David Pollock: Super Bowl show proves Madonna is still a true superstar

HAD the question been asked a week ago, who would be interested in paying £125 for a ticket to see Madonna perform live, many thousands of over-excited fans around the world would have said yes immediately – certainly enough people to ensure that her 50-date world tour, which includes a rare visit to Scotland, will once more demolish box office records.

Yet there would have been many people – including ticket-buyers – who might wonder whether or not they were paying for the Empress’s new clothes; a high-gloss nostalgia tour in honour of an artist whose peak as a transcendental pop cultural icon was 20 years ago.

But this weekend’s Super Bowl half-time show has changed everything. Like Beyoncé at Glastonbury, it was a performance whose low points were countered by a dazzling combination of vivid spectacle, masterful effort and striking star power. It was among the greatest adverts for a tour ever.

It was a performance which also told us much about where she is as a force in popular music. Hawking new music which doesn’t quite hit the same heights as her extensive back catalogue, yes, but also unafraid to pit her still-youthful looks and physicality alongside the younger breed of Nicki Minaj and the stagily attention-seeking MIA as not an equal, but an elder and better.