noturno

Fascinated by the setting for this Sticky & Sweet Tour concert that Madonna performed in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2009. It was an outdoor show in Palace Square that played to 27,000 people. The ornate buildings you see in the background are the Winter Palace and the State Hermitage Museum. Before the show took place, authorities and curators at The State Hermitage Museum expressed fierce pushback. The museum's director, Dr. Mikhail Piotrovski, publicly worried that the pop concert would be a "natural disaster" for the structural integrity of the historic buildings and demanded strict decibel limits. He also explicitly requested a written agreement guaranteeing there would be "no blasphemy" on stage. A local communist group even sent Madonna an open letter demanding she "dress modestly," "sing melodically," and perform a Soviet revolutionary song to honor those who stormed the Winter Palace in 1917. Madonna paid little mind to the restrictions, delivering her classic high-energy, edge-pushing performance against the spectacular backdrop of Palace Square. #Madonna #stickyandsweettour