Only 23 Citizens Detained During Madonna’s Moscow Gig!

There's a lot of symbolism in Madonna playing Moscow for the first time last night - and not just the clumsy sixth-form symbolism of Madonna singing a sad song while strung up on a crucifix like Jesus, either.

For a global megastar like Madonna to play her first-ever concert in Moscow means that the world has got a little bit smaller, and the giant, cold, remote capital of Russia has just got ever so slightly more accepting of small middle-aged ladies running around a big stage with three millimetres of lycra covering up their genitals. And the common consensus is that Madonna's Moscow concert went without serious incident, with Moscow Police boasting that they only had to detain 23 people during the concert. Assuming that none of them were Madonna, that's probably a pretty good number. Or a really terrible one; we've never been too great at working out acceptable Russian detainee ratios.

Madonna must be feeling pretty invincible at the moment - she just can't be stopped. A hernia couldn't stop Madonna's new world tour, nor could a bunch of Wembley bronze or just about every single person on the planet with a vaguely religious leaning. Before yesterday, Madonna had faced a barrage of criticism about the segment of her concert where she hops up onto a giant mirrored cross, pulls a sad face like Jesus and sings a really dreadful techno song about how horrible it is to be African or something.

The Church of England didn't like Madonna's stunt, nor did the combined might of all of Italy's Jews, Muslims and Catholics, or a bunch of German prosecutors before they realised they couldn't actually arrest Madonna. In fact, the only person who seems to approve of Madonna's crucifixion is Jesus himself, who seems to think it's all a bit of a laugh, even if he is just going easy on Madonna because he got off with her in the Like A Prayer video. Ahead of Madonna's first-ever Moscow concert, though, there were yet more crucifixion protests from the Russian Orthodox Church, seemingly prompting real fears that Madonna's concert would turn into a riot. However, Madonna's Moscow concert passed without any serious incidents, as the Moscow Kommersant is delighted to report:

”Overall, 23 people were detained during the event at Luzhniki Stadium and at the nearby territory,” said Yevgeny Gildeyev, spokesman of Moscow police. Some of them, were drunk, others were arrested for minor administrative violations. Seven people, for instance, attempted to hold an authorized rally near the stadium. The detained were released once they were talked to or the protocols on administrative violations were made out, Gildeyev said.

Actually, Madonna mustn't be feeling all that invincible this morning - the exact opposite, in fact. She's gone to all this trouble to be as deliberately controversial as possible, what with her inappropriate dress and her building a giant shiny crucifix to uncomfortably hang herself from night after night, and all she needed to do to annoy the Russians was to make a number of small administrative violations? We bet Madonna's feeling pretty stupid right now, oh yes.

Read more:

Madonna's Moscow Show Faced No Grave Law Violations - Moscow Kommersant

[story by Stuart Heritage]