Duran Duran Madrid 2026: full review
Writing about Duran Duran Madrid 2026 as a lifelong fan comes with a built-in trap. The assumption is that you lose your objectivity, though it’s also well known that the more you love something, the harder you are on it. I travelled from Barcelona to Madrid with both in my rucksack to see the Birmingham band at the Movistar Arena on 6 November. It was my fourth time seeing them, which is not many for what they have weighed in my life.
The first was at Razzmatazz in 2005, with Andy Taylor still in the line-up. A vocal problem for Simon Le Bon turned that night into an atypical gig, the kind you remember more for what went wrong than for what was played. The second was at Sónar, a slightly odd setting for them, although at least “The Chauffeur” made the set. The third, at Cruïlla, I enjoyed a lot. But they were festivals, with everything that implies: people drifting past on their way to another stage, trimmed sets, a half-interested crowd.
Last night was different.
Please, please tell me know!
The Movistar Arena had part of its upper tiers covered with tarpaulins, but the first tier and the floor were completely full. There were small battles over spots, polite shoving and less polite elbows, the usual ritual of any floor at full capacity.
Fez, from London, opened with psychedelic indie that started with plenty of energy and lost steam as the set went on. It wasn’t a bad warm-up, but it cooled down too early, and half an hour before Duran Duran nobody is in the mood to cool down.
Just before nine, Roger Taylor appeared behind that unmistakable kit, like in the 1984 Arena film, while the whole Movistar waited for Simon to come in with “Please Please Tell Me Now”. A great start, followed by “Is There Something I Should Know?”. The visuals, on a giant screen, accompanied the band throughout the show. Some were spectacular, but others leaned far too heavily on AI.
Duran Duran Madrid 2026: the setlist
The show had real momentum. “Wild Boys”, “A View to a Kill” and “Hungry Like the Wolf” arrived early and the Palacio (for me it will always be the Palacio de los Deportes) responded the way a room does when it knows every note. Then came songs like “Invisible” to bring the heart rate down, and “The Reflex” to push it back up. That rise and fall repeated all night and it worked because it was planned, not because singles were piled up in a heap.
“Winter Marches On” had been brought back for this tour, and it’s good to see a band with a catalogue that size still digging things out. “Ordinary World” had to start twice because of a small problem with the guitar. Nothing serious: they restarted without fuss and the crowd sang the second attempt with even more affection. “Come Undone” followed, then another surge with “Notorious” and “I Don’t Want Your Love”.
Duran Duran Madrid 2026: the medleys
The medleys were what I liked most about the set. “Lonely in Your Nightmare” joined to “Super Freak” and “Girls on Film” joined to “Psycho Killer”, very well fused, keeping the rhythm and adding something extra to two of their best songs. They worked really, really well.
“Planet Earth” sounded incredible, as ever, and “White Lines” brought the house down. “Reach Up for the Sunrise” got a warm reception. “Free to Love”, their most recent single, was perhaps the coldest response of the night, which is understandable: dropping it between forty-year-old classics is a tough ask of any new song. It is a very good funky piece all the same, and deserves more attention.
The ending was the one it had to be. “Save a Prayer” did what it always does, except that lighters are now phone torches and the whole Arena became a sky of small white dots. And “Rio” closed the night, as it could only have done.
Duran Duran Madrid 2026: the band
The lads are getting on for seventy, and it shows exactly as much as it should.
Simon Le Bon’s voice was flawless. He was lively all evening, at his own pace of course, not trying to be the 1983 version of himself, and that makes it believable. Nick Rhodes is pure elegance, with his keyboard machinery. Roger Taylor is a metronome. And my eternal weakness, John Taylor, was incredible on bass, with his hair slightly Doc Brown from Back to the Future. (Play that fuc*** bass, John!)
Dom Brown on guitar has been an unofficial member of the band for many years now, and I think it’s time he was included properly, as Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo were in their day. I know I’ll get plenty of stick for this, but for me Warren is the best guitarist they’ve ever had. I say it knowing it’s a minority opinion and that I have no plans to change it.
Anna Ross and Rachael on backing vocals, and Simon Willescroft on the legendary sax, complete the line-up. The sax
Wild Boys, Tocata and a six-year-old boy
There is one thing that doesn’t fit a standard review, and I’m going to put it in anyway. I remember being at my uncle’s house watching Tocata, the Spanish TV music show, when they played the video for “Wild Boys”. It looked like Mad Max. It was startling, one of those images that shape everything that comes after without you knowing it yet. I was six.
Forty years later, hearing that song live in a Madrid arena took me straight back to that living room. My head went to that boy, and for four-odd minutes I was both of us at once. A memory that nobody and nothing can take from you.
It was well worth it. I hadn’t enjoyed a concert this much in a very long time, and I don’t think it’s only affection talking. A festival gives you Duran Duran in summary. The Movistar Arena gave me the whole thing.
Thank you, Duran Duran.
