The concert ”is not confirmed nor cancelled
Yesterday John Giddings, the European Coordinator of Madonna’s Reinvention World Tour, was in Portugal to attend a concert by Phil Collins and made a brief comment about Madonna’s Portuguese concert being “not confirmed nor cancelled”.
This is the first time someone from Madonna’s camp talks about the situation (the announcement of the cancellation of the shows came earlier this week through a statement from the Mana Church) and it also seems to confirm that negotiations are being made with other Portuguese promoters to make the show happen.
“The concert “is not confirmed nor cancelled”
It is an impasse that has been lasting for one month: is Madonna coming to Portugal or not? “The concert is not cancelled nor confirmed”, said yesterday John Giddings, the European coordinator of the Tour. The story so far looks like a novel coming to an end, Madonna and Mana Church being two names impossible to separate. In Portugal the star made two worlds becoming one: the devotes of the Mana Church and the one of her fans. The thing that unites them is the music: the pop music of Madonna and the religious one of the Mana. We met collector fans and fans who signed petitions and talked to Jorge Tadeu, founder of the Chruch. They are two types of “fanatism” (in a positive meaning: “of fans”) that call the” opposing emotions “, according one of Madonna’s fans: “the religious one appeals to the fragility of the people; a star as Madonna appeals to the diversity: she gives music to us ”
Until a month ago, it was unlikely that Madonna had ever heard about the Mana Church, and was also unlikely that the Mana Church was releasing press statement about Madonna claiming that the agent of the singer the Europe, John Giddings, cancelled the concert.
But yesterday Giddings laconically said to the Pùblico “the concert is not cancelled nor confirmed”. And he did not want to give more explanations. On the other hand, according to some rumours, to promote the concert it will now be Ritmos e Blues, and not Tournée, the promoter who has been organizing the concert of Madonna for 12 of September in the Atlantic Pavilion, in Lisbon until now. Nuno Braancamp, responsible for Ritmos e Blues, had no reply.
The same place, the Atlantic Pavilion, and practically in the same dates, have been reserved for two mega-events that will attract thousands of people, and will include the recording of DVD and Compact Disc.
The first Madonna concert in Portugal – the last one of her Re-Invention Tour, is scheduled to be recorded in DVD and should include images from the live show and rehearsals. The convention and commemoration of the 20 years of the Mana Church, between 8 and 11 of September, is also going to be recorded and broadcasted by the Maná Sat channel and the organization also wants to record a DVD and a Compact Disc with four international Christian bands and a choir with orchestra.
Although there is no actual overlapping of dates, the concert of Madonna requires two additional days for set up and rehearsals, and one of them is indeed day 11, the last one of the Church convention, and it is likely that the DVD will be recorded in the previous days.
None of the parts involved intends to abdicate of the Atlantic Pavilion: because of its characteristics, the Madonna show can only take place in the Atlantic because it involves, for example, 68 tons of equipment suspended from the ceiling – and the pavilion is the only venue in Portugal with the capacity to receive the Re-Invention Tour.
On the part of the Mana – that reserved the space before Tournée – both the church and the Atlantic Pavillion declared that a change of venue “is is of question”. However, the founder of Mana, Jorge Tadeu, refuses to collaborate with Ricardo Casimiro, responsible of Tournée, accusing him of “arrogance” and “threats”; Casimiro answered saying that it finds “this all surreal” and that he had never spoken with Tadeu. Tadeu admits to being looking for an agreement with John Giddings, in a collaborative effort to set the dates in the right way so that both events can be carried out.
Read the original article in Portuguese from the Público here
Thanks to our Community member Hanzo-San
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