Madonna

I bought tickets for Madonna's November 3rd show on February 23, 2012.  I had a presale through my credit card company and I scored two great seats for $384.21 after all the stupid Ticketmaster charges.

Fast forward to late summer when M and I decided to donate our tickets to be part of the silent auction for my dad's benefit.  Even though Madonna hasn't toured to Minnesota in 25 years, we would rather the tickets sale to go my dad.  

On the day of the benefit, I helped check out people who won the silent auction items.  In my line, my best friend Tanya walks up with the Madonna tickets.  I was so excited that she was able to win them!  She won them for a "steal" at $250.  Instead, she wrote a check for $300 and knowing the tickets were originally mine, ripped the two tickets apart and handed me one and said, "I'm taking you."  I started crying right there and I am getting chocked up as I write this.  

Money for my dad, ticket to go see Madonna after all and the best friend ever.  I'm lucky.

We started our night at Champps and had some food and drinks beforehand.  We knew that Madonna wouldn't go on stage until around 10:30 pm and we didn't care about the opening act, DJ Paul Oakenfold, despite him being probably the most famous DJ in the world. I saw him twice back in the day in my rave days. 

Saturday, November 3rd, Tanya and I went to go see Madonna.  I really wanted to go because she is a legend and an icon.  She was my absolute favorite when I was 9-10 years old.  I still have her True Blue cassette and You Can Dance cassette from 1986 and 1987, respectively.  I've liked Madonna through most of her career with her most recent stuff being a little iffy for me but once she took the stage, I didn't care.  I didn't care that she is 54 years old and is still trotting around the stage in a majorette costume.  I didn't care that she didn't go on stage until 10:45 pm and didn't end until 12:35 am.  Whatever she wanted to do on that stage that night was fine by me and I loved all of it.

She addressed the crowd as "Minnesota" and "Twin Cities" which I liked since we were in St. Paul as there are so many times when artists will say "Minneapolis" and I don't like that.  

She had many costume changes and different sets and it was probably the most theatrical concert I've ever been to. 

She played a lot of her "newer" stuff, ranging from anything in the 2000's and spent less time on her greatest hits.  I would have loved to have heard more older songs.  She did do Like a Prayer and it brought me right back to my 6th grade talent show when I was a part of a group of girls that lip synced to that song as we were part of Madonna's choir.

Thank you Tanya and Madonna for a fabulous night!

There's tons of pictures ahead and as always, click on them to make them bigger.  

This guy was great!