Madonna’s World of Woman-sponsored concert was a strange mix of NFT Pitch and the Variety Show
The slogan for the NFT project World of Women’s combined Pride party and Madonna concert last week was “Finally enough love”, the title of her new remix album. For me, it might as well have been “Finally COVID”.
After nearly two and a half years of successfully avoiding the virus, I got hot Sunday night, about 72 hours after attending the crowded event at Manhattan’s Terminal Five. Just across the Triboro Bridge in Astoria, my brother, mine plus one for the event, also tested positive for the first time.
It might have been worth it for a full-on Madonna concert, but it turned out to be more of a Madonna-and-friends variant show.
The evening was hailed by Bob the Drag Queen with a number of other fabulously dressed fellow artists, lip syncing and dancing to “Vogue” and “Bitch I’m Madonna”. In most of this action, the actual Madonna remained temptingly out of sight.
The Terminal Five tent for the Wow Finally Enough Love party with Madonna. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Her limited time on stage included a duet with rapper Tokischa on a mashup of the latter’s “Linda” and Madonna’s “Hung Up”, as artist Marilyn Minters’ video Green pink caviar toys behind them.
In the nuances of the 2003 VMAs, Tokischa and Madonna then continued to stand out. In fact, Tokischa took Britney Spears one by first kneeling and burying her face in Madonna’s crotch.
The show ended, far too soon, with a group number set for the pop star’s 2009 hit “Celebration”.
My brother and I were, I suspect, the only guests at the packed event with masks – sequins, in honor of the occasion, on top of KF94s. (I’m seldom fashionable enough for event photographers to approach me, but he seemed to appreciate our sparkling, if at last meaningless, nod to COVID security.)
Matthew Cascone and Sarah Cascone at the Wow Finally Enough Love party with Madonna. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Also present were actors Julia Fox and Zachary Quinto, DJ Leigh Lezark, Gagosian Quarterly CEO Derek Blasberg, and fashion designers Christian Siriano and Alexander Wang. I’m not sure if all of these stars are actually WoW holders, though the incident was billed as an exclusive collection for those who own NFTs from the collection.
There were, to be fair, a few women in colorful wigs and full body paint, in costume like the World of Women NFTs. I’m actually not sure if these were real fans or models paid to attend.
Guests in costume like World of Women NFTs at the Wow Finally Enough Love party with Madonna. Photo courtesy of BFA.
“I do not know anything about it,” comedian Billy Eichner, star of the upcoming LGBTQ room com Bros, asked Artnet News when asked if he owned one of the 10,000 colorful digital artworks by cartoon women designed by WoW founder and illustrator Yam Karkai. “I’m too old for NFTs.”
The WoW logo was prominently displayed on the sides of the event. Still, it was Madonna’s world: Most of the venue was adorned with Madonna-centric posters and video screens, with only a short ad cycling through a pitch for a kind of multiverse that my brother described as “Minecraft with a rainbow filter. “
Madonna herself seemed cheerfully uninterested in promoting the NFT line, focusing her statements during the performance instead on New York and the LGBTQ community, with no mention of the WoW or NFT NYC conference that had just ended in Times Square. (Two WoW NFTs were transferred to her wallet the day of the concert.)
“New York City [is] the best place in the world because of the queer people here, Madonna told the audience between songs. “Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, you have to be queer.”
The singer recently released her first NFT, in collaboration with artist Beeple, who put the concept of NFT art on the map (to a surprisingly modest return, in terms of sales, for a team up between two such big stars). It seems likely that Madonna was called into the WoW event by her manager, Guy Oseary, who added the NFT project to her list in January and had the singer immortalized in a WoW style portrait for an NFT magazine cover project with Billboard. (NFT and the celebrity world have become quite entangled.)
Madonna as a World of Women NFT on the cover of Billboard in February 2022 for the magazine’s Women in Music series. The artwork is by Yam Karkai, co-founder of the WoW NFT project. With the permission of Billboard.
The floor price of a WoW NFT is far down from the peaks earlier this year. Still, WoW is doing well. It has since signed a TV and film production agreement with Reese Witherspoon’s women-focused media conglomerate Hello Sunshine, and announced just this week that they will collaborate with Hasbro on the first NFT Monopoly cooperation. And Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Selby Drummond and Shonda Rhimes all have (or had) Twitter avatars of their WoW NFTs.
But I did not learn any of that at WoW’s big NFT NYC party, where I expected at least more lip service about the WoW community and how members had gained such special access to an exclusive event via their digital artwork. NFTs were at best window cladding here.
However, I finally got COVID.
See more photos of the show below.
Madonna performs at the WoW Finally Enough Love party. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Madonna performs at the WoW Finally Enough Love party. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Tokischa and Pixie Aventura perform at the WoW Finally Enough Love party. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Madonna performs at the WoW Finally Enough Love party. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Laganja Estranja performs at the WoW Finally Enough Love party. Photo courtesy of BFA.
WoW Finally Enough Love parties. Photo courtesy of BFA.
Violet Chachki performs at the WoW Finally Enough Love party. Photo courtesy of BFA.
WoW Finally Enough Love parties. Photo courtesy of BFA.
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