1. Music&Nightlife
76 timeout.com/sao-paulo November 2012
Rival pop divas Madonna
and Lady Gaga have
more in common than
they might like to admit.
CM Gorey spells it out
We must have missed the memo, but
judging on the evidence, at some
point in the not-too-distant past it
was decreed that superstar female
vocalists had become exempt from
wearing trousers, with skirts also
optional or reduced to the size of
belts. Rihanna has made a fine art of
the look, if showing your knickers
Madonna and Lady Gaga
Live previews
on stage in front of thousands of
whooping fans can be considered an
art, as have Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj
and Ke$ha; but they owe it all to the
two most influential proponents of
pop’s ass-out movement: Madonna
and her heir apparent, Lady Gaga.
Arriving in São Paulo less than
a month apart to give concerts at
Estádio Morumbi, the rival pop
stars share a love for over-the-top
productions, with both Madonna’s
MDNA show and Gaga’s Born
This Way Ball presenting the show
as a series of ‘acts’. Madonna’s
conceptual grouping plays out via a
glass confessional box, while Gaga
goes for a three-storey medieval
castle. The former’s costumes are
overseen by Jean Paul Gaultier,
while Gaga makes do with outfits
by Versace, Moschino and Armani.
Madonna shoots her male dancers;
Gaga joins hers on a meat couch.
But in many ways, there are more
similarities between the two than
differences. Both Italian-American
women have built their success on
some of the best-known songs of
the last few decades, but they’ve
also used their fame for good,
having been outspoken supporters
of LGBT rights and ecological
causes. Musically speaking, the
bottle-blonde icons continue to draw
comparisons, thanks in no small
part to last year’s Lady Gaga single
‘Born This Way’, with its glaringly
reminiscent airs of Madonna’s 1989
smash ‘Express Yourself’. The
near-copycat move elicited a counter-
attack from the veteran: Madonna’s
current version of the Like a Prayer-
era hit drops samples from Gaga’s
tune back into her own, creating a
sly mash-up that flaunts the 54-year-
old’s relentless relevance.
But it’s when it comes to imagery
and aesthetics that Gaga steals a
lead: because where Madge’s career
has leaned on relatively mainstream
ideas about female sexuality
and religion, Gaga’s avant-garde
wardrobe and staging reveal a
willingness to embrace darker,
Material girl Madonna kicks off her show from a glass confessional box
Princess G Young pretender
On fire Face-painted, fire-spitting glam rock band Kiss comes back to SP
habhaddad/pressimage
josholins/pressimage
GuyOseary/pressimage
Kiss
The glam rockers are
back, promoting their new
album, says CM Gorey
Considering the amount of
pyrotechnics, blood-spitting and
quick-tempo hard rock in the Kiss
phenomenon, it’s hard to believe that
band founders Paul Stanley and Gene
Simmons are now in their sixties. Still
going strong after all these years,
the pair keep their brand and their
on-stage personas alive with the help
of younger guitarist Tommy Thayer
and drummer Eric Singer, taking
on the roles of the characters made
famous by original members Ace
Frehley and Peter Criss.
The band returns to São Paulo
after a three-year absence, in support
of Monster, their twentieth studio
album, nearly 40 years since the
group emerged from the New York
City glam rock scene. The band
achieved overblown pop success in
the late-1970s; suffered a backlash
that led to their revealing their
previously hidden, thickly made-up
faces in the 1980s, when they also
brought in a string of replacement
members; and followed up with a
well-received reunion and a return
to the greasepaint in the mid-1990s.
And while half of the players have
changed again since then, the set list
has been roughly the same as for the
last two decades, wrapping up with
anthems ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and
‘Rock and Roll All Nite’.
Kiss play at 9.30pm on 17
November at Anhembi Parque,
Avenida Olavo Fontoura 1209,
Santana (2226 0400/anhembi.com.
br). Tickets R$300.
less obvious visions. And while
Princess G has yet to prove she
can withstand the fickleness of the
public as well as Queen M, it’s safe
to assume that neither royal will
be taking to the stage in baggy
khakis anytime soon.
Lady Gaga plays at 7.30pm on
11 November and Madonna
plays at 8pm on 4 and 5 December
at Estádio do Morumbi, Avenida
Giovanni Gronchi 1, Morumbi.
(3749 8018/ticketsforfun.com.br).
Tickets Lady Gaga R$190-$750;
Madonna R$170-$850.
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