Looking Deep Into Madonna's "Confessions"

The great M has managed to put the Catholic church into yet another uproar over her quote-unquote blasphemous images on her "Confessions Tour." I attended opening night in Los Angeles and let me tell you, the show is anything but blasphemous. (I have tickets I need to sell for Fresno on June 6 by the way. If anyone wants them, email me!)

I was surprised that the Vatican's response to the show was so harsh, claiming it was all for "shock value" and to sell more records. The last thing Madonna needs is more money or attention. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look a little deeper into her "Confessions" show to see that the woman has a personal tale to tell with a message for her audience.

I implore you, if you go to the "Confessions Tour," look deeper. It will intensify your experience. Here's my take on the show.

Madonna opens the show with "Future Lovers," interestingly enough the song I chose to play here on KabbalahCurious.com as a Coming Soon teaser. She promptly tells the audience in no uncertain terms what they're about to witness: "Let's forget your problems, fears, administration, ills... come with me. Connect to the sky, future lovers rise, every nation's high, would you like to try? Put aside your pride, let me be your guide, future lovers hide love inside their eyes. ...in the evidence of His brilliance."

The theme is equestrian: larger than life, intimidating black horses appear on the screens behind her and she appears in riding gear with her dancers in horse muzzles and black leather straps on all fours. Everyone knows about her infamous horse riding accident that left her with many broken bones and a fear that she may never be able to dance like she did before. This is Madonna's artistic expression of taming of the beast and facing her fears.

It was only here in this opening number that I really realized for the first time what a huge deal that riding accident was to her. You have to think, Madonna no doubt views herself as completely invincible by this point! Indestructible! For her to have such a near death experience really must have been a wake-up call to her own sense of mortality, one that sent her, literally and metaphorically, crashing to the ground. What's more, she is an utterly self-professed control freak! Well, you don't get more out of control than being confined to a bed. Not to mention that during recovery she was forced to alter her usual diet and workout to accompany her healing.

I'd guess Madonna has a very interesting relationship with horses now! And that is all showcased here in the opening number of the show.

This is followed by an intimate solo performance of "Get Together," as Madonna seizes the opportunity to really connect one-on-one with the audience before going further into her tale.

An interesting adaptation of "Like a Virgin" is up next as Madonna all but makes love to a carousel horse while x-ray photos of her broken bones appear on the screens behind her. She sings, "You made me feel shiny and new," seemingly thanking the formerly seen "beast" horses for what has become a re-virginization. She has been born again because of that accident.

"Jump" features moves by Madonna's dancer, Cloud, that are so impressive I wanted to cry. All her dancers are spectacular, but I've never seen a dancer lead with his heart like that. He infuses the pop culture of crump with the heart of ballet and marries the physical with the emotional. A great segue to her next number, which has become he most infamous of her show.

After a few confessions from her dancers about their own abusive pasts, Madonna is raised from the ground, hanging from a giant cross, wearing a crown of thorn. She opens her mouth and sings, "I have a tale to tell...," for the first time in over 14 years performing "Live to Tell," a song highly associated with domestic abuse that was written during her tumultuous marriage to Sean Penn. Here, for the first time with this song, Madonna stops pointing the finger at her attacker and turns it around at herself. (You didn't think it was just a coincidence that the cross was made of mirrors did you?) Accepting that she is the one who has crucified herself is the first step in no longer being a victim.

She falls to the floor for a bit during the number before dramatically raising up as though she were "resurrected" (another rebirth! sensing a theme?) and sings, "If I ran away, I'd never have the strength to go very far." This is hardly shock for the sake of it. This is a message about self-victimization and comment on how most of us in some way crucify ourselves every day. Sometimes a full on resurrection is needed to exorcise those demons. And maybe, just maybe, that's partially what the Bible was really saying all along.

I felt like Madonna was sort of playing with the recent Magdalane phenomenon with "Forbidden Love" as she wrapped herself lovingly around the cross and sang, "Once upon a time, there was a boy and there was a girl. Hearts that intertwined, they lived in a different kind of world. Forbidden love, are we supposed to be together?" There's lots of homosexual undertones from her backup dancers here too that was really beautiful.

"Issac" and "Sorry" are clearly commentaries on the abuse of women in society. A huge cage appears on stage with a woman inside, cloaked in sheets that reveal only her eyes. She convluses throughout the song, throws herself against the cage and begs to be released from the prison. Madonna sets her free, her religious garments finally shed to reveal a sexy belly dancer outfit. She connects with her inner sensuality and is liberated. Fast-forward to America where "Sorry" shows us how the boys in the gang can treat their "bitches" when you're living in the hood. The gals have the last say, of course, and turn the tables on the boys by the scene's end.

In her defiant closing statement to this controversial portion of the show, "Like It Or Not," she boils it down to a simple Cabaret-style chair dance and a declaration that, "This is who I am, you can like it or not. You can love me or leave me, but I'm never gonna stop."

A reprise of "Sorry" is played on the video screens as Madonna demands of world leaders of past and present from Bush to Hitler: "Don't talk. Don't speak. Your lies, I've heard it all before."

At this point on the journey, now that Madonna's been resurrected, she is liberated and feels a sense of being able to let go and tap into the energy of just being in the moment, a song that is personified by "I Love New York." Madonna's said before, it's not about a place, it's about a state of mind. To her, that state of mind is surely liberation, as New York is where she learned to make it on her own, stand on her own two feet and find her inner strengths. Naturally, this is followed by similarly themed songs like "Ray of Light" ("...and I feel like I just got home.") and "Let It Will Be" ("...anyone can see, you've got to let it be.") She really "lets go" in this segment, rocking out on guitar, throwing herself all over the stage in freestyle unchoreographed dance and even tossing her mike off stage for someone to fetch with a "devil may care" attitude.

She slows down to ponder her fame and its place the big picture with "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" and "Paradise (Not For Me)," two really touching moments in the show where I think we get close to seeing the real core of who Madonna is and what she's still searching for after all these years.

There's an homage to "Saturday Night Fever" up next as Madonna dons Travolta signature wardrobe and moves for a spiced up version of "Music" that is peppered with "Where's the Party?" and "Disco Inferno." If this works into theme chronologically, it's a stretch, but I'd guess it's her way of saying that after all her self-analysis and searching, there's only one thing she knows to be true in her heart and soul and that is quite simply that "music makes the people come together."

That and that her love for her husband is what keeps her going! As is made evident in the following number, a totally retooled version of "Erotica" that now reads like a love letter to Mr. Ritchie.

To end her tale, Madonna dons the cap of the ultimate Kabbalaist, though 80% of the people who see the show will probably never know it. Madonna performs "La Isla Bonita" with celestial-like islands on screen behind her and a sense of camaraderie and family amongst her dancers. The message: Madonna, like all Kabbalists, believes there is a place like this that exists beyond the pain and suffering of the world she has just shown you, the one we all live in, and that our goal is to find our way back to this proverbial Garden of Eden.

They say she has no encores, but I believe the final two songs are her encores. She just doesn't believe in pretending she's going to not come back out and forcing a crowd to blow their lungs out for her. But it's a perfect choice of bookend songs: a nod to her past with "Lucky Star" and a nod to her present and future with "Hung Up."

And those, my friends, are Madonna's confessions. Blasphemous? Hardly. Shocking for the sake of shock value? Please. Even since the days of the burning crosses in the background, Madonna's rarely done anything that didn't have a meaning more than meets the eye. You know what that's called? Art.



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Have questions? Need advice? Want to share? EMAIL Jason at jason@jasonsechrest.com