Backstage Pass

Madonna, "Open Your Heart" (Live at Izod Center)

10. “This is the sound of Sarah Palin’s husband’s snowmobile when it won’t start.” (She then launched into a guitar solo.)
9. “You can sing along if you like.”
8. “Habla espanol?”
7. “[Expletive]! It’s too high for me!” (As she realized she started “Open Your Heart” in a key too high for her to finish.)
6. “Are you guys having a good time? There are still people sitting down. I’m not sitting down. Fair is fair.”
5. “I’m having a bit of a memory problem these days.”
4. “You’re thinking: ‘What’s going on here? I paid good money for these tickets! Who’s doing the show?’ It’s not Sarah Palin. She’s not in my show. She will never be in my show... nothing personal.”
3. “Opa!”
2. “Did you ever have a best friend who wanted to do everything you wanted to do including [expletive] your boyfriend?”
1. “I’m about to live out my fantasy here with you tonight... I want you to sing the chorus while I jump rope.”

   Life is a mystery. Madonna not so much.
   Everyone was expecting some sort of controversy as she launched her "Sticky and Sweet" tour in Wales last week. It was just a matter of finding out what it would be.
   This time, she chose politics -- including John McCain's picture in a montage of Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe, then including Barack Obama's picture in a montage with Gandhi and John Lennon.
   Sure, it got Madge some headlines, but that's not going to last until Oct. 4 when the tour hits America and the other current gripe with her is that the massive tour has a huge carbon footprint. Well, yeah.
   Madonna's gonna need some fresher controversies so we thought we'd help out – and not just because the new single "Beat Goes On" is too good to go unnoticed.
   She should try:
-- Gay marriage support: Whether her marriage to Guy Ritchie is on the rocks or not, they sound like they need a break. Maybe they could put things on hold as a "protest" for gay marriage, vowing not to retie the knot until all people who want to marry can.
-- Michael Phelps affair: That would give her the cover to have a quick, torrid, paparazzi-covered affair with the Olympic hero. Of course, she may have to wait in line. Maybe John Mayer can pencil her in.
-- Britney reunion: With the MTV Video Music Awards set for next week, isn't it time she and Britney Spears, um, buried the hatchet again?

PHOTO: Madonna and friends arrive on stage at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium Saturday night. Photo by Joel Ryan for Associated Press.

The new Madonna single "4 Minutes" is confusing on so many levels. It's an OK song, but I've never heard her sound so overwhelmed by a producer before. Sure, Timbaland is an artistic (and commercial) force, but Madonna's collaborations generally sound more, well, collaborative. This sounds like a Timbaland track that could have been done by anyone from Keri Hilson to Nelly Furtado. Is Madge really trying to go incognito? My other question is: Why is this track being introduced through a Sunsilk shampoo commercial? Were the Apple people not interested? Is Old Navy all full? Did the writers' strike delay keep it off of "Grey's Anatomy"? Or are Madonna and Warner Bros. simply going through the motions on the release of "Hard Candy," seeing as she is set to go to her new Live Nation deal once the project is over? Hmmm.

Madonna leads this year's class of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, who will be inducted at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Monday night. Since the Material Girl isn't expected to leak any of her upcoming "Hard Candy" album at the ceremony (even though collaborator Justin Timberlake is set to induct her), we'll just have to celebrate her honor by looking back.

Iggy Pop and The Stooges will serenade her induction. And we have big hopes for how awesome that will be. The whole ceremony airs live on VH1 Classic Monday night at 8:30 and highlights will be shown on VH1 on Mar. 22 at 11 p.m.

Here's some of her best tracks:

Madonna: Borderline rocker, deserving inductee [Newsday]

As Rafer noted earlier, Iggy Pop & The Stooges will be performing for Madonna's Rock Hall induction on Monday. Is it too much to hope that Iggy will take a pass at "Into the Groove" that's similar to Ciccone Youth's classic cover?

That one goes a little something like this:

Or maybe a run through of "Crazy for You" that's like New Found Glory's? Which sounds like this:

Maybe it's me, but this sounds like it could be the Rock Hall's most inspired pick in years. And maybe a great performance could actually get Iggy and The Stooges into the Rock Hall finally?

Madonna turned Madison Square Garden last night into a combination of Studio 54, Las Vegas and Cirque du Soleil, emerging from a giant disco ball to perform two hours' worth of thumping, bass-driven dance music accompanied by eye-popping visuals, her usual coterie of handsome male dancers and, perhaps most importantly, a DJ. More

Madonna spent more than two decades cultivating a larger-than-life persona, but in real life, she stands only 5-foot-4 in her bare feet - "a midget," she says, jokingly, when compared to most professional dancers.

She remains the most famous woman in the world, the reigning queen of the tabloids, but publicly, at least, she lives relatively gossip-free as the happily married, 47-year-old mother of two who writes children's books in her spare time.

Yet even though she has built quite a career for herself, perfecting the fine art of reinvention, her latest incarnation is still a bit of a shock.

Madonna is now - wait for it - normal!

Full article here.
Photo by Warner Bros.

Listen to "Get Together" here.
Madonna's six-show run at Madison Square Garden starts Wednesday.