Madonna's Drowned World Tour is one of the hottest shows of the summer and the 43 year-old pop icon's proven she hasn't lost her touch after eight years off the road. The tour, which began in Barcelona, Spain, comes to a close in the US at the Los Angeles Staples Center playing four-nights - September 9, 11, 13 - with the grand finale on September 14th.
The Drowned World Tour is said to be one of the most elaborate tours ever and there's a lot of hard-core prepping for each show. The tour requires more than 200 people who travel from city to city and 100 additional, local production people. Madonna doesn't exactly travel light either. Her equipment weighs more than 100 tons, fills 1,500 trunks and takes eight trucks to cart it around.
The show is a kaleidoscope of sound, lights, technology, video images, colors, pyrotechnics, mechanical bulls and the Material Girl's choreographed dance routines with her back-up dancers. Madonna also shows off a ton of crazy costumes. Most of the show focuses on songs from Music and Ray of Light but she performs a couple of retro tunes like La Isla Bonita and of course, Holiday.
Before hitting the stage, it takes an hour and 45 minutes to style Madonna's hair and do her make-up. She covers up her blonde hair with a wig for one section of the show where she dresses up like a geisha girl. Inside Madonna's dressing room she has pics of her kids - four year-old 'Lola', as Madonna calls her, and baby brother Rocco. Her children are never far from her side and have been traveling with their mom along with hubby, Guy Ritchie.
Madonna's back-up singer/dancer Niki Haris, who has been working with the mega star for 15 years, told Entertainment Tonight that she admires Madonna's fearlessness. "That's one of the biggest things I've learned from her - the things that make us all afraid are things she goes for," says Haris. She also sees Madonna as a role model who proves that women can have it all. "She has a supportive husband, and children who love her, and she has a really good support system and dream team around her - she's proven it can be done."
If you weren't able to catch Madonna's show live, you may have caught her HBO special, Madonna Live: The Drowned World Tour. It was broadcast live from her hometown of Detroit, Michigan on August 26, 2001. Madonna says, "It's a theatrical presentation of my music. I've taken my inspiration from many things: martial arts, flamenco, country and western, punk, rock and roll, Butoh dance and the circus." I'm hoping the concert will find it's way onto DVD but haven't heard anything yet.
