* Queen Madonna * Invites You Here :)

The tour was in support of, and contained most material from Madonna's last two studio albums: Music in 2000 and Ray of Light previously in 1998 although her 1994 album Bedtime Stories from which she had previously never performed songs on tour was represented twice on the setlist. The title of the tour comes from single "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" from Ray of Light.

The tour was originally scheduled to begin in the Kölnarena in Cologne, Germany but had to be canceled due to technical difficulties. As a result, 35,000 tickets were refunded. Her August 3rd show at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey was also canceled, this time due to illness. Therefore, total tour dates numbered 47 instead of 50.

Tour dates were limited to cities in Europe and North America. This decision caused some controversy among fans in other parts of the world. The same setup was repeated with Madonna's 2004 Re-Invention Tour. In particular, this was the first Madonna tour to skip over Canada completely. For many weeks prior to the launch of the tour dates, Arthur Fogel from Live Nation himself attempted to book dates in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre between the Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Detroit dates, though no free bookings were available. In the end no dates were scheduled in Toronto, to the disappointment of many Canadian fans.

Ticket sales were swift in London on April 25th, as Madonna sold out her dates at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in record time - six shows in six hours. Madonna made history with the fastest-selling show ever at Earl's Court, as 97,000 tickets were sold. The first show sold out in just 15 minutes, and the online ticket site took 1 million hits in the first 10 minutes while 30 million attempts were made to phone Madonna hotlines. All dates of Madonna's Drowned World Tour sold out within minutes of going on sale.

[edit] The Show

The show was divided into 5 themes: Punk, Geisha/Anime, Country/Western, Latin/Gypsy and Urban.

Punk: The show with a calm performance of "Drowned World/Substitute For Love", turning into a chaotic energized performance of Impressive Instant. She then shows off her guitar skills with Candy Perfume Girl, leading into a humorous performance of "Beautiful Stranger". The Punk section finished with a highly energetic version of "Ray of Light", the second half of which the dancer joined in a full-on party atmosphere. Once Madonna's vocals were done, she descended the front stage to let the lead guitarist and dancers finish the number.

Geisha/Anime: The segment starts with a video interlude of "Paradise (Not for Me)", and Madonna comes out to sing "Frozen". A short swell of "Open Your Heart" then leads to Nobody's Perfect. She then sings the first part of "Mer Girl", and turning into the fast-action paced performance of "Sky Fits Heaven", transforming back into the slow-tempo "Mer Girl". She then exits the stage, and dancers come out for the hardcore, sexual, violent Japananime video interlude of "What It Feels Like for a Girl".

Country/Western: Madonna comes out for a acoustic performance of "I Deserve It", and sings "Don't Tell Me" and "Human Nature". She then sings the macabre cannibalism-themed "The Funny Song", which was removed after the September 11 terrorist attacks. She finishes off with a acoustic version of "Secret", and sings Gone, but replaced the song with "You'll See" on some select U.S. venues.

Latin/Gypsy: Dancers starts the Latin-themed interlude of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina". Madonna then appears on the stage and performs "Lo Que Siente La Mujer", the Spanish version of "What It Feels Like for a Girl". She finishes the segment with the slow, acoustic, Latin style of "La Isla Bonita".

Urban: Madonna appears on stage sings a urban style version of "Holiday" with her backup singers Niki and Donna. Madonna and her dancers finishes the show with a ghetto themed "Music".

Several changes were made to this final show: Madonna wore an American flag kilt during the show's opening segment as a display of patriotism, the closing of "Mer Girl" (part II) was altered to remove the staged shooting of a character (Madonna instead put the gun down, hugged him and they left the stage together), and the macabre cannibalism-themed "Funny Song" was removed. Additionally, as a surprise for Madonna at the final concert date, her husband, Guy Ritchie, appeared as the lost technician at the end of "Beautiful Stranger," the Samurai during "Sky Fits Heaven" wore Los Angeles Lakers jerseys, all of the dancers joined in for the final dance section of "Holiday," which usually only featured Madonna and her two background singers, and, later, the dancers comically refused to join Madonna in the final 16 deep knee bends at the end of "Music", leaving Madonna to do them one last time all by herself.

The show used 100 tons of equipment, two 747 jumbo jets (to fly in the equipment), eight trucks (to take the equipment from venue to venue), and 88 traveling production people.

Madonna took guitar lessons from Monte Pittman so she could play guitar live during the show.

The stage was 70 x 70 square feet. Four large video screens were placed on the stage, with two screens for close-up viewing.

[edit] Box Office Score Data
City Venue Tickets Sold Gross Revenue
Boxscore Data
Barcelona Palau Sant Jordi 36,136 2/2 $2,039,112
Berlin Schmeling-Halle 43,455 4/4 $2,864,786
Paris Bercy 68,000 4/4 $4,443,155
London Earls Court 107,415 6/6 $8,734,149
Philadelphia First Union Center 31,128 2/2 $3,382,485
New York Madison Square Garden 79,401 5/5 $9,297,105
East Rutherford Continental Arena 16,457 1/1 $1,842,155
Boston Fleet Center 29,886 2/2 $3,503,520
Washington MCI Center 32,061 2/2 $3,472,148
Miami NCR Center 31,572 2/2 $3,603,573
Atlanta Philips Arena 29,617 2/2 $3,553,444
Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills 34,407 2/2 $4,127,533
Chicago United Center 33,725 2/2 $3,743,830
Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden 29,587 2/2 $6,503,950
Oakland Oakland Arena 31,195 2/2 $3,351,320
Los Angeles Staples Center 61,464 4/4 $8,303,165

Additional Notes

Cancellations:

1. June 5, 2001 - Kölnarena, Cologne, Germany
2. June 6, 2001 - Kölnarena, Cologne, Germany
3. August 3, 2001 - Continental Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
4. September 11, 2001 - Staples Center, Los Angeles (rescheduled September 15 due to terrorist attacks in New York)

On Billboard's year-end Top 25 Concert Grosses of 2001, Madonna placed six entries, including:
03. - New York, New York
04. - London, England
05. - Los Angeles, California
08. - Las Vegas, Nevada
22. - Paris, France
24. - Detroit, Michigan

[edit] Personnel

Creative Director: Jamie King
Video Director: Dago Gonzalez
Musical Direction: Stuart Price
Costume Design: Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dean and Dan Caten of D-Squared, Dolce & Gabbana, Donatella Versace and Catherine Malandrino
Choreographer: Alex Magno

[edit] Band

Keyboards: Marcus Brown and Stuart Price
Drums: Steve Sidelnyk
Guitar: Monte Pittman
Bass-guitar: Stuart Price
Percussion: Ron Powell
Backing Vocals: Niki Haris and Donna De Lory
Head Dancer: Christian Vincent
Dancers: Ruthy Inchaustegui, Nito Larioza, Tamara Levinson, Anthony Jay Rodriguez, Jamal Story, Kemba Shannon, Eko Supriyanto, Jull Weber and Addie Yungmee.

[edit] Broadcast and Recordings

Main article: Drowned World Tour 2001 (video)

The concert was broadcast live on HBO from The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan on August 26, 2001.

"Gone" was performed for the television broadcast and DVD release.

The Drowned World Tour 2001 DVD was released in all regions on November 13, 2001. Three audio tracks were made available: a DTS track, a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. A photo gallery was included as a bonus feature. Like the original airing of the show, the DVD received very good reviews.

The photographs used on the DVD packaging were taken by Madonna's friend Rosie O'Donnell.