Madonna admits she is pushing her body to the limit as she prepares for a world tour that has got all of Abu Dhabi talking - but she insists it will be worth it if she delivers the greatest show of her career.
The pop superstar has been working "flat out" in a bid to perfect it for her MDNA show, which comes to an expectant Yas Arena audience for back-to-back shows on June 3 and 4, as she claims the nights at the start of a tour are always her favourite.
"I enjoy the first two weeks of a tour more than any other," says Madonna. "That is when you are getting everything just right and it's so exciting to see it all come together.
"To stand on stage and have the visceral connection with humans who love your music, there is nothing quite like it. I love acting, writing songs and everything else I do, but performing live has always been the most rewarding part of my job."
If Madonna's electrifying performance at February's Super Bowl XLVI is anything to go by, those of us who have tickets for her Abu Dhabi shows are in for a real treat. Despite being hampered by a hamstring injury sustained in rehearsals for her half-time set, the first lady of pop delivered in a grand manner.
However, she reveals that blind fear rippled through her as she prepared to perform in front of the watching world, with the woman who has helped to nurture an image of being as tough as she is formidable conceding she was shaking in her black, knee-high boots as she took to the Super Bowl stage.
"It was terrifying," says the singer. "They say 170 million will be watching and when you hear that number, it would make anyone nervous.
"I had to keep pinching myself to remind myself that I was at the Super Bowl.
"In more than 25 years of performing, I've never worked so hard to be so scrupulous in trying to retain my sanity and produce the most amazing show. The world watches the Super Bowl, so it isn't a great place to mess up."
Classic hits Vogue, Music, Open Your Heart and the career-defining Like A Prayer made it on to her Super Bowl set list but UAE fans can expect much more when the full show hits Yas Arena.
"The people who worked with me on my performance at the Super Bowl are with me for the tour and hopefully we give people a show that is worth the money they are paying out," she says.
"We are putting in a lot of hard work to get this right and it's quite a violent show at times, very high-energy. There are plenty of bruises covering my body to prove it.
"I like to put it all in there. It is part of the work ethic that my dad put into me and the same idea I am trying to give my own kids now. So I have been working and making sure I'm ready for this tour, but I like to be in great shape anyway. Some Pilates, some cardio, some jump rope. It's all part of the preparation."
Recent photographs of a trim Madonna, taken between rehearsals for the MDNA tour, inspired some media cynics to suggest the 53-year-old is looking gaunt, with her agent Liz Rosenberg quick to insist that her star client is "in great shape" ahead of her gruelling schedule in the second half of 2012.
Such speculation will hardly concern a woman who has been the focus of camera lenses for 30 years, with her ability to brush off tabloid newspaper rumours a part of her daily routine for as long as she can remember.
"One thing I have learnt down the years is, don't take anything personally," she says. "If you do, it will destroy you. Don't read anything about yourself, I guess that is a good idea if you are someone like me."
It's not surprising that the subject of celebrity is Madonna's least favourite. "The truth is subjective," she says, "and at times we are told about something that has happened in history through the eyes of the storyteller."
The recent release of W.E., which was co-written and directed by Madonna, tapped into the celebrity culture she so despises. It told the story of King Edward VIII's love affair with Wallis Simpson, which infamously led to him abdicating the British throne in December 1936.
"There are so many rumours about Wallis out there, so many negative things written as fact, which shows that rumours have been made up about iconic people since the beginning of time," says Madonna. "That was interesting to me. Reducing our iconic figures to a few sound bites is something we seem intent on doing.
"As I looked into her story, you can see that there was no evidence that the negative stories about her had any merit. All these years on, I can associate with her as there are plenty of stories about me that are considered to be fact and they are not even close to being true."
artslife@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Read more about the coronavirus
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Mountain%20Boy
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The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Scorline
Iraq 1-0 UAE
Iraq Hussein 28’
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
EMIRATES'S%20REVISED%20A350%20DEPLOYMENT%20SCHEDULE
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
The%20specs
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The%20Roundup
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
