List of Madonna concerts

Madonna concerts
Collage of Madonna's concert tours
Collage depicting Madonna's eleven concert tours, beginning with 1985's The Virgin Tour and ending with the Madame X Tour (2019–2020)
Concert tours12
One-off concerts19
Benefit concerts9
Music festivals7

American singer Madonna has performed on twelve concert tours, nineteen one-off concerts, nine benefit concerts, and three music festivals. Madonna has been nicknamed by some publications as the "Queen of Concerts" or "Queen of Touring", recognizing her "years-deep involvement in the touring game" and stage shows.[1][2] Once the highest-grossing female touring artist according to Billboard Boxscore and Pollstar,[3][4] Madonna remains one of the highest-grossing live touring acts.

Her 1985 debut concert tour, The Virgin Tour, was held in North America only and went on to collect more than US$5 million.[5] In 1987 she performed on the worldwide Who's That Girl World Tour, which visited Europe, North America and Japan, and earned $25 million.[6][7] One of the tour's shows in Paris in front of 130,000 fans was the largest paying concert audience by a female artist at the time and remains the largest crowd of any concert in French history.[8][9] In 1990, she embarked on the Blond Ambition World Tour, which was dubbed the "Greatest Concert of the 1990s" by Rolling Stone.[10] BBC credited the tour with "invent[ing] the modern, multi-media pop spectacle".[11] In 1993, Madonna visited Israel and Turkey for the first time, followed by Latin America and Australia, with The Girlie Show.[7] A review in Time by Sam Buckley said: "Madonna, once the Harlow harlot and now a perky harlequin, is the greatest show-off on earth."[12]

Madonna did not tour again until the Drowned World Tour in 2001. She played the guitar and her costumes included a punkish tartan kilt and a geisha kimono. Some critics complained that the show concentrated on material from her most recent albums, but generally, the response was favorable.[7] She grossed more than US$75 million with summer sold-out shows and eventually played in front of 730,000 people throughout North America and Europe.[13][14] The Drowned World Tour was followed by the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. Madonna was inspired to create the tour after taking part in an art installation called X-STaTIC PRo=CeSS, directed by photographer Steven Klein.[15] Billboard awarded Madonna the "Backstage Pass Award" in recognition of having the top-grossing tour of the year, with ticket sales of nearly US$125 million.[16]

Madonna's next tours broke world records, with the 2006 Confessions Tour grossing over US$194.7 million,[17] becoming the highest-grossing tour ever for a female artist at that time.[18] This feat was surpassed in 2008 with the Sticky & Sweet Tour, which at the time, became the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist, and the second highest-grossing tour of all time, with approximately US$411 million in ticket sales.[19] In 2012, The MDNA Tour was completed as the tenth highest-grossing tour of all time with US$305 million, the second highest among female artists at the time, only behind the Sticky & Sweet Tour.[20] Her 2015–16 Rebel Heart Tour was an all-arena tour which grossed $169.8 million from 1.045 million attendance.[21] The Celebration Tour, which acted as Madonna's first retrospective show, became one of the world's fastest-selling concert tours. Billboard reported the Celebration tour to have grossed over $225.4 million from an audience of 1.1 million.[22] The free concert in Rio de Janeiro drew a crowd of over 1.6 million people, which became Madonna's largest crowd of her career and set records for the largest audience ever for a stand-alone concert and the largest all-time crowd for a female artist.[23]

Madonna has embarked on several promotional concerts to promote her studio albums, as well as performing award shows and benefit concerts like Live Aid (1985), Live 8 (2005) and Live Earth (2007). In 2012, she headlined the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show, which at that time was the most-watched halftime show in history. According to Billboard Boxscore, Madonna grossed over $1.31 billion in concert ticket sales between 1990 and 2016; she first crossed a billion gross with The MDNA Tour. Overall, Madonna ranks third, with just The Rolling Stones ($1.84 billion) and U2 ($1.67 billion) ahead of her.[21] During the London stop of her 2006 Confessions Tour, Madonna became the first performer to be inducted into the Wembley Arena Square of Fame.[24]

  1. ^ Brathwaite, Lester Fabian (March 4, 2015). "Re-Evolution: 30 Years of Madonna in Concert". Logo TV. Archived from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  2. ^ "Billboard on Instagram". Billboard. March 16, 2016. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022 – via Instagram.
  3. ^ Frankenberg, Eric (January 20, 2023). "How Much Money Could Madonna's Celebration Tour Make?". Billboard. Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  4. ^ "Top Touring Artists Of The Pollstar Era" (PDF). Pollstar. July 7, 2022. pp. 1, 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference virgin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Barker, Emily (November 12, 2014). "10 Badass Photos Of Madonna From The 80s". NME. Archived from the original on November 10, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Young, Neil (May 24, 2004). "Show-stealer Madonna on tour". BBC. BBC. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  8. ^ Bassets, Luis (August 31, 1987). "Madonna convocó en París a 130.000 personas". El País (in Spanish). Madrid: Jesús de Polanco. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  9. ^ Greenhouse, Stephen (August 29, 1987). "Chirac Says 'Oui' to Madonna And Angers a Local Mayor". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2013.
  10. ^ "Ahead of her Eurovision performance, look back at Madonna's trailblazing fashion moments". The Daily Telegraph. August 16, 2016. Archived from the original on August 30, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  11. ^ Savage, Mark (December 2, 2015). "Madonna returns to scene of Brits fall". BBC. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  12. ^ Taraborrelli 2002, p. 230
  13. ^ Reporter, BBC (September 21, 2006). "Madonna world tour 'sets record'". BBC. BBC Online. Archived from the original on January 4, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
  14. ^ Cross 2007, p. 90
  15. ^ Timmerman 2007, p. 23
  16. ^ Dunhill, Sam (November 4, 2004). "Madonna Tour Gets Top 'Backstage Pass' Honor". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  17. ^ Young, Tom (February 21, 2007). "Madonna, The Confessions Tour". BBC. Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  18. ^ Waddell, Ray (September 20, 2006). "Madonna's 'Confessions' Tour Sets Record". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference ladies was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Waddell, Ray (January 23, 2013). "Madonna's 'MDNA' Tour Makes Billboard Boxscore's All-Time Top 10". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  21. ^ a b Allen, Bob (March 24, 2016). "Madonna Extends Record as Highest-Grossing Solo Touring Artist: $1.31 Billion Earned". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  22. ^ Frankenberg, Eric (May 9, 2024). "Madonna is only woman to achieve this boxscore feat as the Celebration Tour wraps". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. Retrieved May 10, 2024.
  23. ^ Kreps, Daniel (May 5, 2024). "Madonna closes out Celebration Tour in front of record-setting 1.6 million fans in Brazil". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 5, 2024. Retrieved May 7, 2024.(subscription required)
  24. ^ "Madonna gets first Wembley honour". BBC News (BBC). August 2, 2006. Archived from the original on April 10, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2010.