Give it to me... Madonna!!!

It was probably the most crowded, stickiest, sweatiest 5 hours I can remember in recent history... I dont' know what you were thinking about but I'm talking about MADONNA. Yes, the Material Girl brought her show to Buenos Aires and of course, we were there! Madonna always puts on an incredible show, and she did not disappoint her fans. Here is the best picture I was able to take of Madonna at the concert (I know, don't quit my day job)... However, concerts in Buenos Aires appear to be organized slightly differently than those in Canada.

First of all, the best seats actually are not seats at all on the floor-- it is standing room only. There are two floor sections --
1) Campo: lower class, which unfortunately we fell into this time as did thousands of Madonna's other Buenos Aires fans
2) VIP: must have slept with Madonna or her tour managers to get access to these seats. (I would have resorted to this in retrospect)

Basically, they sell a zillion tickets and it's first come, best seat, standing room only in both sections, with the VIP section being closer to Madge herself. For this reason, Ariel and I (along with our trusty latino sidekick team) arrived early (around 5pm) to mark our place on the floor... Loyal bloggers will recall that Madonna switched her concert dates at the last minute so the show we ended up seeing was the last Buenos Aires show due to the date change...

Then we waited, drinking our 8 peso water bottles and eating popsicles... until about 8pm when DJ Paul Oakenfold came on to spin. Unfortunately, he wasn't very impressive to say the least and really it could have been any one of us playing a mixed CD. However, the crowd began to bounce up and down and suddenly we were in a GIGANTIC MOSH PIT. We started to get very very sweaty and were bouncing around with the latinos... Some people had to be picked out of the crowd by the security and hauled off to be treated for dehydration as it was really sweaty and the popsicles weren't doing it for them obviously... Luckily Ariel and I are very butch and can handle any environment we are thrown in. There were some communal water cups that began to be passed around which we were very happy for.

DJ Paul Oakenfold ended at 9pm and we waited until 10pm for Madonna. In that time, it started to rain and the crowd was getting slightly rowdy. The cheers began for Madonna and the rain was cooling us off a little. Some just looked up into the sky hoping that they could drink the rain.

Finally Madonna came on stage and she did not disappoint. She sang some of her best songs, and of course the dancing was unbelievable as well. Madonna did a lot of guitar playing and we were distracted looking at her massive biceps. She really is pumped!!! Here is a photo of Madonna in the midst of a jump rope number where she demonstrated her double dutch skipping abilities. A special treat for the Argentinians was how she sang her famous "Don't Cry for me Argentina" with the Argentinian flag in the background. The crowd went nuts. In fact, the crowd was going nuts the entire time and the Mexican girls we were with decided to move to a separate area to avoid being trampled on.

Madonna sang for about 2 hours, and did some of her best songs including: Music, 4 Minutes, Like a Virgin, Give It To Me, Like a Prayer (my favourite number of the night) and an amazing Spanish interlude of La Isla Bonita. The special effects were unbelievable, including videos of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. All in all,
I really enjoyed the show, despite being pushed, shoved, and sweating like a beast. By the end, we left the stadium and grabbed some pizza and much-needed agua.

Ariel and I agreed on the following factors:

1) Argentinians LOVE Madonna
2) Madonna doesn't disappoint
3) We may not wear those clothes we wore that night ever again
4) We will get VIP next time

Also, knowing I am going back to Canada in about 4 weeks time, I contemplated an alternative career choice (see above)...

We then went home to pack for our 3 day trip to Mendoza, wine country where we were going to be treated like royalty in the Argentinian countryside.

More on that soon,
miguelito