Madonna’s 12th concert tour, The Celebration Tour, is an 81-date outing to venues throughout Europe and North America. The Material Girl’s first retrospective tour — highlighting songs from her four decades of recorded material — kicked off on October 14, 2023 at London’s O2 Arena and is set to wrap up early next month, on May 4, with a final free show for her fans on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Returning to provide audio services for the tour is Eighth Day Sound (a Clair Global company since 2020.)
After 40 years at the top of popular culture, the 65-year-old Madonna shows no signs of slowing down and reimagines her live act with a beautifully curated look at her legacy, alongside her present incarnation. But after years of success, the Queen of Pop has taught us all to expect the unexpected and delivers with scores of high-energy, two-hour and 15-minute shows for sold-out venues on both sides of the pond.
At Front of House
At the helm of the live sound is FOH engineer Burton Ishmael — a talent who was hand-picked by the “Holiday” singer upon hearing his work with Eighth Day client, Post Malone. Ishmael begins: “It’s very nice to be asked to go on tour by the boss directly! Madonna is an exceptionally clever artist, and there can be a lot of pressure on a world tour, but thankfully, there’s a huge team effort going into what we’re doing, and Eighth Day Sound’s crew are experts.”
He says a core action at front of house is to repeat a process that has already been done in the studio: “My job as a live engineer is to ensure that I make the music transferable to the arena setting. Not just hearing but feeling the elements contained in the songs is the step up from the technical part of mixing; being able to create emotions and connections is key,” he explains. “I must bring the energy of the artist and transfer that to the audience and vice versa, from and through my mix. It’s almost like the automation phase of doing a mix on a record.”
It’s All About the Voice
Lauren D’Elia, vocal producer and Madonna’s audio liaison, is Madonna’s extra set of ears when she’s on stage. “I met Madonna in the studio as her engineer and vocal producer and was brought onto her last tour to help translate that to the live environment after recording Madame X,” Madonna’s 14th album, released in June 2019. “For this tour, I do the same thing, but with a set list spanning her whole career. It’s a huge undertaking, and I’m working with a fantastic vocal FX engineer, Carl Golembeski, to bring the vocal vision to life.
“From the start of rehearsals, Carl and I sat down together and combed through the setlist. We listened through the original records and remixes and essentially reverse-engineered the different vocal chains for each song based on our findings. Once Madonna arrived, she’d get on the mic and we’d all fine-tune together. This includes different reverbs for each record, delay throws, and other effects that add to the general color and flavor of her live vocal on that record.”
Madonna’s vocals are heard via a Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless system via an SKM6000 handheld transmitter fitted with an MM 435 dynamic cardioid capsule. D’Elia continues: “On ‘Burning Up,’ we added a bit of distortion, and on ‘Die Another Day,’ we added some phasers and a hard-tuning setting to get that robotic sheen the original record has. We strive to recreate the vocal atmospheres of the original records and add to it with the background vocals that musical director Kevin Antunes has arranged and recorded with vocalists Kiley Dean and Munchie.”
Vocal FX engineer Carl Golembeski adds: “I built a vocal FX performance system for real-time vocal processing to replicate the album compositions as closely as possible. In 2021, I had the opportunity to come and use it on Madonna’s shows. We worked with the studio engineers and producers to audit the songs and see how they could be recreated. The older compositions that Lauren hadn’t worked on had to find contemporary ways to be executed while still holding the energetic quality of the originals. Once dialed in, we create the mutable performance aspects so that I can perform as necessary in real-time following the artist’s live dynamics. ‘Live to Tell’ and ‘Rain’ have these nice washed-out delay verbs that hug the phrases as they finish, and carry the vibe into a subtly majestic place, in my opinion.”
Musical director Kevin Antunes gives his thoughts on how this desire for authenticity has driven the live sound for the Celebration tour. “It’s an honor every night to step on stage with a true cultural icon. In supporting Madonna’s live vocal and guitar performance, the audience gets to experience the original studio multi-track recordings in their highest fidelity. Legendary musicians and stylistic sounds of each decade have been re-imagined with new arrangements and additional musical layers to transport the audience throughout her illustrious career.
“The approach is always cinematic, because Madonna’s shows contain so many kinetic, visual elements through dance and video content,” Antunes continues. “Sound design elements and new musical parts — I have a full tour keyboard rig behind the video screen — add richness to round out the overall mix. On-stage musicians include Madonna’s children David (acoustic guitar), Mercy (piano) and Estere (DJ sample pads), and Matthew Jamal features on the cello. They’re all incredibly talented and have a natural stage presence. These sound sources immerse the crowd in Madonna’s artistry and weave together a musical tapestry worthy of a queen!”
The tour’s musical instruments are meticulously supported by backline crew chief Robert “Bongo” Longo, Madonna’s longtime guitar tech, Tommy Simpson, and multi-track playback tech Glenn Erwin.
A Most Unconventional P.A.
Back at FOH, mixing maestro Ishmael explains how Madonna’s record producer and collaborator, Music producer Stuart Price, is instrumental in the direction of this detailed audio offering. “It’s great to have someone that knows the music and to have Mr. Price act as a second pair of ears. Stuart’s vision, Madonna’s vision, and with the sonic characteristics of everything we are working with here, is a ‘wow’ situation.”
When it comes to gear, it’s all chosen “wisely,” Ishmael says, from behind his Avid VENUE S6L-32D digital mixer. “I like this desk a lot, it’s intuitive to me. L-Acoustics has been good to me too. It’s the system I started on and have had great success with, so I don’t want to change that. The P.A. here is a little unconventional, but it allows the artist to have the whole floor laid out for her to do whatever she likes.”
Systems engineer Andy Fitton is tuning the L-Acoustics K2 system, working closely with P.A. techs Nate Peterson, Tom Lawn, Harrison Travaglino, Ellis Montgomery, and Francesco Grassi. From L-Acoustics, Dave Brooks and Chris “Sully” Sullivan provide remote application support.
The all-L-Acoustics sound system design comprises K2 main hangs and KS28 subs. Outfill and side hangs are K2 with KS28 side subs and Kara II for rear hangs and center fills. The ground system is KS28 subs, X8 and Kara II, making up an impressive total box count of 206 speakers. The system utilizes 81 L-Acoustics LA12X amplifiers and two L-Acoustics P1 processors.
“The design is halfway between an in-the-round system and a traditional end-zone P.A. where the stage is set to one side of the arena,” says Fitton. “We wanted to have a more dispersed audio system to avoid noise onstage and to have the speakers closer to the audience, so there’s a higher ratio of direct signal to reverberation, pushing the P.A. out into the arena.”
To accomplish this, the mains sit around half out in the house.
“It can be complex to tune, but we use the same fundamental principles that any P.A. system is flown with,” Fitton adds. “We’ve fortunately had the backing and support from production to make it work wonderfully. Getting a show of this size in and out of an arena can be challenging, and the P.A. techs work exceptionally hard to keep things moving. Burton designed the system, and I think he put it best when he said the sound of this show is ‘not a greatest hits tour, but a memoir of Madonna’s life.’”
Fitton built 3D room models using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software and arranges the speaker deployment to achieve tonal consistency throughout the venue. Once designed and flown, Rational Acoustics Smaart tuning software and the L-Acoustics LA Network Manager control the volume, EQ and delay times of all the speakers individually, creating a consistent presentation of the mix throughout the scope of each venue.
Monitor World
Monitor engineer Matt Napier is at Madonna’s side stage for the 19th year, during which time he’s spent many tours with the tour’s vendor. “The Eighth Day Sound crew, in particular my monitor tech Roger Bammann and comms tech Katlyn Mountain, have been great at looking after me,” he says. “In my opinion, the crew makes the gig, and Eighth Day has fielded a first-class crew for this tour — something I appreciate.”
Frank Peoples, aptly named audio crew chief, agrees. “This tour wouldn’t be possible to produce without good communication. Celebration for me is like working with a bunch of friends where you know if there is an issue, they’re looking out for you. Unified positivity is more important than ever on these tours, and with the support of Eighth Day Sound, our audio crew is doing a great job at making it happen.”
Having mixed Madonna’s monitors for nearly two decades, Napier explains that he constantly re-evaluates how to approach audio in this type of environment: “Looking at the changes you can make to help the artist create such a large spectacle for their fans is an evolution; I’m always striving to make the show better.
“It’s always nice to be asked back by artists you work with, and it’s certainly been a fascinating journey with Madonna,” Napier adds. “Her shows are always at the cutting edge of technology, so with each show, I approach it fresh and make sure I’m ready for the challenge. Often, the biggest is the environment, trying to make the IEM mix sound as consistent as possible whilst dealing with the acoustics of arenas,” he says, of handling Madonna’s Wisycom and JH Audio in-ear preferences. “With Celebration, it’s often the ‘fly’ gags, keeping the in-ear mix solid despite the fact the artist is traveling in the air and in front of the P.A. while doing fully choreographed routines.”
While Napier is a longtime DiGiCo user, this tour marked his first time mixing on a Quantum 338. “It’s perfect for this show, as we don’t have a huge channel count. The DiGiCo’s onboard Mustard and Spice Rack allow me to mix everything on the console, and the Naga 6 Multiband Dynamic EQ is the final thing that enables me to ditch any external processing.”
Sonically, this tour looks at every aspect of Madonna’s untouchable and genre-spanning career, as Napier knows well. “She has always reinvented her sound and style, so it’s really fun to remix some of the older songs.”
After five dates at Palacio de los Deportes arena in Mexico City later this month, the Celebration world tour concludes May 4 on the beach in Rio, a final free show for fans.
AUDIO CREW
- Sound Company: Eighth Day Sound
- FOH Engineer: Burton Ishmael
- Vocal FX Engineer: Carl Golembeski
- Vocal Producer/Madonna Audio Liaison: Lauren D’Elia
- Music Producer: Stuart Price
- Musical Director: Kevin Antunes
- Audio Crew Chief: Frank Peoples
- Systems Engineer: Andy Fitton
- P.A. Techs: Nate Peterson, Tom Lawn, Harrison Travaglino, Ellis Montgomery, Francesco Grassi
- Remote L-Acoustics Support: Dave Brooks, Chris “Sully” Sullivan
- Monitor Engineer: Matt Napier
- Monitor Tech: Roger Bammann
- Comms Tech: Katlyn Mountain
- Backline Crew Chief: Robert “Bongo” Longo
- Guitar Tech: Tommy Simpson
- Playback Tech: Glenn Erwin
P.A. GEAR
- Mains: L-Acoustics K2
- Subwoofers: Flown L-Acoustics KS28
- Outfill/Side Hangs: L-Acoustics K2 w/KS28 side subs
- Rear Hangs/Center Fills: L-Acoustics Kara II
- Ground Subs: L-Acoustics KS28
- Front Fills: L-Acoustics X8 and Kara II
- Amplifiers: (81) L-Acoustics LA12X
- Drive Processing: L-Acoustics P1
FOH GEAR
- FOH Console: Avid VENUE S6L-32D
- P.A. Drive Software: Rational Acoustics Smaart; L-Acoustics LA Network Manager
MON GEAR
- Monitor Console: DiGiCo Quantum 338
- Madonna Vocal Mic: Sennheiser System 6000 digital wireless with MM 435 capsule on SKM6000 handheld transmitter
- Effects (all in-console): DiGiCo Mustard and Spice Rack
- IEM Hardware: Wisycom MTK952
- IEMs: JH Audio
