Madonna rounded off the European leg of her groundbreaking Celebration tour with a surprise guest appearance from Stella McCartney.
The legendary pop star has been performing across Europe since October, thrilling fans with a glittering retrospective of her six-decade-spanning career.
On Wednesday (6 December), Madonna, 65, gave her final show at London’s O2 Arena, the same place it began nearly three months prior.
For the “Vogue” segment of the concert, the “Hung Up” singer is usually joined by a celebrity guest who helps her judge dancers and models as they make their way down the runway towards them.
In traditional ballroom fashion, drag artist Bob the Drag Queen commentates from the sidelines, awarding the candidates marks between a “chop” and “10s across the board”.
Madonna— (Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)
The final show for 2024 featured fashion designer McCartney sitting beside Madonna as they enjoyed and judged the different categories on display.
“Walking the runway, eating the runway, serving the runway, all-American!” Bob chanted as the models posed.
One clip from the segment shows models taking part in the “sex siren” category, during which male-presenting models writhed at Madonna and McCartney’s feet.
The dancers then hitched one of each woman’s legs on their shoulders and appeared to simulate oral sex, before they left the stage.
Stella McCartney joined Madonna at her final European tour date in London’s O2 Arena— (Getty Images)
Previous celebrity guests for this memorable segment of the tour include music artist FKA twigs, DJ Diplo and fashion designers Donatella Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier, who both designed some of the costumes Madonna wears on stage.
Other highlights from the show include the singer sharing the stage with some of her children, including Lourdes Leon, David Banda and James, as well as a touching memorial for some of the millions of people who died of Aids-related complications.
In The Independent’s five-star review of the show, music critic Helen Brown commended the performer’s command of the stage and her resistance to ageist criticism.
She wrote: “[Madonna] makes us feel young as she bops to ‘Into the Groove’ before playing a snatch of the 2016 Billboard Awards speech in which she spoke out against ageism in the industry, telling us that ‘the most controversial thing I’ve done is to stick around’. In doing so, she continues to inspire fans to hang onto their own fire; to refuse to give up or shut up.
“We should never forget how much Madonna changed the world – hers is a life and a legacy worth celebrating.”
The Celebration Tour will resume in New York City on Wednesday 13 December and is set to conclude on 26 April 2024 in Mexico City.
