There’s a reason Madonna was chosen as the first act to take the “stage” at the MetLife Stadium on July 19th for the first ever World Cup Final Halftime Show (yes, blame it on the U.S. for needing to Americanize everything that comes onto their soil—and even everything that doesn’t). Not just because she’s the biggest, most universally recognized name across generations and cultures among the others on the rather hodgepodge of a performance roster, but because, more than anyone, she still knows how to deliver the most when it comes to spectacle. However, one thing her longtime fans likely couldn’t have seen coming was that when Madonna said she was making a sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor called Confessions II, she also meant she would be making sequels to some of the live performances associated with it.
In this case, that turned out to be a recycled version of “Music Inferno,” the mashup of her 2000 hit, “Music,” and The Trammps’ 1976 single, “Disco Inferno.” The latter didn’t truly become a hit until it was featured in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, the film that Madonna took plenty of inspiration from in cultivating the aesthetics of Confessions the first time around. As such, Madonna donned a white leisure suit in the spirit of John Travolta as Anthony “Tony” Manero while, prior to taking the stage for the fourth act of the Confessions Tour (the “Disco” segment), her dancers put on roller skates and proceeded to jig around the stage. Much like what happened during Madonna’s revamped rendition of “Music Inferno” for the World Cup. What’s more, she also opted to go for the same “reveal” move during the halftime show that she first employed for the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, which opened on a disco ball in the middle of the stage that then lifted up to unveil Madonna and her dancers ready to take on “Hung Up.”
The disco ball “trick” would also appear for the Confessions Tour opening, “Future Lovers/I Feel Love,” with the components of the ball opening outward and lifting up rather than straightforwardly lifting up with a presumable rig of strings and pulleys. For the World Cup Halftime Show, the disco ball was not only redesigned to simultaneously look like a soccer ball, but also opened horizontally, if you will, to then double as a heart shape that could serve as the backdrop for Madonna in her Confessions-ified soccer uniform. Alas, rather than seizing on an opportunity to perform a new song from Confessions II (or even one from Confessions on a Dance Floor—“Get Together” would be in keeping with the cornball “love” messaging of this sporting event, which viewers were hit over the head with by the end of the halftime show), Madonna turned to “Music.” Which, at the very least, is a step up from her seemingly always choosing “Like A Prayer” to sing at events like this. But “Music” is another “unity” song in keeping with what the World Cup (and sporting events in general) claim to be “all about,” even as they patently sow divisions and racism.
In any case, other “Madonnaheads” would have instantly detected Stuart Price’s remixed version of “Everybody” from 2005 (played during Madonna’s COADF promo tours) being incorporated into the intro, with the lines, “Let the DJ shake you” setting the tone before Madonna delves into “Music Inferno.” Which was first created for the Confessions Tour by none other than Price. In his role as musical director (having also served as such for her previous two tours up tot that point, the Drowned World Tour and the Re-Invention Tour), he helped to rework Madonna’s biggest hits to sound slightly different and/or revitalized with his fresh takes on them. “Music Inferno” was just such an example, with Price instead incorporating the lyrics to “Where’s the Party” during the intro as opposed to “Everybody.”
Price had less work to do for this live show, considering he already did the work back in 2005. And while he stands behind the turntables beneath Madonna, the chaotic fanfare of the roller-skating dancers distracts from the fact that Madonna is never shown actually getting into the Mad Max-esque buggy that takes “center stage” after a quick cut that shows her already in the vehicle (the benefits of pre-taping) with famed Brazilian footballers Ronaldinho and Ronaldo in the front and driver’s seat, respectively. Indeed, there’s an element of this that channels Madonna racing through a backstage-type area in a camouflage-colored Mini Cooper for the original “American Life” video before bursting onto the stage of a fashion show and wreaking havoc on the onlookers by spraying them down with water and throwing a grenade (all while footage of war-related carnage plays in the background and soldiers with detached limbs crawl onto the stage in real time—needless to say, there’s a reason Madonna thought it was too hardcore to actually release in the end).
The license plate on that Mini Cooper read “Hell on Wheels,” while the one on this buggy reads simply (and tamely), “Maestro” (perhaps Madonna didn’t realize “Maestra” is the feminine version, nor would she probably care, being as famously butch as she is). Nowhere to be found were João Pedro or Cole Palmer, the footballers who cameo’d in the “Danceteria” portion of Madonna’s Confessions II: The Film. But Madonna was nonetheless sure to sing a key part of the chorus from said song, urging, “Everybody get up and dance” before marching out onto the field (again, a simple cut makes it so that the viewers couldn’t see Madonna dismounting from the car, almost as if she doesn’t want to be perceived moving her body in any kind of unwieldy manner). While standing there flanked by Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, she sings a final round of the “Music” chorus before taking their hands and raising them up into the air.
After that, the first abrupt transition away from Madonna’s spectacle-laden performance was Gustavo Dudamel directing an orchestra that consisted of the Muppets playing what has become a beloved soccer anthem: The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.” This was then followed by BTS taking over the field to sing “Dynamite.” A far more energetic performance than what was to succeed it, which was an appallingly flaccid and out-of-place performance from Justin Bieber, who delivered the slow jam “Everything Hallelujah” after being “introduced” by Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt as their Ted Lasso characters. Of course, compared to what Bieber did for his headlining performance at Coachella earlier this year, it was positively dynamic.
Luckily for those (read: anyone with functioning eyes and ears) who didn’t think so, Shakira then swooped in to liven things up again with “Dai Dai,” the second single she’s created specifically for the World Cup (following 2010’s “Waka Waka”—the other two tracks that have served as World Cup anthems, “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Dare [La La La]” were already released on her albums to begin with). She was then joined by Burna Boy and, later, the PS22 Chorus singing a Coldplay song called “We Dance.”
By the end, all of the performers from earlier joined Shakira and co. on the field now spelling out “LOVE” in giant letters. Noticeably missing, though, was Madonna. Maybe because she was too pissed off at Chris Martin for letting Bieber horn in on her original time allotment, which would have allowed for more of “Danceteria” in the set. Instead, the world was brought a “stale” performance they likely didn’t even know was being resuscitated because most of the masses tuned in to this event (whether in person at the stadium or at home) aren’t the kind of Madonna fans that would know better. Thus, M sort of “pulled a fast one” by essentially phoning it in, even pre-taping her performance for good measure.
Of course, if anyone should be allowed to both pre-tape things and “reheat their own nachos,” it’s Madonna. Especially since she has so many live performances to cull from that the average person wouldn’t be able to immediately clock. But this appears to smack of what’s now an ongoing trend for her in this album cycle: repeating what worked before to expose a new audience to this mid-2000s era of her career. And secure some of the same success and accolades in the process.
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