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.
Madonna concerts | |
---|---|
Concert tours | 12 |
One-off concerts | 19 |
Benefit concerts | 9 |
Music festivals | 7 |
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]
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.[22]
Concert tours
Title | Date | Associated album(s) | Continent(s) | Shows | Gross | Gross adj. in 2023[23] | Attendance | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Virgin Tour | April 10, 1985 – June 11, 1985 | Madonna Like a Virgin | North America | 40 | $5,000,000 | $14,164,604 | 400,000[a] | [5] [24][25] |
Who's That Girl World Tour | June 14, 1987 – September 6, 1987 | True Blue Who's That Girl | Asia North America Europe | 38 | $25,000,000 | $67,047,452 | 1,317,663 | [26] [27] |
Blond Ambition World Tour | April 13, 1990 – August 5, 1990 | Like a Prayer I'm Breathless | Asia North America Europe | 57 | $62,700,000 | $146,225,471 | 2,000,000[a] | [28] [29] [30] |
The Girlie Show | September 25, 1993 – December 19, 1993 | Erotica | Europe North America South America Asia Oceania | 39 | $70,000,000 | $147,643,400 | 1,279,123 | [31] [32] |
Drowned World Tour | June 9, 2001 – September 15, 2001 | Ray of Light Music | Europe North America | 47 | $75,000,000 | $129,054,689 | 732,606 | [33] [34] |
Re-Invention World Tour | May 24, 2004 – September 14, 2004 | American Life | Europe North America | 56 | $124,790,787 | $201,300,995 | 897,207 | [35] [36] |
Confessions Tour | May 21, 2006 – September 21, 2006 | Confessions on a Dance Floor | Europe North America Asia | 60 | $194,754,447 | $294,349,904 | 1,209,593 | [37] [38] |
Sticky & Sweet Tour | August 23, 2008 – September 2, 2009 | Hard Candy | Europe North America South America Asia | 85 | $411,000,000 | $583,700,326 | 3,545,899 | [19] [39] |
The MDNA Tour | May 31, 2012 – December 22, 2012 | MDNA | Asia Europe North America South America | 88 | $305,158,362 | $404,990,573 | 2,212,345 | [40] [41] |
Rebel Heart Tour | September 9, 2015 – March 20, 2016 | Rebel Heart | North America Europe Asia Oceania | 82 | $169,804,336 | $215,575,222 | 1,045,479 | [21] |
Madame X Tour | September 17, 2019 – March 8, 2020 | Madame X | North America Europe | 75 | $51,361,008 | $61,208,042 | 179,289 | [42] [43] |
The Celebration Tour | October 14, 2023 – May 4, 2024 | Various | Europe North America South America | 81 | TBD | TBD | TBD |
One-off concerts
Date | Event | City | Venue | Performed song(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
October 13, 1983 | Madonna promotional show | London | Camden Palace | [44] | |
February 14, 1998 | Ray of Light promotional show | New York City | Roxy NYC |
| [45] |
November 5, 2000 | Music promotional show | Roseland Ballroom |
| [46] | |
November 29, 2000 | Music promotional show | London | Brixton Academy |
| [47] |
April 22, 2003 | Madonna: On Stage and on the Record | New York City | MTV Studios |
| [48] |
April 23, 2003 | American Life promotional show | Tower Records |
| [49] | |
April 30, 2003 | Absolut Madonna | Cologne | RTL Studio |
| [50] |
May 9, 2003 | American Life promotional show | London | HMV Oxford Circus |
| [51] |
November 15, 2005 | Confessions on a Dance Floor promotional show | KOKO |
| [52] | |
November 19, 2005 | Confessions on a Dance Floor promotional show | G-A-Y |
| [53] | |
December 7, 2005 | Confessions on a Dance Floor promotional show | Tokyo | Studio Coast |
| [54] |
April 30, 2008 | Hard Candy promotional show | New York City | Roseland Ballroom |
| [55] |
May 6, 2008 | Hard Candy promotional show | Paris | Olympia |
| [56] |
May 10, 2008 | Hard Candy promotional show | Maidstone | Mote Park | [57] | |
February 2, 2012 | Super Bowl XLVI halftime show | Indianapolis | Lucas Oil Stadium |
| [58] |
March 10, 2016 | Madonna: Tears of a Clown | Melbourne | Forum Theatre |
| [59] |
November 7, 2016 | Hillary Clinton campaign concert | New York City | Washington Square Park |
| [60] |
May 7, 2018 | Met Gala | Metropolitan Museum of Art |
| [61] | |
June 30, 2019 | Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC | Pier 97, Hudson River Park |
| [62] | |
April 30, 2022 | Medallo en el Mapa (Maluma hometown concert) | Medellín | Estadio Atanasio Girardot | [63] | |
June 24, 2022 | NYC Pride March | New York City | Terminal 5 |
| [64] |
Benefit concerts
Date | Event | City | Performed song(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
July 13, 1985 | Live Aid | Philadelphia |
| [65] |
April 27, 1998 | Rock for the Rainforest | New York City |
| [66] |
January 16, 2005 | Tsunami Aid | "Imagine" | [67] | |
July 2, 2005 | Live 8 | London | [68] | |
November 18, 2005 | Children in Need 2005 | [69] | ||
July 7, 2007 | Live Earth |
| [70] | |
January 22, 2010 | Hope for Haiti Now | New York City | "Like a Prayer" | [71] |
December 2, 2016 | Madonna: Tears of a Clown (Raising Malawi Gala) | Miami |
| [72] |
July 26, 2017 | Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala | Saint-Tropez |
| [73] |
Music festivals
Date | Event | City | Performed song(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
February 22, 1995 | Sanremo Music Festival | Sanremo | "Take a Bow" (with Babyface) | [74] |
February 24, 1998 | Sanremo Music Festival | Sanremo | "Frozen" | [75] |
April 30, 2006 | Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival | Indio |
| [76] |
May 10, 2008 | BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend | Maidstone |
| [77] |
March 25, 2012 | Ultra Music Festival | Miami | "Girl Gone Wild" (as a guest during Avicii's act) | [78] |
April 12, 2015 | Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival | Indio |
| [79] |
May 18, 2019 | Eurovision Song Contest | Tel Aviv |
|