[Vinylfantasy]

Hello my madgelings, sorry I've been away from AHS for so long! I really needed a break from the boards and so I decided to take a bow. As you know, Sticky & Sweet Tour rehearsals are well underway and a pretty much final setlist is out as well as a few costume sketches.

MANY SPOILERS after this point! Don't blame me if you're waiting until the actual show.

Setlist and descriptions

Spoiler:

Intro/Candy Shop
The show opener, Candy Shop, has now a longer intro compared to the promo tour version. A musical intro a la Drowned World Tour, sounding very cinematic, like the opening titles of a blockbuster movie, starting with the 4 minutes' "tick tock" with bits and pieces of songs from Hard Candy (4 Minutes, Give It 2 Me, Beat Goes On) that we will be hearing later in the show fades into the "C-A-N-D-Y" intro from the promo tour.

Beat Goes On
A standard album version of the song beginning after the Pharrel rap at the end of Candy Shop. Pharrel and Kanye West are doing their thing on video as well.

Human Nature
Britney will appear on video while Madonna sings the song on stage with her guitar. The idea of the Mash Up with Gimme More has been scrapped but Britney's new signature phrase "It's Britney *****" is included once at the end of the song.

Vogue
Played on a new instrumental track based on her 2008 hit 4 Minutes, this version of Vogue also includes a music sample of Nelly Furtado/Timbaland's Give It To Me during the whole song. An amazing re-invention!

Video Interlude - Die Another Day
The first video interlude, a fast paced and speeded up version of the James Bond theme Die Another Day, features exclusive new footage of Madonna as a boxeur, from the brand new photoshoot by Tom Munro for the Tour Book.

Into The Groove
Into The Groove, that contains a small sample of Madonna's Jump, sees Madonna jumping rope and doing a little bit of pole dancing. The song is delivered using musical parts of the dance hit "Toop Toop" by Cassius.

Heartbeat
A nice album version of this great new song by Madonna and Pharrel.

Borderline
The most vintage song in the show has been totally recreated and turned into a rocky/ska version. Great rock guitars for the most surprising re-invention!

She's Not Me
As almost all Hard Candy song this one too is presented in it's album version incarnation. At one time Madonna reportedly shouts the phrase "I Know I Can Do It Better" in a similar way she did with "Do you think I'm satisfied" in RIT's American Life.

Music
Known as the Fedde Le Grande mix, the Sticky & Sweet tour version of Music starts with a sample of Last Night A DeeJay Saved My Life by Indeep.

Video Interlude - Rain/Here Comes The Rain Again
The third video interludes mashes up bit's of Madonna's Rain with Eurythmics' Here Comes The Rain Again, using Eurythmics' music track.

Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
Originally supposed to play piano herself on this one, now Madonna appears on stage on top of it. The song is the album version.

Spanish Lesson
Album version here too but nicely extended near the end, with the use of Spanish tap dancing and a little hint to Mariachi music thrown in there as well.

Miles Away
The great ballad version with guitar we already saw at the promo tour.

La Isla Bonita/Lela Pala Tute
The Live Earth version of La Isla Bonita is being presented on the new tour. Mixed with Romani song Lele Pala Tute and some great fun on stage. Gogol Bordello will make some special appearances on some of the tour dates.

Doli Doli
It's a live interlude not sung by Madonna and it's a Romani/Gyspyy folk song

You Must Love Me
Madonna is back on stage to close the section with a fierce rendition of the Academy Award winning song "You Must Love Me" by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Tzigani/Gypsy violins and accordion make of this song an unforgettable and emotional moment of the show.

Video Interlude - Get Stupid
Third interlude a la "Sorry" in "Confession Tour". It's about saving our planet and saving it NOW. It uses parts of various songs from Hard Candy. A vocoded "Who Is The Master and Who Is The Slave" (From Voices), "Get Stupid" (From Give It 2 Me), "The Time Is Now" and "You don't have the luxury of time" (from Beat Goes On) and the "Tick Tock" from "4 Minutes".

4 Minutes
A great version very similar to the promo tour.

Like A Prayer
The song, that replaces Impressive Instant is another Mash Up, delivered using musical parts of the 1992 dance hit by Felix "Don't You Want Me".

Ray Of Light
Very similar to the Confessions Tour version with Madonna playing her rock guitar!

Hung Up
The Rock Version you heard at the promo tour has been confirmed for this tour as well.

Give It To Me
Performed on a music track slightly different from the album version, but it's not one of the remixes. It has an extended ending on which fans are invited to shout: Give It 2 Me!

A few costume sketches

Spoiler:

Futuristic rave section: there’s a futuristic rave section with lots of Japanese influences


Riccardo Tisci commented about his collaboration with Madonna:

"I feel incredibly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to offer the world of Givenchy Haute Couture to Madonna the Icon, the Artist, the Woman for whom I have so much respect and admiration."







Costume designer Arianne Phillips has lasted 11 years, from the singer's Pre-Raphaelite look for "Ray of Light" to the urban cowgirl of "Music" to the Patty Hearst look of "American Life" and on and on and on. In other words, measured in Madonna time, Phillips is roughly 77 years old.

Still, La Ciccone's upcoming "Sticky and Sweet" tour has had its own unique challenges for her longtime stylist. "Normally we prep in April and May, and open in June," says Phillips. "This time, the tour begins in August. It's a nightmare. Everyone in Italy and France is on a beach sunning themselves."

Thankfully, everyone is a bit of an exaggeration, as Phillips goes on to detail a mile-long list of willing collaborators and everything they've designed for the trek, which begins Aug. 23 in Cardiff, Wales, and comes to the United States in early October. Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci designed two outfits, while Tom Ford provided bespoke suits for the band. Three pairs of shoes have been custom-made by Miu Miu, there are thigh-high boots courtesy of Stella McCartney, sunglasses from Moschino, and other outfits and odds and ends from Yves Saint Laurent, Roberto Cavalli, and Jeremy Scott.

Like her shows in the past, this tour will be divided into four sections. The first references gangsta pimp and Art Deco with Givenchy costumes. This, it would seem, is Madonna's current take on her longest-running fashion inspiration -- the dominatrix. "It's a theme that runs throughout her career" Phillips says. "She's not afraid of being hard." The second section has been termed "Old School," and harkens back to Madonna's early days in New York, with Scott's outfit and some vintage prints from Keith Haring, the late graffiti artist and friend of Madonna who died of AIDS in 1990. "He and Madonna were friends. If her were alive, it would be his 50th birthday as well. So I thought, 'What if we revisited that?'" Afterward, there's a gypsy section with more costumes from Givenchy. "Riccardo's a new young talent. If you look at Madonna's history with fashion, that makes him an obvious choice." Finally, there's a futuristic rave section with lots of Japanese influences.

And while The New York Times complained recently about Madonna's style choices, Phillips says getting older has had little effect on her sense of fashion adventure. "She always wants to push the envelope. There are no vanity considerations based on her age." As Phillips adds seconds later, "She looks good in everything."

A lot of her outfits lately remind me of the Causing A Commotion/Where's The Party section of the Blond Ambition Tour. Maybe it's just me but who knows.