“I still believe in love — even if Barack Obama didn’t come to my show,” Madonna teased near the end of Saturday night’s concert at the Verizon Center. “Maybe I’m too provocative.” Like all her tours, Rebel Heart had its fair share of provocation, chiefly through repeated sacrilegious references to God and Catholic iconography.
But that’s always been Madonna’s cross to bear (and her bread and butter). This time out it was confined to the opening numbers. If you could look past it, as well as her overuse of war and violent imagery (Madonna is seemingly forever fighting someone, from God and Gaga to Guy and the media), you probably left charmed by the evening.
The Rebel Heart Tour finds Madonna at her happiest and most personable, and also in her best voice. In past tours she seemed to be performing on auto-pilot, but not on Saturday.
Edgy and sassy and unapologetic, Madonna once again proved her predominance in pop performance. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like her new album, even though it accounted for nearly half of the two-hour set. The truth is, few others working in pop today put on such a compelling and sensory-rich, top-notch theatrical production from beginning to end. Madonna makes her concerts feel like celebrations.
Near the concert’s end, Madonna settled, with a guitar, on a raised platform and sang the French classic, “La Vie En Rose” — which she dedicated to Obama — as if she were a bona fide chanteuse. “Everybody sing along!” she cooed playfully. She didn’t need the audience assist, as she perfectly conveyed the emotions of the song. It was just one example of how significantly Madonna’s musicality has improved over the years, even if her music has not.
David Archuleta has been through a lot in the past several years.
He came out as gay and left the Mormon church, which had been a huge part of his life. As an artist, he’s now looking to mine his past experiences – and even his trauma – to make something beautiful out of an experience that must have been incredibly difficult. That's exactly what he's managed to do with “Hell Together,” his latest single.
The former American Idol star dropped “Hell Together” last week after teasing new music was coming. The track is a gospel-tinged affair, a nod to his past and the story he tells in the song.
Love ran deep last night between Bad Bunny and his fans, who filled the Capital One Arena from the floor up to the championship banners. The crowd’s passion for the artist and his music was punctuated with the roar of recognition that greeted the first notes of every single song.
Deafening screams greeted Bad Bunny, too, as he made his entrance rising from beneath the stage to a live orchestra playing the Bond-style overture of “Nadie Sabe,” the opening track on the rapper-singer’s latest LP, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana (No one knows what will happen tomorrow).
The D.C. area is on track to be graced by two visits from the Indigo Girls this year, including a stint with the Fairfax Symphony at Capital One Hall and a remarkable double-bill pairing with fellow lesbian vanguard Melissa Etheridge at Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap is also the place to go for a second edition of the venue's Out & About Festival, this year offering a new cohort of LGBTQ musical acts.
Queer artists are really, truly just about everywhere, coming to nearly every music venue in the region this season. A quick scan of the listings bears this out: There's Donna Missal at The Atlantis, BOOMscat at Blues Alley, CMAT at DC9, XOMG Pop! at the Fillmore, Billy Gilman at Jammin Java, Mary Gauthier at Rams Head on Stage, and Mx Mundy at Songbyrd. And that's just a quick and easy seven, with several times that number waiting in the wings for your discovery.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!