#2: Like A Virgin from Confessions 2006

Having a huge, career-making signature song can be a blessing. Yet to sing the same song over and over can become a curse for just about any performer. An artist may be inspired to take what is considered a classic, yet re-imagine it so it feels fresh, and, sorry, shiny and new.

For the Confessions 2006 tour, Madonna slightly remixed her hit, Like A Virgin by adding a deep synthesizer bass line in the chorus. Set amidst a backdrop of X-rays and black-and-white footage of equestrian accidents, Madonna references an incident in her own life in this presentation. She actually had a horse-riding accident around this time and broke several bones.

With the first section of Confessions inspired by all-things equestrian, Madonna, dressed beautifully in an all-black riding outfit, hair styled and draped over her right eye, kicks her left leg back like a horse before singing the first lyric. As she slinks across the stage and up the side ramp, the synth-bass line is wonderfully prevalent and pulsing.

Madonna then does wonders on a “studded” saddle. As referenced in an earlier post for Future Lovers/I Feel Love, Like A Virgin marries upper-crust equestrian refinement with a downtown underground subtext. She takes something essentially innocent as a county-fair merry-go-round, yet uses the carousel pole to her full (sexual) advantage—she leans back, she stands, she wraps around it, she fearlessly climbs it, she gets down, she spins, she gets back on the horse—what a beautiful metaphor. BSo