page_title: Iconic (song)
section_title: Live performance
hierarchical_section_title: Iconic (song) / Live performance
caption_attribution_description: English: Madonna performing "Iconic" during her Rebel Heart Tour concert in Antwerp, Belgium on November 28, 2015.Français&#160;: Madonna interprétant Iconic pendant son Rebel Heart Tour à Anvers, Belgique le 28 novembre 2015.
context_page_description: "Iconic" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Madonna for her thirteenth studio album Rebel Heart. It was written by Madonna, Toby Gad, Maureen McDonald, Larry Griffin Jr., Chancelor Bennett, Dacoury Natche and Michael Tucker. "Iconic" was produced by Madonna, Gad, AFSHeeN and Josh Cumbee, while DJ Dahi and Tucher served as additional producers. It features American rapper Chance the Rapper and a spoken intro by American professional boxer Mike Tyson. The song's demo was leaked onto the internet on December 17, 2014, alongside twelve other tracks from the album, with "Iconic" also being rumored as the album's title. Its final version was released on February 9, 2015, with "Hold Tight" and "Joan of Arc", on the iTunes store.
  A trap-influenced EDM, hip hop and dance-pop song, "Iconic" features in its instrumentation "ice-cold" synths, marching drums and "booming" bass, as well as machinic stabs and electronic gears. Lyrically, the song encourages people to take control of their life, to pursue their dreams and to find their own greatness.
context_section_description: "Iconic" was chosen to be the opening song from the Rebel Heart Tour (2015–16). It begins with a video featuring Madonna in a glamorous dress cavorting with bare-bodied males juxtaposed with Mike Tyson talking inside of a cage. Tyson commented about the shooting, saying: "Riveting is not [the word]. It's just intense... I'm in a cage. I'm a hostage. I'm chained. I'm naked. I look like a savage. When I [shot] it, it didn't seem that intense. But then you watch it and go, 'Whoa'. It was like [something out of] National Geographic. I need to be tamed, man." Madonna performed wearing an "ornate kimono-like robe with wide sequin-lined sleeves" inside a medieval-looking cage surrounded by religious iconography that she later breaks out of as she sings the first lines, while guards dressed similar to the ones who guarded the Wicked Witch of the West's castle marched onstage. During the performance, she also hung upside down on a cross.
  The performance was received with a positive response from critics. Jordan Zivitz of Montreal Gazette called the performance "insanely theatrical, Broadway-worthy." Melissa Maerz wrote for Entertainment Weekly that "As visually spectacular as it was narratively  [sic] heavy-handed, it felt like a callback to her last tour, 'MDNA', which featured a dark charade that found Madonna wielding a gun on stage. But when the song ended with video footage of the gladiators knocking over a saintly-looking Madonna statue, the tone changed. Madonna has built a career by playing with what we hold sacred, whether it's crucifixes or underground dance crazes. Now the only sacred thing she's tearing down is Madonna herself." The performance of the song at the March 19–20, 2016 shows in Sydney's Allphones Arena was recorded and released in Madonna's fifth live album, Rebel Heart Tour.
caption: Madonna and her dancers opening the Rebel Heart Tour (2015–16) with a performance of "Iconic"
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