This week the singer Madonna will perform in Russia. Concerts in support of her album "MDNA" will be held on August 7 at the Moscow Olimpiysky sports complex and on August 9 at the St. Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex

The column is hosted by Maria Mazalova and Maria Semendyaeva

The level of Madonna's tour became clear back in February, when the singer performed at halftime of the US Super Bowl final. The recording of her luxurious show created a mini-sensation on the Internet: Madonna rode like an Egyptian queen on a huge throne, surrounded by hundreds of hoplite dancers.

The performances of the "MDNA-tour" differ from the February concert, however, the scale is comparable. Madonna is bringing with her 400 tons of equipment and 400 personnel. Plus, on the tour, for greater soulfulness and unity, Madonna is accompanied by a group called Kalakan Trio. These are three young Basques performing tunes from different nations of the world. Their folk soul will counterpoint the electronic beats from the record by LMFAO, William Orbit and Martin Solveig. All this will be located on 18 moving multi-level stages with 56 plasma screens. In short, the show promises to be grandiose. Indeed, Madonna could be accused of having a crisis of ideas when it comes to composing music. She is always brilliant on stage and around it.

Exactly about. The main intrigue, of course, is not in the songs or even in the special effects. Madonna comes to us, as befits, with a scandal. Or rather, with a whole heap of scandals that she has been carrying with her since the beginning of the tour. In Tel Aviv and Paris, the cause of the scandal was a swastika on the forehead of National Front chairwoman Marine Le Pen in the video art accompanying the show. Bare breasts - at a concert in Istanbul and bare ass - in Rome. In Scotland, Madonna went against local laws by performing on stage with fake weapons. In Germany, she suddenly decided to criticize Ukraine. “If you are my fans, then you should be tolerant,” she addressed the audience. “But look what is happening in Iran, what is happening in Ukraine or France!” What exactly Madonna had in mind is unclear, but she didn't stop there. Returning to France, the singer gave a strange concert four times shorter than usual: after half an hour of singing, Madonna talked about politics for another fifteen minutes. And when she was booed by angry spectators who had bought a ticket at full price, she called the dissatisfied thugs.

Will something happen in Russia? Most likely, Madonna will connect her next resonant attack with the Pussy Riot case - conversations about them have become a trend among touring performers. St. Petersburg gays will also have a chance to feel cared for - let us recall that this winter, on the initiative of the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Milonov, a regional law was adopted to combat the propaganda of homosexuality.

But by and large, the vector of the scandal is not important. The main thing is that it takes place. Then, using the example of Russian concerts, it will become clear that Madonna is alive, moreover, with what Iggy Pop brilliantly described with the phrase “Lust for life” - passion, lust for life. Indeed, there is something of Iggy in Madonna, who has returned to scandals. With her crude, albeit elegant, mockery of moral standards, Madonna is not so much attracting attention to herself as putting into practice the punk maxim formulated by Malcolm McLaren: “Be infantile, be irresponsible, be ignorant: be everything that society hates.”

Kirill Shamsutdinov

To Russia with a scandal