Celebration Review

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(More customer reviews)NOTE: This review looks at only the differences in track versions contained on this retrospective compared with previously issued track versions.
Most tracks on this compilation are album versions, but some are edits which, in and of themselves, have been edited differently. There are also many tracks from The Immaculate Collection, some of which may have been modified slightly for this collection (denoted below).
DISC ONE
01. Hung Up (Album Version, unmixed)(5:39)
02. Music (Album Version)(3:46)
03. Vogue (From The Immaculate Collection) (5:17)
04. 4 Minutes (Album Edit, no breakdown) (3:10)
05. Holiday (Album Version) (6:08)
06. Everybody (Album Edit) (4:11)
07. Like a Virgin (From The Immaculate Collection) (3:10)
08. Into the Groove (12" Version, first appearance on an official Madonna US full-length CD release) (4:45)
09. Like a Prayer (Album Version) (5:43)
10. Ray of Light (Album Edit) (4:34)
11. Sorry (Album Edit, shorter intro and bridge) (3:59)
12. Express Yourself (Video Version, Edited) (4:00)
NOTE: This version closely resembles the original music video version, but the instrumental break that leads into the bridge has been removed at 2:30.
13. Open Your Heart (From The Immaculate Collection)
14. Borderline (From The Immaculate Collection)
15. Secret (Album Edit, fade instead of cold stop)
16. Erotica (Album Edit, Alternate)
NOTE: This Album Edit (4:30) differs slightly from Album Edit (4:36) found on the original 1992 Erotica Maxi CD single (Maverick/Sire/Warner Bros CD 0-9362-40585-2-6). The edits in the 4:36 version occur at 0:00 and 3:27.
17. Justify My Love (Q Sound Mix) (4:54)
18. Revolver (Album Version) (3:40)
DISC TWO
01. Dress You Up (Album Version, Edited) (4:02)
NOTE: Different intro
02. Material Girl (Album Version) (4:00)
03. La Isla Bonita (Album Version) (4:04)
04. Papa Don't Preach (Album Version) (4:30)
05. Lucky Star (From The Immaculate Collection, Modified)
NOTE: This version closely resembles The Immaculate Collection version, but the intro and outro have been edited differently.
06. Burning Up (Album Version) (3:45)
07. Crazy for You (From The Immaculate Collection) (3:44)
08. Who's That Girl (Album Version) (4:00)
09. Frozen (Album Version) (6:19)
10. Miles Away (Album Edit) (3:45)
11. Take a Bow (Album Version) (5:20)
12. Live to Tell (Album Version) (5:51)
13. Beautiful Stranger (Album Version) (4:22)
14. Hollywood (Original Album Edit) (4:23)
15. Die Another Day (Album Version) (4:37)
16. Don't Tell Me (Album Edit, cold stop) (4:12)
17. Cherish (Album Edit, Alternate) (3:52)
NOTE: This edit very closely resembles the version found on The Immaculate Collection, but the guitar snares at 3:16 and 3:20 from the 1989 original are present. The guitar snares do not appear on The Immaculate Collection version.
18. Celebration (Album Version) (3:35)
(last revised 2/24/11)

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2 CD edition. Madonna, who has racked up a record 37 top 10 hits as well as seven No. 1 albums (including her last four) on the Billboard Pop Charts, has given her fans yet another opportunity to 'celebrate' her musical achievements. The songs on 'Celebration' have all been remastered and selected by Madonna and her fans. They cover the expanse of the Material Girl's extraordinary career of hits

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Madonna Celebration: The Video Collection (1983) Review

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(More customer reviews)Before anyone gets on my case, I HAVE THE DVD and am watching it right now.
Let me start off on a positive note, the DVD set contains 47 videos on 2 DVDs. Some good ones are inexplicably omitted (Dress You Up, Oh Father, Bad Girl, Fever, This Used to Be My Playground, Substitute For Love, Nothing Really Matters, American Life, etc) but there is a lot of good material released here for the first time. The audio is generally excellent. The 5.1 track is not really a 5.1 mix, it is simulated and sounds terrible. Stick with the PCM stereo track, it sounds fantastic.
I won't comment much on the content of the videos. They are some of the most famous and influential music videos ever made. This is classic stuff. With the exception of Justify My Love (see below) all of the videos are uncut.
Now on to the picture quality...what the hell happened here? It's not as horrible as some people have claimed, but it is WAY below standard. There are serious compression artifacts throughout all of the videos. Pixellation, smearing, graininess, blotchy color, blurring, interlacing artifacts. It's all there and it looks bad. I am watching the DVD on an upscaling Blu Ray player on a 52" LCD 1080P television. It won't look as bad on a smaller TV, but it still won't look great. I have honestly seen VHS look better than some of the videos. The Immaculate Collection DVD, which was made from a 19 year old master, looks better.
The problem is that someone made the really, really stupid decision to use single layer DVDs instead of the industry standard dual layer DVDs. I suspect this decision was made late in the process to save a few cents and the program was re-compressed to fit in half the space. There is too much compression and too much picture quality lost. I'll bet the original master was for 2 dual layer DVDs and it probably looked very good. It is hard to believe that anyone at Warner quality control approved the picture quality on these DVDs. Didn't Madonna sign off on a release copy??
I thought it might have something to do with the age of some of the videos, but the most recent ones look just as bad. The brand new Celebration video only looks slightly better than VHS quality. And it is ridiculous that the widescreen videos are not in 16:9 format, even the recent ones filmed in 16:9 HD are in letterboxed 4:3.
There really is no excuse for this to happen, especially from a company as large as Warner and an artist as big as Madonna. Using single layer DVDs could have only saved them a few cents. On a $30 set, that is inexcusable.
I would strongly suggest not buying this DVD until Warner addresses the situation. I think outcry among the fans will (hopefully) cause Warner to do the right thing and release a corrected version on dual layer discs.
UPDATE - One more thing, the video for Justify My Love is CENSORED! This video was widely released uncensored as a video single in 1991 and sold millions of copies. And NOW, 18 years later, it is censored?? Just unbelievable.
Also, the Amazon description claiming the DVD has "unedited and never before seen footage of 'Justify My Love'" is completely false. There is no new footage at all. In fact, you actually see less because of the censorship.
If I could split my rating, it would be 4 stars for content and 1 star for quality.

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2 DVD collection features 47 videos, including unedited and never-before-seen footage of "Justify My Love," "Into The Groove," "Give It 2 Me," and Madonna's new single "Celebration"

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Confessions Tour (CD + DVD) Review

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(More customer reviews)Despite all the haters out there this was one of the best Madonna tours ever. Madonna described the tour as "turning the world into a giant dance floor". The show is divided into four separate acts with different themes: Equestrian, Urban Bedouin, Glam Punk and Disco Fever. Madonna's Confessions Tour was a concert tour organized to support the album Confessions on a Dance Floor and set the record for the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist. The tour grossed more than $194.8 million with a total of 60 shows and 1.2 million people in paid attendance through North America, Europe, and Japan. Despite the U.S. lack of good taste in music and by refusing to give her radio play for her Confessions CD, she still managed to gross more than $80 million for the U.S. shows alone throughout the summer. In The U.S. her confessions tour instantly became the highest grossing summer tour of the year 2006. The tour has generated international controversy due to its use of Christian religious symbols. While singing "Live to Tell", Madonna hangs from a mirrored cross wearing a crown of thorns around her head. Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups in North America and Europe came together to criticize what they saw as Madonna's exploitation of "sacred" Christian symbols and labeled the show as blasphemous even though they never saw the show. Madonna brought more than just the Devil out in some of these Christians and other religious groups. A 63-year-old Dutch priest was even arrested when he decided to make a confession of his own when he confessed to making a hoax bomb threat in an attempt to stop her concert. In response to the criticism, Madonna personally and publicly invited Pope Benedict XVI to see the show while she was in Rome - insisting that she was doing the controversial act to raise awareness and money for orphans abandoned in Africa (particularly Malawi) due to HIV/AIDS and that "Jesus wouldn't mind." (While she sings "Live To Tell," in the background run haunting images of the devastation in Africa right now. On the top of the screen, a count begins from 0 until it reaches 12 million - the number of orphans created by HIV/AIDS in Africa alone. The tour features songs mainly from her Confessions on a Dance Floor CD which is considered Madonna's comeback album from her previous lowest selling effort American Life. Confessions on a Dance Floor's sales are near 10 million worldwide. It also holds the record for topping the most charts in the world. The single "Hung Up" also holds the record for topping the most charts in the world. With Confessions on a Dance Floor Madonna refused to follow any U.S. chart trends. She decided to release a collection of dance/electronic songs, which did not receive significant airplay in the U.S. but received massive airplay on all other parts of the world, including Europe and Asia. Nevertheless, despite lack of U.S. radio support (boycott because she spoke out against the war and that idiot president bush) all of the singles had a great performance on iTunes and on MTV's TRL Video Music Countdown. Madonna kept her goals of doing what she wanted and establishing trends instead of following them. Even lack of support in her home country didn't stop the album from selling over 1,600,000 units in the U.S. alone. This is one amazing show and one of her best tours. Madonna is still The Most Successful Female Recording Artist in the history of the world and this DVD proves she is far from singing her last song. Below is the Set List
Equestrian Act
1. "Future Lovers/I Feel Love"
2. "Get Together"
3. "Like A Virgin"
4. "Jump"
Urban Bedouin Act
5. "Interlude: Dancers' Confessions"
6. "Live to Tell"
7. "Forbidden Love"
8. "Isaac"
9. "Sorry"
10. "Like It Or Not"
Glam Punk Act
11. "Interlude: Sorry (Remix)"
12. "I Love New York"
13. "Ray of Light"
14. "Let It Will Be"
15. "Give Peace a Chance" (performed only in Moscow)
16. "Drowned World/Substitute For Love"
17. "Paradise (Not For Me)"
Disco Fever Act
18. "Interlude: Roller Dance: Disco Inferno"
19. "Music" (With Where's The Party mid-section)
20. "Erotica"
21. "La Isla Bonita"
22. "Lucky Star"
23. "Hung Up" Madonna will also be releasing a live cd to go along with this Confessions Tour DVD. Below is the CD track listing:
1. Future Lovers / I Feel Love
2. Like A Virgin
3. Jump
4. Confessions
5. Isaac
6. Sorry
7. Sorry (Remix)
8. I Love New York
9. Let It Will Be
10. Music Inferno
11. Erotica
12. Lucky Star
13. Hung Up


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The Confessions Tour, filmed at London's Wembley Arena duringher worldwide sold-out 25-city Confessions Tour (2006's top-grossing tourworld-wide), features songs from throughout the dance diva's career butlargely focuses on Confessions On A Dance Floor. Bonus Footage on DVD: Jesuis L'art, They're naughty children, Rollerskating, Photo Gallery--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Madonna - Drowned World Tour (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)The DVD of Madonna's Drowned World Tour unexpectedly exceeded my expectations in every way. I had the pleasure of seeing Madonna's Drowned World Tour live in New York City, and this DVD is the next best thing to actually being there. For those who watched and taped this concert off of HBO, the quality of this DVD is far better and gives a more cinematic feel to the concert. Some complained that HBO's coverage of the concert wasn't that great, but this DVD has been altered in some ways to provide a better viewing experience. For example, some camera angles were improved at key points of the concert. The sound quality is amazing, especially if you have a home theater system. This DVD blows any other that I own away! As for the concert itself, Madonna has a tremendous amount of energy that never dies during her performance. Each of the four segments of the concert are unique and entertaining. I haven't seen her other concerts, but I can surely say that this is Madonna at her best!

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Live from The Palace of Auburn Hills, an HBO live concert in support of her album Music. Includes: "Drowned/Substitute for Love," "Impressive Instant," "Beautiful Stranger," "Ray of Light," "Paradise," "Frozen," "What It Feels Like for a Girl (remix)," "Don't Tell Me," "Human Nature," "Secret," "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina (instrumental)," "La Isla Bonita," "Holiday," and much more! 120 minutes.

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