MadonnaTribe’s friends and forum community members Torontophoenix and Torontoboy have been interviewed about their experience at the re-Invention tour by Matt Thomas for FabMagazine.

Click on the Full Article option to read this interesting article called Esther low on teen queens.
Special thanks to TorontoPhoenix for sendig the article to us.

ESTHER LOW ON TEEN QUEENS
by Matt Thomas

Sinking into my 10th-row seat on the opening night of Madonna’s Re-Invention Tour stop in Toronto, I noticed that the crowd of 905 moms, middle-aged and daddy fags and Paris Hilton clones seemed strangely similar to those at Cher’s “Farewell” concert in October. I thought that Madonna would be hipper than Cher to a teen audience, but as I scanned the arena from my seat, I saw very few youngsters and even fewer young fags. Has Madonna’s ability to recruit teen queens gone as dry as her acting career?

“I even flew to London, England, to see her in a play. I sat front-row-centre and after the show, I ran into her. She was so sweet and even acknowledged me,” gushes über-Madonna fan Dave Gardner, a 24-year-old Toronto boy who was one of the youngest queers in the crowd. Gardner, a fan since hearing “La Isla Bonita” on the radio when he was seven, shares his Madonna obsession with his boyfriend, 24-year-old David Figueiredo, who recalls, “One of my best friends bought me Erotica for my 13th birthday and I’ve been floored since.” Together, they’ll shell out hundreds of dollars and travel hundreds of miles to get a glimpse of Madge. But tonight, with Figueiredo’s mother (living out her ’80s fantasy) also in attendance, even Gardner admits there’s a change. “Younger people aren’t really much of her audience now. It’s about pleasing her old fans,” he says. It’s true that mixing in favourites like “Holiday,” “Like A Prayer” and “Vogue” (along with kilt-clad breakdance boys and Moulin Rouge-style video projections) had the crowd rabid. But my mind wandered during the unfamiliar new material and I wondered if the much-debated new face of Madonna wasn’t smudging her diva status in the minds of fag boys.

“Age says a lot – she’s much more connected to the music and there’s more to it than just catchy pop tunes,” says Matt McNama. Madonna’s adult interests were apparent in her cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” (with accompanying graphic war footage) and her religious interests were highlighted by the “Kabbalists Do It Better” T-shirts worn by her and her dancers. McNama came to love Madonna during high school listening to “Ray of Light.” Like me, he found that it was the gateway drug to Madonna’s sweet pop past. But today’s teenagers – homos included – seem more drawn to the new sex pop, like Britney, which only follows in Madonna’s early footsteps. Thrown off by Madonna’s new slant and too lazy to research her past, young queers don’t seem to respect her work and what she’s accomplished. “She can pretty much take any small trend and reinterpret it for the masses,” states Gardner. Madonna switches personas with every album, from ’80s club kid to kinky queen to hip-hop mother, with varying success. Young fags who are only familiar with her few Top 10 hits of the last couple of years are missing out on one of fagdom’s most entertaining divas.

Madonna has always pushed homos into the light, through faggy videos like “Express Yourself” or with her Britney kiss. “She’s not someone like Whitney who has a big gay audience but doesn’t really reach out to them,” says Figueiredo. Tonight’s concert reached out to me with its heavenly, shirtless dancers engaged in breakdancing, skateboarding and homoerotic choreography. Madonna’s sequined costumes, semi-nude male backup video and constant stream of dance tracks pleased every fairy in sight and would have easily won over any eager twinks. As a giant walkway descended from the roof and stopped 10 feet away from me, I felt a little star-struck. Though from a closer range it was clear that Madonna ages just like other mortals, a few wrinkles beneath her stage makeup didn’t stop her from belting it out and putting on a massively entertaining show. As the concert ended in a confetti explosion, the audience was left with the words “Reinvent Yourself” scrawled on the giant video screens.

It’s the duty of young fags to search beyond Esther’s current art direction and persona to get to some of the best pop music of all time. “Start with the Immaculate Collection and GHV2. You take those two CDs, get the whole package and then just pick and choose your favourite era” is Gardner’s advice to Madonna neophytes. While I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan, my appreciation for Madonna grew during the show. Though I couldn’t take my eyes away from her dancers as they paraded above my head in kilts, I certainly let my body groove to the music.

Matt Thomas