Long may she reign

The queen of trendsetters continues to reinvent herself and her music, gaining fans with each transformation.

By GINA VIVINETTO

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 19, 2001

[Photo: AP] Madonna shows off her muscle in the opening set of her Drowned World Tour.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- After an eight-year hiatus from touring, Madonna is back. She was busying herself with her movie career, motherhood and marriage, but now the world's most famous woman is doing again what she's most known for, music.

Perhaps she has heard our prayers.

Madonna's Drowned World Tour is the chance for fans old and new to congregate, check each other out, squeal in delight and thank their lucky stars that our Patron Lady of Cool still dictates the pop landscape.

The lady's fans are at once a weird bunch and, like that Madonna tune from long ago, Everybody. In South Florida, the audience contained celebrities and beautiful people from Miami: Rosie O'Donnell, Lenny Kravitz, Gloria Estefan and others. They mingled right along with the common folk.

Madonna's music and her attitude have always been about bringing people together. Songs from every segment of her career champion the need for people to let down their guards, accept and express themselves, and, ultimately, relish life. Early club 1980s dance club hits, such as Holiday, demanded, "we have got to get together." Keep It Together, from 1989's introspective Like a Prayer, celebrated the power of music to unite.

Last year's smash hit Music made "the people come together," thanks to a savvy DJ.

Granted, it's been a bumpy road for this pioneer of pop. On the way to breaking taboos, she's been widely attacked for being unladylike, exploiting various subcultures for her art, and being a little too, well, weird. Madonna, like a postmodern female Frank Sinatra, has always done it her way.

The fans reflect their idol's artistic and attitudinal range. Madonna fans come in different colors, sexual orientations, and socio-economic backgrounds. These days, many of them come along with their kids.

Tuesday's concert in Sunrise brought the people -- eager to dance, show off homemade Madonna costumes, and be free for an hour and half -- together.

Mama Madonna, sexier than ever

"I would have paid anything to see her," says Pat Corsiatto, 47, of Fort Lauderdale. "I've been a fan since the begining, since day one."

A mother of two adult children, Corsiatto says she has a framed picture of a nude Madonna in her home. "She's the coolest woman who ever walked. She's got chutzpah."

"She goes out and does whatever the hell she wants," Corsiatto's friend Jim Tatum, 44, says. "That's inspiring. It's sexy. Madonna has always been an original. She's sexier now than ever."

These new pop tarts, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, lack the artistic vision Madonna has always had.

"They're just imitators," Corsiatto says. "They're also too young. When Madonna started out, she knew what she wanted. She was grown up and sophisticated enough."

How many trends can one woman set?

Madonna concerts have been filled with wanna-bes since the Like a Virgin days when teenage girls sported ripped hose and floppy black hair bows. A lucky few could afford that order-through-television Desperately Seeking Susan jacket with the pyramid on the back. But Tuesday's audience was a reminder of the many incarnations Madonna has had over the past couple decades.

One woman wore a wedding dress. Another sported the famous midriff tank top with "Healthy" written across the front. Rosary beads galore. Young dance club guys sported the coned bras from 1990's Blonde Ambition tour. And there was the cowboy look from last year's Music disc, with the rhinestones and blue hat. Even some Erotica-era S&M garb.

So heads up on next year's look, kids: Kilts, kilts, kilts. Madonna begins every concert on the tour wearing a torn plaid skirt, toying with a Catholic schoolgirl motif she just can't shake. For you T-shirt lovers, Madonna wears a unique one. It says "MOTHER" on the front. On the back, the other half of the epithet Madonna likes to scream after playing a blistering guitar solo on Candy Perfume Girl.

Considering Madonna has kids now -- Lourdes, 4, and Rocco, 1 -- the message is more ironic than confrontational. The lady likes irony in her T-shirts. Consider the Britney Spears shirt Madonna has been photographed in. Does she like Britney? Is she making fun of Britney? Is it a clever way of reminding folks who was here first?

Who else can prompt so much discussion over a T-shirt?

Honorary Latina?

Here in South Florida, the Latins love Madonna. The star's adopted hometown is Miami, where she once owned a mansion, and was a frequent dancer in South Beach's hot clubs, B.M. (before motherhood). Lourdes' dad is Carlos Leon, a native New Yorker of Cuban heritage, whose mother prepared black beans and rice frequently for Madonna. Madonna played her idol, Eva Peron, in Evita. Before Christina Aguilera and Ricky Martin could spit out their pacifiers, Madonna was peppering her hits with sensual Latin flourishes. La Isla Bonita, Spanish Eyes, even the chorus to 1987's Who's That Girl? features backing vocals en espanol. On this tour, Madonna sings the hit What It Feels Like for a Girl in Spanish, which worked up many in the Sunrise crowd.

"Our community has loved her always," says Christina Lopez, 27, of Miami. "She has that Latin attitude. She loves life. Some people say she steals from groups like Latin people, or blacks, or homosexuals. But she's not stealing, she's celebrating their style. That's a positive thing. Madonna brings it to the rest of the world. And she can't help if she knows a good thing when she sees it."

Lopez's brother Edward, 33, adds, "By knowing what to pick and choose from the things she likes, Madonna makes her own music more interesting, and opens it up to so many people."

Edward cites Vogue as an example. "She first saw that stuff in gay bars with drag queens voguing," he says. "She knew it was cool, so she grabbed it, she did it, now everyone can appreciate it. It's sharing."

Only you can express yourself

I, too, have loved Madonna since day one. Back in the early 1980s, I was entering teendom. My friends and I thought of Madonna as that cool older sister, the one who lived in New York, hung out with artists, dressed funky and said whatever she wanted. She seemed like the perfect punky feminist. Nobody told Madonna what to do.

It was good for a young girl to see.

Not to mention Madonna was loads of fun, demolishing stereotypes, hanging out with people of all races and sexualities. Always having a good time.

Now, Madonna is the Woman Who Has It All. She has a career, kids, a husband, dignity, strength, art. She's resilient, always forging ahead. Life's not perfect. Let's dance anyway.

If someday I have a daughter -- heck, even if I have a son -- I'll play the kid Madonna tunes in the crib, hoping he grows up comfortable enough to express himself, even if it means he'll wear cone bras.

- St. Petersburg Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report. Gina Vivinetto can be reached at gina@sptimes.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.