I still remember with some emotion when, during the summer of 1987, RAI broadcast the first Italian concert of Madonna.
It was the Who’s That Girl World Tour, the world tour of the American singer, which ended in Turin and Florence.
At the time, Madonna was on the cover of every daily newspaper, and although her detractors were saying that she was building her meteoric rise, staking everything on image, on her continuous changes of look, on scandals and provocations, each song was a huge hit.
I was still a child, but I already knew all of her albums off by heart. She was brilliant, chameleon-like, communicative, a real volcano always ready to explode. Although I couldn’t be there, I could never have missed her first appearance in Italy.
I was on holiday in Sorrento and, for the occasion, I arranged to see the concert at a campsite near my home, together with some friends.
The show was breathtaking, with constant changes of clothes, lights, musicians, singers and dancers, but what really struck me more than anything else it was to see the boy who opened the concert dancing with Madonna to the tune of “Open your heart to me.”
Wow, I was enchanted, as I would have loved to be in his place!
After Celebrate, when the show ended, I started to dance with a friend in front of everyone present (looking back now I feel ashamed!), because I was totally infected by all the energy I had just seen on stage…
Many years later, even if Madonna is no longer that girl at the beginning of her success with short platinum blonde hair, nor I that child, I decided to go to that missed appointment to see her Rebel Heart Tour here in Berlin.
As soon as the doors of the Mercedes Benz Arena opened, I was among one of the first to enter, and from only a stone’s throw away from the stage, I enjoyed the show, capturing every detail of it.
Despite the great theatrical setting, with platforms ready to disappear and re-emerge from the stage, a spiral staircase for Heartbreak city/Love do not live here anymore, a white balustrade for Material Girl, beds for S.E.X., a table as “L’ultima cena (The Last Supper)” by Leonardo and crucifixes used to do pole dance for Holy water/Vogue, nothing could divert the audienc’s attention from Madonna. With her charisma she managed to hypnotize the thousands of people present, creating an atmosphere between dream and reality that is possible only by true artists.
I sung along to all of the songs but, even after all this time, once again it was the dancing that left me breathless.
Despite her age, Madonna performed for about two hours dancing to amazing choreography accompanied by an extraordinary ballet company and was able to switch from tap dance to hip hop, from flamenco to acrobatic dancing, from modern dance (peppered with disparate styles) to vougueing. The choreography in which she danced in a kimono with big fans, singing Bitch I’m Madonna was great, as was the bullfighter dance to “Living For Love” 
The accuracy of each movement, the sync and timing without any smudge made this concert worthy of praise usually reserved for the most established dance companies.
Everything worked perfectly, despite the complexity of the performances and stage set.
A lot of work, professionalism, passion and innovation are the ingredients for a unique success.
Almost twenty years on from that first tour in Europe at the end of the concert, just as before I felt the same irresistible desire to dance!
