Madonna kicks off tour

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-26 10:56

U.S. singer Madonna performs on the opening night of her "Sticky & Sweet" tour at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff August 23, 2008. Madonna kicks off her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday, the latest test of her enduring appeal just a week after her 50th birthday. [Agencies]

Even at 50, the queen of pop just can't stop courting controversy.

As Madonna kicked off her international "Sticky and Sweet" tour Saturday night, she took a none-too subtle swipe at the presumptive Republican nominee for U. S. president.

Amid a four-act show at Cardiff's packed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe's authoritarian President Robert Mugabe - and U. S. Senator John McCain. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama.

The rest of the show had the usual Madonna fixtures: sequins, fishnets and bondage-style outfits drawn from the 3,500 items of clothing reported whipped together by 36 designers specifically for the tour. Dancers sauntered across stage in top hats and tail coats and Madonna tried her hand at break-dancing and pole-dancing.

Some 40,000 fans - many in pink cowboy hats and boas - were treated to a heavy-metal version of "Borderline," while "La Isla Bonita" served as backdrop for a flamenco routine. The show, billed as a musical mishmash of "gangsta pimp," Romanian folk, rave and dance - was an homage to Madonna's reinventions over the last three decades.

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