I often criticize Madonna in this space for her nutty politics and her membership in Kabbalah.
But there’s one thing you can’t beat and that’s Madonna live and in person.
So let’s clear up reports from Tuesday that her big fall tour isn’t selling out. With the sole exception of Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, the Sweet and Sticky tour, I am told, will outpace Madonna’s last tour significantly.
Indeed, Dodger Stadium is the only venue Madonna hasn’t sold out. Of course, the show isn’t for five months. The fact that she’s sold half the stadium now for November is pretty darn impressive.
So where did this bad news come from? Warner M. Group, which lost Madonna to Live Nation, has been on a tear planting negative stories about the latter organization.
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Billy Preston Tribute WMG, as I predicted, has done little to nothing to promote Madonna’s "Hard Candy" album as retribution for her exit to Live Nation. That a CD with a hit single, the Justin Timberlake-Michael Jackson sound-alike duet "4 Minutes to Save the World," has sold only 500,000 copies is an utter disgrace. But WMG only has itself to blame.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to predict this. WMG has just this and a greatest hits album left with Madonna, and then she’s gone. Her departure is a huge embarrassment to the ailing, much-mocked record company.
But here’s what’s better: I’m told Live Nation is on the brink of cutting a similar deal with WMG’s act Nickelback. Nickelback, which has hits like "The Reason" and "Photograph," is a contemporary hit-maker act, a rarity these days. Grabbing them from WMG could be Live Nation’s coup de grace.
Live Nation is also rumored to be making deals with Epic Records star Shakira for concerts and CDs. Is it happening? Well, hips don’t lie.
But Live Nation did not do the deal with the Rolling Stones that I long ago exclusively reported on. In the end, I’m told, it made more sense for Live Nation to keep putting on Stones concerts. But album-wise, the group is not a big seller. It's likely to continue doing one-off deals with Interscope, which did such a good job with the "Shine a Light" soundtrack.
As for Madonna, we needn’t worry about her or Live Nation. She’s already sold out four shows at the Garden and out in New Jersey at what used to be the Continental Airlines Arena — now the Izod Arena. She’s also sold out most of her venues in Europe. And Dodger Stadium? Those Angelenos are just mellow. They’ll get to it in time.
Meanwhile, a better question to ask is why can’t WMG cough up a follow-up single to "4 Minutes"? That is, assuming they would want to. "Hard Candy" is full of candidates such as "Miles Away" and "Give It to Me."
But WMG hasn’t had made a move. By contrast, Mariah Carey — whose sales have outpaced Madonna’s considerably — is already on her third single from her contemporaneous release, "E=MC2."
