Even if you can’t name five Madonna songs, you know who the singer is.

She’s the girl who shocked TV viewers in the ’80s by baring her bellybutton and writhing on the floor to the tune of “Like A Virgin.”

She taught legions of young women how to dress trashy, then how to vogue.

She’s been feted for roles in popular films such as “Desperately Seeking Susan” and drawn the same sort of attention for being in cinematic flops.
She’s married celebrities, regular Joes and Englishmen.
She’s published soft porn and children’s books. She’s given her kids funny names. She’s taught us about kaballah.

Since arriving in 1983, Madonna has done just about everything except go away.

“If you called me a month ago and said Madonna could sell out four shows at the Centrum, I’d have said your prediction is wrong. I’d have said maybe two shows. Well, I was wrong again,” said JayBeau Jones, program director for Citadel Broadcasting in Worcester, parent company of WXLO-FM (104.5) a prime outpost for Madonna music.

Madonna’s “Re-Invention Tour” is indeed coming to the Worcester Centrum Centre for four nights starting Sunday, though because of new details concerning the stage design additional seats for each night have been put on sale.
Madonna is performing Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, making her first trek into the Centrum since her “Blonde Ambition Tour” of 1990.

Back then, John Lahair was in possession of a single ticket for Madonna’s final show of a three-night stand at the Centrum.

“That was the night she canceled because of throat problems,” Lahair said .

But Madonna’s proverbial lucky star is shining upon Lahair, who grew up to become marketing director at the Centrum and has had a hand in the pop star’s arrival here, going so far as to attend the singer’s dress rehearsals held in Los Angeles last month.

Lahair said Madonna’s production is the biggest yet to play the Centrum, and no detail is left to chance.

“She doesn’t want any surprises,” he said, noting that The Centrum has even removed its overhead scoreboard for the concerts, a first in the building’s 22 years.

John Lahair, director of marketing at the Worcester Centrum Centre, stands in front of a Madonna mural on the side of the Centrum.

Madonna‘s return to Worcester, where her debut tour staged in 1985 and the “Blonde Ambition” tour previously stopped, has some other firsts for the city. The normal police detail used to control traffic around the venue during show time is getting an extra officer just to handle limo traffic. A portion of the Centrum’s convention center is being converted into “The Lucky Star Cafe and Lounge,” where artifacts of Madonnamania will be on display and various contest winners will be corralled.

And Madonna prompted the building itself to get a little facelift. Working with FLEXcon of Spencer, the Centrum commissioned a series of 13-foot photo panels to hang along the venue’s outside walls depicting the singer’s various incarnations through the years.

Lahair said that Madonna’s sole New England appearance here is drawing massive media attention from around the region, so all those TV remotes setting up along Worcester Center Boulevard will have a nice backdrop.

And the media convergence is happening because Madonna doesn’t merely give concerts; she creates spectacles. There are numerous set changes and costume changes. Teams of dancers back the 45-year-old star and she covers her catalog from “Material Girl” to last year’s “American Life.” The show?’s requisite controversy involves Madonna strapped into an electric chair and various jabs at Bush administration policies (and that vitriol is balanced by Madonna’s cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine“.

The tour has drawn loads of attention, and it demonstrates what a survivor Madonna is in comparison to her younger imitators such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, whom both had to cancel their summer tours. Madonna is garnering far more hype than is normally accorded an entertainer whose most recent movie, “Swept Away,” and album, “American Life,” both bombed.

With a back catalog containing defining musical moments of the ’80s and a sharp eye for, well, re-inventing herself, Madonna seems to have created an empire, not just a career. And when the queen visits her people, it’s hard to miss her. Since the tour’s start a month ago, Madonna has provided news fodder about her departure from the record label she founded, Maverick records; her decision to christen herself Esther in the kabalist tradition; and what she’s had to do about trespassers at her 1,200-acre English estate.

The All-Madonna-All-the-Time media swirl that engulfs everything from MTV to Liz Smith’s gossip column certainly helps sell tickets. But that’s just sizzle. Madonna’s foundation is burrowed in the bedrock of the ’80s.

“People go see Michael Jackson today because he made “Thriller.” They go see Madonna because she made “Borderline,” “Material Girl” and “Like a Virgin.” Whatever Prince does now doesn’t matter because he made “Purple Rain,” ” Citadel’s Jones said.

Madonna’s genius, though, was making music that fits into numerous radio formats. Her techno-influenced newer material still cracks the Top 40, while lighter stations can latch onto “Take A Bow” and purveyors of ’80s hits have her greatest hits from that era.

“That’s the mark of a superstar,” Jones said.

Madonna’s re-Invention World Tour 2004 stops at Worcester’s Centrum Center on June 27, 28 and 30 and July 1st. Click on the picture above for a
special report with photos for MadonnaTribe readers about the amazing window graphics celebrating the re-Invention tour.

Jones’ analysis was supported by one Madonna fan who was merely 1 when Madonna’s first album came out.

“We were just listening to her old songs last weekend,” said Jen Spirlet, a 22-year-old graduate student at Assumption College.

Spirlet said Madonna’s music was simply part of her everyday life while growing up, from her mom playing the tunes around the house to her dance recital set to “Material Girl.”

But like many, Spirlet was shut out during the first wave of response to the on-sale for Madonna tickets. Big demand also means high prices. The best seats for Madonna’s Centrum shows go for $300, a slight markup from the $15.50 ducats her 1985 tour commanded.

But news of additional tickets for the concerts being put on sale sent Spirlet back to the Ticketmaster Web site.

Who knows, maybe she’ll end up sitting next to longtime fan Lahair.

“Yeah, I took off one night and bought that single ticket to go as a fan,” he said. “There’s nothing like being part of a crowd of 12,000 witnessing a performance like the one she puts on.”

Here’s hoping Madonna’s vocal cords hold out all four nights.

Article byScott McLennan, theTelegram & Gazette

Special thanks to John LaHair, Director of Marketing, Worcester’s Centrum Centre