Madonna’s shows are always characterized by throbbing dance music, tight choreography, spectacular stage sets and stunning visuals, but Madonna’s kick-off concert for her ‘Sticky & Sweet’ tour saw the Material Girl onstage with only her guitar and a few musicians.

She winked and smiled at the roaring crowd as she sang the title song and main refrain ‘You must love me’, from her movie ‘Evita’.  Perhaps, she was right as she wowed the crowed, with even her most cynical critics unable to walk away from the two hour extravaganza at the Izod Centre on Saturday night.  Reasserting her musical relevance, the Material Girl continues to dominate the spotlight even after 25-years.

While, she may not be the world’s most gifted singer, dancer or musician,  there is not denying that she is its greatest performer, turning the arena into a massive dance club and on-stop party, as soon as she appeared looking taut and chiseled in black bra and shorts, with a mesh layer overlay.  Flanked by an army of dancers, she strutted her stuff executing intricate dance moves and sinewy steps to ‘Candy Shop’ from ‘Hard Candy’, fitness personified belying her age of just turned 50-years.

Devoting the first moments of the show to her new album, she segued into and updated version of ‘Human Nature’, one of her gems from the 1990s.  Expertly blending her new music with some of her greatest hits e.g. elements of ‘4 Minutes’ with ‘Vogue’, the flashback was classic, but cutting edge.  Singing many of her classics, such as, ‘Like a Prayer’, ‘La Isla Bonita’, and ‘Ray of Life’, with a dazzling display of colour and new arrangements, she infused them with fresh excitement, as when they were first debuted.  She rocked the crowd to fever pitch with ‘Get Into the Groove’ and while playing the guitar for ‘Borderline’.

Despite her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on her 50th birthday this year, Madonna, always the consummate artist par excellence, she refused to go down nostalgia lane, instead her show proved she still has it, is still a premiere performer, and even at fifty, she can still stretch the limits.