There’s a moment in the Celebration tour when Madonna participates in a simulated orgy. Wearing a red-and-black teddy and high leather boots, she sits with her legs spread wide as half-naked dancers of different genders attend to her in a writhing huddle, to the strains of Justify My Love.
Watching this, it was interesting to think about how, 40 years ago, when Madonna was just starting her career, having something like this in a pop concert would have been considered incredibly shocking, offensive or downright illegal. In fact, in 1990, during Madonna’s Blond Ambition world tour, the same sort of moves almost got her arrested, and Pope John Paul II denounced the show as “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity”.
