Queen of Pop’s Vancouver party

There was no doubt that something big was hitting Vancouver Thursday night. Traffic was at a standstill throughout the downtown core hours before the Queen of Pop hit the stage at BC Place.

Outside the stadium $300-tickets were flying out of the touts’ hands. Pop royalty had arrived, and over 50,000 locals were ready to pay dearly for the privilege of its presence.

Inside, two giant pink Ms, sparkled – as so they should have, with their $2-million worth of Swarovski crystals. And between them, Madonna appeared, draped across a throne, tapping a black cane to the opening bars of Candy Shop.

“Get up onto your feet“, she sang – but the crowd had beaten her to it. This was one party they were already up for.

Click on the Full Article link below to continue reading this review from an article by Fiona Morrow from the Globe and Mail.

From a set list heavy with tracks from current album Hard Candy, the opener and its follow up – Beat Goes On – hit hard, with the latter played out with a video backdrop of collaborator Kanye West, and a look-a-like driving down the stage in style in a white vintage roadster.

But the segue into Human Nature was strained, Madonna’s robotic guitar-playing apparently only there to service a suggestive bump and grind against the upended instrument. It didn’t help that the close up on the giant video screens reflected a face full of determination, but hardly ecstatic.

Nobody ever accused Madonna of being an actress, but at times during an off-key rendition of Borderline, singing seemed to be escaping her grasp, too.

She gave a convincingly angry version of She’s Not Me, however – as song that berates a wannabe Madonna with a fierce warning that no matter how hard they try, they’ll never be her. As she lay down and beat the ground with her fists, she looked like she meant it.

There was some great spectacle: for Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You, a cylindrical cage dropped from the ceiling, projected images of rain and water tumbling down its sides. But when it was just her on stage singing Miles Away, the 50-year-old icon simply looked tired.

Thank goodness, then, for a spirited version of La Isla Bonita and a traditional folk song by a Romany folk band that finally gave the audience something to do with its feet. The same band elevated the schmaltzy You Must Love Me into a genuinely poignant moment, eliciting the first genuine smile of the night from the star.

And when she went off-script for an audience-requested burst of Like a Virgin, it felt like the tension dropped from her otherwise tightly coiled biceps.

It was a shame it hadn’t happened earlier in the night: she finally seemed to be enjoying herself by the climax, pulling out a rousing version of Give It 2 Me.

“No one’s gonna stop me,” she insisted. And who would argue with that?