MEET THE FACE BEHIND THE FACE OF MADONNA
For Gina Brooke, the magic of a Madonna concert isn’t when the pop star is strutting onstage with a full set of backup singers and dancers, but when she drops out of sight.
That’s because Brooke, the diva’s makeup artist, is waiting along with a hairstylist and two wardrobe assistants to touch up Madonna’s face and hair, and help her change into a new costume. The routine takes 90 seconds, tops.
“That’s the most exciting part of the show — below the stage,” Brooke says of four quick-change segments during each stop on the Sticky & Sweet tour.
“If she doesn’t get her boot on straight, I can’t powder her properly, or she’ll go on late, and it can be a big issue,” Brooke says. The support crew also gets a private show by Madonna during the changes. “She’s really funny and witty.”
Brooke and Madonna’s hairstylist spend from 45 minutes to an hour prepping the star before each performance, and that ritual, too, is carefully orchestrated. “The look of the show is quintessentially Madonna,” says the artist. “When I’m doing someone’s makeup, I always look at their face and take what I think is their best attribute and enhance it. Madonna’s eyes and skin are her most beautiful features.”
The process starts long before the first sound check. “We go in three weeks before the tour starts and look at the costumes she’ll be wearing,” Brooke says. From that, the makeup artist will come up with some ideas about how the makeup will complement the costumes. “[Madonna] knows what she wants; ultimately it is a collaboration,” Brooke says.
When she’s not doing celebrity makeup for shows or photo shoots, Brooke travels to stores on behalf of makeup company Shu Uemura. The classes Brooke teaches start with a talk about the importance of skin care. “Beautiful makeup begins with beautiful skin,” she says. “If you don’t prime a wall properly, the paint doesn’t go on smoothly and the same is true for your skin.”
At good makeup counters, employees have been trained to find the right cosmetics for a woman’s skin, hair and eye colors, she says, and customers are shown how to properly apply it. It shouldn’t be a slapdash affair where you are sold whatever eye or lip color is in season and sent on your way.
That said, there are two trends right now that women can use to update their look. The one that Madonna’s wearing — metallic eye shadow — can be used for day and evening, Brooke says. The other is to experiment with bold lips in shades of pink, red or brown.
“I don’t believe there are rules to makeup,” Brooke says. “People should apply makeup according to what looks good on them.”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com
great story………now we know…magic
management should keep an eye on Celine Dion’s latest tour.
Madonna is expected to gross close to 300 million $ from 58 shows
Celine Dion’s Taking Chances around 325 million $ from 131 shows (2 times more shows)
It would be a shame for this tour to not end up as the biggest tour by a female musician or even by a solo musicican as reported, with much less tour dates than Taking Chances Tour.
WHAT MADONNA SHOULD DO IS TO ADD NEXT YEAR EXTRA GLOBAL LEGS FOR THE TOUR, BESIDES THE ALEADY ANNOUNCED EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA AND SOUTH AMERICA, TO MAKE SURE SS TOUR REMAINS THE BIGGEST TOUR EVER BY A FEMALE ARTIST. IT WOULD BE A SHAME TO END UP SECOND TO Taking Chances Tour, ONLY BY SEVERAL MILLION $ IN GROSS, ALTHOUGH HAVING TWICE MUCH LESS TOUR DATES THAN IT. SHE SHOULD JUST ADD UP SOME DATES IN ASIA, AUSTRALIA AND MAYBE AFRICA, ALL WOULD BE EASILY SELL-OUTS.
Alex : hey body I read your comments and I guess you push Madonna’s fans to be more scare about Madonna and her works. Why we just focus on her good achievements and how she keep working and doing many great stuffs in each year ?!
*Celine Dion has/had albums and albums and there’re good BUT almost of them containing songs in every album that had to be re-make + re-released by her JUST !
** Madonna might going to Australia and then there’re possibility to end her great S&S Tour in Japan follow by the DVD releasing and another DVD for (Re-invention Tour) Plus :
- The greatest hits 2009
- The collaborate song with Timbaland
- The big opportunity to get rising (4minutes) to hit 3xp in the end of 2009 as what happened in (Hung up)
So if that just come up I guess she’ll be #1 female & solo artist by a tour rising as I said adding Japan + Australia.
*** I really get bored of reading and reading bad and negative or pessimist comments by Madonna’s fans …
Love Nicky ..
management should keep an eye on Celine Dion’s latest tour.
Madonna is expected to gross close to 300 million $ from 58 shows
Celine Dion’s Taking Chances around 325 million $ from 131 shows (2 times more shows)
It would be a shame for this tour to not end up as the biggest tour by a female musician or even by a solo musicican as reported, with much less tour dates than Taking Chances Tour.
WHAT MADONNA SHOULD DO IS TO ADD NEXT YEAR EXTRA GLOBAL LEGS FOR THE TOUR, BESIDES THE ALEADY ANNOUNCED EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA AND SOUTH AMERICA, TO MAKE SURE SS TOUR REMAINS THE BIGGEST TOUR EVER BY A FEMALE ARTIST. IT WOULD BE A SHAME TO END UP SECOND TO Taking Chances Tour, ONLY BY SEVERAL MILLION $ IN GROSS, ALTHOUGH HAVING TWICE MUCH LESS TOUR DATES THAN IT. SHE SHOULD JUST ADD UP SOME DATES IN ASIA, AUSTRALIA AND MAYBE AFRICA, ALL WOULD
Alex : Madonna doesn’t have to add more shows to beat Celine. The mere fact that Celine is doing more shows (131) and earning just 325M against Madonna’s 58 shows with sales of 300M still makes Madonna the No.1 biggest selling concert tour by a female. Divide the total sales by the no. of shows and you’ll see which artist sells and gains more per show.
Do the math stupid.
I did not know that Dita, thanx so much……. 4 awhile I felt sad to know that pessimist news and NOW Australia is of from being included in S&S…..
Wake up guys! What’s wrong with all of you??? THE WORLD IS IN A MAJOR ECONOMIC CRISIS! BUT DESPITE THAT, OUR QUEEN IS MAKING PEOPLE WATCH HER SHOW! WE SHOULD ALL BE HAPPY THAT SHE DID NOT SUFFER THE SAME FATE AS JANET WHO HAD TO CANCEL HER TOUR BECAUSE OF POOR SALES. HER CLOSEST RIVAL, MARIAH IS NOT AND HAS NOT TOURED IN YEARS. CELINE IS NOT REALLY A RIVAL. THEY HAVE DIFFERENT MUSICAL BACKGROUNDS.
IT ONLY MEANS MADONNA IS A FORCE TO RECKON EVEN IN TIMES OF CRISIS.
Dita it’s you who needs to do the math. because madonna only plays HUGE stadiums that holds as much capacity as she can get. not small arena that hold merely 2000 to 10 000 or so like Celine plays. Celine works 10 times as hard and plays to small tiny arenas and keep tivket prices low while Madonna is a greedy pig that plays only huge stadiums not arenas and has to dobule bill her show with Tiesto techno trance music in order to draw fans who might be going really to see Tiesto not her. LOL.