The Confessions Tour (album)
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''The Confessions Tour'' is the second live album by American singer and songwriter
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
. It was released on January 26, 2007, by
Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
. Directed by
Jonas Åkerlund Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (; born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish film director, screenwriter, music video director, and drummer. His video for Madonna's song "Ray of Light" won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form, and a record of fiv ...
, the album chronicles Madonna's 2006 Confessions Tour and includes the full version of the television broadcast special ''The Confessions Tour: Live from London''. It was recorded at
Wembley Arena Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...
during the London dates of the tour, and was released in both CD and DVD format. The DVD contains the entire concert and the CD includes thirteen live songs only. The album became the first release from Semtex Films, a production company founded by Madonna in 2006. ''The Confessions Tour'' received generally positive reviews from contemporary critics and won the
Best Long Form Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Film is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs. ...
category at the
50th Grammy Awards The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonies ...
. The album reached number one on the official charts in Belgium (Wallonia), Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Spain and the top-five in most musical markets. It received moderate success in her native country, peaking at number fifteen on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart. The DVD reached the top of the video charts in most of the countries it charted, including markets such Australia, Italy, Spain and the United States. Commercially, ''The Confessions Tour'' has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide.


Background

Following the 2006 live release ''
I'm Going to Tell You a Secret ''I'm Going to Tell You a Secret'' is a 2005 American documentary film that follows singer Madonna on her 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, the film premiered on MTV on October 21, 2005, and was released on DVD on J ...
'', Madonna released her second live album, ''The Confessions Tour''. The album was recorded at
Wembley Arena Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...
on August 15 and 16, 2006, during the London stop of her 2006 Confessions Tour, which was promoting her 2005 studio album '' Confessions on a Dance Floor''. It was the first release from her new production company, Semtex Films and was released in both DVD and CD formats, capturing the tour as directed by
Jonas Åkerlund Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (; born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish film director, screenwriter, music video director, and drummer. His video for Madonna's song "Ray of Light" won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form, and a record of fiv ...
. The DVD release consists of the full twenty-one song set list of the tour, while the CD captures thirteen highlights from the same. The tour was first shown on NBC during the
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
of 2006. This broadcast was edited, cutting the likes of "Paradise (Not For Me)" and heavily editing the performance of " Live to Tell". Madonna's performance of the latter, while hanging from a glass embellished crucifix and wearing a crown made of thorns on her head, faced strong reaction from the media and religious groups. Asian media and services company Fridae reported that the album was banned in Singapore, Malaysia and parts of East Asia, because of the inclusion of the performances in the DVD.


Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
from
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
felt that the CD version of the album was "not all that much fun to hear, even if the reinterpretations of the 20-year-old hits are interesting. The DVD doesn't feel as cold thanks entirely to the pizzazz of the visuals and the determined efficiency of the show, but even so, this is primarily of interest to the diehards who don't mind purchasing another live CD/DVD set just a year after the first." Ed Gonzalez from ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' felt that the concert finale in the album "is a reminder that Madonna's music need not be motivated by sex or politics to be good as long as it displays a smidgen of heart and soul." Thomas Inskeep from ''
Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...
'' also complimented the finale of the tour. According to him, " 'The Confessions Tour''is almost exclusively up-tempo, staged within an inch of its life yet more vivacious than anything she's done in years. Its CD companion is a pared-down 13 tracks taken from the live show, and good God it smokes." However, he felt that the disc loses its momentum during the "Confessions" part, which demonstrates a trio of individuals confessing about their sufferings in life. Jody Rosen from ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' commented that "Madonna must be seen as well as heard, as the video portion of this CD/DVD proves". Chuck Campbell from '' Quad-City Times'' said "the CD is handy, blocking out the DVD's distracting images so fans can concentrate on the music at the heart of Madonna's success". He further describes that the CD/DVD combo "fills in the blanks left by ''I'm Going to Tell You a Secret''". Tom Young from BBC Music said that he did not see the actual performances on the tour and felt that "some of the magnitude of the performance is lost and the track/scene changes appear needlessly long-winded. ..As far as live albums go, this is a job well done." Stephen M. Deusner from ''Pitchfork'' gave a negative review for the album, stating "Madonna herself is mostly to blame. On stage, she draws from a deep well of amazing pop songs and has the money and power to reinvent this sort of traveling circus. So why not try to break down the wall between performance and audience and hold a gigantic rave? ..Åkerlund gives you everything you don't want from a concert film: incessant quick cuts that you give you no sense of space or stage, overdubbed music and vocals that give you no sense of performance, and only a few shots of the audience to gauge their excitement." Mini Anthikad-Chhibber ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' commented that "Madonna pulls out all stops in this effort turn the world into a dance floor and one just has to doff one's hat to her energy." At the
50th Grammy Awards The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonies ...
held on February 10, 2008, at
Staples Center Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it was ...
in Los Angeles, ''The Confessions Tour'' won in the category of
Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Film is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs. ...
.


Commercial performance

''The Confessions Tour'' has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. The album enjoyed a moderated success worldwide, while the DVD topped the charts of Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium (Wallonia), Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States and reached the top-five in the rest of the countries where it charted. In the United States, the album debuted at number 15 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart with first week sales of 40,000 according to
Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...
. In Canada, it debuted at number two on the
Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...
. The same position was attained in Argentina, and was certified Gold by the Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (CAPIF) for shipments of 20,000 copies. The DVD also enjoyed success in the same country, where ended as one of the best-selling titles of 2008 and received a Platinum certification in two DVD formats. The album topped the charts in Mexico, and attained the number four position in Brazil. ''The Confessions Tour'' was not able to enter the official ARIA Albums Chart, but debuted at number-one on the Australian Top 40 DVD chart, on the issue dated February 12, 2007. At the year end Australian chart for 2007, ''The Confessions Tour'' became the 27th best selling DVD in Australia. The album was certified
Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...
by the
Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...
(ARIA), for shipment of 15,000 copies in DVD units. In New Zealand, the album entered at number 23. In Japan, the album reached a peak of number ten on the
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...
weekly albums chart and was present on the chart for twelve weeks. In Hong Kong, it was awarded a Gold Disc Award by the
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 19 ...
for becoming one of ten biggest-selling international album for 2007. Across Europe ''The Confessions Tour'' reached the top of the charts in Belgium (Wallonia), Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal and Spain, while reaching the top ten of the rest of the European nations. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number seven on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
with 22,227 copies, while in Norway, the album just missed the top ten of the charts. In Czech Republic, the album remained for three weeks at the number-one position and had sold 7,582 units there, as of February 2008. In Netherlands, 35,000 copies of the album were shipped. The commercial success in Europe enabled the album to debut at position two on ''Billboard''s European Top 100 Albums chart, behind Norah Jones' studio album '' Not Too Late''.


Track listing

Notes *"Music Inferno" includes "The Duck Mixes the Hits" medley video interlude.


Formats

*CD/DVD – double disc
digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...
edition containing the live DVD and the live CD. *DVD – DVD
keep case A keep case or poly-box is a type of packaging, most commonly used with DVDs and Blu-ray videos (and sometimes CDs). Besides DVD-Video films, keep cases are very common with most disc-based video games since the PlayStation 2, and they are also ...
packed with the DVD. *Digital download – The live film and 15 audio performances, including the bonus tracks "Ray of Light" and "Get Together."


Personnel

Credits adapted from ''The Confessions Tour'' CD liner notes: *Director –
Jonas Åkerlund Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (; born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish film director, screenwriter, music video director, and drummer. His video for Madonna's song "Ray of Light" won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form, and a record of fiv ...
* Production company – Semtex Films, Semtex TV Productions *Producer – Sara Martin *Executive producers –
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
, Angela Becker,
Guy Oseary Guy Harley Oseary ( he, גיא עוזרי; born October 3, 1972) is an Israeli-American talent manager and writer. His clients include Madonna, U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Biography Guy Oseary was born on October 3, 1972, in Jerusale ...
and John Payne *
Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
 – Eric Broms *
Film editing Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...
 – Jonas Åkerlund, Philip Richardson,
Johan Söderberg Johan Olof Anders Söderberg (born 14 November 1962 in Bollnäs) is a Swedish film director and editor. He was considered part of the now terminated Swedish multimedia collective Lucky People Center. Söderberg is recognized for the work he has ...
and
Danny Tull Danny B. Tull (born 27 February 1977) is an English director and film editor. Early life Danny Tull was born in Bournemouth, England, and attained a degree in music technology at Rose Bruford College, London, which he attended from 1995 to ...
* Costume designer – Jean-Paul Gaultier and
Arianne Phillips Arianne Phillips (born April 26, 1963) is an American costume designer. Phillips was recognized for her work on the Broadway musical '' Hedwig and the Angry Inch'', starring Neil Patrick Harris, earning her a Tony award nomination for Best Cost ...


Charts


Album


Year-end album charts


DVD


Monthly charts


Year-end DVD charts


All-time DVD charts


Certifications and sales

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See also

*
List of number-one hits of 2007 (Italy) This is a list of the number-one hits of 2007 on FIMI's Italian Singles, Download, and Albums Charts. Singles and downloads Albums See also *2007 in music *List of number-one hits in Italy External linksFIMI archivesList of number-one albums of 2007 (Portugal) * List of number-one albums of 2007 (Spain)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Confessions Tour, The 2007 live albums 2007 video albums Films directed by Jonas Åkerlund Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video Live video albums Madonna live albums Madonna video albums Warner Records live albums Warner Records video albums