Madonna: Sticky & Sweet Tour

Thursday night, as expected, albeit two hours late, Madonna brought down the house at Dodger Stadium. With surprise guests Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, both performing separately, Madonna never failed to deliver a show-stopping event her fans will remember for a long time.

With traffic jams and reported stage issues at Dodger Stadium, the lights finally dimmed at almost ten o’clock to a roar of excitement as Madonna took the stage.  With typical flare and theatrics, she opened with the title track on her new CD, “Candy Shop.”  With three big-screen graphics behind her, images lit up the night like a two-hour music video, as the diva nary took a break, keeping up with a string of dancers half her age.

About a half-hour into her set, Britney Spears showed up in a subtle white blouse and baggy pants to join Madonna to sing the last verse of the track “Human Nature,” to screams of delight from the audience which included Ryan Seacrest, Jennifer Lopez, Heidi Klum, Fergie, and Drew Barrymore.  As Spears finished up her performance, with the screens behind her flashing her now signature line, “It’s Britney, bitch,” the audience went wild.

Towards the end of the show, Timberlake wowed the crowd joining Madonna with “4 Minutes,” the song which he guests from her Hard Candy album.  The two reprised their sexy choreography from the video as the audience cheered throughout.  Just like Spears, when the song was over, Timberlake vanished and Madonna was on to the next one.

By the end of the evening, Madonna performed nine of the 12 songs from her Hard Candy album, along with 11 older tunes like “Ray of LIght,” “Music,” and “Into the Groove.”  At one point, the iconic diva took a request from the audience, “Dress You Up,” and proceeded to sing it acapella as the audience joined in, clapping along, proving not only she still has it — she never lost it.

During the concert, Madonna also took the opportunity to offer a bit of political insight in light of the controversy surrounding California’s Proposition 8, the state’s ban on gay marriage which passed this week.

“If we can elect an African American as president, we can support gay marriage! Defeat Prop 8!  We will never give up!” she yelled out to a sea of support from the audience.

One of the most moving moments of the evening, however, was during a tender rendition of the Evita song, “You Must Love Me.”  With images from the movie backing her up with a simple accompyment on stage, Madonna still managed the seemingly impossible achievement of sounding vulnerable.  It was as if, after a quarter century in the business, a litany of pop hits, as well as achieving icon status, she was still begging us to love her…

Love her, we did.  And by the looks and sounds of Thursday night, we’ll be loving her for a long, long time.