Madonna Still Has Plenty of "Wild" in Her on First Night of the Celebration Tour in Miami

The past few years in pop music have been heavily rooted in remembrance. From record-breaking concert tours from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to recent unsuccessful releases from Jennifer Lopez and Justin Timberlake that sound like pastiches of their better albums, the cultural zeitgeist in 2024 is a fascinating case study in the creation of legacy. Streaming and social media platforms are ever-moving targets, so it's harder than ever for newer artists to break out into blockbuster mainstream success. In turn, these conditions have created an environment in which pop stars are being allowed to extend their time in the limelight on a scale rarely seen before, save for titans like Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, and Madonna.

No doubt some of this nostalgia is rooted in the lingering effects of the pandemic, during which all of us — world-famous musicians included — were forced to look inward and take stock of our lives and contributions. And while Madonna is used to setting trends as opposed to following them, she's chosen to mark the 40th anniversary of her debut self-titled album with an Eras Tour-style retrospective that chronologically traces her life and career, replete with backup dancers wearing some of her best-known getups (the "Like A Virgin" wedding dress, the black latex bodysuit from the "Human Nature" music video, and the red kimono from the "Nothing Really Matters" video, among many others.)

Throughout the show, Madonna was joined by a performer in a flesh-colored gimp mask, a figure whom she referred to as herself — her past self. This past iteration of Madonna also dressed as she did during previous eras, from her early days in New York City's Lower East Side ("I was cute!" she said of her younger self dressed in a plaid skirt, stacked belts, and a handkerchief tied around her neck) to the heights of her stardom in a Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra dress feigning masturbation on a bed of velvet, a callback to her controversial 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.

A series of projector screens were cleverly used throughout the show to guide the retrospection. In the early part of the concert, which traced Madonna's early days in NYC, they were used to set the scene and place the audience in early-'80s CBGB, where Madonna first played the early single "Burning Up."

The screens also showed highlight reels of her storied career and montages of contemporary artists like Beyoncé and Ariana Grande speaking of Madonna's influence on their careers. They were used most movingly during "Live to Tell," as the screens lit up with images of artists lost to the AIDS crisis of the late '80s and early '90s. At first, each screen showed a single portrait — artists and friends Martin Burgoyne and Keith Haring, dance teacher and mentor Christopher Flynn, and rock star and contemporary Freddie Murphy. The images got progressively smaller until they formed collages of thousands of faces of lives cut short. As Madonna paid tribute to the many friends she has lost, many in the audience were visibly emotional. Perhaps they, too, remembered friends they lost during the epidemic. Or maybe they mourned the collective generational loss. Though I didn't see him in the pictures, I thought of my best friend's father, Cuban poet Roberto Valero, whom I never met as he died from AIDS complications in 1994.

In many ways, the Celebration Tour doubles as an anniversary tour and a celebration of life. Beyond the tribute to her friends, the show also pays homage to her late mother and her close friendship with Michael Jackson. She did not perform "Like a Virgin" herself, opting instead to have silhouettes of herself and MJ dance to a mash-up of "Billie Jean" and the infamous title track off her sophomore album.

Still, part of the message of the show was to take heed of the fragility of life and make the most out of the finite days we have on Earth, so Madonna partied on with euphoric performances of "Ray of Light," "Bitch I'm Madonna," and "Vogue," during which she brought out longtime Miami bestie Ingrid Casares as her guest judge for a midshow ballroom competition.

"Miami holds a very dear place in my heart," she said, remembering her time living in the city in the '90s. "These were the wild days — before the children came along. When the children come along, you've gotta get responsible."

Of course, at 65, Madonna still has a lot of wild in her. One of the most transcendent moments in the show came when her dancers got their tits out and frolicked around the B-stage during her performance of "Hung Up." One man behind me was scandalized. "Oh my god! Oh my god. Oh my goooood," he repeated. It seems that even 40 years later, Madonna isn't done exorcising our repressions.

Setlist:
- "Nothing Really Matters"
- "Everybody"
- "Into the Groove"
- "Burning Up"
- "Open Your Heart"
- "Holiday"
- "Live to Tell"
- "Like a Prayer"
- "Erotica"
- "Justify My Love"
- "Hung Up"
- "Bad Girl"
- "Vogue"
- "Human Nature"
- "Crazy for You"
- "Die Another Day"
- "Don't Tell Me"
- "Mother and Father"
- "Express Yourself" (acoustic)
- "La Isla Bonita"
- "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"
- "Bedtime Story"
- "Ray of Light"
- "Take a Bow"
- "Billie Jean" / "Like a Virgin" (interlude)
- "Bitch I'm Madonna"
- "Celebration"