“Madonna will perform a special tribute to Michael Jackson during her London show Saturday at the venue where he was due to stage his farewell shows” the Inquirer reports, quoting an interview the Queen of Pop (who often says she doesn’t read newspapers, and hence can’t realize which ones usually trash her), said to The Sun, saying she was “terribly sad” about Jackson’s death and revealed she “used to love picking his brains about musical stuff”.

Madonna is playing London’s O2 Arena today and tomorrow and as our readers know will feature extracts from Jackson’s songs “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” plus pictures of the star, who died last week.
Madonna and her dancers will also wear single white gloves – one of Jackson’s most famous wardrobe accessories – during a finale of her hit “Give It 2 Me”.
“I am so terribly sad about Michael Jackson’s death,” Madonna said in the interview. “I don’t know what artist wasn’t inspired by him.
“To be able to do what he did at such an early age was unearthly, everybody grew up in awe of him. To work with him and become friends and hang out with him was exciting for me.
“I used to love picking his brains about musical stuff.”

Madonna said that before Jackson died, she had offered to do a duet with him at the O2 shows. “I don’t know what we could have done together, I could have carried his bags for him maybe,” she said.

Sources: Inquirer, MadonnaTribe.

We’re almost there!! The Sticky and Sweet Tour 2009 is just a day away and to build up excitement MadonnaTribe would like to share some more exclusive news we have heard buzzing around.
During these weeks apparently nothing has changed in the new rock version of Dress You Up that replaces Heartbeat. The My Sharona inspired arrangement is still there and it’s really good.

On the Holiday front instead there are some changes. As previously reported exclusively here the song already contained vocal lines and music samples of Everybody (Dance and Sing Get Up And Do Your Thing) and the new track Celebrate but now as a homage to the late Michael Jackson, Madonna has been rehearsing the song with a whole middle part of MJ music in it.

There’s the famous “Billie Jean” drum beat and the “Wanna Be Starting Something” hook (the “Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa” stuff).
Totally a dance number perfect for the 80’s part of the show!! Fans will love it!

Speaking about the latest new entry, Frozen, that replaces Hung Up, we are told is a upbeat number with the hook of the Calvin Harris’ song “I’m Not Alone” in the middle.

But the great surprise is that the new Frozen also contains parts of another great Madonna classic from the 80’s, “Open Your Heart”, a song that was rehearsed for the first part of this tour but that didn’t make the final setlist replaced by Doli Doli.
The song now gets its revenge!

As for the video backdrop for Frozen they are using video outtakes from the original video by Chris Cunningham from 1998, re edited in a great new way!

The show will also have some other great surprises.