Hung up! Sex, art and gay icons reincarnated at Madonna’s Celebration Tour

I’m hung up! Hung up waiting for your call and hung up on the fact that Celebration might be Madonna’s last tour. Of course, Nothing Really Matters when you’re at a Madonna concert, or so I had heard. I confirmed for myself on the last leg of her European tour at London’s O2 Arena.

I was standing right by the stage, almost Burning Up, not for your love, but from the blazing pyrotechnics scorching a mostly Millennial and Boomer crowd. Explosive! An array of merch, punk and drag looks stood out amongst the general onslaught of Madonna lovers and apparently Kylie Minogue. Spraying the audience with beer, dancers dressed in gimp suits mimicking her younger self, blindfolds (of course), topless dancers plus all the other X-rated developments made for a hysterically unshackled evening.

Notably, there was a continual nod to queer histories so embedded in Madonna’s career. Images of LGBT protests flashed on screens and Queer as Folk star (the British one) Charlie Hunnam appeared as a guest judge for the Vogueing extravaganza. What struck me most, however, was her heartfelt commemoration of those lost to AIDS.

Madonna was one of the world’s most important advocates during the AIDS epidemic and remains one of the greatest champions of LGBTQ+ rights today. During her performance of Live to Tell, portraits of lost friends were projected across the stage: iconic artists Keith Haring, Martin Burgoyne, Robert Mapplethorpe, Leigh Bowery and Peter Hujar.

Back in 1990, my mum and uncle attended the paragon of all world tours: Blond Ambition. A time when AIDS was rampant and homophobia ignited, the effects still imminent today.

At the time, a number of Madonna’s backup dancers were HIV positive yet were too afraid to reveal their status – a fact only revealed in the 2016 documentary Strike a Pose. One of whom was Gabriel Trupin, featured in the Celebration tribute, who was portrayed in Madonna’s Truth or Dare documentary that contained, at the time, unseen representation of casual homosexuality.

My uncle recalls messages of ‘safe sex’ projected on the stage; her Like a Prayer album contained leaflets on AIDS, and in her Blond Ambition tour she and her backing singers joked to her dancers: ‘Hey you don’t be silly, put a rubber on your Willy.’ Madonna did and does really “teach us how to f***k”, or so said Bob the Drag Queen who opened the Celebration Tour, before declaring that “everyone is gay for 24 hours” – how liberating, how Vogue (or should I say Plaster). But back in the 1980s, Madonna was fearless. Many of her close personal friends were affected by the virus; Keith Haring, for example, has been a key figure throughout Madonna’s career. Friends since the beginning, Madonna performed Dress You Up at his birthday party in 1984 wearing a custom outfit by the artist at the iconic New York gay club venue, Paradise Garage. A knitted skirt woven with the artist’s figurines was also worn in Madonna’s music video for Borderline (1983) and photographed by Eric Watson for Smash Hits magazine a year later.

Haring died of AIDS-related complications in 1990 just before Madonna kicked off her Blond Ambition tour. Back then, she made the following statement in grief protest: “Now you probably know Keith Haring as an artist, but I know him as the man who had the courage to tell the truth. The truth is, he was gay. The truth is he had AIDS and he said so to anybody that would listen. In memory of Keith, let’s tell it to each other, let’s face it together.”

15 years on, the Sticky and Sweet Tour saw Keith Haring graphics adorn the stage. Celebration continued the Haring love affair, with Madonna decked in a cerise pink silk-lined coat emblazoned with his signature style of rollicking figurines. In further memory, at the end of her number one hit Holiday, the track mellowed from an excitable dance to reveal a dancer (who I only assume was Keith) falling to the floor, laid to rest by Madonna covering him with her coat – the start of the memorial began.

British-born artist Martin Burgoyne was also centre stage in her commemoration. Burgoyne, once a bartender at Studio 54, befriended Madonna before her fame (when she only had $35 to her name) and designed a pop art portrait for the cover of her single Burning Up. Pop, no less, was a sign of the times, and what couldn’t be more pop than Burgoyne attending Madonna and Sean Penn’s 1985 wedding with his date, Andy Warhol. A year on, 10 November 1986, Madonna wore a painted denim jacket designed by Burgoyne for an AIDS benefit fashion show; 20 days later Burgoyne died at just 23 years old from AIDS-related illness.

During her Who’s That Girl Tour (1987), where my uncle said she “never looked so happy on stage, she smiled all the way through,” she performed Live to Tell dedicated to Burgoyne. The song In this Life, featured in her Erotica album, explicitly referenced Burgoyne’s passing – a testament to the friendship(s) lost at the time. The tell-tales and incessant hiding of HIV statuses harmed more than met the eye. “Ignorance is not bliss,” she sings, invisibility jinxed. Burgoyne was “gone before he had his time.”

Madonna’s relationship with the art world goes beyond friendships. She infamously dated Jean-Michel Basquiat and was once the owner of several of his works. She remains a collector. One of the first pieces she bought, when she made her first million, was a Frida Kahlo and she also has a museum-worthy collection of Tamara de Lempicka paintings in New York that, to my eye, looked like inspiration for some of her stage graphics.

In the Celebration Tour Madonna also used the simulations of Brazilian artist Gabriel Massan. Alien landscapes and cyborg-type characters were screened and projected as Madonna sang Bedtime Story in a seductively bejewelled bodysuit. Lying on an ascending cubic structure she embraced the star position with a live-action edit transitioned into Massan’s video work. His practice takes influence from queer subcultures, virtual identities and growing up in Rio de Janeiro to aid as well as question our navigation of the material and digital world. Who better to collaborate with than the material girl herself?

Madonna recently faced health scares of her own. On stage, she explained that she ‘almost died’ from a bacterial infection last summer causing the postponement of her North American tour. Undeterred by knee-brace accessories lavishly juxtaposed with lingerie and corsetry, at the age of 65, performing 79 shows is no mean feat.

As Madonna’s Celebration Tour and her 40-year career are proving, the arts continue to provide a life source for the pop icon, and her art is a life source for us. Maybe I’m not hung up anymore. I might still be waiting on your call, but I know Madonna will always be there.