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| Tickets and badges to see Madonna! |
I remember when I first announced I was making my move to Israel permanent my mom mentioning hope that I would one day meet a former love of hers who just happens to be Israeli. Though he doesn't live in Israel he would constantly correspond with my mom at which times he would check to see how I was doing and if I needed anything at all. Much of his family is still here in Israel so they would, naturally, be fantastic resources for a new immigrant like myself who is alone in this country. Now what I forgot to mention is that this wonderful man just happens to be the father of Madonna's personal manager, and he was in Tel Aviv for her world tour debut!
When my mother told me he was in town I jumped at the chance to meet with him. Like I previously stated, I am quite alone here in Israel and I try to never miss an opportunity to forge new contacts. I immediately wrote him an email expressing my desire to meet him, arranged a time, and then discovered that he had told my mom he was going to try and get me two VIP tickets to the concert!!! I was absolutely beside myself. I made sure to convey the fact that I was not writing to meet him for tickets (I genuinely wanted to meet someone who was such a special part of my mother's life), but, nonetheless, I was so so so beyond excited to receive such a wonderful gift. The next day I met with him at the Dan Tel Aviv hotel (where Madonna was staying as well) where I was greeted by rooms and rooms full of security. We had a quick meet and greet but because he was so busy with the concert we could only be together for a short period of time, I gave him the short version of my life story, and when it was time for him to leave he gave me a wonderful gift of two tickets and passes to a concert that had been sold out for months!
Since I found out about the tickets only 1 day before the concert I had a lot of work to do on Wednesday to lock in my date, figure out what to wear, how to get there, and so on. Because Madonna isn't so much a young, 24 year old man's cup of tea my first choice of guest was my best friend Susanna, however, she was leaving for the states that night so couldn't come. After some thought I realized that even though one might not be a Madonna fan, and I must admit I'm not the biggest Queen M fan either, I still had AMAZING tickets and it would be a wonderful date night, so, naturally, I had Stephane come with me! Saying that there is never a dull moment when Stephane is involved would be a dramatic understatement. I knew when I invited him that we would not be doing this concert experience half assed; there would be costumes and craziness because, well, that's just how he does things and I surely wasn't complaining. After I had my attire planned out everything was set for the next day.
When it was time to depart for the concert Steph's mom was kind enough to take us which was really a mitzvah (good deed), seeing as we probably would have scared people on the bus... We were decked out and ready to make our presence known at this event!
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| The perfect center of attention! |
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| I went for the classic Madonna 80's look |
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| 80's style! |
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| Me and my crazy date! |
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| VIP Friends and Family lounge! |
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| Open bar! |
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| Of course he gravitated towards the cheese... so French! |
After spending some time in the lounge we decided to enter the venue where we were escorted to an area practically right up against the stage! I couldn't believe how close we were. Out of sheer curiosity we asked some people how much they spent on tickets in the section we were in (which would be totally not appropriate in America but a question which is absolutely acceptable in Israel :-p) and we didn't get an answer under ₪ 1500 shekel ($400+). AMAZING! Since all great stars must be fashionably late we spent a good hour and a half enjoying the French DJ who was opening, and then the the lovely montage of Michael Jackson music they were playing immediately before Madonna took the stage. We danced around, talked to people, took pictures, and enjoyed the fact that we were in such an amazing section, for free, which for two poor new immigrants is something to get excited about :-)
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| Hello stage right in front of me! |
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| My favorite goofball |
Finally it was time for the queen herself to emerge and what an entrance it was! Not only were men chanting sections of Kaballah (very appropriate if you know Madonna's fascination with Jewish mysticism), but acrobats dazzled, and then appeared Madame M... Right in front of my face. I was so close I felt like I could touch her at times!
With a brilliant combination of new and old material Madonna absolutely dazzled, and for being a 53 year old woman, she looked damn good! She really is a brilliant performer who puts on one hell of a show. It was amazing singing along, dancing, acting crazy, and having one of the best times, especially because my company was so great :-)
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| Stephane and his pre-teen fan club :-) |
As the concert was coming to a close Stephane and I decided to beat the crowd and leave during the last song so that we had a prayer of catching a taxi back into Tel Aviv. We planned it perfectly, found ourselves a cab, and ended a perfectly wonderful night with ease (which is not always easy to do in Israel). It was really the perfect night, the perfect concert, the perfect company, and I couldn't have been more happy with how everything worked out. It was a fantastic end to a fairly stressful week!
Friday night was fairly relaxed since I was still so tired from the concert, Saturday was spent being positively lazy (something I could be a professional at), and Sunday I was off to Jerusalem with my class to see a world renowned Islamic art museum. Stay tuned for that post next!
Until we meet again ya chaverim <3,
Jordana Simone
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