Tour kicks off in London The resurrection of Madonna

The career of Madonna, the "Queen of Pop", has already been declared over several times. Now she is taking a look back at her amazing 40-year career with her world tour "Celebration Tour".

"I'm not a quitter!" (I'm not quitting!), Madonna shouts to the crowd of almost 20,000 people in London's O2 venue.

The US pop icon kicked off her world tour "The Celebration Tour" with a concert in the British capital on Saturday.

It is an anniversary tour in two respects. The exceptional artist turned 65 this year and it is now 40 years since she made her big breakthrough with the song "Holiday".

Madonna can still dance

But the "Queen of Pop" has had to contend with setbacks this year. She had to postpone the start of her tour in Canada, which was originally planned for the summer, due to a serious bacterial infection. "I didn't think I would make it," she says looking back.

But she did make it.

And contrary to what some commentators had already predicted, it doesn't look like Madonna has reached the end of her stage career.

Although she struggles with technical problems at times during the show, the way she twirls around the stage with her backing dancers makes it clear: Madonna can still dance, Madonna can still sing and Madonna can still be sexy.

Long legs and hydrogen blonde hair

At the beginning of the year, her appearance at the Grammy Awards had still caused concern with severely swollen cheeks, forehead and lips. In London, she seems to be back to her old self: long legs, hydrogen-blonde hair and the familiar features.

But Madonna the person, who repeatedly talks about the difficulties of starting out as an artist, her parents, her children and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, seems more vulnerable than before.

Elaborate costumes based on earlier outfits and artistic choreography make the show a feast for the eyes. Madonna sometimes floats meters high above the audience in a huge picture frame, sometimes she sinks into a mountain of seemingly naked bodies.

Huge projection surfaces and three-dimensional, moving elements transform the room within seconds: During the hit "Like A Prayer" from 1989, the stage looks like a mixture of a medieval altarpiece and a sado-masochistic dungeon. During "Don't Tell Me" from 2000, the huge room looks like a prairie with mustangs seemingly galloping through the hall.

There is hardly any live music at the show in London

However, there is hardly any live music at the show. Only a few times is Madonna accompanied by instruments, such as in the song "Bad Girl", where her daughter Mercy sits at the grand piano. Madonna herself picks up the guitar several times. But there is no band among the 200-strong tour crew.

A member of the audience, dressed in a Madonna-inspired pink outfit, feels more like she's at a West End show than a concert, she says - but she's still thrilled. Madonna gets a bit lost in the whole spectacle, says a man who boasts of having seen all her shows live so far.

Ian Champkins, a 57-year-old bank employee who has traveled all the way from Cornwall with his husband Dean to see Madonna live, thinks that the "Queen of Pop" has once again "given all her critics the middle finger". She covered up the technical problems with the sound system brilliantly, he says, and it's just like Madonna to say: "Now more than ever!" in the face of adversity.

Madonna really has the crowd in the palm of her hand during "La Isla Bonita" (1987). However, when the concert reaches a rapid climax with the song "Music", released in 2000, it ends almost abruptly.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that the most commercially successful female singer, with around 330 million records sold, remains a force to be reckoned with.

The "Celebration Tour" will take Madonna through twelve countries in Europe and North America. However, the "Queen of Pop" will not be stopping off in Switzerland.

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