With her best album since Music, which didn’t do much on the charts, to promote, and her Live Nation $120 Million deal up for renewal in 2017(note to Live Nation: IDIOTS), Madonna has so much riding on this 62 date tour which opens Wednesday and now consider this: not a single one of her 21 US date is sold out. The best album, Rebel Heart, has sold 650,000 copies worldwide. “Bitch, I’m Madonna” has been streamed 14 million times on Spotify. For an artist of Madonna’s caliber, with an album this great? Whoops.
She deserved better, both “Joan Of Arc” and “Ghost Town” deserved to put her back on top.
But the live shows is a different matter. I’ve never been crazy about Madonna on tour but going on stage at 11pm, and performing atrocious new versions of old songs and deep album cuts, with a bad attitude when not lecturing us about politics? She was terrible in 2012.
I never understood why she would follow a mainstream pop album with a left of center art show that chased everybody away. Chased the adults with jobs, chased the teens and kids, chased popsters and hipsters, and only left the diehards. It is hard to maintain a huge following with only the diehards coming to your concerts.
The result has been predictable, according to the New York Post (here), the 2008 “Sticky And sweet Tour” made $408M, the 2012 “Sticky And Sweet” tour $305 Million.
I’ve read good things about this tour, if she plays it straight, plays the hits plus choice cuts off rebel heart, if she gets on stage at 9pm and performs 120 minutes of great dance pop, word of mouth will instantaneously sell out the tour. But if she gives us more of MDMA, art pop self flagellation and audience hatred, forget it. And if this tour loses another 25%, expect big problems.