The former ended up being Madonna's lowest selling album at the time, while the latter received extensive media attention, and backlash from fans and critics; nonetheless, it was commercially successful.

Like her previous Blond Ambition World Tour (1990), the concert was divided into different thematic sections: Dominatrix, Studio 54, Weimar Cabaret, and an encore.

Madonna opened the show dressed as a dominatrix surrounded by topless dancers, while lighter moments included her descending from the ceiling on a giant disco ball wearing an Afro wig for "Express Yourself" (1989), as well as singing "Like a Virgin" (1984) in the guise of actress Marlene Dietrich.

Consisting of sexually provocative and explicit images, photographed by Steven Meisel, the book was met with a strongly negative reaction from the media and the general public, but was commercially successful.

[2][3] The widespread backlash overshadowed Erotica which, despite positive reviews, ended up as the singer's lowest selling album at the time;[3][4] Madonna continued her provocative imagery in the 1993 erotic thriller Body of Evidence, a film which contains scenes of sadomasochism and bondage but it was critically panned and a commercial failure.

[8] It was initially planned not to visit the United States, instead focusing on regions the singer had never toured before, such as Turkey, Israel, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil and Australia.

[9] A concert in Beijing's Workers' Stadium was also planned; the official China News Agency reported that she would be allowed to perform as long as there wasn't include any "indecent exposure" in the show.

[19] For the show's main theme, Madonna and her brother agreed on a "burlesque circus" and, for inspiration, would watch Bollywood films, Thai dance numbers, Carol Reed's Trapeze (1956), as well as the work of Marlene Dietrich, Louise Brooks, Erté, and Zizi Jeanmaire.

[20] The wardrobe was in charge of fashion designer duo Dolce & Gabbana; Madonna gave them instructions to watch a number of films, including My Fair Lady (1964) and Cabaret (1972), to bring to life the "striptease, Vegas type of show" she envisioned.

[21] 1,500 costumes were created for the tour's troupe, that ranged from dominatrix boots, a sequined bra, and a Victorian-inspired dress to a simple white tank-top and cut-off denim shorts.

[22] Domenico Dolce recalled that, "both Madonna and I share a Fellinian version of the circus, but we also like those glamorous costumes that you can see in the movies from the '50s"; the duo agreed on "perfection" being the biggest challenge they encountered while working with the singer.

Then, Madonna emerged as a short-haired dominatrix, wearing a black sequined ensemble consisting of jacket, bra, hot pants, elbow-length gloves, knee-high boots, and domino mask while brandishing a crop to perform "Erotica"; her dancers posing suggestively in the background.

[33] For "Rain", Madonna and back-up singers and dancers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory wore long see-through black robes and sat on stools in the center of the stage.

[34] An instrumental interlude closed the act: the pierrot, along with several dancers dressed in black and twirling umbrellas, did a choreography reminiscent of the 1952 musical film Singin' in the Rain.

Then, Madonna descended from the ceiling on a giant disco ball, wearing a blond afro wig, 1970's style halters and royal blue Bell-bottom pants.

[32][37] The final song before the encore was "Holiday"; it featured Madonna and the dancers wearing long trenchcoats and doing a military parade while an American flag was hung in the background.

[38][42] The final numbers were "Justify My Love" and a mashup of Sly and the Family Stone's "Everybody Is a Star" (1969) and Madonna's own "Everybody":[37] the former had the singer and dancers wearing Victorian costumes and her holding a lorgnette, and the latter saw them change into white tops and denim shorts.

In his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography, J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote: "While still sexy, it was still more of an innocent burlesque rather than a blatant attempt to shock [...] this concert had the feeling of a racy Barnum and Baileys circus", and praised it for revealing a "softer" side of the singer.

"[44] Thom Duffy from Billboard said the tour "transcended its own playfully erotic hype and earned kudos as pure entertainment", also noticing a "sense of humor and burlesque" that Blond Ambition lacked.

"[45] Similarly, Richard Corliss, writing for Time, expressed that, "Madonna, once the Harlow harlot and now a perky harlequin, is the greatest show-off on earth", and deemed the tour "at once a movie retrospective, a Ziegfeld revue, a living video, an R-rated take off on Cirque du Soleil.

"[46] Paul Taylor from The Independent was positive on his review of the show's opening night at London; "her performance-which featured spanking, four-letter outbursts and suggestive references to oral sex and the size of one dancer's manhood clearly delighted most of her fans.

Pareles pointed out that the singer "sings just enough solo parts to prove she's not lip-synching", concluding that with Blond Ambition she was "pop's least flirtatious sex symbol", but was "likeable again" on the Girlie Show.

[38] The Los Angeles Times's Jeff Kaye wrote that, "despite the scanty costumes adorning the star and her troupe of singers and dancers, and the liberal doses of group groping and gender-bending, there wasn't anything that could be called shocking [...] there was a sense that this adoring crowd had seen and heard all this stuff before.

[28][31] Bruce Elder from The Sydney Morning Herald gave a mixed review; "the best that could be said [...] was that it was an event, an occasion, a place to be seen at, but as pure dance, pop or rock entertainment, it was nothing special."

It remains the second largest crowd ever on Rio's Maracanã Stadium for a concert by a female artist, behind Tina Turner's 1988 Break Every Rule World Tour (attended by 188,000 people).

[68] Norbert Geis, parliamentary spokesman for Chancellor Helmut Kohl's party, had previously warned: "Either Madonna drops these obscenities... or she will not be allowed to appear".

[68] Trouble in Israel occurred when Orthodox Jews staged protests to force the cancellation of the singer's first show in the country; Avraham Ravitz, from the Torah Judaism Party, expressed that "this is a holy land [...] people from all over the world did not move here in order to see this human garbage".

[71] Luis de Rosa, president of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of South Florida, said Madonna "has no right to go to someone's homeland and pass their flag through her private parts".

[71] More controversy arose in Argentina; cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, called the singer "blasphemous and pornographic" and asked then-president Carlos Menem not to receive her.

Jorge María Storni, president of the organization Tradición, Familia y Propiedad, supported the cancellation of the concerts, since according to his words, Madonna's main goal was to "undermine the foundations of social order".