The Madonna Collection: I'll Remember: 2001

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

I'll Remember: 2001

The Drowned World Tour was the fifth concert tour by American recording artist Madonna in support of her seventh and eighth studio albums Ray of Light and Music. It was also her first tour in eight years, following The Girlie Show World Tour in 1993. The tour was supposed to start in 1999, but was delayed until 2001 as Madonna gave birth to her son, got married to Guy Ritchie, working on Music album and was busy filming. When the tour was decided, Madonna appointed Jamie King as choreographer and the tour was planned in a short time span of three months, including signing up the dancers, musicians and technicians. Designer Jean-Paul Gaultier was the costume designer who designed the costumes in such way that they indicated different phases of Madonna's career. The poster and logo for the tour included references to Kabbalah, which Madonna studied.

The show was divided into five segments, namely Neo-Punk, Geisha/Anime, Country/Western, Latin/Gypsy and Urban/Pimp. The setlist consisted mainly of songs from the last two studio albums released at that point, with two pre-90s song added. The first segment displayed high-energy performances with Madonna wearing a kilt and dominatrix style costumes. In the geisha segment performances Madonna wore a kimono and later performed airborne martial arts. Acoustic songs were performed in the country segment which featured Madonna in cowboy costumes. The Latin segment featured flamenco dancing and the last segment featured ghetto-themed performances. Drowned World Tour was critically appreciated from contemporary critics who complimented her ability to re-invent continuously.

The tour was a commercial success. It went on to become the highest-grossing concert tour of 2001 by a solo artist. She grossed more than US $75 million with summer sold-out shows and eventually played in front of 730,000 audience throughout the United States and Europe. It received Major Tour of the Year and Most Creative Stage Production awards nominations at the 2001 Pollstar awards, but lost them to U2. The concert was broadcasted live on HBO from The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan on August 26, 2001. A DVD titled Drowned World Tour 2001 was released in November 2001.