Madonna - Drowned World Tour (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	you get to see the concert
Disadvantages:	I couldn't be there in person

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Well what can one say, if you are a Madonna fan then you wouldn't need to be reading this review, because you would have all ready been out and purchased this dvd regardless. But for all those who are not quite so sure about this then you will probably still be reading this.

So here goes, this is her fifth tour in which she performs a number of tracks mainly her newer stuff in a typical madonna style. The songs that are performed are:
Substitute for love
Impressive Instant
Candy perfume girl
Beautiful Stranger
Ray of light
Paradise (Not for me)
Frozen
Open your Heart 'swell
Nobodys perfect
Mer girl part 2
I deserve it
Don't tell me
Human Nature
The funny song
Secret
Gone
Don't cry for me Argentina (instrumental)
Lo Que Sienta La Mujer (what it feels like for a girl)
La isla bonita
Holiday
Music.
Right so that is the song list, how does she perform them, the start of the concert see's the stage with all it lights on, and you notice some of her dancers, with 'music' being played slightly in the background. Madonna then appears with smoke all around her, and wearing black and white tarten she starts to sing .
As all ways, she makes the stage her home, she is in full control of everything.At the end of this song, it very quickly goes into the next song, the lights move around, and the dancers appear. In her next listed song candy perfume girl you actually see madonna joining in with the music as plays her guitar along with her other musicians as well as singing the song. We then have the start of beautiful stranger, and on the big screen within the stage area, you various clips of Austin powers shown, and then she asks, 'do I make you horney?' After which you see the video for ray of light being played on the screen while Mad's joins in with the vocals. We then have a change of direction as wenow go into an oriental style to the concert, you see Mad's on the screen and dancers hang upside down wearing very little, but while hanging upside down, still perform dance movements, who then eventually end up on the stage, and up she comes to perform Frozen. After this you have open your heart played almost as if it were an oriental piece of music, unfortunatly it is not all of the song. As it then quickly goes into the next song. During the song Sky fits heaven, you see some amazing dance routines in which Madonna has a cabke attached to her to enable some of the movements as she re-inacts a fight scene and struts about stage feel very proud of heself.
During her next song you see what looks like a Japenese manga type movie and some of these scenes are a bit explicit, and definatly not fot little eyes. She then appears back on stage to perform her next track along with her guitar. She goes into her 14th song with as much energy as her first song. We then have a song that to my knowledge hasn't been released,with a rather interesting accent, and so it goes on, we then have a few down paced songs in which I feel the songs lyric means something to everybody out there, if you realy listen, and they are Secret and Gone. After this, you have the instrumental of Don't cry for me Argentina in which you see two dancers on stage dancing as one. As she goes into her next song very few of us will beable to understand it fully as she sings in what could be spanish (I was never fluent in the foreign languages) La Isla Bonita see's a young man walking across the stage playing the guitar and then you focus in on Mad's also playing her guitar whilst singing the song. We then have the famous Holiday , and then to finish the show off we have Music.

Madonna has certainly gone through a number of image transformations in her life, in the way she wears herself, and in the way tracks are performed on stage, (I think we all remember like a virgin from her blonde ambition tour!!)
In this concert she goes through various wardrobes, the first being what looks like black boots with black trousers, a black and white tarten skirkt, and the top is also black and white checks, with a black mesh back to it, Outfit number 2 we go oriental, while she is obviously changing, you see one of her video being played in which she was wearing a Japenese Kamono. When she appears she is wearing the black outfit in which she wore for the video of Frozen, she even manage to change her hair colour from blonde to black!!! and even then this outfit turns from black to red, Her third change consist of black blouse/shirt and black jeans, she then removes her shirt to reveal a basque in the style of the american flag. We then have yet another change, she goes to wearing a black pair of trousers and black shaped top which looks like a dress from the front and almost backless, and after this we have another top change, to a black number again almos vest top sytle with a white fur coat drapped round and we have even gone for a hat to finish the outfit off.

Throughout this show you see Madonna giving it her all, she does her best to give her audiance a show to remember. Her main two dancers are the same two that have been in previous tours, and even the other dancers that are on stage you can clearly see giving it their all. The concert is as always full of energy and something is always happening even when Mad's is not on stage. In true Madonna style you get the language and she tries to shock each time I am sure.
This concert was perform in Barcelona, Milan, London, Philadelphia, New York, East Rutherford, Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas and Las Angeles.

Here are some interseting facts about this tour that I found on one of her fan club websites 'AbsoluteMadonna'

Madonna's first time on the road in 8 years.
Tour hit only Europe and America.
Tour was to start in Cologne, Germany on June 5. First German dates were cancelled "due to technical difficulties."
In protest of the cancelled German shows, some fans vowed to throw their Madonna CDs in the garbage.
A 26-year-old Frankfurt fan won a free concert ticket to a Berlin show in exchange for sex with a reporter for a German online magazine.
Celebrities wanting to see the concert had to pay for their own tickets. No freebies.
Shireen Ritchie, Guy Ritchie's mother, reported that she and her family were "wowed out of our skins," after seeing their daughter-in-law perform.
When the tour hit America, Madonna changed her costume, as well as replaced "Gone" with a stunning performance of "You'll See". Never in Madonna's career has she changed her song line-up.
Madonna performed "You'll See" (instead of Gone) in Philly, New York City, Boston, Atlanta, and Miami.
She performed "Gone" in Washington DC, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Oakland, Vegas, Detroit, and Chicago.
The second show in New Jersey for August 3rd was canceled because of throat problems.
The September 11th show in Los Angeles was delayed because of the terrorist attacks on America. When Madonna took the stage to complete the last three shows she wore an American flag skirt. She also turned down the violence in the show including the removal of the shooting of another character and also removing the gory "Oh Dear Daddy" from the performances.
Profits from the final three shows in Los Angeles were donated to the children of the victims of the attacks.

The dvd itself is almost multi-region as it region code 2,3,4,5,6 and its format is DVD9, and the length of the dvd is 105 minutes. The cover itself, on the front has the writing down the side and shows a picture of madonna laying down leaning her head back while singing, and on the back it simple list the tracks and has a pictue of what looks like a typhoon under water.

You can purchase this dvd in most music stores at probably around £15.99 I should think, I personally got this one as a gift so therefore did not pay a price. Although most music dvds do notcome with an age restriction on it, I would probably vet it first before giving it to a young child especially with the Japense film in it, and with some of the language used. As I said before hand, if you are already a madonna fan then this will probably already have a home on your dvd shelf along with her other concerts.