NEW YORK – Madonna turns 65 on Wednesday and, far from considering retirement, the pop superstar says she is ready to embark on an ambitious world tour that had to be postponed due to a several-day hospital stay, allegedly due to exhaustion.
And it is that Madonna Louise Ciccone, born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1958, is not an ordinary woman: personally, she accumulates experiences for several lives and, professionally, boasts of a successful 40-year musical career nurtured by great dose of provocation, risk and disdain for what they will say.
The “blonde ambition” was going to start on July 15 in Canada “The Celebration Tour” when, three weeks earlier, her manager Guy Oseary announced that she had been admitted to the intensive care unit and intubated for a “serious bacterial infection”, which upset those plans and, above all, generated concern.
In the midst of the avidity for information about Madonna’s state of health, there was speculation about her hard and long training sessions to keep up with the shows of younger artists and about how she was found unconscious in her home and possibly “resuscitated” with a drug, extremes that have not been confirmed.
The only sure thing is that the medical emergency brought together her children – she has six – and friends, whom she called “angels” in some messages of gratitude in which she said she was “lucky to be alive”, and which revealed the more human and vulnerable facet of someone who is a symbol of strength and rebellion.
Despite everything, the winner of seven Grammys seems to be recovering quickly ahead of the new start of the tour, which will be on October 14 in London, and proof of this are the photos and videos that she has posted on Instagram to whet her appetite, in which she dances, poses sensually and assures that she will travel “soon”.
The expectation is great, since Madonna released her latest album, “Madame X”, in 2019, and since the start of the pandemic she has taken a stage on a few occasions, such as at a concert in Medellín in honor of Maluma and a performance at Pride in New York, although she has not been quiet for that.
MORE LIKE TO GENERATION Z THAN TO PENSIONERS
Friend of the transgressive and comfortable with controversy, the interpreter of “Material Girl” has continued to defy social conventions in her maturity: she dresses as she wants, more akin to generation Z than to that of pensioners; she dates who she wants, people much younger than her, and does what she pleases in all areas.
In 2022, she released “Finally Enough Love”, a compilation of 50 number ones, which led her to publish a promotional question-and-answer video that was received by her followers like manna in the middle of a musical desert and in which she revealed a philosophy of life based on “curiosity”, “sex” and not taking things very seriously.
In her continuous reinvention, Madonna continues to face criticism with energy and the latest example was earlier this year, when she went to present an award at the Grammy gala and her image provoked comments such as that she was unrecognizable and that she does not know how to age.
The Colombian appeared before 54,000 people at the “Medallo en el mapa” concert.
“Once again I see myself in the reflection of the ageism and misogyny that permeates the world in which we live. A world that refuses to celebrate women over 45 and feels the need to punish them if they continue to have willpower, they work hard and are adventurous,” she said.
The singer, who assured that she has never apologized nor will she for her decisions, recalled that the media have always messed with her and said she was happy to be a pioneer so that “all the women who come after us will have it easier in the coming years”.
