Idolator
A new Live Earth nontroversy controversy emerges: Did Madonna really play guitar during her Live Earth set on Saturday, or was she merely miming her parts? While her stock-still awkwardness as she tried playing the guitar instead of dancing seemed all too real (hey, we've seen Shanghai Surprise, so we know about her acting skills), there's debate over whether or not she actually played—and a lot of the debate is hinging on the quality of her fingernails, which some Internet sleuths are saying were "too long" for six-stringing. Maybe that key detail is why she forced all members of the media who were granted an interview to stare into her eyes as they spoke.
Was Madonna's Live Earth guitar solo real? [Telegraph via BUZZGRINDER]
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I'm surprised this controversy is just now rearing its head. She did the same awkward guitar stance during her last two tours so she's probably perfected it by now.
I suspect she's actually playing, but she's accompanied by backing guitarists who probably do the heavy lifting.
Lots of Madge's guitar in the monitors, none in the mains. She wouldn't be the first superstar to get that treatment.
I vote for "real," on the chord-strumming. The song I saw had a backing guy do a little tiny solo, but there was no effort to pretend Madonna was playing it. She could afford to have a LOT better backing track if she was going to fake it. Hand positions were right. Her nails don't look that long, either. Feedback's simply a matter of the guitar pickup being too close to a speaker that the guitar is live on. No ability required at all.
That's a pretty Les Paul.
She's been playing for less than a decade, and she confessed to being a beginner a while ago. I recall her on Letterman during her promotional tour for Music (2000), where she did an acoustic version of "Don't Tell Me" and begged the audience's indulgence as she painstakingly strummed it out. I can't imagine she's gotten staggeringly better since then, but she does seem sincere in her desire to actually play.
She's been playing guitar live since the Drownded World tour in 2001, when she was pretty much a novice. But she's played - live, and much better - on the American Life tour and the Confessions tour, and if she wasn't playing live on Saturday, she definitely performed "Ray of Light" the exact same way - yes, playing live - all throughout the last tour. You could spot the moments when she was playing without her lead guitarist, particularly on "I Love New York," at those shows.
"Her nails were too long"? Have these people never herd of Dolly Parton? Now those are some long nails, and she plays just fine. The secret is open tunings.
It was real, I even remember a interview with her 2 years ago talking about how she had just taken up guitar and loved it and had her teacher help her learn a few of her songs to possibly play on stage. If you look at her older guitar work in her previous two tours you can actually see her natural progression toward getting better at playing it.
If fakey strummy is good enough for Mick Jagger, it's good enough for Madge.
Video?
Sorry. Confused. I was looking for an actual guitar solo. She was just doing that Bono guitar-envy thing.
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