The Celebration Tour
The Celebration Tour is the ongoing twelfth concert tour by American singer Madonna, visiting cities in North America and Europe and anticipating 78 shows. The tour started on October 14, 2023, at The O2 Arena in London, England, and it is set to conclude on April 24, 2024, at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, Mexico. As Madonna's first retrospective tour, it highlights her more than four decade-long recording career. The tour was announced on social media on January 17, 2023, after major speculation. To accompany its announcement, Madonna shared a truth or dare inspired, star-studded promo video featuring industry colleagues Diplo, Judd Apatow, Jack Black, Lil Wayne, Bob the Drag Queen, Kate Berlant, Larry Owens, Megan Stalter, Eric André, and Amy Schumer. A Live Nation pre-sale took place on January 19 at 10:00 a.m. local, prior to the public on-sale beginning January 20 via Ticketmaster. After Madonna developed a "serious bacterial infection" in late June, leading to a multiple-day stay in the Intensive care unit (ICU), she announced the postponement of the initial North American leg via an Instagram post. The rescheduled dates were announced on August 15, 2023. Background Early speculations of a Madonna tour for 2022-2023 were swirling after the release of her remix/compilation album Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, when outlets in Latin America began reporting that the singer had booked a reservation at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay, for early October 2022. In a YouTube video promoting Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, Madonna is asked about a potential greatest hits tour. She sarcastically responds "Do you want me to go on tour?" On January 4, 2023, British tabloid The Sun, among other media outlets, were reporting about a rumored tour celebrating Madonna’s recording career of over 40 years (her debut record was released in 1983). Rumors were fueled after Madonna wiped or hid her Instagram posts on January 16. The tour was formally announced on January 17 on Madonna's official website and social media channels. In her statement, Madonna said: "I am excited to explore as many songs as possible, in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for". On January 24, Variety reported that as a result of the development and production of the show, Madonna's biopic, which she was directing and co-writing, had been temporarily postponed. The Celebration Tour marks two unprecedented facts in Madonna's career: the first is that this is her first time touring without promoting a specific studio album; the second is that the tour set list will exclusively focus on her greatest hits. BBC music correspondent Mark Savage suggested that her Re-Invention World Tour was her closest or first formal greatest hits tour, claiming that the set list largely ignored her then-current album, American Life — although six of the album's 11 tracks were performed nightly. Development Upon the announcement, on January 18, 2023, Billboard dedicated a list of potential songs across the four decades they would like to hear,