love - The cross stays on stage and during the song two male figures appear on each side of the stage- they hold hands and dance together..all while this huge white cross watches. It definately makes a statement.
Isaac - Believe it or not- the end of this song is where Madonna does the most dancing. She is joined by a male singer (as we already know). There is quite a dance number at the end of the song.
Sorry - FUCKIN ROCKS!! . One of the highest points of the show!! with Pet Shop Boys voices saying Sorry Forgive ME over and over...
Like It Or Not - wow...
Sorry Remix - VERY political images on a video screen. She rips on EVERYONE!! Some funny footage of George W. blinking... alot!
I Love NY - same as Coachella.
Let It Will Be - Great rock version. Similar to Coachella.
Ray of Light - Rock, guitar, the dancers wear black with white ties. It is similar dancing to Coachella if not exactly the same.
Drowned World - Her voice sounds GORGEOUS. She just sits on the stage and sing.
Paradise Not for Me - joined with the male singer from Isaac. Weird red blood-clot-ish images on teh screen. It seems to be blood clots shaped like peace signs and crosses...
Music - John Travolta outfit. Some great video footage. She dances like crazy! The dancers are on roller skates...
Erotica/You Thrill Me - The white skin tight outfit from Access Hollywood clips. Fun, cute number. More You Thrill Me then Erotica.
La Isla Bonita - what you saw on E! and Access Hollywood.
Lucky Star - She wears a weird cape that had lights on the inside of it. She dances a lot and went a bit crazy. The dancers have a good time. They are everywhere.
Hung Up - Exactly what we've seen. Great way to end the show.
Check DrownedMadonna and MadonnaTribe for pictures of the dress rehearsals (including the cross and the disco ball.

11 May - Gaultier's costume sketches
French website Liberation has published two costume sketches by Jean-Paul Gaultier:
The black costume, which we've already seen in the W Magazine pictures, is used for one part of the show. It also includes a high hat, typical for horseback riding, which reminds of Romy Schneider in 'Ludwig'. Madonna will be wearing a transparent blouse under an asymmetric jacket. The idea is to mix the concept of horseback riding with the suggestion of SM...
The other costume consists of a transparent plum colored shirt and underneath a lycra leatard in matching colours, and short stretch trousers. On her head she'll wear a thorn crown, while she's singing Live To Tell on the cross.
When descneding from the cross, she'll wear a bomber jacket.
After assisting at the rehearsals in California, Jean-Paul Gaultier was reportedly "stunned by the level of professionalism" of the pop queen (though this isn't by far the first time he's worked with her).
~ Check DrownedMadonna for more costume sketches.

08 May - No 'I Feel Love on tour?
Fansite Madonnalicious has heard through the grapevine these little tour snippets - please remember everything is always subject to change until opening night!
Reports of Madonna singing some of Donna Summer's I Feel Love during Future Lovers is untrue. Madonna has sung it a few times in rehearsals but just in fun.
The Future Lovers performance will heavily contain the I Feel Love sample.
The idea of Future Lovers opening the show is basically creating an invitation to the audience to join the show....think of the opening lyrics.
Madonna, Donna and Nicky (her backup singers) are working really well together and looking and sounding great.
The male dancers have been fitted with some 'altar-boy' looking costumes.
The first full dress rehearsal (with house lights down) will take place on Thursday 18 May - all the stage lifts and props will be operational and Madonna and her crew will run through the full show six times in the days leading up to the opening night on Sunday 21 May.

30 April - Coachella setlist and tour setlist changes
Fansite Madonnatribe posted the supposed setlist of the Coachella performance which is almost the same as Madonna's promo tour performances in London and Tokyo late 2005, with Ray Of Light added.
Hung Up
Get Together
I Love New York
Ray Of Light
Let It Will Be
Everybody

They also report the following:
This is the very last chance to witness Everybody - the Tour version as the song is no longer a part of the Confession Tour as MadonnaTribe informed its visitors a couple of weeks ago. We have now heard that an uptempo tribal version of La Isla Bonita replaced Everybody in the tour.
Speaking of tour, Erotica/You Thrill Me has now replaced Deeper And Deeper, this is interesting as You Thrill Me was never released, so it's the first time Madonna is doing a Demo version of the known song on tour. We've been told it's much more You Thrill Me than Erotica.

17 April - Spoiler about the show entrance
What would a Madonna show be without a touch of sacrilege? We hear one of the centerpieces for her Confessions tour will be a "disco-fied crucifix," as one source calls it. While details of the kabbalist's latest taunt to the Catholic League are shrouded in secrecy, we can tell you Her Madgesty is also hatching another grand entrance. Word is she'll descend to the stage on a glittering ball covered with diamonds and Swarovski crystals. The ball supposedly costs $10 million and is being constructed in a well-guarded airplane hangar in L.A. "It'll create a blinding light," says our snitch. "Like she's landing on the spaceship from 'E.T.'" (source: New York Daily News)

13 April - Reports from rehearsals
Drownedmadonna reports that Future Lovers is indeed the opening song, and it is performed live. On the other hand, Music is an interlude before Everybody, both featuring rollerskating dancers, but only the latter being performed live by Madonna. The setlist they reported remains the same.
They are also reporting: The costumes are insane... very elaborate and of course Madonna will wear huge fashion boots.
Madonna looks absolutely amazing. We have been told that she has lost another 5 pounds and her arms are ripped.
The rehearsals are extremely intense and stressful. In the past weeks the musicians and the dancers rehearsed at different venues. Tour staff will go to the Los Angeles Forum next week to finalize the staging and to bring in the band.

10 April - Details of a performance
Drownedmadonna reports: Here is how Madonna is planning to perform Live To Tell:
She climbs up on a giant cross and gets strapped in like Jesus. A mic lowers and Madonna sings the song hung on the cross.

29 March - Madonna learns to krump
I have managed to obtain the first details of Madonna's forthcoming world tour.
And if you thought re-Invention was special, this one is shaping up to be even more spectacular.
Her Madjesty is recreating wild scenes from notorious New York nightclub Studio 54 - famous for its debauched antics and drug-fuelled dancing in the Seventies.
The Queen of Pop is even learning to krump - a cool hip-hop dance based on body-popping and breakdancing.
And I reckon krumping - also known as clowning after its inventor, hip-hop dancer Tommy The Clown - could be as big as the Vogue craze she started in the Eighties.
The dance featured in Rize, a documentary by film-maker David LaChapelle.
A source said: "Madonna has been practising krumping ever since she filmed the videos to Hung Up and Sorry. It started as un underground dance in gangland LA and Madonna now wants to make it her own. Madge has ordered a unique spinning platform to be designed so she and her dancers can recreate Studio 54's extravagant scenes. She has also ordered dozens of disco balls to decorate the stage with authentic Seventies lighting."

The show will open with a Disco Queen section, featuring girls in sparkling suits, male dancers dressed as pimps and more dancers roller-skating.
Another section, American Land, will indulge Madonna's obsession with horses, with video walls showing footage of her riding scantily clad in the pouring rain.
A third part, Oriental And Eastern, will see Madonna joined on stage by a Kabbalah singer to perform a remix of her brilliant album track Isaac.
One section will have a Parkour specialist - the wacky sport on the BBC promotional film with a bloke running across London rooftops. Madge will also showcase some new music, if her label Warner give the go-ahead.

And I have the provisional setlist on above right to prove it.
Producer Stuart Price has been working on Keep The Trance and History, which I hear are both killer tracks, and he has completely reworked Erotica and Who's That Girl, which are almost unrecognisable.
Madonna has had her wardrobe designed by old allies Jean Paul Gaultier and Dolce & Gabbana, with her jewellery and accessories by Lacroix.
Madge has been locking herself away for 13 hours a day perfecting her routines for her most dance-oriented show ever.
She has also started a strength-building diet and is jogging to get into shape for the gruelling two-hour shows which kick off in LA this May.

Set List:
Hung Up
Where's The Party
La Isla Bonita
Music
Love Profusion
Get Together
Isaac
Erotica
Nothing Really Matters
Jump
Everybody
Dress You Up
I Love New York
Holiday
Bedtime Story
Hollywood
Skin
Ray Of Light
Sorry
Borderline
Keep The Trance (new track)
History (new track)
Like A Virgin
(source: The Sun)

29 March - Madonna to take Studio 54 on tour
Superstar Madonna plans to make her forthcoming world tour her most spectacular yet by recreating New York City's legendary hedonistic nightclub Studio 54 on stage.
Following the huge success of her Confessions On A Dance Floor album last year, Madonna is planning a world tour which is set to begin in Los Angeles in May.
The Material Girl has also been inspired by David LaChapelle's street dance documentary Rize and plans to 'krump' on her forthcoming world tour.
A tour source tells The Sun, "Madonna has ordered a unique spinning platform to be designed so she and her dancers can recreate Studio 54's extravagant scenes.
"She has also ordered dozens of disco balls to decorate the stage with authentic seventies lighting." (source: WENN)

29 March - Two more songs on rehearsals
Here are more exciting spoilers about what Madonna is currently rehearsing for her new summer tour. Two songs, that are quite loved by fans, are at the moment part of the show. A brand new acoustic version of Drowned World - Substitute For Love, is being considered for the third section of the show while a classic track from her 1983 selftitled first album, Lucky Star, is rehearsed and "re-invented" as one of the closing numbers. (source: MadonnaTribe)

29 March - Opening song and Confessions songs
It starts with Future Lovers from Confessions On A Dance Floor, filled with elements strongly reminiscent of the vibe of Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", an amazing, full of energy number and a great opening.
In the current setlist a regular "album" version of Madonna's next single Get Together is following, and after that the long-awaited Like A Virgin is performed in a totally reworked dance version - to die for.
Then goes Jump, again rehearsed just like the album version, that ends the first part of the show. (source: MadonnaTribe)

28 March - Representation of Madonna's albums on tour
No wonder about the current set list being heavily based on Confessions On A Dance Floor, with a total of nine songs from Madonna's latest album being rehearsed at the moment. The selections from Confessions are quite natural, although there is one particular song that is apparently missing from the setlist in some unexpected way.
We've heard that the show is currently divided in four different segments, with tracks from Confessions being spread all over the setlist - and obvioulsy not being limited to a specific section only. There are again some great classics from her back-catalogue to complete and complement the concert set, but differently from re-Invention, you wouldn't exactly call this a "Greatest Hits" show.
Some song choices and some mood remind more of her 2001 Drowned World gig.
The non-Confessions tracks in the current setlist are highlights from her First Album, Ray Of Light, and Music, one song from True Blue and one from the Erotica album.
The opening section is very energetic and mixes strong anthems from Confessions to a totally reworked dance version of one of Madonna's signature hits.
A more serious part of the show then follows, this one also includes the live version of Isaac with Yitzhak Sinwani on stage we previously reported about.
A third section sees once again Madonna playing guitar, bringing back both the rock feel and the intimate moments of her Drowned World and re-Invention tours. This is the section where the new live acoustic version of Paradise (Not For Me) Madonna is currenly rehearsing is including.
Remember the ABC special that was aired a few months ago showing Madonna at her NYC home where a mash-up version of Music mixed with "Disco Inferno" was played in the background? From what we hear this is exactly the version that's she's doing on stage for this tour, as the opener of the fourth and last segment, shaped up as a classic show climatic closing, making the darkness seem so far thanks to some more of her all time hits.
The closing number of the current setlist, just like the opening one, is again one song from Confessions. (source: MadonnaTribe)

27 March - Isaac on tour
Isaac is indeed part of the currently rehearsed set list. The song is part of the second and more "serious" part of the concert, and is performed live by Madonna joined on stage by Yitzhak Sinwani.
Sinwani also appears later in the show, when Madonna performs a live acoustic version of her Paradise Not For Me in the third segment of the concert, the one that somehow brings back some of the intimate feel of her Drowned World and Re-Invention tour moments, and preceeds the fourth, and final part of the show. (source: MadonnaTribe)

25 March - Three Main Sections of the Tour
So far Madonna and Jamie King have defined three sections to characterize the show. The first is defined "Equestrian", the second is a Middle Eastern Theme and the third is Disco. Obviously they are only in the first weeks of rehearsals, so they are still making creative decisions and everything is "in fieri". (source: DrownedMadonna)

11 March - Oakenfold mix of Sorry
DJ Paul Oakenfold is to spin his magic on a special remix of Madonna's No. 1 hit Sorry. Paul, who now lives in LA, told me it would be a "dancey version" and would feature in Madge's world tour, which kicks off on May 21. (source: The Sun)


She's rumoured to play at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on July 28. Possibly this is the opening of the European leg of the tour.


Several online ticket bookers mention following dates for Palais d'Omnisports de Bercy, Paris: August 27-28-30-31.


"Madonna has let me into a secret" - Victoria Newton reports today on her "Bizarre" column on The Sun - "her world tour will kick off in L.A. on May 21st. She'll also play in Russia, for the first time, Czech Republic as well as Europe and the US."


Madonna is said to be performing in open arenas again, which she didn't do since her Girlie Show in 1993 [except for the Re-Invention show in Slane Castle, Dublin]


The tour is rumoured to have stops in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. No word yet on Latin America or other parts in Asia.


When visiting Japan during her November promo tour, Madonna promises to return for her tour.


Late January, some sources say they received the news from Warner France that Madonna has booked the Palais Omnisports de Bercy in Paris, France on August 22 and that a date in the Stade de France will be added as well.