Mdna | featured news

A ritual, a blood bath, slacklining, a partial striptease, drummers in midair, traditional Basque harmonies, a psychedelic train ride — they’re all part of Madonna’s “MDNA” tour, which started its North American itinerary with an arena concert here at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night. It comes to Yankee Stadium next Thursday and Sept. 8.

Madonna‘s MDNA album debuts at number 1 on the British charts, but it’s a soft landing. According to Billboard, MDNA had sales of 56,000– very low for a number 1 album debut. In contrast, Bruce Springsteen‘s Wrecking Ball hit number 1 two weeks ago with 74,000 copies. Here in the US, Billboard is reporting–just as I did last week–that Lionel Richie is ahead of Madonna in the race for number 1. Those final numbers won’t be in until late Tuesday. But Richie is substantially ahead of Madonna on ITunes and amazon.com, the two chief sellers of music at this point.