American singer

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

has performed on eleven concert tours, nineteen one-off concerts, nine benefit concerts, and three

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

s. Madonna has been

nicknamed A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

by some media reports as the "Queen of concerts" or "Queen of touring", recognizing her "years-deep into the touring game" and stage shows. As of 2022, Madonna remains the highest-grossing female touring artist in the reports of '' Pollstar'' and ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Boxscore. Her 1985 debut concert tour, The Virgin Tour, was held in North America only and went on to collect more than US $5 million. In 1987 she performed on the worldwide Who's That Girl World Tour, which visited Europe, North America and Japan, and earned $25 million. 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. In 1990, she embarked on the Blond Ambition World Tour, which was dubbed as the "Greatest Concert of the 1990s" by '' Rolling Stone''. BBC credited the tour with "invent ngthe modern, multi-media pop spectacle". In 1993, Madonna visited Israel and Turkey for the first time, followed by Latin America and Australia, with The Girlie Show. 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." Madonna did not tour again until the Drowned World Tour in 2001. She played 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. 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. 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. ''

'' 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. Madonna's next tours broke world records, with the 2006 Confessions Tour grossing over US $194.7 million, becoming the highest-grossing tour ever for a female artist at that time. 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. In 2012, The MDNA Tour completed as the tenth highest-grossing tour of all time with US $305 million, the second highest for among female artists at the time, only behind the Sticky & Sweet Tour. Her 2015–16 Rebel Heart Tour was an all-arena tour which grossed $169.8 million from 1.045 million attendance. Madonna has embarked on several promotional concerts to promote her studio albums, as well as performing award shows and benefit concerts like

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

(1985), Live 8 (2005) and Live Earth (2007). In 2012, she headlined the

Super Bowl XLVI halftime show The Super Bowl XLVI halftime show took place on February 5, 2012 at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana as part of Super Bowl XLVI. It was headlined by Madonna, who became the first sole female headliner since Diana Ross in 1996. It f ...

, 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. In the 2022 ''Pollstar'' report, Madonna appeared as the female artist with the most tickets sold with 11.6 million worldwide. During the London stop of her 2006 Confessions Tour, Madonna became the first performer to be inducted into the

Wembley Arena Square of Fame Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-se ...

Concert tours

One-off concerts

Benefit concerts

Music festivals

References

Citations

Book sources

External links