Madonna postpones world tour after hospitalisation

Madonna has postponed her global greatest hits tour after being taken to a hospital’s intensive care unit with a serious bacterial infection.

Manager Guy Oseary revealed on 24 June that the 64-year-old’s infection was “serious” and led to “a several-day stay in the ICU”.

He added that Madonna’s health is improving – and a full recovery is expected – but she is still under medical care.

Madonna: The Celebration Tour was due to start in a little over two weeks with a 15 July show at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.

Announced in January, the tour was extended multiple times after selling out 36 shows and shifting over 600,000 tickets.

The now 84-date outing, produced by Live Nation, includes more than 40 dates in North America between 15 July and 8 October, followed by more than 25 dates in Europe between 14 October and 6 December. Another dozen dates were booked in North America in December and January.

Oseary added that Madonna’s health is improving – and a full recovery is expected – but she is still under medical care

The tour boasts four shows each at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena and Paris’ Accor Arena, as well as six nights at London’s The O2.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of her breakout single Holiday, the pop icon was due to perform music spanning her entire career, from 1983’s self-titled debut album to 2019’s Madame X.

Announcing the new tour, the star said: “I am excited to explore as many songs as possible, in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for.”

A press release said the concerts “will take us on Madonna’s artistic journey through four decades and pays respect to the city of New York where her career in music began”.

The tour will also offer a “one-of-a-kind experience” with special guest Bob the Drag Queen a.k.a. Caldwell Tidicue across all dates on the global tour.

Madonna’s 2008-2009 Sticky and Sweet Tour is the highest-grossing tour by a female artist ever, raking in $411 million (£335 million).

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