Moscow, St. Pete Fans Anticipating Madonna’s Show

By Natalia Viktorova and Tatiana Zavyalova

Madonna is arriving in Russia to perform two concerts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (August 7 and 9) as part of her world M.D.N.A. tour. While fans are anticipating the show, others say scandals are likely.

Madonna urges the world to love and peace and appears armed on stage. She dances striptease in Muslim Turkey and runs very daring political videos in France, causing local right politicians to sue her. How could they stay calm, indeed, when the images projected on stage compared the leader of the French right-wing politicians to Adolf Hitler?

During her tour Madonna also got on the nerves of Catholics. Over 50,000 signatures were collected in Poland to cancel her show on August 1, the day which marked 68 years since the 1944 anti-Nazi Warsaw Uprising which claimed the lives of 200,000 people. The singer, who adopted Kabbalah as her religion, found a way to mend fences with her Polish fans by showing chronicles of the bloody uprising in Warsaw. What makes Madonna successful? Her manager in Russia Ildar Bakeyev shares a secret with the Voice of Russia: “Her shows are often scandalous. But this is because these are the coolest shows ever. She is one of the most sought-after singers of her time. She is interesting to everyone. Her shows are real events. Madonna has long been more than just a singer. She has an outstanding personality, and many others try to use her for PR purposes. Madonna is independent and always says what she thinks.”

It appears that Madonna`s performance in Saint Petersburg will be held in support of Russian sexual minorities after the city government had passed a law to ban same-sex relationship propaganda. Lawmakers have already said that they would attend the show on August 9 to see whether the law is observed.

No scandals are expected in Moscow, organizers say. All that was to be done has been done, so now everything is ready at the Olympiisky Concert Hall for the pop diva’s arrival, producer Ildar Bakeyev told the Voice of Russia.

“The stage is very close to the stalls in the most convenient way for Madonna’s tour. This is good news for Muscovites who complained of seeing little of Madonna’s face during her last visit. The stage itself is very unusual – it’s a large triangle one corner of which protrudes forward into the seating area, the dance floor for fans and another one in the parterre. Inside that triangle there is an area for 220 most active fans. So, the audience will be sort of integrated into the show… Each song will be accompanied by a video clip. There will be a dimensional effect, but not 3D when you have to put on glasses. The stage is designed in a special way as to create special light and dimensional sound. No one has ever done that on such a scale and or made it so technologically complicated. It’s a thrilling show worth seeing by all who love pop music, irrespective of whether they like or dislike Madonna’s singing.”

The organizers have done their best to fulfill Madonna’s rider: 20 international telephone lines, 40 makeup rooms, water from mountain springs, and so on and so forth. Light-pink fresh-cut roses of a certain length in Madonna’s own makeup room every day are nothing compared to tight security in a hotel where she and her four children, her sweetheart, and an army of servants will be accommodated, plus a team of sterilizers who are to erase all traces of the signer’s presence both on the stage and in the hotel. Why? Because Madonna is afraid that someone may steal her DNA…