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Madonna news - Sep. 2006
← Aug. 2006 | Oct. 2006 →
Interview with Donna Delory
29 September 2006There's a new interview with longtime backup singer Donna Delory on ConfessionsTour.com:
You’re now on the road with Madonna for 4 months and every night, you’re all smiles and are looking gorgeous. How do you make it happen?
Well thank you for the gorgeous part!!! I take care of myself on the road. I am also so happy to be out here performing. I have been doing this touring stuff for a while so I have really learned to pace myself. The energy is always there on stage because we are getting so much from the audience.
You are now working with Madonna for such a long time. Was it your goal when you first joined her on the Who’s That Girl World Tour, back in 1987?
I was so happy to get the job to sing and dance with Madonna on the 1987 world tour! I didn’t think about how long I would work with her. It is pretty amazing when I think about it now. My dream was to sing and travel around the world, to have a successful career and develop as an artist.
You are now a happy mother, just like Madonna. Did it change anything in your relationship with her? Do the both of you spend time sharing advises on motherhood?
I think that we can relate to each other more now both being mothers. I feel an understanding there always. I have gotten some great advise from her because she had her children before I had my little girl. It helps to work for someone who has that understanding and compassion of the joys and challenges of touring with a family.
20 years ago, your were hired as back-up singer but you quickly started to take part in dance routines. How did it happen? Did you take dance lessons?
Madonna actually had me dance as well as sing at my audition in 1987 in Los Angeles. She knew that she wanted to have the singers dance a bit. I think once she worked with me and really knew I could dance and had studied many different styles, then she used me more in the following shows to sing and dance alongside her.
Continue reading this interview @ ConfessionsTour.com
Madonna is highest earning female
Source: Reuters - 29 September 2006Madonna's pay-packet, Janet Jackson's malfunctioning wardrobe, Hillary Clinton's memoirs and Sigourney Weaver's height all have one thing in common -- they're world record breakers.
Veteran pop singer Madonna supplants younger rival Britney Spears in the latest edition of Guinness World Records, winning the title of highest annual earnings by a female singer after she took home an estimated $50 million in 2004.
Despite the relentless media coverage of her personal life, Spears is also unseated by another 40-something as the world's most searched-for person and most searched-for news item on the Internet.
She loses those top spots to pop diva Janet Jackson who also gets credit for the largest ever fine imposed on a broadcaster after one of her breasts was exposed live on air.
Madonna concerts break audience record in Prague
Source: Press release @ SazkaArena.cz - 28 September 2006Both Madonna concerts broke Sazka Arena's audience record; 17,798 viewers watched the first concert and as many as 18,628 viewers saw the second one. The largest audience in Sazka Arena before the Madonna performances had visited some of the matches of the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2004, watched by 17,360 viewers.
The Arena capacity depends on the size and the layout of the stage, which has an effect on the number of sectors and the number of standing places on the ground floor. The stage used by Madonna enabled the organisers to sell tickets for more sectors than the stages used during other concerts. The audience records set by Madonna could probably only be broken during events with the stage in the middle of the ground floor. This would allow using the sectors normally located behind the stage and therefore unavailable to the audience. The total capacity could thus reach up to 20,000 viewers.
As far as other musical events than the Madonna concerts are concerned, Depeche Mode and Queen have attracted the largest audiences (16,023 viewers and 15,783 viewers respectively). Other most visited events have been the basketball tournament Final Four (17,210 viewers for the finals; 16,805 viewers for the semi-finals) and the Extraliga (top Czech ice hockey league) finals between HC Slavia and HC Sparta (16,182 viewers).
Belgian info on Jump release schedule
28 September 2006MadonnaNed has got information from Warner Belgium regarding Madonna's next single release. Jump was released to Belgian radio yesterday and the single will be in stores on Friday, November 3rd. The tracklist is confirmed to be the one posted two weeks ago. Belgian radio Donna is promoting the single by making it the Smaakmaker (taste of the week) starting next Saturday!
Madge's way of saying thank Q
Source: The Mirror - 25 September 2006Slinky Madonna goes for an amazing red-tro look in new photos to celebrate a milestone in rock.
The main shot appears on one of 20 different covers to mark Q Magazine's 20th anniversary. And the singer looked a million dollars in the stunning 80s-style dress and a huge matching cocktail ring.
In the magazine, Madonna tells how her horse-riding accident last year, in which she broke her collarbone, ribs and hand, changed her whole outlook.
She says: "It was a wake-up call to appreciate my life, to be more grateful for what I have. It reaffirms my continued aspirations to learn and do as much as I can while on this earth."
The 48-year-old, who first appeared on the cover of Q in June 1991, also reveals how the births of her children, Lourdes, nine, and six-year-old Rocco were the high points of her life.
But the lows, she adds, were "watching many friends die from Aids". Madonna also touches on other lighter issues, such as her hair - and particularly her worst-ever style.
She says: "It was when I made an attempt to do the Princess Leia buns. But she had hair extensions. Not fair."
And despite her sometimes controversial past, she owns up to a rather low-key favourite vice... double espresso.
Other stars who will appear on Q's 20 different covers include Sir Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Noel Gallagher, Britney Spears, Beyonce and U2. The anniversary edition is out on September 30.
Madonna to adopt African twins?
Source: ContactMusic - 25 September 2006Superstar Madonna and director husband Guy Ritchie are reportedly planning to adopt twins from an African orphanage. The couple are set to fly to poverty-stricken Malawi, south east Africa, to meet the president Bingu Wa Mutharika and finalise legal details with adoption lawyers.
The pair already have two children - a son together, six-year-old Rocco and Madonna has daughter, 10-year-old Lourdes from a previous relationship.
An insider tells British newspaper The People, "Originally Madonna and Guy planned to adopt only one child. "But when they were told that might mean breaking up a family unit they immediately said they would take siblings or twins if that was the right thing to do.
"They want the children to be as young as possible but are prepared to take kids up to the age of four. "And they are also willing to consider a child with special needs arising from being abandoned in an orphanage."
Madonna confesses to a million
Source: Pollstar - 24 September 2006More than 1 million people paid to see Madonna's Confessions tour, which closed at Tokyo Dome September 21.
Arthur Fogel from promoter Live Nation's The Next Adventure, which promotes the seemingly ageless diva worldwide, told Pollstar 1,165,000 punters paid US$193.7 million to see the 60-date run.
John Giddings from London-based Solo, who arranges and coordinates the European legs of Madonna tours, said the 22-date, sold-out run she started at Cardiff Millennium Stadium July 31 drew more than 500,000 people.
The European leg wrapped at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium September 12 - the biggest show ever staged in Russia - and pulled 50,000 people.
Like any Madonna tour, and almost anything else she does, the European dates were shadowed by controversy as various church leaders threw up their arms in protest over the mock "crucifixion" scene that's part of her live show.
But complaints from The Vatican, German Lutherans and the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leaders tore up and set fire to Madonna posters in the street, had zero impact outside the media. In fact, her fans reportedly saved a particularly warm response for that part of her performance.
In Moscow particularly, Tim Dowdall from Live Nation's Budapest office had problems with the press.
What he described as "a litany of rumours and accusations" were fueled by the national and local papers - which spread as far as the U.K.'s The Sun - and included a report that said the show wouldn't happen because a clairvoyant told Madonna she'd die if it did.
Even some journalists who said it would happen still had a down on the event, saying she'd mime, the production would be a disaster or - even more dramatically - Russian police would beat up the audience.
Some of the scare stories were a result of the show having to be switched from Vorobyovy Gory, an open-air site overlooking Moscow State University, because the local authorities feared 250,000 people would turn up.
Not only did the show happen, but Dowdall said the production ran as smoothly as any he's worked on. He was quick to praise the cooperation from local police and the "immense help" from Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Fogel was also happy the final European show had gone "really well," and described the whole tour as "a tremendous success on all levels."
Madonna's new hairdo was a wig
Source: Daily Mail - 24 September 2006The platinum blonde bob was hailed as the latest, sleek image from pop's queen of reinvention. Yet in reality, 48-year-old Madonna was simply wearing a wig.
Madonna fooled fans and pundits around the world when she sported the startling new look at a photography exhibition in Tokyo on Tuesday.
But despite reports of a £750 haircut, her new look turned out to be down to a hairpiece created for the filming of her next pop video.
Madonna revealed the truth the next night, when she took to the stage of the Tokyo Dome to perform her Confessions tour with her hair in its more familiar curly style. And she played up the joke when she wore the platinum wig for the last part of her set.
It is understood that the wig was created by Madonna's Beverly Hills hairdresser Andy LeCompte, who has been with her throughout her gruelling 60-date, four-month world tour.
The tour, which ended on Thursday, has reportedly made £110million, but - being Madonna - it wasn't without its controversy. The Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church both complained after she sang Live To Tell while wearing a crown of thorns and attached to a 20ft mirrored cross.
But she claimed: "It is no different than a person wearing a cross. "I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing."
~ The press is last to find out, as usual. ;-
Madonna releases statement explaining crucifixion scene from Confessions Tour
Source: Warner Bros. Records via Yahoo - 21 September 2006As Madonna's Confessions Tour comes to an end in Japan this week, the artist has released a statement regarding the much talked about Crucifixion scene.
"I am very grateful that my show was so well received all over the world. But there seems to be many misinterpretations about my appearance on the cross and I wanted to explain it myself once and for all.
"There is a segment in my show where three of my dancers 'confess' or share harrowing experiences from their childhood that they ultimately overcame. My 'confession' follows and takes place on a Crucifix that I ultimately come down from. This is not a mocking of the church.
It is no different than a person wearing a Cross or 'Taking Up the Cross' as it says in the Bible. My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole. I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing.
"My specific intent is to bring attention to the millions of children in Africa who are dying every day, and are living without care, without medicine and without hope. I am asking people to open their hearts and minds to get involved in whatever way they can. The song ends with a quote from the Bible's Book of Matthew:
"'For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me and God replied, "Whatever you did for the least of my brothers... you did it to me."'
"Please do not pass judgment without seeing my show."
Madonna's "Confessions Tour - Live From London" is scheduled to air on NBC this November. NBC has not confirmed whether they will include this portion of the show in their broadcast.
The artist is scheduled to come to New York at the end of October to promote her new children's book "The English Roses - Too Good To Be True" and has also announced her plans for a trip to Malawi for several weeks in November to participate in the building of an orphanage and care center for the children of that country (www.raisingmalawi.com).
Confessions Tour comes to an end
21 September 2006After exactly 4 months on the road, Madonna gave her 60th and last show of the Confessions Tour earlier today in Tokyo, making it to be her longest tour ever. She's putting away her dancing shoes for awhile, but now we can take the time to think back at the amazing moments of the show.
Who could forget the dazzling opener Future Lovers, the sexy Like A Virgin, the controversial, but truly gorgeous Live To Tell, the energetic Sorry, I Love New York & Ray Of Light, where Madonna showed off her improved guitar skills with an attitude, the vulnerable Drowned World, the hedonistic Music Inferno or the brillant mix of Lucky Star / Hung Up as the perfect encore...
Knowing Madonna, next time she'll do a totally different tour, but this one will always have a special place inside us. Be sure to re-live memories with our Rome & Paris reviews and check out all the press reviews and the picture galleries!
~ Thank you, Madonna for the experience and all the inspiration you gave us!
Madonna's Confessions Tour sets record
Source: Billboard - 20 September 2006Madonna will wrap her Confessions tour tomorrow (Sept. 21) at the Tokyo Dome as the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist. Although final numbers are not all in, tour producer Arthur Fogel puts the tally at $193.7 million from 60 shows that drew nearly 1.2 million in paid attendance.
That gross narrowly puts Madonna over Cher's benchmark of $192.5 million. However, it took Cher an endurance-testing 273 shows between June 2002 and April 2005 to reach that mark on her marathon Farewell tour.
Madonna's Confessions tour followed the same model of the $125 million-grossing Re-Invention tour in 2004 and the $75 million-grossing Drowned World tour in 2001.
Rather than visit 100 global markets a la mega acts like the Rolling Stones and U2, Madonna opted to play multiple nights in a limited number of major international locales. The strategy has led to a staggering $400 million in ticket sales in just six years.
Madonna pays a few bob for new blonde look
Source: Daily Mail - 20 September 2006From strawberry blonde and permed, to Gothic black and straight, there are not many hairstyles that Madonna hasn't tried. Now, with a dramatic new platinum blonde bob, the 48-year-old singer has undergone yet another reinvention. While the shade is reminiscent of her 1990s Material Girl heyday, the blunt-edge cut is different to anything she has ever previously had,
Costing a cool £750, it is, however, a little more pricey than the average cut n' blow-dry. "Madonna wanted to do something spectacular to mark turning 48 last month," said a source close to the star. "There is no way she is going to grow old gracefully. The cut had been planned for quite a while and was by no means a spontaneous decision.
Madonna knows she is in as good a shape as ever and facially barely looks a day older than she did when she first started out. As a result she wasn't in the least daunted by the prospect of returning to a hair colour that she first had nearly 15 years ago. It's not the most forgiving of shades, but Madonna looks great - and she is delighted with the end result."
The performer, who is on the final leg of her Confessions world tour, showed off her new look at the X-Static Process photography exhibition at the Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo yesterday. Celebrity hairdresser Andy LeCompte is thought to be the man behind the edgy style.
The Beverly Hills-based crimper has been accompanying Madonna throughout her gruelling world tour, washing and styling her hair before each and every stage performance.
Wearing a black satin zip-up jacket and scarlett red lipstick, the mother-of-two teamed her platinum locks with a heavy lashing of dark eye make-up. While it is not known just who, or what, the inspiration behind Madonna's latest haircut is, intriguingly it is remarkably similar to the bob recently revealed by Victoria Beckham.
Of course, ardent Madonna fans have grown accustomed to their idol's many changes of hairstyle. Naturally auburn, she sported a zebra-like blonde and dark crop in 1984 when she released her first single Like A Virgin. Five years later she returned to her roots once again for her controversial Like A Prayer video, in which she staged a mock crucifixion.
After that she was a bottle blonde for nearly ten years, with hues ranging from ice-white to bohemian-inspired strawberry tones. For her Ray Of Light album, she dyed her tresses a vivid jet black colour, as she first began dabbling with the Kabbalah faith. But in 2000, with the release of the album Music, she returned to long blonde curls. Her most recent hairstyle has been a 1970's, Farrah Fawcett-esque feathered number.
Three nominations at EMA
20 September 2006MTV has announced the nominations for the 2006 Europe Music Awards. Madonna is nominated in the categories 'Best Female', 'Best Pop' and 'Best Album'. You can start voting now. The ceremony will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on November 2nd and will be hosted by Justin Timberlake. It's not yet known whether Madonna will attend the show.
Best Female
Beyoncé
Christina Aguilera
Madonna
Nelly Furtado
Shakira
Best Pop
Christina Aguilera
Justin Timberlake
Madonna
Robbie Williams
Shakira
Best Album
Christina Aguilera - 'Back To Basics'
Madonna - 'Confessions On A Dance Floor'
Muse - 'Black Holes And Revelations'
Nelly Furtado - 'Loose'
Red Hot Chili Peppers - 'Stadium Arcadium'
NBC TV undecided about Madonna mock crucifixion
Source: Reuters - 20 September 2006The NBC television network is still making up its mind about whether it will allow pop star Madonna to stage a mock crucifixion on its airwaves as part of her upcoming prime-time concert special.
The 48-year-old entertainer has made the crucifixion stunt, in which she performs while suspended on a giant cross wearing a crown of thorns, a centerpiece of her global Confessions tour.
Her stage act drew storms of protest from the Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church during recent performances in Rome and Moscow, with church leaders condemning the mock crucifixion as blasphemy.
But executives at NBC, owned by the General Electric Co. will wait for makers of her concert special to submit the production for review before deciding whether to allow the mock crucifixion to air.
"We're awaiting the delivery of it, and once we've seen it in its entirety, we'll make a decision," an NBC spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday. The program is slated to air in November, but no specific date has been set.
Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, had no comment on the issue, according to an assistant in his office.
In July, when the network first unveiled plans for the Madonna concert special, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly gave mixed signals about how much artistic freedom Madonna would be given. The mock crucifixion was known then to be a central part of her stage act.
"She's not revising her act," he told a gathering of TV critics at the time. "We've discussed what content will be in and what is out, and we've come to a healthy place that represents her show but is appropriate for television."
He later added: "She's going to do her show, and we'll decide which numbers are in the special and which are not. And that's whole numbers. We're not going to make piece-meal edits."
Madonna goes platinum blond in Japan
Source: Daily Record - 20 September 2006She's no stranger to dramatic image changes, but pop icon Madonna still turned heads in Tokyo yesterday. The 48-year-old singer appears to have copied Victoria Beckham's new look with a platinum blonde bob. And she looked fantastic as she showed off the new hairstyle for the cameras.
Madonna was spotted as she left the Japanese capital's Louis Vuitton store. She is in the Far East for the latest dates on her Confessions world tour which visited Britain last month. But the evergreen star also took time out to film her new video in the city for her next single, Jump.
Madonna.com confirms History as B-Side
16 September 2006Madonna.com is happy to confirm that Madonna is releasing a never before heard song called History as the B Side to the next single, Jump! Speaking of Jump, Madonna is taking time out of her busy schedule in Japan to shoot a brand new video. Check Madonna.com news for more information!
The following tracklist of the Jump Maxi-CD Single appeared on various fansites:
1 - Jump (Radio Edit) 3:22
2 - Jump (Jacques Lu Cont Mix) 7:47
3 - Jump (Axwell Remix) 6:38
4 - Jump (Junior Sanchez Misshapes Mix) 6:49
5 - Jump (Extended Album Version) 5:09
6 - History (Unreleased Track) 6:54
Malawi captial pins water hopes on Madonna
Source: Yahoo/Reuters - 15 September 2006Pop diva Madonna has decided to extend her charity work in Malawi to the country's water supply when she visits next month to set up an orphan care center in the southern African country, local officials said.
Expectations are running high in Malawi, an impoverished country dependent on tobacco exports, as Madonna prepares to join a flood of stars searching for a good cause in the world's poorest continent.
The advance party preparing her first visit to Africa was shocked to see young girls in the capital Lilongwe walking long distances with buckets of water balanced on their heads.
"The team was appalled at what they saw and how women and children walk long distances to fetch water," said Adrina Michiela, principal secretary in Malawi's Ministry of Women and Child Development.
"Her team immediately pledged to support any government initiatives to improve access to water points," Michiela told Reuters.
No date has been announced for the visit, during which Madonna has said she will set up the Raising Malawi center to feed and educate about 1,000 orphans, many of them left by parents killed by AIDS, a major scourge in the region.
In plans announced in an interview with Time magazine last month, Madonna said she was raising $3 million to fund programs mostly to help orphans in Malawi.
Malawi has a population of 13 million, an estimated 1 million of them children who have lost at least one parent.
While her plans have excited impoverished local people, many of them villagers who had never before heard of the mega star, many critics in the West say the project is little more than a publicity stunt by one of the world's best self-promoters.
The fact that orphans at the center will be taught a curriculum based on Spirituality for Kids, linked to the Kabbalah school of mysticism to which Madonna adheres, has added to the cynicism.
Madonna visits Russian orphans and brings 20 cakes
Source: Pravda.ru - 15 September 2006Ten inmates of Children’s Home No.80 are the only Russian citizens who can boast of having autographs given by world’s pop star No.1 – Madonna.
Shortly before her departure from Moscow on September 13, the next day after she gave a hugely successful performance on Moscow's largest Luzhniki Stadium, Madonna visited orphans living in Children’s Home No.30.
Correspondents of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper visited the home as well to ask for children’s impressions of meeting one of the greatest singers of our times.
Children were told about Madonna’s visit only 20 minutes before her arrival. Boys rushed to pick flowers that they were growing on a flowerbed. The bouquet of flowers for Madonna was made of five roses.
"We gave her the flowers which we had grown ourselves," tenth-grader Viktor Nosov said. Viktor was beaming with happiness demonstrating a photograph on his cell phone showing himself and Madonna hugging.
Madonna was given a tour of the orphanage and answered all the children’s questions even though she was tired after performing last night. She advised the children to read more and watch less television!
"At first I thought that she was telling me that she loved me. I misunderstood her at first. When she entered our ward we all jumped off our beds. I was the closest one to her. And then she said "How do you do ?" I forgot my English entirely, I thought that she said "I love you" to me.
I was standing there all blushing and speechless. I came back to my senses only when a translator told me that Madonna was asking how I was doing," Viktor said.
Madonna’s bodyguards were trying to play the role of men on duty in the beginning. They could not stand near their client and watch little kids pulling her sleeves. The bodyguards relaxed several minutes later when one of the boys, Anton (8 y.o.) started jumping on his bed and screaming: "Look, this is my bed!"
"Little kids did not realize how lucky they were. Smaller children were pulling Madonna’s sleeves saying "Mama, mama." Madonna smiled when she heard that," another teenage boy Viktor Lakeyev said.
The superstar brought 20 boxes of cakes with her and several winter coats for the children.
"In addition to the flowers we gave her a mascot. It was a so-called guardian doll (a traditional Russian fabric-made stuffed toy). Children make those dolls here themselves. It is believed that those dolls bring happiness to their owners," the Director of the children’s home, Yuri Yevdokimov said.
However, Madonna did not donate any money to the children’s home that she visited. "The singer promised to donate a certain amount of funds to charitable foundations Pomogi.Org and Naked Hearts. The foundations will distribute the money between children’s homes and boarding schools. Probably we will receive a little of it for our children too," Yevdokimov said.
Confessions On A Dance Floor 4x Platinum in Europe
Source: IFPI - 15 September 2006Enduringly popular 'Queen of Pop' Madonna has seen sales of her latest album Confessions On A Dance Floor go from strength to strength, as it also gains its fourth Platinum Europe Award since its release last November.
The disco-inspired album is the eleventh studio offering from the American, who has sold over 200 million albums worldwide throughout her illustrious career.
Madonna is currently on the European leg of her Confessions world tour, still wowing her army of fans with show-stopping performances after more than two decades in the business.
Candy Perfume Girl guitar auctioned
15 September 2006Madonna's Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar, personally autographed, will go up for auction on Ebay starting on October 6, 2006, at 7:00 P.M. PST, ending on October 16, 2006.
The guitar is the only surviving guitar of two that were custom made for Madonna and played by her on her 2001 Drowned World concert tour. This tour was the first time Madonna every played a guitar in concert. The Drowned World tour ended on September 15, 2001 in Los Angeles.
After the show, Madonna autographed this guitar "Love, Madonna" in gold paint pen and gave it to her Guitar Technician, John Griswold, as a big "Thank You" for all his services.
To read all about this guitar and get more information about the eBay auction, go to www.pscelebrities.com/madonna. Opening bid is at $ 49,999 USD (= 39.336 EUR
Yes to Confessions, no to Re-Invention? *rumour*
14 September 2006According to Madonnatribe, Madonna's management is aiming to release the Confessions Tour DVD for the Christmas rush, but currently there are no plans to release the long-overdue Re-Invention Tour DVD. It seems the I'm Going To Tell You A Secret documentary is the only way to see a bit of a professional recording of that tour...
History on Jump single *rumour*
14 September 2006Latest rumour is that on Madonna's upcoming single Jump is going to have an unreleased song from the Confessions On A Dance Floor sessions, written and produced by Madonna & Stuart Price, called 'History'.
It is said to be an uptempo dance track. Moreover, the video of Jump is supposed to be a studio video, not a video of the live performance.
Proposal for Madonna space trip rejected
Source: AP - 14 September 2006Madonna will not be sent into space, despite a lawmaker's proposal to book a seat for the pop star on a Russian flight to the international space station, news agencies reported Wednesday.
State Duma member Alexei Mitrofanov, referring to Madonna's reported expression of desire to become a "space tourist," proposed that the lower house of parliament send a formal inquiry to the Russian space agency about organizing a space trip for her in 2008.
"Because of the television possibilities, it would be a pretty serious event in the year of elections in the United States and Russia," he was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency. The Duma turned down the proposal, agencies reported without specifying the vote tally.
Later, space agency spokesman Igor Panarin was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying no seats on the Soyuz spacecraft would be available until 2009.
"Taking into account her good physical preparedness and financial capabilities, the dream of (Madonna) Louise Ciccone of a space flight could be realized in 2009," Panarin was quoted as saying.
Like many Russians, he didn't use the 48-year-old pop singer's first name, apparently sensitive to the Russian Orthodox Church's objections to her use of religious imagery, especially crucifixion, in her Confessions world tour performances.
Madonna took the stage at Luzhniki Stadium on Tuesday night, where a crowd of about 35,000 watched her perform in spite of religious protesters' threats to disrupt the concert. No disorder was reported.
Three private individuals have paid a reported $20 million each to be launched on 10-day trips to the international space station. American Anousheh Ansari is to become the fourth - and the first female - in a Sept. 18 launch.
Madonna will not change her act
Source: Reuters - 12 September 2006Pop star Madonna will sing suspended from a cross in the finale of her Moscow concert on Tuesday despite a plea from the Russian Orthodox Church to drop that part of her act.
The 48-year-old U.S. pop star has outraged Christian groups across Europe by staging a mock crucifixion and wearing a crown of thorns on her global "Confessions" tour.
"This will be absolutely the same show as Madonna has performed in other European capitals," Anton Atrashkin, press chief for Madonna's Russia concert, said as the star prepared to take to the stage in Moscow's Luzhniki stadium.
Madonna, a lapsed Roman Catholic whose shows have been denounced by the Vatican, has attracted accusations of blasphemy throughout her career.
In the finale of her Confessions show, she sings while suspended from a cross.
The Orthodox Church has called on people to boycott Tuesday's concert, though the show was a sell-out and she was expected to draw an estimated 50,000 people.
"We are not against Madonna. We're against her blasphemous acts during the concert," Father Sergei Zvonoryov, a member of the Moscow patriarchy press department, said.
"Crucifixion, cross, diadem of thorns on her head. All this is a parody on the crucifixion of Christ," he said.
Riot police and lines of army cadets monitored thousands of Madonna fans who streamed to Moscow's Soviet-built Luzhniki stadium, the main venue for the 1980 Olympics.
Police detained a handful of radical Orthodox believers protesting against Madonna by singing hymns and holding crosses outside the stadium, local news agencies reported.
But fans had only words of support for Madonna's intention to stick to the original performance plans.
"It's misunderstood. It's pop music and modern art," said Igor Antipov, 27, who had traveled from St Petersburg for the concert. "The Church is another part of our life. I'm an Orthodox believer and I can see the distinction."
Russia's Orthodox Church has been able to fill a vacuum in faith since the fall of Communism in 1991 and has grown in influence and power.
But Russians also lap up visits by Western pop stars who have made sporadic trips over the last 15 years and the event has been an instant sell-out.
Madonna: New Time, Same Controversy
Source: E! Online - 12 September 2006Madonna's first-ever concert in Russia is going to be a day late and a blessing short.
In what has become routine on her latest world tour, the Material Girl is once again heading into a city where a number of residents are up in arms (or up in posters, at least) over the mock-crucifixion she stages during each show's finale.
A handful of peaceful protests have broken out in Moscow in recent weeks, mainly populated by members of the Russian Orthodox Church who have no interest in seeing Madonna sing Live to Tell while suspended from a gigantic mirrored cross. In turn they are encouraging people to boycott Tuesday night's concert.
"This lady has been glorifying human passions with the help of religious symbols for years--crosses, statues and beads," said church spokesman Father Vsevolod Chaplin, per the Russian newspaper Pravda. "Now she thinks it is time for her to crucify herself in public. It means the singer is in need of spiritual help."
But try telling that to the more than 50,000 people planning to descend on Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium tomorrow, a day after the concert was originally scheduled so as not to fall on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. Police have promised that extensive security measures will be in place to monitor excited concertgoers looking forward to expressing themselves.
"About 3,500 policemen, including 400 Omon fighters [riot specialists], as well as police with dogs, bomb technicians and soldiers from the Dzerhinsky special task division, will be ensuring security," General Vyacheslav Kozlov, chief of Moscow's public security police, told Interfax news service.
Those who purchased tickets for the Sept. 11 date were asked to head to the venue ASAP for exchanges before the madness begins Tuesday. (Although about 100 fans were already camped outside Madonna's hotel as of Monday.)
"We decided that to hold the concert on that day [Sept. 11] would have been unethical," Vladimir Kiselyov, general director of concert co-organizer GFUP Kreml, told the Russian television station NTV. The concert also underwent a change of venue last month, with organizers thinking that the Luzhniki soccer stadium would do better to accomodate the crowd than would the hilltop Vorobyovye Gory near Moscow State University.
The Times of London reported Monday that tickets in all price ranges were still available because many disgruntled fans sought refunds after learning that the passes they bought for the dancing zone at Vorobyovye were being replaced with seats at Luzhniki Stadium that are higher up in the stands.
Whether Madonna is having a spiritual crisis or not, we do know that she doesn't need help in the revenue department. Fans haven't bristled (much) at shelling out $50 to $350 per ticket, and, according to Billboard, the pop icon's Confessions tour is on track to rake in $200 million this year and could conceivably be the highest-grossing tour ever for a female artist.
Religious groups of all faiths and sizes in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and England have already voiced their discomfort, indignation, rage, etc. over Madonna's imagery-laden finale, with German officials threatening to crucify the singer in court if she went ahead with her biblical allusion during an August show. They ultimately let her off the hook, admitting that no crime had been committed.
A small crime was committed in Amsterdam, however, when a priest confessed to calling in a phony bomb threat in an attempt to stop a couple of September shows from taking place.
Meanwhile, Madonna has continued to defend her T-shaped position, which she assumes to raise money and awareness for Third World residents whose lives have been devastated by poverty and AIDS.
Dutch Christians file complaint against Madonna
Source: AFP - 12 September 2006The youth chapter of the protestant Dutch party SGP have filed a legal complaint against the singer Madonna for blasphemy and insulting a religious group.
The group objected to a mock crucifixion scene featured in Madonna's European tour after the US pop star gave two sell-out concerts in Amsterdam this month.
Chairman Jan Kloosterman told the ANP news agency that the complaint was supported by 50 different organisations.
Madonna's Confessions tour has also drawn protests from religious leaders in Moscow, where she is due to play on Tuesday, and from the archbishop of Prague.
Last Friday, a 63-year-old Dutch clergyman confessed to making a hoax bomb threat in an attempt to stop Madonna's concert because he objected to the crucifixion scene.
Madonna may attend Moscow party Monday night
Source: Interfax - 11 September 2006U.S. pop diva Madonna is expected to attend the Europa+ Madonna Party organized by Europa+ radio and a major automotive company at the CabareTT club Monday evening, organizers have told Interfax.
There is no official contract between the automotive company and Madonna, an organizer said. Earlier Anton Atrashkin, PR manager of the Madonna's Russian tour, confirmed that the signer would arrive in Moscow Monday afternoon. Her concert is due to take place on Tuesday evening.
Madonna to arrive in Moscow Monday
Source: Interfax - 10 September 2006The world pop star Madonna is expected to arrive in Moscow on Monday, Madonna's international tour promoter Arthur Fogel has announced.
Madonna is arriving in Russia tomorrow and will reside at a hotel. She is eagerly awaiting her Moscow performance and wants to come to Russia, Fogel told the press in Moscow on Sunday.
It will be the best show in her world tour, Fogel said.
The pop star will sing 18 songs - a special set for the whole of her world tour. She did not demand anything special for her stay in Moscow and has yet to make up her mind on the sightseeing program, Fogel said.
In remarks about the Luzhniki stadium, where Madonna will sing on Tuesday, Fogel said it is a world-class venue for both sports competitions and shows.
The pop singer's tour manager Chris Lamb said rain would be an unpleasant occurrence. Madonna will dance a lot during the show and the stage must be dry, he said.
The organizers have been following weather updates. The forecast has been good thus far, he said.
Billboard reviews new single Jump
Source: (eith Caulfield @ Billboard - 9 September 2006Jump
Producer(s): Madonna, Stuart Price
Genre: Pop
Label: Warner Bros.
Fourth time's a charm, right? As her smash concert tour winds down, Madonna has released Jump, the fourth single off Confessions on a Dance Floor. Maybe its radio fortunes will be better than her last single, Get Together.
But we're being realistic here: If programmers turned up their collective noses at the super-catchy Sorry, then why would they suddenly come to the table for Jump? That said, the song is a pulsing pop tune that has a positive, universal message about believing in yourself, not wasting time and taking a chance in life.
Dance clubs will obviously jump all over the single, while adult top 40 radio seems like the natural starting place for the tune to get its footing.
Dutch priest charged in Madonna threat
Source: Yahoo - 9 September 2006Amsterdam prosecutors said Friday a 63-year-old priest has confessed to phoning in a fake bomb threat to a Madonna concert in the Dutch capital city last week.
"He was hoping to stop her from performing her famous 'crucifixion' act," prosecution spokesman Robert Meulenbroek said, referring to a scene in the 48-year-old pop star's latest show.
The scene, a mock re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ, offended some Christians during earlier concerts in Italy and Germany. Two Amsterdam concerts went ahead as planned on Sunday and Monday, despite a handful of protesters.
Meulenbroek said it was likely prosecutors would seek a community service punishment for the priest, since it was very likely this was his first such offense.
The priest was arrested almost immediately after making the threat Sunday, since he used his home phone to make it, and he called an emergency services number where the call was automatically traced.
The priest was brought before a judge Friday and has been released pending judgment, Meulenbroek said. "We take bomb threats seriously, but in this case it was clear very quickly that it was not real," he said.
"Maybe he should have to learn all her lyrics by heart" as punishment, he quipped.
Havel meditates with Madonna
Source: Prague Daily Monitor - 8 September 2006Former President Vaclav Havel joined pop star Madonna in a brief meditation before her concert in Prague on Wednesday.
Havel join the performer's team in their customary meditation before the show, Havel's secretary Jakub Hladik told CTK Thursday, adding that the meditation with Madonna was a great experience for Havel.
Havel attended the show with his wife's daughter Nina.
"Neither the meditation nor the subsequent performance offended Christian symbolism, according to the former president," Hladik said.
The show, in which Madonna stages her own crucifixion on a huge cross, a stunt which the performer included in her performance in Prague, has been criticised by the churches in the Czech Republic and abroad.
Havel is a devotee of rock music and counts among his friends Lou Reed and The Rolling Stones and has attended their concerts in Prague. Havel also met pop singer Michael Jackson in Prague in 1996 and said that he considers him to be "a significant civilisation phenomenon."
Madonna as the Witch of 'Into The Woods'?
Source: Broadwayworld.com - 7 September 2006EDIT: Madonna won't play the Witch, it was just a rumour, already denied here.
For two charity performances, pop icon Madonna will take on the role of the Witch in the Royal Albert Hall's gala benefit performance of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, which will be presented on Sunday, October 22nd at 3 PM and 7:30 PM.
Into the Woods will also star Joanna Riding as Little Red and Olivier Award-winner Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins) as Cinderella. Other previously announced cast members include Anita Dobson and Vinnie Jones.
With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by Lapine, Into The Woods "combines classic fairy tales into a story about 'the complications of living in modern society and the difficult choices we encounter on the paths of our lives'.
The stories - including Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel - are joined with a new creation; the tale of The Baker and His Wife," according to Royal Albert notes. The show premiered on Broadway in November 1987 and ran for 765 performances at the Martin Beck Theatre. Lapine and Sondheim - as well as actress Joanna Gleason - won Tonys for their work.
Peter Penny and Paul Savident will produce the event for The Childrens' Society. The chameleonic Madonna has been a cultural icon for over two decades. A multi-Grammy Award-winner, she has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. Her stage credits include Speed-the-Plow on Broadway, as well as (more recently) Up for Grabs in London.
She also won acclaim for taking on the title role in the 1996 film version of Evita, and previously performed songs by Sondheim in Dick Tracy. Other film credits include Swept Away, The Next Best Thing, Body of Evidence, Shadows and Fog and Desperately Seeking Susan.
Visit www.royalalberthall.com for tickets and more information.
Madonna to work with Lenny Kravitz?
Source: Contactmusic - 5 September 2006Pop queen Madonna is reportedly planning to hit the studio with rocker Lenny Kravitz, after the star duetted with her on stage in Paris, France, on the weekend. The 'It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over' star thrilled fans when he joined Madonna on her celebrated Confessions tour for a rendition of I Love New York.
And Madonna was so inspired by Kravitz's performance, the twosome are believed to be preparing to lay down a track together later this year.
Live updates from 2nd Amsterdam show
4 September 2006The second Amsterdam show has started, follow it in our tour diary page!
Williams' crush on Madonna
Source: Yahoo - 4 September 2006Robbie Williams has confessed he has a crush of pop queen Madonna, but fears retribution from her husband Guy Ritchie.
The singer insists his infatuation is a recent one - he fell for her when he saw her dressed as a cowgirl in the video for Music.
He says, "I do fancy Madonna.
"I didn't fancy Madonna in the 80s or the 90s. Since the cowgirl video. I've fancied her since then."
"I think she's sexy. I'm probably gonna get beat up by Guy Ritchie. He's hard.
"He spends all week wrestling with men."
No bridge gig for Madonna
Source: New York Times - 4 September 2006Prague has tossed Madonna off its historic Charles Bridge, right. Not literally of course. But protests have led to cancellation of plans to close the bridge, built in 1357, for a V.I.P. party at which she was to sing on Saturday after her two sold-out performances in the city, Variety.com reported.
The cancellation was announced after Vladimir Vihan, the mayor of Prague, encountered vehement protests for deciding to close the bridge for the party, given by Louis Vuitton, the luxury-goods concern.
Among those who objected were preservationists and city council members, irate because they were not given a vote in the matter. Martin Mejstrik, a member of the senate of the Czech Republic, said the plan for the party amounted to “turning this piece of cultural heritage into a cultural whore.”
Vuitton canceled the event and expressed hope that its $50,000 fee to the city could be put toward an alternate site where V.I.P.’s could meet Madonna and hear a brief private performance. The bridge, a major tourist attraction, has not been closed since 2002, when there were floods.
Live updates from Amsterdam
3 September 2006Check out our live updates of the first show in ArenA, Amsterdam in the tour diary!
Paris updates in tour diary
1 September 2006Check out our tour diary for a huge update after the four Confessions shows in Paris, Bercy. You can find an update by webmaster Bartie about the 4 shows, a long but great review of the 2nd show by assistant Dani, and great pix of the 3rd show by Danielillo. Enjoy!
Huge album sales jump in Denmark
1 September 2006After the August 24th show in Horsens, 8 Madonna albums jump back into the Danish Top 40, with her latest CD going straight back to the top!
#1 - Confessions On A Dance Floor
#10 - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret
#22 - Like A Virgin
#23 - Ray Of Light
#24 - Music
#26 - Like A Prayer
#29 - True Blue
#31 - The Immaculate Collection
On the singles chart, Sorry is at #19 while the EP Remixed & Revisited is at #3!
(thanx to Madonnanation member thenabo
Madonna writing new album already?
Source: Sky News - 1 September 2006Madonna may be 48 but we're all still hung up about her.
Furthermore, it's great to learn that her maturing years do not mean the pop icon has any intention of slowing down.
She told me recently: "I basically see no limits to what you can achieve. Why would I not want to make more music? I love it and so do my fans."
The lady has a point. And she also plans to keep the glitter ball spinning over the dance floor.
She let slip: "I have more club music in mind. It's where I started and funnily enough, it's now huge again.
"I'm writing the new album now, while we're on tour."
There's just no stopping her.
~ Please note that a few weeks ago in another interview Madonna said she wouldn't want to do dance music again, not to repeat herself
No VMAs for Madonna
1 September 2006Madonna was nominated for 5 Video Music Awards last night, but she lost all of them, all to different people (Shakira, Kelly Clarkson, The Pussycat Dolls, Pink, Panic At The Disco). Maybe next time...
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