The Celebration Tour
2023–2024 concert tour by Madonna / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Celebration Tour was the twelfth concert tour by American singer Madonna. It began on October 14, 2023, at the O2 Arena in London, and ended on May 4, 2024, with a free concert on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach. Originally set to kick off on July 15, 2023, in Vancouver, the tour was postponed and pushed back to October after Madonna developed a "serious bacterial infection" in late June, which led to a multiple-day stay at the intensive care unit. As her first retrospective tour, it was based entirely on her back catalogue and 40-year old career.
Tour by Madonna | |
Location |
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Start date | October 14, 2023 (2023-10-14) |
End date | May 4, 2024 (2024-05-04) |
Legs | 2 |
No. of shows | 81 |
Attendance | 1.1 million[1] |
Box office | |
Madonna concert chronology | |
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Rumors of a tour first began circulating on mid-to-late 2022, following the release of the compilation Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones. After major speculation, the tour was officially announced on January 17, 2023, in a truth or dare-inspired video. Madonna's first all-arena tour since 2016, tickets quickly sold out, leading to multiple dates being added in many major cities. This caused Celebration to became one of the world's fastest-selling concert tours.
British company Stufish, with whom the singer had worked in the past, was in charge of the stage, which was inspired on early 1980s New York. Designers working on the wardrobe included Guram Gvasalia from Vetements, Donatella Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Dilara Fındıkoğlu. The official set list included songs Madonna hadn't performed live in more than a decade. On the concert, Madonna paid tribute to the LGBT community, to friends lost to HIV-AIDS, and to artists who've inspired her.
Critics reacted positively towards the tour, highlighting its retrospective nature. Criticism was aimed at the singer's tardiness, with attendees going as far as to file two lawsuits against her. Billboard reported Celebration to have grossed over $225.4 million from an audience of 1.1 million. 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.