Like It Or Not

Madonna is the lead photo on the Entertainment Weekly website today, as part of their Coachella photo gallery.

Though it was certainly deafening, the buzz building up to Madonna’s performance on Day 2 of the Coachella music fest was by no means unanimously positive. When people asked, “Are you going to Madonna?” it was usually answered with an unequivocal “Hell, yes!” or “God, no!”

However, as much as the artist herself would like for us to either love or hate her, there was also lots of bemused ambivalence surrounding her performance before the alterna-lovin’ masses. Still, the vast majority of the record-breaking 60,000-person crowd wanted to at least say that they were there to experience Her Madgesty in the flesh.

But first they had to wait. The tent was already teeming from Paul Oakenfold’s preceding DJ set, so the crowds began to completely fill in the space outside, where a giant screen projected the sweaty goings-on inside. Once her scheduled 8:10 p.m. start time came and went, there was some booing, some chanting, and definitely some restlessness among the sea of festivalgoers. Finally, at 8:30 p.m., the cover of her latest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, was projected on the screens, and the tick-tock beat from her single ”Hung Up” began. Then, bam! Out of a disco ball came Madonna and her troupers to perform the same song-and-dance routine we’ve already seen at the Grammys (and MTV Europe Awards). But that hardly mattered: The crowd jumped, clapped, and ate it all up. And the longer-tressed Madonna, with seemingly more muscles (is that possible?) was in a good mood. Admitting it was her first festival appearance, she paused and joked, ”Who’s going to share their drugs with me?”

Check out more on ew.com by cliking the image above. Thanks to G-Lock.