The undisputed Queen of Pop has kicked off her latest world tour with a dazzling and extremely athletic performance in Cardiff.
Madonna took the stage at the 75,000 capacity Millennium Stadium on Saturday night for the first date of her Sticky and Sweet tour.
The decadent show, which involved £1million of jewellery, saw her perform many of her greatest hits as well as indulging in eight costume changes.
Exactly one week after her 50th birthday, the pop superstar arrived onstage dressed in a Givenchy outfit in a vintage white American car for the first section of the four-part show.
Labelled ‘Pimp’, the opening sequence was recently described by the Material Girl’s publicist as a homage to ‘1920s deco and modern day gangsta pimp’.
Madonna followed up that segment of the concert with Old School, a tribute to the urban dance music of early 1980s New York, the environment from which her star first rose.
The remaining two sections, Gypsy and Rave, saw the toned singer defy her age by continuing to deliver a high-energy performance over a two-hour concert.
Madonna’s green credentials have come in for criticism over the weekend.
The gargantuan 45-date Sticky and Sweet tour is expected to generate more than 1,635 tons of carbon pollution in travel alone.
The emissions generated by the singer’s tour are equivalent to that created by 160 Britons in an entire year and equal to the emissions generated by leaving a standard 100 watt lightbulb on for about 4,000 years.
Among these 250 personnel are nine wardrobe assistants, 12 seamstresses, a 12-piece band, a chiropractor, personal trainer, masseuse, 16 caterers and around 100 technicians and dancers.
Environmental experts calculated that by flying between concerts in Europe and then the United States, Madonna will rack up 95 tons of carbon in her private jet alone.
Madonna celebrated her 50th birthday with her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie and her children on August 16 with a meal at a London restaurant.
She will fly to 37 venues for the roadshow in just under four months, transporting a team of 250.
Source: Daily Mail
