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The Drowned World Tour 2001 was the fifth world concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna and was her first world tour in eight years, following her 1993 The Girlie Show. It was one of the most successful and highest-grossing concert tours of the year 2001 by selling out all concert dates throughout North America and Europe. 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.

About the Tour

The tour was in support of, and contained most material from Madonna's last two studio albums: Music in 2000 and Ray of Light previously in 1998 although her 1994 album Bedtime Stories from which she had previously never performed songs on tour was represented twice on the setlist. The title of the tour comes from single "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" from Ray of Light.

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 3rd 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 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.

The Show

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

Punk: The show with a calm performance of "Drowned World/Substitute For Love", turning into a chaotic energized performance of Impressive Instant. She then shows off her guitar skills with Candy Perfume Girl, leading into a humorous performance of "Beautiful Stranger". The Punk section finished with a highly energetic version of "Ray of Light", the second half of which the dancer joined in a full-on party atmosphere. Once Madonna's vocals were done, she descended the front stage to let the lead guitarist and dancers finish the number.

Geisha/Anime: The segment starts with a video interlude of "Paradise (Not for Me)", and Madonna comes out to sing "Frozen". A short swell of "Open Your Heart" then leads to Nobody's Perfect. She then sings the first part of "Mer Girl", and turning into the fast-action paced performance of "Sky Fits Heaven", transforming back into the slow-tempo "Mer Girl". She then exits the stage, and dancers come out for the hardcore, sexual, violent Japananime video interlude of "What It Feels Like for a Girl".

Country/Western: Madonna comes out for a acoustic performance of "I Deserve It", and sings "Don't Tell Me" and "Human Nature". She then sings the macabre cannibalism-themed "The Funny Song", which was removed after the September 11 terrorist attacks. She finishes off with a acoustic version of "Secret", and sings Gone, but replaced the song with "You'll See" on some select U.S. venues.

Latin/Gypsy: Dancers starts the Latin-themed interlude of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina". Madonna then appears on the stage and performs "Lo Que Siente La Mujer", the Spanish version of "What It Feels Like for a Girl". She finishes the segment with the slow, acoustic, Latin style of "La Isla Bonita".

Urban: Madonna appears on stage sings a urban style version of "Holiday" with her backup singers Niki and Donna. Madonna and her dancers finishes the show with a ghetto themed "Music".

Several changes were made to this final show: 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, 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 background singers, and, later, the dancers comically refused to join Madonna in the final 16 deep knee bends at the end of "Music", leaving Madonna to do them one last time all by herself.

The show used 100 tons of equipment, two 747 jumbo jets (to fly in the equipment), eight trucks (to take the equipment from venue to venue), and 88 traveling production people.

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

The stage was 70 x 70 square feet. Four large video screens were placed on the stage, with two screens for close-up viewing.

Setlist

1. "Drowned World/Substitute For Love"
2. "Impressive Instant"
3. "Candy Perfume Girl"
4. "Beautiful Stranger"
5. "Ray of Light"
6. Video-Dancers Interlude: "Paradise (Not for Me)"
7. "Frozen"
8. Band Interlude: "Open Your Heart" (Instrumental Chords)
9. "Nobody's Perfect"
10. Medley: "Mer Girl" / "Sky Fits Heaven" / "Mer Girl" (Reprise)
11. Video Interlude: "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (Remix)
12. "I Deserve It"
13. "Don't Tell Me"
14. "Human Nature"
15. "The Funny Song (Oh Dear Daddy)"
    • Performed after "Human Nature" during all shows featured on the tour, except for the final three shows
    • Dropped from the show's setlist during the final three shows featured on the tour
16. "Secret"
    • Performed after "The Funny Song (Oh Dear Daddy)" during all shows featured on the tour, except for the final three shows
    • Performed after "Human Nature" during the final three shows featured on the tour
17. "Gone"
    • Performed after "Secret" during all shows featured on the European leg of the tour
    • Performed after "Secret" during selected shows featured on the North American leg of the tour
    • Replaced with "You'll See" during selected shows featured on the North American leg of the tour
18. "You'll See"
    • Performed after "Secret" during selected shows featured on the North American leg of the tour
    • Replaced with "Gone" during selected shows featured on the North American leg of the tour
19. Dancers Interlude: "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (Instrumental)
20. "Lo Que Siente La Mujer (What It Feels Like For A Girl)"
21. "La Isla Bonita"
22. "Holiday"
23. "Music"

||==Tour Dates==

Box Office Score Data

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)

On Billboard's year-end Top 25 Concert Grosses of 2001, Madonna placed six entries, including:
03. - New York, New York
04. - London, England
05. - Los Angeles, California
08. - Las Vegas, Nevada
22. - Paris, France
24. - Detroit, Michigan

Personnel

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

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.

References

1. "U2, Madonna Top Concert Industry Awards Nominees". Pollstar. 2001-12-17. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
2. "Madonna Tour Confirmed". Pollstar. 2004-03-22. Retrieved 2008-07-13.

• Madonna concert tours