Madonna: The Confessions Tour Live from London

We were lucky enough to see this concert live, in Amaterdam, it was the absolute best of all the concerts we've been to. The performance put on was incredible and totally spellbinding. We've been to the Hard Candy concert afterwards in the hope of recreating the feeling from this concert. Confessions was a once in a lifetime. Watch it, amazing!

I have to admit that when first saw Madonna performing Holiday on Top of the Pops many years ago I said to my wife "another American one hit wonder getting the whole thing wrong!!" Well she was wearing a fright wig and was appallingly dressed. I have never grown to love her the way my daughter does but I have to eat my words. I do like some of her stuff and sometimes enjoy her filmed concerts. This Confessions tour film is great,even if the music is not(and its not). I was impressed by the staging and concepts. Madonna's own performance was enhanced by the incredible dancers she chose to support her. My daughter was at the London gigs and was crazy about it. The lady (Madge) has proved my initial assessment of her so very wrong!!

Years ago, with "Ray of Light," Madonna broke through to a truly amazing level of musical artistry, and since then she's occasionally transcended even her own standards. This concert production, with its hypnotic editing, amazing dancing, hallucinatory lighting effects, and trance-inducing arrangements, blows away all previous efforts. Madonna's apparent ambition -- to single-handedly bring about world peace through music and dance -- may seem hubristic or absurd to some. But hell, somebody's got to do it! Thanks to her assemblage of the remarkable talent of everyone involved in this production, "Confessions Tour Live from London" places her once again among the top ten artists working anywhere in the world in any medium.

This is a spectacular production! I have seen the show live twice in Chicago and my only problem with the production was the fact that I was able to perceive only fragments of what was going on. The stage consisted of three giant catwalks and the platform and as the action moves from one part of the stage to the next sometime you loose track of what is going on no matter where you are located. As always, this is a thought-provoking sensory overload, skillfully captured in high definition with 15 cameras! The footage was Masterfully edited, one of the best concert DVDs of all times in my opinion! I only hope and wish that they will release this on Blu-Ray of HD-DVD so that we can re-live this extravaganza over and over again.

This show was so exhausting to watch and there are only two songs "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" and "Paradise (Not for Me)" where you can sit down and just contemplate it all. The opening of this show will go down in history as the most visually thrilling as Madonna enters the stage via a gigantic Swarovski crystal ball that comes down from the ceiling, and the video screens from behind it show images of horses galloping. Horses are in this show due to Madonna falling off one. The infamous scene with Madonna on the cross is in this show as a video screen counts to 12 million the number of how many African children are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. At the end a website address appears for anyone interested in donating. We then go into the theme of the environment, and again images of politics and religion are shown. There's an interlude and then the show starts to the music of "I Love New York" and "Ray of Light", and this is where the dancers do their impressive hand movements. Towards the end there's "Music" with the song "Disco Inferno" mixed in, and the dancers make more of their presence known. The last two songs are full of energy as the show closes to the music of "Lucky Star" and "Hung Up", and many golden balloons fall from the ceiling before the phrase "Have you confessed?" appears on a video screen. The DVD's bonus content includes tour rehearsal footage, an exclusive photo gallery and a live CD.

Summary: Madonna's Confessions Tour is a visually stunning and thought-provoking show that addresses global issues like HIV/AIDS and environmental concerns. The tour features impressive dance performances and powerful imagery, culminating in an energetic finale.