GERMANY: Madonna plays to a sold out concert in Germany

Madonna started the German leg of her 'Confessions' tour to a resounding success on Sunday (August 20). Despite the Catholic Church in Germany calling for people to boycott the concert in Duesseldorf, the LTU arena was sold out and packed with screaming fans. Madonna delighted the enthusiastic German crowd by hanging herself from a cross, the controversial move she has done on earlier legs of the concert, which led to the church's indignation about the show, and dusting off some of the sexy moves that have sustained her career for more than 20 years. "She is 48 years old, has a great figure, a great life, and is simply an icon, what more?" said Carsten Payonsk as he left the stadium. "It's madness, whatever she brings onto the screen or onto CD, it is always super, absolutely great." "It was ok," said Hans-Werner Drachte. "We were here because of her older songs, and she played less of them, but all in all it was a huge show, the woman is simply super." The 48-year-old dance diva spent two hours churning out most of the tunes from her new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor," as well as a few old hits such as "Like a Virgin," "Ray of Light" and "Lucky Star." She will be giving only two German concerts, the second of which will be in Hanover on Tuesday. "It was super, the show was great, sometimes it was a bit loud, but good, altogether very impressive," said Peter Druss. "The concert, the show was great, but there was no encore," said one fan. "No encore and not all the songs were live. No way, she couldn't manage it, with all the dancing and all the other stuff going on she could never manage it. But otherwise it was good, it was ok," his wife agreed, but they recommended people to go to the Hanover show. Billboard magazine has forecast ticket sales could reach the $200 million range, making it the most successful tour by a female artist. "It was simply absolutely fantastic!" enthused Katarina Uebsch. Great show, great dancers, Madonna looked absolutely great, like a twenty-year-old, the way she moved, great! The audience loved it." One fan found there was too much politics in the first half though, and she isn't alone in finding fault with the concert. Not only the German Church, but the Russian Church are also against the highly controversial show. Security was also stepped up at the Duesseldorf stadium after British press reported that Russian gangsters were threatening to kidnap Madonna and her children to stop the controversial tour reaching Moscow next month. There tickets sold out within four days of them going on sale, Madonna's managers are still considering whether to to hold a second concert in the Russian capital.

ITN Source | August 24, 2006

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