Remarks: Madonna
had to postpone her second show of the tour on May 25th due to
illness. The show was rescheduled one day later. For
the European tour originally only London and Paris were announced.
There were negociations for shows in Spain, Italy and Germany
but for some reason they failed. Instead shows were added for
Holland and Portugal. Rumours
about getting Madonna to Slane Castle started spreading in March
and seemed confirmed when a licence was applied for in April,
which got approved in June. Madonna
originally planned to play 3 shows in Israel, but cancelled her
plan due to safety problems. According to rumours she had received
death threats from extremists. She did visit Israel for a pelgrimage
right after the tour. The
Lisbon shows almost got cancelled due to a conflict with a church
group who reserved the venue the week prior to the concert. Since
Madonna's crew needed the venue to set up the stage and to prepare
for DVD recordings, both shows were pushed back one day. This
is the reason why the tour book mentions September 12 & 13
instead of 13 & 14. For
a while, Madonna and the tour management considered extending
the European tour with stops in Helsinki, Stockholm and Moscow.
Although some of those negociations were almost finalized, Madonna
decided to stick to the original idea to end the tour in Lisbon. Like
the Drowned World Tour,
it was planned to broadcast one of the shows on TV. However, negociations
with TV network CBS fell through when it didn't want to comply
with Madonna's demand to air for more than 2 hours and commercial-free. The 4-month long tour was chronicled by Jonas Akerlund in the I'm Going To Tell You A Secret documentary. The movie features several edited performances of the show and since the Lisbon show wasn't released on DVD yet, the documentary is the only way to see footage of the tour.
Remarks: Tour programmer Mike McKnight confirmed in an interview
that during the early process, many songs were considered for the setlist. He revealed that when the show was divided into 5 parts,
Swim was performed in place of Frozen,
I'm So Stupid & Love Profusion were included in the
military segment (instead of Material Girl). The 1920s inspired torch song Devil Wouldn't
Recognize You was to be premiered in the cabaret segment, along with Dress You Up &
Take A Bow. For awhile, Live To Tell was considered in place
of the John Lennon cover Imagine, and Die Another Day was
the closing song of the show.
The following changes were probably done closer to the opening night: Nothing
Really Matters was meant to follow Nobody
Knows Me with a similar choreography (eventually some steps
are used by Madonna). Jamie King advised taking the track off,
because two solo perfomances in a row with the conveyor belt could
be kinda tiring, then Frozen
replaced, as a break of the dance segment. The glittery corset
segment was meant to feature 4 songs. The video background to
Nothing Really
Matters would be the one used on Nobody
Knows Me, with the lyrics and for the original Nobody
Knows Me perfomance, they would use the Aviddiva remix video
of Nobody Knows Me,
another reason to drop it, because Madonna thought it was too
self-celebrating.
Material
Girl wasn't meant at all to be on the setlist, because and
only because Madonna really doesn't like it. Dress
You Up was meant to be the final number on the war segment
but Madonna had a hard time learning to play the song. Jamie King
suggested and convinced Madonna so Material
Girl got included.
Take
A Bow was rehearsed as an interlude to Mother
& Father but Madonna thought Intervention
was more appropriate so she could give her kids the props and
finish the cycle about her and her family.
Although some fans were hoping
to see different songs on the European leg,
the setlist for this tour didn't change, unlike the Drowned World Tour.
Madonna
did change some elements for the show. She wore the gold corset
for the shows in the US, Toronto, Slane, Lisbon and the 2nd show
in Arnhem. For the British and French shows as well as the first
Dutch show, she had a lilac corset. Her shirt during Papa
Don't Preach read either "Kabbalists Do It Better",
either "Italians Do It Better", while the Brits and
Irish fans got their own shirt: "Brits Do It Better"
and "Irish Do It Better". There were also 2 versions
for Don't Tell Me:
the French version with the Paris background and the British "Bittersweet
Symphony" version with London background (used in the British
shows, Slane, Lisbon and the 2nd Arnhem show).
The
name of the tour, Re-Invention was Guy Ritchie's suggestion, as
Madonna had 'Whore Of Babylon', 'Ground 0' or 'Nobody Knows Me'
as possible titles for the tour.
Daniel
"Cloud" Campos
Reshma Gajjar
Mihran Kirakosian
Paul Kirkland
Tamara Levinson
Valerie "Raistalla" Moise
Dawn Noel Pignuola
Marilyn Ortiz
Sean Aires Smith
Seth Steward
Zach Woodlee
Jason Young
Sergie Ventura
Jamie
King
Caresse Henry
Chris Lamb
Benny Collins
Shari Goldschmidt
Liz Rosenberg
Angela Becker
Ashley Kraines
Show
Director, Set Designer / Choreographer
Management
Tour Production Director
Production Manager
Business Management
Publicist
Assistant to Madonna
Assistant to Madonna
Giovanni
Bianco
Steven Klein
Dago Gonzalez
Chris Cunnigham
Artwork,
logos & designer tourbook
Photography tourbook and video projection
Video projection
Video projection
Stella McCartney
Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel
Christian LaCroix
750,000 Fans will
see her show
110 People will travel on the road with the tour
58 Minutes for Madonna to get hair and makeup completed before show
56 security guards backstage
55 Tons of above ground equipment including sound, lights, videos
and speakers
40 Tons is the weight of the stage
30 Trunks will carry wardrobe of entire touring company
25 Cases of Kaballah Water provided backstage nightly (backstage
beverage of choice)
18 Semi Trucks will carry equipment including special 'Turntable'
stage
18 Dressing Rooms in each venue for touring entourage
12 Tons of sound equipment in air
12 Dancers
8 Minutes for Madonna to do warmup on Pilates stretch ball
6 Madison Square Garden Shows sold out in one day
5 Costume changes
5 Musicians
4 Wembley Arena Shows sold out in one day
3 Toronto Shows sold out in one day
3 Ricola cough drops consumed by Madonna prior to start of show
2 Background vocalists
1 Full truck to house Madonna's wardrobe and makeup
1 Skateboarder
1 Large cup of Throat Coat Honey Lemon Tea consumed by Madonna prior
to start of show
1 Children's Play room backstage
1 Bagpipe player