Click on the link below to read three reviews of Madonna's first Sticky & Sweet performance in the USA in New Jersey. Reviews are by New York Daily News, Associated Press and USA Today.

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New York Daily News Review

Madonna broke another convention at the first U.S. date of her Sticky and Sweet tour, held at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands Saturday night.

After a career spent sneering at the stricter rules of religion, sex and gender, the star has a fresh foe in her sights - age.

Seven weeks after qualifying for her AARP card, the 50-year-old put on a show that could have winded the most sinewy of teens. For nearly two hours, Madonna commanded the stage - first, quite literally, by entering on a throne - then by throwing her rigorously toned body through tricky dance moves, including leg splits, crotch grinds and even a double Dutch jump rope drill.

The sight had to inspire admiration, even if it did nothing for the cause of spontaneity and even less for the realm of sensuality. Then again, Madonna's shows have never had much use for such things. They're multimedia workouts, geared more to awe - or alarm - than charm.

Luckily, the staging of the show has enough razzle-dazzle to excite. And the material that dominated had enough fury in the beats and fluidity in the melodies to make up for any of the night's self-consciousness or rigidity.

Half the show's repertoire drew from the new "Hard Candy" CD, which ranks as Madonna's most fun, fleet and danceable work since her very first one.

She started right out with a newbie, "Candy Shop," and from there kept the momentum going with consistently fresh arrangements of even the oldest songs. The yearning pop ballad "Borderline" became a punk pop anthem, sounding more like something The Stooges would thrash out. "Vogue" earned a new electro-clash boost. And for some reason "La Isla Bonita" got an enjoyably weird Eastern European arrangement.

Nearly all the music swung in a more punishing direction than on its album, and Madonna allowed only one true ballad, "You Must Love Me," which had its own form of overstatement in her pleading vocal.

The video followed the tough theme, with brutal images even of candy canes. In one of the few more sprightly passages, Madonna dipped back to her 1980s roots, using a playful backdrop of Keith Herring electric babies. Thankfully, she had just one political moment, the now infamous video montage that juxtaposes John McCain with images of fascist leaders and Barack Obama with peace activists. Maybe it would have been more effective if the music behind it didn't endlessly repeat the phrase "Get Stupid."

The clumsiness of it all only threw into even higher relief the welcome lack of pretension in the rest. Mainly Madonna aimed to push her true forte - cutting-edge dance music. She did so effectively enough to make the audience dance nearly as hard, and as youthfully, as she did.



Associated Press

In a show defined by throbbing dance music, tight choreography, spectacular stage sets and stunning visuals, perhaps the most stirring moment during the kickoff concert to Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour came when the Material Girl stood onstage with just her guitar and a few musicians for an acoustic set.

As she sang the emotional song from her movie "Evita," Madonna couldn't help but wink and smile at the roaring sold-out crowd as she sang the song's main refrain and title: "You must love me."

Maybe that's because she knew she was right. Even the superstar's most cynical critics couldn't walk away from her two-hour extravaganza at the Izod Center on Saturday night without being thoroughly wowed. It was not only the spectacle of the concert, but the performer herself, as she reasserted her musical relevance and dominance in her 25th year in the spotlight.

Madonna is not the world's most gifted singer or dancer or even musician, but she may be its greatest performer. From the moment she first appeared on stage, looking taut and chiseled in a black bra and shorts with a mesh layer overlay, she turned the arena into a massive dance club and a nonstop party. The zooming "Candy Shop," off her most recent CD "Hard Candy," set it off as Madonna strutted onstage flanked by an army of dancers. While they may have executed the show's most intricate dance moves, the ever-fit Madonna dazzled on her own with sinewy steps that belied her AARP-status.

Though the show's first moments were devoted to her new album, it didn't take long for her to seamlessly groove back in time, performing one of her '90s gems, "Human Nature." The already funky, synthesized tune got an even funkier update, as Madonna utilized the vocoder trend with her background vocals. The unapologetic anthem was highlighted by a video that showed Madonna being watched by a security camera in an elevator; as the song went on, Britney Spears' image intertwined with her blonde musical mentor, looking frightened and frail under the camera's lens before striking a decidedly confident pose at the song's end.

It's a testament to Madonna's musical chops that her new music blended so expertly with some of her greatest hits: Elements of "4 Minutes" were mashed up with "Vogue" for a flashback that managed to be both classic and cutting edge. While she sang many of her classics, such as "Like a Prayer," "La Isla Bonita," and "Ray of Life," those moments weren't relegated to short renditions during the retrospective medley part of the show, like many veterans do. They were given full attention with colorful, dazzling displays and new arrangements that made them seem as exciting and fresh as when they first made their debut. "Get Into the Groove" was re-imagined with the help of a DJ, a double-Dutch playing Madonna and cartoons by the late Keith Haring. During one of her many guitar-playing moments, she gave a rocked out performance of "Borderline" to the feverishly energetic crowd.

While the "Sweet & Sticky" tour would have been a triumph in any year, it was particularly impressive coming off her somewhat lackluster "Confessions" two years ago, which seemed more like a labored, carefully designed exercise than a joyful performance.

Not so this time around. Instead of performing at the crowd, she was performing for and with them, bringing them into her world with warmth and appreciation. Even when she scolded the few in the audience who weren't on their feet with unprintable language, she was jovial and endearing.

Jabs at Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — "Sarah Palin is not in my show!" were not daggers, and she even added, "Nothing personal." And the one preachy moment — in which she implored the audience to "save the world" through a series of video images that interspersed the world's atrocities with her ideas hopeful images, including Democratic candidate Barack Obama — wasn't as over the top as might be expected (with the exception of the interloping of video of Republican candidate John McCain in with world dictators and Adolph Hitler).

With her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year and her 50th birthday, it would have been easy for Madonna to turn her latest tour into some kind of nostalgia show. It probably would have been an enjoyable experience nonetheless.

But then again, it wouldn't have been Madonna — the consummate artist who always stretches the limits, exploring new ideas to stay relevant. On Saturday, she proved to be more than relevant — she's still music premier performer.



USA Today

50 is the new 25. Or at least, that's what Madonna seemed intent on proving at her first U.S. concert since reaching that half-century milestone.

Kicking off the U.S. leg of her Sticky & Sweet tour at the Izod Center, the pop icon exhibited the energy, not to mention the muscle tone, of a woman half her age during a 23-song set that chronicled her storied career, from '80s hits to songs from this year's release Hard Candy.

Intent to give herself and her fans a musical workout, as well, Madonna put a slightly different spin on familiar tunes. As she has on recent tours, the singer played guitar on several numbers, lending a garage-rock edge to Borderline and Hung Up.

Into the Groove was presented as a pumping club mix, with Madonna jumping rope to emphasize its aerobic intensity. By that point, she had changed from a black-bustier-and-boots ensemble to a sportier but similarly revealing number set off by red gym shorts and black socks that stretched up to her gravity-defying thighs.

Audience members were impressed, and titillated. "If I were a lesbian, I would go for her," said Mary Beth Murdza, 45, a resident of Wall Township who added, "I don't think I've missed one of Madonna's tours."

Manhattan newcomer Barry Sherman, 29, came dressed in fishnet and spandex in homage to his idol. In his old house in Vermont, he added, "One of the bedrooms is a shrine to Madonna."

Madonna herself paid tribute to world music and different cultures throughout the evening. Devil Wouldn't Recognize Me had an Asian flavor, underscored by Japanese dancers, and was followed by a segment that drew on Latin influences and included Rumanian gypsy musicians, including the songs La Isla Bonita, Miles Away and, from Evita, the ballad You Must Love Me.

The visuals were similarly exotic and often stunning, from an anime-inspired montage to footage of various foreign landscapes and people. Ray of Light and Like A Prayer were accompanied by spiritual imagery, with quotations from the Bible floating across the screen.

Madonna's recent collaborators Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake popped up on video, as did Britney Spears, who filmed a special black-and-white clip as a backdrop for a frenzied Human Nature.

An already controversial segment showed famous and infamous figures ranging from Adolf Hitler and Kim Jong Il to Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama and John Lennon. Current presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were also included, McCain in closer proximity to some more patently villainous types and Obama nearer to those viewed more favorably, who also included Mother Teresa and Bono.

Madonna did not patently link McCain to any of the ogres, or verbally attack the Republican contender. She did, however, have a few choice words for his running mate. "Sarah Palin can't come to this party," she declared, after leading the audience in a festive a cappella version of Open Your Heart. "She is not in my show. She will never be in my show."

She reinforced that message, humorously, by imitating "the sound of Sarah Palin's husband's snowmobile when it won't start" with a loud, purposefully irritating burst of guitar.