Drowned World Tour

Drowned World Tour

Tour by Madonna
File:Drownedworldtour.jpg Madonna performing during her 2001 World Tour
Associated album	Ray of Light Music
Start date	June 9, 2001
End date	September 15, 2001
Legs	2
No. of shows	19 in Europe 28 in North America 47 in Total
Madonna concert chronology

The Drowned World Tour was the fifth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna in support of her seventh and eighth studio albums,Ray of Light and Music. . It was her first world tour in eight years, following The Girlie Show in 1993. It went on to become one of the most successful and highest-grossing concert tours of 2001. She grossed more than U$75 million with summer sold-out shows and eventually played in front of 730,000 people throughout North America and Europe.

Background

The tour was originally scheduled to begin in the Kölnarena in Cologne, Germany but had to be canceled due to technical difficulties. As a result, 35,000 tickets were refunded. Her August 3 show at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey was also canceled, this time due to illness. Therefore, total tour dates numbered 47 instead of 50.

Tour dates were limited to cities in Europe and North America. This decision caused some controversy among fans in other parts of the world. The same setup was repeated with Madonna's 2004 Re-Invention Tour. In particular, this was the first (and only) Madonna tour to skip over Canada completely. For many weeks prior to the launch of the tour dates, Arthur Fogel from Live Nation himself attempted to book dates in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre between the Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Detroit dates, though no free bookings were available. In the end no dates were scheduled in Toronto, to the disappointment of many Canadian fans.

Ticket sales were swift in London on April 25th, as Madonna sold out her dates at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in record time - six shows in six hours. Madonna made history with the fastest-selling show ever at Earl's Court, as 97,000 tickets were sold. The first show sold out in just 15 minutes, and the online ticket site took 1 million hits in the first 10 minutes while 30 million attempts were made to phone Madonna hotlines. All dates of Madonna's Drowned World Tour sold out within minutes of going on sale.

Madonna took guitar lessons from Monte Pittman so she could play guitar live during the show.

About the show

The show was divided into 5 themes: Neo-Punk, Geisha/Anime, Country/Western, Latin/Gypsy and Urban/Pimp.

Neo-Punk: The show begins with a dramatic performance of "Drowned World/Substitute For Love"; Madonna enters wearing a kilt over bondage pants. Afterwards a chaotic cyberpunk-themed performance of "Impressive Instant" starts, with dancers in gasmasks and headlights. She then shows off her newly-relearned guitar skills with "Candy Perfume Girl", leading into a humorous performance of "Beautiful Stranger" featuring a lost stage technician. The Punk section finished with "Ray of Light".

Geisha/Anime: The segment starts with a video interlude of "Paradise (Not for Me)", where dancers hang upside down; Madonna appears wearing a giant kimono to sing "Frozen". A short, Asian-like intro of Open Your Heart then leads to "Nobody's Perfect", followed by "Mer Girl" which turns into the fast-action, ninja/samurai martial arts battle performance of "Sky Fits Heaven", transforming back into the slow-tempo "Mer Girl". Next is the violent, sexually explicit Japanese animation dance remix interlude of "What It Feels Like for a Girl".

Country/Western: Madonna appears as a cowgirl for an acoustic guitar performance of "I Deserve It", and line-dances during "Don't Tell Me"; for Human Nature, she rides a mechanical bull. She then sings the macabre "The Funny Song". She finishes off with Secret, and sings "Gone", which was replaced with "You'll See" on some select U.S. venues.

Latin/Gypsy: Dancers start the Evita tango interlude of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina". Madonna then appears in a half-dress and performs "Lo Que Siente La Mujer", the Spanish version of "What It Feels Like for a Girl". She finishes the segment with an acoustic version of "La Isla Bonita".

Urban/Pimp: Madonna appears on stage in a halter top that reads "Mother F*cker" and a fur coat, singing a mash-up of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You" and "Holiday". She and her dancers/singers finish the show with a ghetto-themed "Music" as her music video images flashed onscreen behind her; the phrase "The End" signified the show was over.

Several changes were made to the final shows in Los Angeles after 9/11: Madonna wore an American flag kilt during the show's opening segment as a display of patriotism, the closing of "Mer Girl" (part II) was altered to remove the staged shooting of a character (Madonna instead put the gun down, hugged him and they left the stage together), and the macabre cannibalism-themed "Funny Song" was removed. Additionally, as a surprise for Madonna at the final concert date, her husband at the time, Guy Ritchie, appeared as the lost technician at the end of "Beautiful Stranger," the Samurai during "Sky Fits Heaven" wore Los Angeles Lakers jerseys, all of the dancers joined in for the final dance section of "Holiday," which usually only featured Madonna and her two backing singers.

Setlist

The stage

1. "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" (contains elements of "Music", "Ray of Light" and "Human Nature")
2. "Impressive Instant"
3. "Candy Perfume Girl"
4. "Beautiful Stranger" (contains elements of "Soul Bossa Nova (Dim's Space-A-Nova)")
5. "Ray of Light" (contains excerpts from "Drowned World/Substitute for Love")
6. "Paradise (Not for Me)" (Video Interlude)
7. "Frozen" (contains elements of "Open Your Heart")
8. "Nobody's Perfect"
9. Medley:
   1. "Mer Girl"
   2. "Sky Fits Heaven"
   3. "Mer Girl" (Reprise)
10. "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Remix) (Video Interlude)
11. "I Deserve It"
12. "Don't Tell Me"
13. "Human Nature"
14. "The Funny Song"¹
15. "Secret"
16. "Gone" ²
17. "You'll See" ³
18. "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (Instrumental Interlude)
19. "Lo Que Siente La Mujer"
20. "La Isla Bonita"
21. "Holiday" (contains elements from "Music Sounds Better with You")
22. "Music"

¹ Performed after "Human Nature" during all shows except during the final date, due to 9/11 attacks
² Performed after "Secret" during all shows performed In Europe and selected shows in North America, replaced with "You'll See" during selected shows in North America.
³ Performed after "Secret" during selected shows in North America instead of "Gone"

Source:

Tour Dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
Europe
June 9, 2001	Barcelona	Spain	Palau Sant Jordi
June 10, 2001
June 13, 2001	Milan	Italy	Fila Forum
June 14, 2001
June 15, 2001
June 19, 2001	Berlin	Germany	Max-Schmeling-Halle
June 20, 2001
June 22, 2001
June 23, 2001
June 26, 2001	Paris	France	Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy
June 27, 2001
June 29, 2001
June 30, 2001
July 4, 2001	London	England	Earls Court Exhibition Centre
July 6, 2001
July 7, 2001
July 9, 2001
July 10, 2001
July 12, 2001
North America
July 21, 2001	Philadelphia	United States	First Union Center
July 22, 2001
July 25, 2001	New York City	United States	Madison Square Garden
July 26, 2001
July 28, 2001
July 30, 2001
July 31, 2001
August 2, 2001	East Rutherford	United States	Continental Airlines Arena
August 7, 2001	Boston	United States	Fleet Center
August 8, 2001
August 10, 2001	Washington, D.C.	United States	MCI Center
August 11, 2001
August 14, 2001	Fort Lauderdale	United State	National Car Rental Center
August 15, 2001
August 19, 2001	Atlanta	United States	Philips Arena
August 20, 2001
August 25, 2001	Auburn Hills	United States	The Palace of Auburn Hills
August 26, 2001
August 28, 2001	Chicago	United States	United Center
August 29, 2001
September 1, 2001	Las Vegas	United States	MGM Grand Garden Arena
September 2, 2001
September 5, 2001	Oakland	United States	The Arena in Oakland
September 6, 2001
September 9, 2001	Los Angeles	United States	Staples Center
September 13, 2001
September 14, 2001
September 15, 2001

Box Office Score Data

City	Venue	Tickets Sold / Available	Gross Revenue
Barcelona	Palau Sant Jordi	36,136 / 36,136 (100%)	$2,039,112
Milan	Fila Forum	36,100 / 36,100 (100%)	$3,926,815
Berlin	Schmeling-Halle	43,455 / 43,455 (100%)	$2,864,786
Paris	Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy	68,000 / 68,000 (100%)	$4,443,155
London	Earls Court Exhibition Centre	107,415 / 107,415 (100%)	$8,734,149
Philadelphia	First Union Center	31,128 / 31,128 (100%)	$3,382,485
New York	Madison Square Garden	79,401 / 79,401 (100%)	$9,297,105
East Rutherford	Continental Arena	16,457 / 16,457 (100%)	$1,842,155
Boston	Fleet Center	29,886 / 29,886 (100%)	$3,503,520
Washington, D.C.	MCI Center	32,061 / 32,061 (100%)	$3,472,148
Fort Lauderdale	National Rental Car Center	31,572 / 31,572 (100%)	$3,603,573
Atlanta	Philips Arena	29,617 / 29,617 (100%)	$3,553,444
Auburn Hills	The Palace of Auburn Hills	34,407 / 34,407 (100%)	$4,127,533
Chicago	United Center	33,725 / 33,725 (100%)	$3,743,830
Las Vegas	MGM Grand Garden Arena	29,587 / 29,587 (100%)	$6,503,950
Oakland	Oakland Arena	31,195 / 31,195 (100%)	$3,351,320
Los Angeles	Staples Center	61,464 / 61,464 (100%)	$8,303,165
	TOTAL	731,606 / 731,606 (100%)	$76,792,245

Additional Notes

Cancellations:

1. June 5, 2001 - Kölnarena, Cologne, Germany
2. June 6, 2001 - Kölnarena, Cologne, Germany
3. August 3, 2001 - Continental Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
4. September 11, 2001 - Staples Center, Los Angeles (rescheduled September 15 due to terrorist attacks in New York)

Personnel

Conceived by Madonna
Creative Director: Jamie King
Video Director: Dago Gonzalez
Musical Direction: Stuart Price
Costume Design: Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dean and Dan Caten of D-Squared, Dolce & Gabbana, Donatella Versace and Catherine Malandrino
Choreographer: Alex Magno

Band

Keyboards: Marcus Brown and Stuart Price
Drums: Steve Sidelnyk
Guitar: Monte Pittman
Bass-guitar: Stuart Price
Percussion: Ron Powell
Backing Vocals: Niki Haris and Donna De Lory
Head Dancer: Christian Vincent
Dancers: Ruthy Inchaustegui, Nito Larioza, Tamara Levinson, Anthony Jay Rodriguez, Jamal Story, Kemba Shannon, Eko Supriyanto, Jull Weber and Addie Yungmee.

Broadcast and Recordings

Main article: Drowned World Tour 2001 (video)

The concert was broadcast live on HBO from The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan on August 26, 2001.

"Gone" was performed for the television broadcast and DVD release.

The Drowned World Tour 2001 DVD was released in all regions on November 13, 2001. Three audio tracks were made available: a DTS track, a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. A photo gallery was included as a bonus feature. Like the original airing of the show, the DVD received very good reviews.

The photographs used on the DVD packaging were taken by Madonna's friend Rosie O'Donnell.

Madonna's second greatest hits album, GHV2, was released at the same time as the DVD to promote the video release.