Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet tour opened Saturday night in Cardiff Wales. The 50 year-old pop legend put on a two hour performance that included video montages featuring Kanye West, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. The night was based on four themes: “Pimp”, “Old School”, “Gypsy” and “Rave,” and the pint-sized powerhouse wore multiple pants-less outfits designed by Givenchy, Stella McCartney and Miu Miu, with some American Apparel tube socks thrown in for the sporty look.
Not one to pass up a chance to stir up publicity-seeking controversy, one of the videos playing in the background featured photos of “bad” things like war, global warming, Hitler – and John McCain. McCain’s Presidential rival, Democratic candidate Barack Obama, was included on the “good” video of humanitarian leaders:
Amid a four-act show at Cardiff’s packed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian President Robert Mugabe — and U.S. Senator John McCain. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain’s Democratic rival Barack Obama.
[AP as found on PopEater]
Didn’t Madonna already do this in her “American Life” video? At least she’s not hanging herself on a cross or making fun of the church this time around. Blasphemy is so 1989, yet she threw some into her Confessions tour for lack of imagination.
McCain has responded to Madonna’s diss in the humorless, offended way she surely hoped he would. He’s been smearing Obama with attack ads, and yet he’s pointing out that Madonna is doing the same thing to him.
“The comparisons are outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time,” Bounds said in a statement reported by Fox News.
“It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits.”
[From News.Yahoo.com]
This is the guy who has an ad calling Obama elitist but who can’t name how many houses he has and thinks that you’re only rich once you make your first $5 million. (link leads to video.) He also keeps repeating that Obama is going to raise taxes, which just isn’t true for 95% of Americans. If you make less than $227,000 a year you’ll save money under Obama’s plan.
He’s right though that douches like Madonna, Ludacris and Roseanne aren’t helping Obama by dissing the Republicans. They’re just giving McCain more fodder to accuse Obama of being elitist and backed by celebrities.
Madonna might had plenty of publicity ahead of her tour for her non-affair with A-Rod and her brother’s “unauthorized” biography, but it wasn’t enough to fill the seats. Only 40,000 out of 70,000 available tickets were sold to the venue. At £150 /$276 USD, they weren’t exactly affordable for a lot of people. Concert-goers said she put on a great show, though.
Here’s the video in question from Saturday set to “Get Stupid,” thanks to user MadonnaWyat on YouTube:
Photos are of Madonna’s opening night in Cardiff on 8/23/08. Credit: Daniel Deme / WENN
I must be getting old – that header photo…. 😯
She looks like she has to pee in the header photo. Grow up Madonna, your message is trite.
Daisy….it looks like something altogether different to me!
Not to mention, those nubile bodies surrounding her show up her sinewy old self
There’s something to be said for getting class as you age
She’s losing her credibility fast
Shut it Madge!
Does she have a wedgie?
Good Lord. If she devoted half as much energy to educating herself as she does trying to shock people, she might have a college diploma by now.
I don’t care how toned and buff she is, she’s not sexy. And I agree with Xiaoecho’s assessment of what the picture looks like.
The Vadge is not helping our cause. 😯
But McCain’s still a douche… who to defend? Oh right, neither. 🙄
Yawn …
Agree with Syko and Xiao — she is so far from cool or hip… it’s like watching your grandma play with herself in the nursing home play. Distasteful
SHE IS AWESOME, and her statement IS RIGHT ON THE MONEY !!!!!!!! Well said Madge.. we love you.
Oh, groan. The sight of her hand in that nasty, skanky crotch. If I were a little more imaginative I’d come up with a much funnier description of it than that. Anyone? Why, oh, why does she think that’s sexy?
Yawn indeed…what a cliche message. A video showing bad and good people from past and present. So very original! This woman is repeating herself in so many ways. I really think she is extremely overrated. Is het music really that good? Is her voice that good? Yes, she used to be cutting edge and controversial and trendsetting, but she’s not really a trendsetter anymore either.
Holding her roided-up vag in so it doesn’t sag onto the stage? 😆
BTW, what’s her carbon footprint, with this concert tour? Hypocrite.
She has lost bladder control and is self conscious.
ghandi was pro gun ownership. madonna needs to read up.
Very good Daisy and L! I’m going to pop back in here later to see what else people come up with. Looking forward to it.
as ever, she is not helping, though I suppose she has a right to “express herself.” 😕
Why does everyone always seem to think celebrities need to go to college? They don’t need college!! They are already rich and famous.
She thinks she’s a chameleon with shock value. Yawn. Her change is like GroundHog Day change. Her voice is definitely not all that, never has been. But she has always been able to distract from that fact by being controversial. I don’t think many people really care anymore.
poor madge – nothing she says or does anymore is interesting or shocking in the least. she is dull as dishwater.
I barfed when she had to take off her clothes with JT in that video – only watched once due to her. She’s unsightly with her popping veins. She would get more respect if she’d just grow old gracefully. She still acts like Michael Jackson with those crotch grabs – who’s turned on by this??? Anyone???
Having watched the video, I don’t think the division between “good” and “evil” types was as stark as the Associated Press clip makes it seem. Which one is Oprah Winfrey supposed to be? What about the starving African child, which seems to be a standard for politically-conscious rock star videos?
As an (undecided) American voter, I can tell you that Madonna’s endorsement of one candidate or another means SweetFannyAdams to me. I do think she’s going to be disappointed by Obama, however, on whom a lot of people seem to be projecting their better-world fantasies. “Gandhi” has already proposed thousands of new troops for Afghanistan and a possible attack on Pakistan.
I’m an Obama supporter, but he isn’t Gandhi, and McCain. . . well I think he is out of touch and misguided, but not EVIL. Hardly a genocidal maniac a la Hitler. Why can’t people respectfully disagree? Vote your heart Madge, and if you want to persuade others, use reasons, not name-calling.
Ugh and ewwww. I see her standing there grabbing herself and I think, “Poor Lourdes.” There is nowhere on Earth that girl can go to escape the humiliation of having THAT for a mother. Jeez. Her time has been and gone, why can’t she just go away quietly somewhere and stop assaulting us? 🙄
Silly girl. The passage of time distills and reveals character. She’s not looking good…she looks like she worships at the shrine of all that is artificial, hard, and completely grace-less.
Typical out-of-touch elitist liberal. If she doesn’t like McCain or what he stands for, fine. But comparing him to Hitler is just the standard cheap trick that liberals like to turn to when they can’t honestly debate their differences with someone else.
Maybe Vadge just doesn’t have the brain power to even understand what McCain stands for, before deciding to disagree with it. And comparing Obama to Gandhi, a man who accomplished FAR MORE than Obama ever will, is sheer folly.
It won’t help to elect your buddy Obama, Madge. People don’t like political messages at concerts, especially one-sided and ignorant ones such as yours.
Why are they holding their crotches? That is so tasteless. Yuck.
Also I am no Republican and never will be. But its extremist and sensationalist to compare McCain to “Hitler”. She is going off the deep end again with her extreme viewpoints.
GMAFB CB. Who cares if McCain can’t tell a reporter how many houses his family owns. I bet the Kennedys couldn’t answer that questions right away either. Cindy McCain keeps her assets seperate and has homes she inherited from her family and homes she has purchased for their kids. Who cares?
And, if you watched the forum McCain was joking when he said $5 million. His point was that he didn’t want to raise taxes for anyone.
And, if you think people making less than $227k won’t be affected by tax increases for the rich, guess again. It will be passed on down.
We’re not socialists here. People making great money shouldn’t be penalized for it. As it is 1% of the population pay 40% of the taxes. Ask the messiah if he thinks that’s “fair”.
@Cowbell – I care that McCain doesn’t know how many houses he owns. It’s not just about money – it’s about senility.
I don’t expect miracles if Obama comes into office, but expectations of him extremely high. I do think he is a good leader, and I do think that if people are open to hearing his message, great things could be accomplished. Plus, with a dem controlled congress and senate, swift action will be taken upon certain core issues…
I don’t know about McCain, I’m sure he believes what he does, but at this point I would prefer Obama over him. I think McCain espouses a POV that is dated, and elitist in some ways too, and I think some Americans — particularly modern women, gays, and younger people in this country — would be doing themselves a disservice voting for him.
I think Madonna knows her audience and knows what she is about, even if we don’t always agree with her. She still has us talking about her, this woman who burst upon the scene literally 30 years ago, and still today, criticizing her for whatever after all these years–
Give her a break. We will all be 50 ourselves too one day.
Kaiser, you’re serious? You really think that was about being senile?
It wsa an attack on Cindy McCains wealth.
Celebitchy: I would hope that McCain or anyone else would stand up for themselves for being compared to Hilter. I wouldn’t expect that anyone could find the humor in that or not take offense…. It is not an issue of Madonna doing the same thing to McCain as he has done to Obama. McCain pointed out in his response that some celebrity supporters don’t have a line that they won’t cross…. Madonna’s “attack” comparing McCain to Hitler is hardly the same thing as McCain comparing Obama to Britney Spears or Moses.
I think it’s lame when I hear supporters of Obama protesting so hard against the ads from his opponent. That is natural, it’s what is oppenents do. In my opinion it makes more sense to defend him against the people who are supposed to be on his side but are being less than supportive. And I would like to see Obama stand up for himself in these situations also. I don’t know how much control he has over such things but I would think as the Democrat nominee he would have something to say about Jesse Jackson speaking at the convention after it was exposed to the national public that he dumped on him behind behind his back. As a candidate for president I would like to see him exhibit his power and influence a little more strongly in such situations involving his campaign.
Kaiser:
McCain’s answer was appropriate under the circumstances.
McCain immediately realized that the question was a set-up by a liberal journalist who clearly knew that the McCain’s owned investment real estate and was hoping for McCain to mislead or evade answering.
The fact is, people like the Kennedys, Kerrys, Edwards, Clintons, McCains, etc. rarely know exactly what investments they hold at any given moment.
McCain could have answered more artfully but not more truthfully.
The dinosaur press always tries to make republicans out to be rich, when the fact is, most all politicians are rich. Period.
She reminds me of Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard.
Joe Gillis: You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It’s the *pictures* that got small.
To be quite honest, celebrities should stay out of politics. I think that thier support is either irrelevant or damaging to the canidate. I am not going to vote for a canidate because Madonna, Oprah, or Jesus support them.
Why is she holding her ___. Does she have stress incontinence already? Maybe she needs to add Kegel exercises to her yoga routine.
CeleBitchy using the word ‘douche’. Tee Hee.
“If you make less than $227,000 a year you’ll save money under Obama’s plan.”
Sorry – but it is the middle class who is supporting this society. Doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican – either way, you will pay.
The baby boomers are either starting or nearing retirement age and someone has to pay for their benefits and there are NO tax cuts coming for people who earn under $227K who are employees. The tax laws favor businesses.
Businesses pay their bills first and whatever is left over is taxed. Whereas if you are an employee you pay your taxes first and whatever is left over is for you and your bills.
“…Equally deceptive is the Democrats’ ever-evolving position on the despised alternative minimum tax (AMT). Some 25 million, mostly middle-class Americans are scheduled to start paying an extra $2,000 a year AMT surcharge in 2009. That would be a giant middle-class wallet buster. So while Barack Obama is pledging to cut taxes on squeezed workers, his colleagues in Congress passed a budget earlier this year that assumes that 25 million middle-class Americans will pay the AMT after 2010. This is how they arrived at a “balanced” budget.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/318ewzfd.asp?pg=2
FYI – I am not partial to either party.
Word, Dogrunner!
Also, leave it to Madonna to resort to reductio ad Hitlerum in the context of one of her overblown concert montages. A little full of ourselves, are we Madge?
WHY is this douche-a-donna even COMMENTING on American politics when she has moved across the pond???? is she going to vote absentee? why would she..she obviously hates the US, except for the $$$ she draws for these awful performances of hers. I don’t like either of these two candidates, but it’s always such a one sided battle. why doesn’t the media talk about how the GREAT OZ grew up in wealth, attending private schools in Hawaii? why doesn’t the media talk about the house (s) the GREAT OZ owns?
The media is biased poopie, you see what they want you to see.
Madonna’s whole I’ve-got-to-go-pee-so-badly stage posing, please, why is she keeping THAT one up? It’s uncomfortably stupid-looking, especially when the same gotta-go-pee-NOW pose is being mirrored by dozens of surrounding back-up dancers.
@ Blanche – “She reminds me of Norma Desmond.” YES!! Madonna clearly suffers from early onset of the debilitating mental ailment Desmond’s Disease. Poor old Madge!
And she didn’t even sell out her show! She’s so used to always selling out every concert, boy this must really stick in her craw.
I’m not Republican but I am weary of the lionization of Obama. He’s only human just like the rest of us.
Here sweeping generalizations are typical of Hollywood over the top liberalism. I suspect often it’s bandwagon mentality; many celebs making such extreme comparisons and statements are not actually researching their subjects as much as they could. If it becomes hip to endorse someone or something it quickly catches on. In the end a lot end up looking just.. over the top. This bit here is a perfect example.
Holding her crotch like that…in the words of Snowblood-
Poor OLD Madge.
Dear Madonna:
Get off my side; you are making my side look incredibly stupid.
Why does this idiot think breaking Godwin’s Law in such a ham-handed, childish way is going to *help* Obama’s campaign? You’d almost think she was actually in favor of McCain.
Hmn I posted a comment that was in moderation and suspiciously went *poof*.
I’m weary of the lionization of Obama.
He’s human just like us, you know. Comparing him to Ghandi is absolutely ridiculous. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other and Ghandi lived a selfless life and was as close to (heck, who knows, maybe was) an ascended master and was a major spiritual leader.
Hollywood seems to foster a lemming, copycat mentality. Jumping on the bandwagon of making sweeping statements about things like politics and religion is not a smart move.
I mean, Obama – -if he does get elected really has his work cut out for him. Just undoing the mess over the past 8 years will be a herculean task. Living up to comparisons of Ghandi, though? Yikes.
Just cos you don’t reside in the US doesn’t mean you don’t care, as a citizen, who is in charge. Madonna has just as much right to vote for her president as anyone living here.
NOT supporting, or lessening support for, a candidate because of celebrity endorsements is just as mindless as supporting them because of celebrity endorsements. Neither has anything to do with their actual politics or ability to be the leader of our country.
Oh, and I watched the video… she didn’t COMPARE McCain to Hitler or Obama to Ghandi… It didn’t say Obama = Ghandi, McCain = Hitler… it was a montage of many, many different images that she believes are bad and good. Nowhere are any parallels past that drawn. Overeaction.
Madonna:
You aren’t helping things, you old dried up piece of shoe leather.
MK over at DListed said he thinks her vadge is muscled and she has muscles on her teeth. That cracked me up.
I’m a Texan voting for Obama, and while McCain is a senile douche, he isn’t Hitler.
Attention Vadge!!!
Get some Fu#$&n clothes on!!! You’re 50! You’re a mother! You’re hideous!!!
Someone probably said it before me, I haven’t read all the comments but she looks like she’s got an itch she can’t wait to scratch. The other dances are posing the same way but their hands don’t look quite so busy. Why, oh why do singers/performers think this looks sexy?
Can’t wait for her “Sixty and Sexy!” tour. Oh vey.
Same old madonna crap, trying to convince everyone she has intellect. Shut up and sing your pop songs deary.
Why does she go out of her way to look unbearably stupid? McCain is no Hitler, Obama is no Gandhi. But I guess it wouldn’t be “controversial” enough for her to just say she prefers the policies of one over the other, huh?
Why do fading celebrities think that saying something stupid is the same as saying something relevant?
Who cares what the old whore thinks?
Just another pathetic ploy for Vadge to appear shocking and relevant. Yawn. Someone put her out to pasture already. 🙄
Her “Sixty and Sexy” tour? No way would Madonna ever admit to being 60 years old, so forget it!
If you like MacCain, you, and your kids, and your grandchildren can go fight and die in his wars for the next 100 years. I personally know that war is not the answer to the world’s problems. War is not the answer to my problems or my kids’ problems. And I will support every Gandhi and every Obama, every Lenon and every Madonna if they have the balls to support the peace movement.
I’m surprised Madonna can still manage to get Sticky Fingers. I still think Cher aged better and more gracefully than Madonna. Cher also has a sense of humor, something Madonna does not. Thank God for Madonna’s loyal gay fan base who keep her going. Maybe next she could pair up with Liza Minelli for an “I Love New York Tour.”
I agree that celebrities should stay out of politics. Most of them are not even that well educated. They should stick to what they know best – show business.
Cindy, you’re right on.
Why would anyone listen to Hollywood people such as Mondanna. Just look at here. She should keep her BIG MOUTH shut, she absolutely has no brains. She should take notice of what has happen with the Dixie Chic’s BIG MOUTHS.
Cerebral Shepard is an idiot and a has been. Why would anyone care what her opinion is regarding politics. These hollywood monkeys are generally uneducated and should only share their political views to their counterpart monkeys. They only make complete asses on themselves. Just ask the Dixie Chicks if their comments helped their career. THEY ARE HISTORY just like the idiot Shepard.
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