Madonna |
TEL AVIV – Wrapping up her latest world tour here today, pop icon Madonna deemed Israel the "energy capital of the world."
"It's so good to be here," she told a standing-room-only crowd of about 50,000 screaming fans.
"I was here a little while ago, but I did not perform then. I shouldn't have stayed away so long. It won’t happen again. Every time I come here I feel re-energized. I believe that Israel is the energy capital of the world."
Madonna was last in Israel in 2007 as part of a Kaballah tour.
"If we can live together in harmony in this place, we can live in peace all over the world," Madonna said at today's concert, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the end of today's performance, her last in the current "Sticky & Sweet" concert series, she draped herself in Israeli flag.
Madonna seemed remarkably healthy and energetic at tonight's concert at Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park, days after claims surfaced that she collapsed on stage last week while performing in Bulgaria. She belted out a play list of hits alongside 17 dancers during her two hour and 15 minute performance that included eight costume changes.
She performed on a custom-made stage18 meters high, which included four hydraulic lifts and a 25-meter-long catwalk.
110-pound Kosher menu
Just after her plane touched down Sunday in the Holy Land, her culinary crew scurried about the seaside city buying up a storm of high protein foods, WND reported.
At Eazo Meat and Wine Shop, an upscale kosher butchery on Tel Aviv's trendy Ben Yehuda Street, a chef, sous chef and professional purchaser, all speaking with British accents, were seen by WND carting off cases of meats into a minivan for Madonna and her legion of dancers.
Madonna's food team was easily identifiable. They all wore T-shirts with logos for the queen of pop's latest tour.
The Israeli brothers who run Eazo refused to comment.
Madonna's culinary team then hit up a local fish store.
A source at the hotel kitchen where Madonna's food was being prepared told WND the menu for the singer and her crew for a day included about 110 pounds of meat, including rib-eye and T-bone steaks, as well as beef filet. Also, fish and poultry were on hand for dinner.
Madonna is known to eat a high-protein diet, particularly during her tours.
In Israel, the pop icon visited Jerusalem's Old City, where she got a private tour of the Western Wall tunnel, which runs along the full length of the wall. She also dined with opposition leader Tzipi Livni. Madonna is set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence on Friday.
According to local reports, Madonna is also set to visit the grave sites of rabbis in Sefad, a town where some of the greatest Kaballah thinkers are buried.
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Madonna's menu: 110 lbs. of kosher meat