Madonna: Two Paris shows in November

There are two nights at the Accor Arena in Paris for Madonna coming up this autumn, with shows on November 12 and 13.

The concerts are the only French dates of her Celebration Tour, marking the 40th anniversary of her career. The tour begins over the summer, with dates in North America before making its way to Europe, with shows in Rome, Milan, Copenhague, Cologne, Berlin, Lisbon and the O2 Arena in London.

It's not always been a celebration for Madonna to play in Paris, as her show at the Olympia in July 2012 made clear. During her MDNA tour she played the famous Paris venue, a much smaller hall than the arenas she played elsewhere on the tour. The intention of the show was to give her the opportunity to pay tribute to French artists and cinema, and how the country welcomed inspiring artists. She clearly included herself in that category. 

Tickets were expensive and initially limited to fans before being made available to the public and the show was streamed internationally. It wasn't exactly without a hitch. 

Despite a cover of Je t'aime... moi non plus, possibly the most obvious cover she could do in the whole history of French music, the 45-minute running time of the show was met with scorn by many who had paid almost 300 euros to attend the event. Water bottles were thrown at the stage with cries of "Recompense!" from the audience. It was not a happy ending to what she probably expected to be a warmly received intimate show in front of fans.

She commented later on her website: "Playing the Olympia was a magical moment for me and it was real treat to do this special show for my fans and be so close to them. Unfortunately at the end of the show – after I left the stage – a few thugs who were not my fans rushed the stage and started throwing plastic bottles pretending to be angry fans."

She added: "nothing can take away or ruin this very special evening for me and my fans. When I looked out in the audience, everyone I saw had a smile on their face. I look forward to having this wonderful experience again."

With two shows at the Accor Arena scheduled, she's unlikely to have the time to fit in a show at L'Olympia, but you never know.

Mylène Farmer: Live 2019

Like autumn follows summer, so a live album follows the latest concert appearances by Mylène Farmer.

Next month Live 2019 will fill the shelves of your local FNAC, documenting her series of shows at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre in June, in double CD, triple vinyl and double CD and large book deluxe edition formats.

Between June 7 and June 22, she filled nine shows in front of a total of 40,000 people. The gigs followed the release of her Désobéissance in 2018, playing a residency rather than a tour allowing her to stage a more complex production that didn't have the logistical problems of having to make the show easily transportable for a tour,  something Mylène has done before  with her Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy concerts in 2006.

A film of the shows gets a limited release in November.

I've always considered Farmer to be something of a shibboleth in French music. Musical shorthand casts her as 'the French Madonna', in that she's female and had a long music career that began in the 80s, and while words like 'iconic' can be applied to both, Farmer doesn't really fit into that box comfortably at all.

She's always had more high art, poetic and philosophical aspirations, and over the decades has cultivated an image that reflects this. She's gathered a fanatical following, which embraces both mainstream and cult popularity.

But I've always remained puzzled by Mylène's music. Imagine Madonna had continued her career, reaching the same level of international celebrity, but continued to base her music on 80s New York club music.

I know Mylène's music has matured over the decades and she has taken different approaches, and collaborated with some inspirational and contemporary figures, but to these ears there always seems to be something that doesn't sit right. If Kate Bush operated in the medium of 80s Euro Disco or Bjork duetted with Sting I'd probably feel the same level of bewilderment.

But regardless of my opinions, she'll have one of 2019's biggest selling albums and I'll probbaly give it a listen and enjoy it to some extent but still be left wondering what letters the French use to spell 'WTF?'

Madonna in Paris

An unusual performance by Madonna in Paris, with one of the biggest music stars in the world choosing to perform a couple of acoustic numbers at Place de la République in tribute to the victims of last month's attacks.

She had just played a show at Bercy before appearing in the city centre, performing impromptu acoustic versions of songs including Like a Prayer and John Lennon's  Image.

Those with her included, according to reports, film maker Agnes Varda and Woodkid.

It was a touching and unexpected gesture from a star who you would not expected to seen on the streets of Paris.

But it is the kind of gesture that goes s long way in these troubled times.

Madonna: Je t'aime moi non plus

Well, Madonna's surprise show in Paris at the Olympia didn't seem to go down as well as she might have hoped.

It was a scaled down version of her stadium show, as would be expected from a smaller venue, but I dont think the 45 minutes that ensued pleased the 2,700 fans in the historic venue.

Video on YouTube shows the boos and whistles, and cries of "Remboursez, remboursez, remboursez!" and "Salope!" at the end of the show. Plastic bottles can be seen landing on the stage after being thrown.

During the show she spoke about her affinity for France, saying "It could go all the way back to Napoleon, because I think of myself as a revolutionary."

She spoke during her monologue about the row that saw her being sued by Front National leader Marine Le Pen for screening an image of her with a swastika superimposed on her face during Madonna's Paris show

"I know that I have made a certin Marine Le Pen very angry with me.

"It's not my intention to make enemies, it is my intention to promote tolerance."

She added: "If we don't learn from history we are bound to repeat it."

Le Monde focused on her response to Le Pen

Liberation criticised her show, commenting that she came on 45 minutes late, played for 45 minutes and left without a goodbye or a thank you.

Meanwhile, Les Inrocks uses the word "pathétique" to describe her version of Gainsbourg's "Je t’aime, Moi Non Plus" that she performed at the end of her set.

Madonna at the Olympia in Paris

A special performance of Madonna at the Olympia in Paris is being streamed on YouTube tonight (July 26)

The stream is being presented at LoveLiveTV on YouTube and will be made available for viewing after the show.

The website explains: "LoveLive TV will be hosting the live stream of an EXCLUSIVE Madonna show, performed in the intimate club surroundings of the Olympia in Paris.

"Experience Madonna performing live as you've never seen her before: up-close and personal, exclusively on YouTube.

"She will be playing to a global audience on the LoveLiveTV YouTube channel on July 26 2012 at 22:15 (Paris), 21:15 (London), 16:15 (New York)."

It will, I expect be a more low key show than the one she presented at the Stade De France and to other stadiums around Europe on her MDNA tour.

Interesting that she's chosen to put on the a special show at the Olympia.

Madonna's website notes: "The Olympia, founded in 1888 has been the site of legendary shows by performers such as Marlene Dietrich, Charles Aznavour and Jacques Brel."

It's hard to imagine a more historic venue and given the French connection with her most recent album, it's certainly appropriate that she puts on a special show in France.

Madonna takes to the stage at the Stade de France at the weekend, facing the possibility of offending Front National leader Marine Le Pen.

The show comes after a spokesperson for the FN told 20 Minutes newspaper that Marine Le Pen is considering legal action if Madonna if uses a video of that features Le Pen with a swastika on her face during the show.

While performing the song Nobody Knows Me, a video showed images accompanying the song, including the controversial image of Le Pen. It's a brief image, which quickly changes to one that looks like a portrait of Hitler. Viewers are left to draw their own conclusion with regard a link between Le Pen, Nazis and Hitler.

Not exactly subtle, but it will be interesting to see whether Madonna uses the footage or is intimidated by legal threats from the Front National.

It's not been the successful comeback she'd have hoped for, despite the involvement of Solveig with her music, and a feeling that for all the scandal and controversy she's engineered through her career, most of the controversy this time is old fashioned  bad publicity.

Her tour has so far been dogged by controversy, the Marine Le pen issue likely to cause some waves in France, but reactions to her costume choice were not entirely what she would have wanted, and the reaction to her showing some flesh also put her in the spotlight for reasons she'd probably avoid.

Her single Give Me All Your Luvin' didn't sell in the quantities that might have been expected given its performance at the superbowl and the associated hype, the second single Girl Gone Wild did not fare much better. Still, number one and top ten across a huge number ouf countries probably isn't that bad. I doubt she's all that worried at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, Madonna has confirmed that her next single is to be Turn Up the Radio, another track that was co-produced by DJ Martin Solveig.

Madonna also plays in Nice on August 21

Madonna and Martin Solveig - Give Me all Your Luvin'

Madonna has announced a world tour, and has confirmed a show at the Stade de France in Paris on July 14, as well as a date in Nice on August 21

The announcement of tour follows a week that saw her perform at the half time of the Superbowl, a highlight of the USA's sporting calendar which was screened in over 200 countries.

Among the tracks she performed was her new single Give Me All Your Luvin', co-written and produced by French DJ and producer Martin Solveig, one of several of the producers working with her on her new album MDNA.

It is her first major tour since her Sticky and Sweet tour which ran in 2008 and 2009, and will coincides with the release of MDNA, out on March 26.

Arthur Fogel, CEO Live Nation Entertainment Global Touring and Madonna tour promoter said: "Madonna's track record as a world class entertainer and touring artist speaks for itself. Her artistry, talent and creative productions get bigger and better with each tour and Madonna 2012 will be no exception.

"We are thrilled to have her back on the road and know her fans feel the same."

Her previous shows in France were marred by tragedy, after a stage that was being built for a show at the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles collapsed the day before the concert, resulting in two deaths and several workers being injured. The concert was cancelled.

Madonna's last CD Hard Candy, debuted at Number 1 in 37 countries including France as well as the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

Tickets for the Paris show go on sale on February 14, as do tickets for the show at the Stade Charles-Erhmann in Nice.

Charts: David Guetta - Turn Me On

With David Guetta hitting the number one place in the UK Official Singles Chart with Titanium I thought I'd give a mention to his most recent single, Turn Me On.

This new track is also in the UK Top 40, at number 33, another track Without You just outside the Top 40 at number 42.

Turn Me On is the fifth track to be taken from last year's Nothing But The Beat album as a single, and features Nicki Minaj on vocals.

With Minaj best known for her eccentric styled rapping, it's quite a different vocal performance on this track.

The video, which emerged at the end of January 2012, is a big budget steampunk fantasy which, like the best music videos, both compliments the song and adds another dimension to it.

Minaj's appearance with Madonna at the US Superbowl with Madonna will probably give the song's sales another boost, although a link to the biggest sporting event on US TV is probably just another small step in Guetta's seemingly indefatigable world domination campaign.

Martin Solveig - Big in Japan

A new video from Martin Solveig, Big in Japan, the latest to come from this Smash album.

Like his earlier song Hello it features the vocals of Canadian electro-pop act Dragonette.

The video continues the "story" begun with the Hello video, which came out last year and continued with the Initials S.H.E. video, previewing tracks from the Smash album, and the Ready 2 Go video, released earlier this year.

Both were massive international hits, hello reaching the top ten in ten countries, and number one in several charts, Ready 2 go although not reaching such peaks still reaching the US Billboard top 50 and the top 20 in France and the UK Dance charts.

Solveig has been named as one of the producers of Madonna's next studio album. It's a big break for Solveig to be working with such a massive selling artist.

I've always thought that Madonna's career has been as much about her choosing her collaborators well than about her own talent, so I'm sure he'll have a big influence on her sound.

It also comes at a time when she'll be keen to retain her Queen of Pop title, with Lady Gaga seemingly taking on the role of biggest female figure in the music world without too much opposition.

Whether this is the last chapter of Smash I don't know, but one thing that is certain is that Solveig is a bigger star now than his 'manager' Lafaille would ever have hoped for in the videos.