Yesterday was a looooong day for me. After only 4 hours of sleep I stood up to go grocery shopping. Why I did this? Well, I simply needed some things to get through 5 hours of waiting. Waiting? Yes! With about 100 other people I stood in a queue for the standing room for the long-awaited Madonna concert.

Yes, I’ve been to one of these before (the Sticky&Sweet Tour in 2008) but last time I had a seat somewhere waaaaay up in the arena and Madonna was just a small figure as huge as my thumb nail. “Field glasses seat” as my friend says. Now I wanted something better and have at least a glimpse of the real Madonna, so I bought standing room tickets. Although her newest album was slightly disappointing I was looking forward to the tour and avoided any spoilers as best I could.

What did happen? Of course! I sat in the queue for less than 50 seconds when someone mentioned that the supporting act was “some DJ”. Arrrrgh! At least they didn’t remember who it was, but I didn’t expect anything in particular. When my friend joined me in the queue it took less than 10 minutes to start raining. And raining. And raining. It didn’t seem to want to stop any time soon. And every time it did stop for a short while it wasn’t enough to let us dry and get a bit more comfortable. That meant we stood for 4 more hours. Thot what I expected. Equally unexpected was that about 1 hour before the concert a security person told us that we should form a tunnel in between us, one person left and right, there would be someone coming to give away tickets. Tickets? Yes, for the so-called Golden Triangle in front of the stage! One of these tickets is worth about 290€. My friend and I discussed this, and if he would win one he would give it away. We agreed on this because we were looking forward to this concert for (give and take) 12 years and wouldn’t risk not having a shared experience.

It all turned out well in the end, because my friend – although half-heartedly pressing the button – won us two tickets to the triangle! Of course you could bring one friend! We couldn’t quite believe our luck and obviously we didn’t celebrate as much as the other winners but we felt really lucky!

When we were finally admitted into the arena, we ran to the stage, totally anxious to see where we would stand. It was literally in front of the stage and because we were waiting in the rain for hours, Madonna came on stage to do a sound check without make-up (!) or costume but with some dancers for four songs! She even taught us how to properly clap during “Turn Up The Radio”. It was awesome to see that even a “perfect” human being like her has flaws. I won’t be posting pictures of the sound check, but the show was a-maaa-zing.
What I heard was “some DJ” as supporting act turned out to be

I couldn’t believe it! If I’d been to a club and Martin Solveig would’ve been there I would totally look forward to it! On Madonna’s recent album he contributed awesome songs like “Turn Up The Radio” and “Beautiful Killer” which I love! As supporting act he played a genius mix of 80’s and recent Madonna songs, but also other classics like “Levels” and as a grande final his very own “Hello” featuring Dragonette (the crowd went crazy!).

After a short bathroom break for me, Madonna came on stage with an amazing opening.

 The opening song was “Girl Gone Wild”, and a huge container remembering of incense was lightened. Madonna seemed to be confessing her sins in this cabin. And came out wearing a black veil and a crown. Next she sung “Revolver” (which I love!) of course with a revolver in her hand followed by “Gang Bang”.

Of course the marching band outfit from “Give Me All Your Luvin'” wouldn’t be left out.  There were marching band players all over the stage, 9 drum players even hanging from the ceiling!

 

 

I don’t want to bore you with lots of pictures of just one person, but the show was just so awesome. Although I wasn’t really into it the day before, especially when we were standing in that queue, Madonna made it really worthwhile. She played every song from her recent album (except “Superstar”) and even her in-between album songs like “Revolver” and “Celebration”. Not to mention the good ol’ “Vogue” or “Like A Virgin” in a very slow acoustic version.

Even though near the end I could hardly stand any longer, for the final song Madonna made me jump some more and sing loudly with her. I was so happy to be standing in the triangle because there were only hardcore fans who knew the text to every song (like me *cough*) and were also happily dancing and jumping. This was really by far the best concert I’ve been to up until now.