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Madonna at London’s O2 Arena: timings, setlist and everything you need to know for Celebration Tour

The Queen of Pop is finally here

Strap on your cone bras and get ready to get into the groove, because the Queen of Pop is landing in London this week. Madonna’s long-awaited ‘Celebration Tour’ is finally here, as everyone’s favourite material girl will step onto the stage at the O2 Arena this week. 

Celebrating 40 years of being a pop icon, Madge will be cracking out all the greatest hits. Stuart Price, Madonna’s musical director recently told the BBC: ‘A greatest hit doesn’t have to be a song. It can be a wardrobe, it can be a video, or a statement.’ We’re hoping this means she'll be putting on her Marie Antoinette get-up from the 1990 MTV Awards. 

To get you in the mood for a proper celebration, this is all the information you need ahead of the Madonna concert. 

When is Madonna playing at London O2’s Arena?

After kicking the ‘Celebration Tour’ off in the Big Smoke back in October (on Oct 14, 15, 17, 18, to be exact), Madonna plays the O2 again this week on December 5 and 6. 

When will Madonna come on stage?

Madonna’s exact stage time hasn’t been announced, but with a rumoured 40-strong set list her show could be at least two hours. O2 shows usually end at 11pm for weekday events. Her previous London shows saw Madonna come on stage between 8:50pm and 9:05pm. 

What time do doors open?

Doors open to the O2 arena at 6.30pm. 

Is there a setlist for her Celebration tour?

Madge and her team are remaining tight-lipped about the ‘Celebration Tour’ set list, but we do know it will span all four decades of her career, meaning hits including ‘Like a Virgin’, ‘Material Girl’, ‘Hung Up’, ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, ‘Vogue’ and ‘4 Minutes’ are all likely to be performed. 

Fans are also convinced she will be playing songs ‘Erotica’ and ‘Frozen’ as they are rumoured to have been heard in rehearsals. 

How much are Madonna tickets for O2 London?

Unsurprisingly, tickets to see Madonna in London don’t come cheap. When they were first released, seated O2 Arena tickets were on sale at face value for between £47.55 and £432.25, with VIP packages going up to £1,307.75 each. Ouch!

Currently, tickets for these shows are on sale starting at £158 and going up to about £540. Find tickets on AXS here . 

Is Madonna’s Celebration tour sold out?

Madonna initially sold out the London Stadium in a matter of minutes. However, after the tour was postponed due to the singer’s illness, there are a crop of tickets still available on Ticketmaster and other resale sites. Be warned though, they will cost you a pretty penny.

What are reviews saying about Madonna’s London tour?

Predictably, the reviews have been excellent. Alexis Petridis in the Guardian  revealed how the October show catered to Madonna’s eras and paid tribute to her influences, from eulogies to victims of the Aids crisis to a tribute to Prince. 

Mark Savage of the BBC said that the Queen of Pop ‘brought out her crown jewels’ and that the set celebrated her ‘radical legacy’. 

A five-star review from Helen Brown at the  Independent   said: ‘We should never forget how much Madonna changed the world – hers is a life and a legacy worth celebrating.’

Where is Madonna playing after London?

Where  isn’t  she playing? Having already played around mainland Europe for shows in places like Paris , Berlin , Barcelona and Lisbon , she’ll next head over to North America for shows in the US , Canada and Mexico .

In total, the ‘Celebration Tour’ will have 78 shows. You can see them all on Madonna’s official tour website here . 

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• India Lawrence Contributing writer

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This event has passed.

• Date 1 Dec - 2 Dec 2015
• Venue The O2 arena
• Availability On sale now

Event Details

Following the release of her Rebel Heart album in March, the multi-Grammy® winner, Madonna , brings The “Rebel Heart” Tour to The O2 on 1 and 2 December.  

“ Madonna continues to be one of the most successful  touring artists in history – her shows are legendary and we are thrilled to have her going back on tour" - Global Music.

Additional Ticket Information

Important information

Please only purchase tickets through authorised ticketing sites including www.axs.com and www.stubhub.co.uk - The Official Ticket Resale Marketplace of The O2. If you have, or suspect you may have been a victim of fraud when purchasing tickets, please report it to Action Fraud www.actionfraud.police.uk

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Four songs into Madonna ’s long-awaited Celebration Tour and a technical hitch gives her a chance to chat for a little longer than was probably planned.

She tells the crowd of her early days being “hungry, broke and scared” in New York, with a lack of support from her father, who wanted her to come back home. 

“But I was not about to go back,” she declares. “Because I am not a quitter!” 

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But not Madonna. After postponing the scheduled first leg, the tour finds itself starting – a mere 20 minutes late – at London’s O2 Arena, the very venue where, in 2015, she famously fell down the stairs after a cape malfunction at the BRIT Awards.

Those of us who were close enough to hear the thud as she hit the floor like a pole-axed prize fighter that night were amazed when she simply got back to her feet and got on with the show. And tonight, she metaphorically climbs off the canvas of that hospital stay to reclaim her pop heavyweight crown, a metaphor helpfully supported by the elaborate boxing set-up utilized during the lead-up to the show’s second act.

There are few signs that Madonna was fazed by the fraught run-up, let alone the lengthy “reset” required after her punky rip through “Burning Up.” She may sigh, “This is exactly what you don’t want to happen on your opening night,” but she simply gets her hype man Bob the Drag Queen up to tell jokes, while reminiscing about the days when she would trade “blowjobs for showers” in ‘80s NYC.

And for once, Madonna – whose relentless commitment to the present and future of her music had always previously prevented her from playing the fantasy setlist her catalog seemed to be crying out for – is here to celebrate her four decades at the top with almost every song a fan – whether casual or obsessive – could dream of.

Furthermore, tonight she lays claim not just to her own history, but also to her influence on music and the wider world over the last 40 years. Not for nothing did the set start with “Nothing Really Matters” and its refrain of, “It all comes back to me”.

There are nods to her activism – including a passionate plea for peace between Israel and Palestine and tributes to those we have lost to AIDS – and her trailblazing, via a montage of negative news headlines and video footage from across her career. It’s a timely reminder that, in an age where anyone with a million streams that gets a new haircut can be hailed as “iconic,” Madonna really has achieved that status, over and over.

There are snippets of other people’s music throughout – a snatch of Sam Smith’s “Unholy” here or Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” there, plus a surprisingly poignant acoustic cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”. Some of her children make on-stage cameos, and even her ex-husbands appear briefly on screen. There are tributes to Sinead O’Connor and, more controversially, Michael Jackson, via a dubious mash-up of “Billie Jean” with “Like a Virgin”.

But mostly, it’s about Madonna and her songs. Taylor Swift has undoubtedly crystalized the concept of musical ‘eras’ in the public consciousness, but Madonna is no slouch when it comes to giving each phase of her career a distinct look and sound.

And tonight, she flits seamlessly between different stages of her life, sometimes via a costume change, sometimes by climbing into an illuminated portal that sees her fly over the crowd on her way to another time and place.

From the joyous early ‘80s dance-pop of “Get Into the Groove” and “Holiday”; to big ballads such as “Live to Tell” and “Bad Girl”; to the raunch of “Erotica” (in which Madge gets to saucily, um, interact with her younger self via a lookalike in the iconic “Blonde Ambition” get-up) and “Justify My Love”; to the sheer, irresistible pizazz of “Vogue,” “Don’t Tell Me,” “La Isla Bonita,” “Ray of Light,” “Hung Up,” “Like a Prayer” and so many others; this show is proof that there is no such thing as too much Madonna.

True, the lack of a live band occasionally makes things lack a little punch (most notably on a glitchy “Die Another Day”). But overall, tonight shows that while – just like 40 years ago – Madonna still doesn’t know how to quit, boy has she learned how to come back.

But thankfully, she did and, by the end, all the different iterations of Madonna from across the decades are on stage, the lookalikes hugging each other with delight during “Bitch, I’m Madonna,” while the real deal stays center stage and supremely focused.

Still dancing, still singing, still the one and only Madonna.  

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Madonna's Celebration tour proves this is the Material Girl's world – we're all just living in it

More than ‘just’ a greatest hits 78-date tour, Celebration is a musical journey through Madonna's life, her art, even her family

Madonna's tour 'Celebration' has kicked off in London. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation)

It’s almost impossible to believe that any Madonna tour since 1990’s Blond Ambition could be anything but a greatest hits, such is the body of her work, but the aptly-named Celebration – which kicked off in London this month – is actually her first. More than ‘just’ a greatest hits 78-date tour, this is a musical journey through her life, her art, even her family, with most of her children joining the icon on stage as an integral part of the polished production.

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As such, it’s also more than just The Immaculate Collection – people on a boozy night out, please remember that she’s had another 33 years of music since then. Whether you’ve paid attention to it or not doesn’t matter, you should be paying attention now. While it would be the envy of any artist to have a catalogue such as hers to choose from, you have to admire Madonna for not only curating an incredible set list, but also for having the balls to make notable omissions. After all, there aren’t many musicians who can sideline seven UK number one singles (out of 13, fact fans, from her 12 UK number one albums).

Yes, you’ll hear that more than 30 numbers are included – but they’re not all in their entirety or perhaps the versions you might expect. There’s a roar throughout The O2 Arena when the opening strings for Papa Don’t Preach begin, for example, only for it to play out as an introduction, a nod to something so great that alas simply isn’t great enough to sit alongside everything else in a show as incredible as Celebration.

If you’re a fully-fledged Madonna devotee – and if not, why not? – then you’ll pick up on so many nods, references and Easter eggs. That is, if you can catch them over the screams. It seems that the time Madonna spent researching her currently on-hold biopic has not been wasted – her life is quite literally flashing before your eyes here. There’s so much going on you almost wish there was time to fully assimilate the staging of each number or video screen littered with nostalgic throwbacks.

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The musical stings, the audio references, the visual hits, the direct recreation of various moments from previous record-breaking tours – Celebration is a relentless barrage of brilliance with thousands of people screaming for Madonna to hit them harder. But she’s not wallowing in past glory – she’s way too busy soaking up the adulation now while tearing up the stage, spread as it is across multiple catwalks representing areas of New York, a rising cube with imagery projected around it and a square ‘portal’ that lifts her into the ceiling and around the venue.

She’s never better than when a joy-fuelled club moment segues from the hedonistic Holiday with friends, to lamenting the loss of loved ones to HIV/AIDS in an incredibly moving performance of Live to Tell . Never have the lyrics hit so hard as she slowly soars above the arena, the faces of those lost to the disease filling the screen and taking the focus from her. It is, quite simply, breathtaking. Her twelfth tour once more leans into the theatrics she’s synonymous with – why simply sing your hits when you can make it a multi-media 360° experience? Because she’s Madonna, that’s why. Elevate, never imitate. This means Bob the Drag Queen isn’t simply the warm-up act, as people may originally have assumed – instead they’re an integral part of the production throughout, acting as host, narrator, ball emcee, security guard and at one point even a comedy cow. Yes, that might sound strange but trust me, it all makes complete sense when you’re in the material girl’s world.

It’s not perfect of course – you wouldn’t be a Madonna fan if you didn’t have conflicting opinions. A cover version of the perpetually-naff hen night staple I Will Survive feels tacky and, well, reductive for a woman able to discard so many hits from a set list. While the tribute to Michael Jackson is a direct nod to 1985’s The Virgin Tour, it now feels dated and unnecessary. Repeating The Beast Within from at least two previous tours obviously allows for a much-needed break – after all, it does feel as though Madonna spends the majority of the show on stage – but it adds little to the flow of the production.

This all pales in comparison to the show as a whole, mere niggles when you could spend all day watching her perform an arena show and still not get the full picture of Madonna’s life, success and achievements. Of course, it’s not just her life – it’s all of ours, with every song evoking a memory it’s a journey through a life soundtracked by one of the most influential women of our time.

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Arguably the closing section – there is no encore – which features multiple Madonnas, some of which have appeared at various points throughout, dancing to Bitch, I’m Madonna feels that it could equally have opened the show. That honour, however, goes to stone-cold classic Nothing Really Matters – which, when listening to the lyrics, feels as though it’s never been more resonant. It’s an artistic choice which sets out Madonna’s stall perfectly for the evening ahead with a show that lives up to its name perfectly. It’s long been tiresome seeing people knock Madonna – sections of the show flash various examples of ageism, sexism and more throughout her career – yet no-one works harder to constantly prove herself with less reason to do so. This production is a stark reminder of how culturally relevant she’s always been. Those who are loudly proclaiming that Madonna is ‘back’ simply haven’t been paying enough attention – Madonna has always been here and this celebration shows why the world she changed is all the better for it.

Madonna is currently touring across Europe and returns to London in December. Visit madonna.com for details.

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Madonna kicks off Celebration Tour with nonstop hits, performance from her daughter

The singer kicked off her world tour in London.

Madonna officially kicked off her Celebration World Tour in London over the weekend, wowing fans with a litany of hits and memorable surprises.

Among the highlights of the show at O2 Arena on Saturday was when the pop icon sang a snippet of "Little Star," which she dedicated to her daughter Lourdes Leon, who celebrated her 27th birthday on opening night.

Leon appeared alongside Madonna's 11-year-old daughter Estere, who impressed the crowd when she vogued onstage.

Madonna's 11-year-old daughter vogued onstage opening night of the singer's tour

Madonna and Leon both looked on proudly as Estere moved across the stage.

Many of the Queen of Pop's most beloved songs were included in the set list, from "Into the Groove" to "Open Your Heart" to "Vogue," as well as "Live to Tell," "Like a Prayer," "Ray of Light" and "Holiday."

Variety noted that she threw some snippets of other artists' songs into the mix, including Sam Smith and Kim Petras' "Unholy" and Prince's "Let's Go Crazy." She also performed a cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and did a mashup of her late friend Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and her own hit "Like a Virgin."

Madonna highlighted the controversy she's caused in her career by showing news headlines and video montages throughout the evening, according to Variety. The video screens also paid tribute to friends she'd lost to AIDS, and she offered a plea for peace in the Middle East. At various times, she "flew" over the crowd in an illuminated "portal" that took her through different eras in her career.

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The Celebration World Tour continues with two more sold out shows at London's O2 Arena on Oct. 17 and 18 before heading to Europe. It arrives in the U.S. in December, kicking off the North American leg of the tour with three shows at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Here's the full set list, according to Madonna's team:

• "Celebration Intro/Nothing Really Matters"
• "Everybody"
• "Into the Groove"
• "Burning Up"
• "Open Your Heart"
• "Holiday"
• "Live to Tell"
• "Like a Prayer"
• "Act of Living For Love/The 90's"
• "Erotica"/"Papa Don't Preach"
• "Justify My Love"/"Fever"
• "Hung Up on Tokischa"
• "Bad Girl"
• "Vogue" (Estere's Ball)
• "Human Nature"/"Crazy For You"
• "The Beast Within" (Interlude)
• "Die Another Day"
• "Don't Tell Me"
• "Mother and Father"
• "I Will Survive"/"La Isla Bonita"/"Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
• "I Don't Search I Find" (Interlude)
• "Bedtime Story"
• "Ray of Light"
• "Rain"
• "Billie Jean" vs. "Like A Virgin"
• "Give Me All Your Luvin'/B**** I'm Madonna"

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Madonna: The O2 Arena, London – Live Review

Martin Matthews heads to London for Madonna’s penultimate European show and experiences a spectacular celebration of a groundbreaking 40-year career.

Louder Than War’s Martin Mathews (words) and Paul Grace (photos) are at the O2 Arena as the Queen of Pop prepares to wrap the European leg of her Celebration World Tour, playing the fifth of six sold-out nights at the iconic venue.

Over the years many, many words have been written about Madonna; the artist, the provocateur, the ally, the philanthropist, the lover and the mother, but as she has famously said, “Nobody can tell my story but me”.

The Celebration Tour is therefore her way of telling her story, it is more than just a pop concert, this is the story of her life and career told through her music, her images, her experiences, and her eyes. It’s a story spanning the 40 years since the release of her debut single, Everybody. As a lifelong fan, my expectations and excitement levels are extremely high and the atmosphere as I arrive at the O2 Arena is already electric. Just after 9pm, MC for the night, Bob the Drag, walks through the crowd, whipping the fans into a frenzy with his camp chatter. The atmosphere builds and then suddenly the house lights dim and Madonna herself appears beneath a giant illuminated halo and opens with Nothing Really Matters, from 1998’s Ray of Light album.

And what a show it is! Stuart Price returning as Musical Director is quite the genius. Now, this is a Madonna concert so as was to be expected the production values are exceptionally high, the staging and lighting are excellent and the video backdrops enhance the story with archive footage, videos, photos and clips of interviews. Whilst there is no live band, there is a large troupe of dancers and of course some incredible designer costumes from the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier and Versace, many of which are modern reinventions of her previous iconic looks and stage costumes.

Throughout the show, Madonna is joined onstage by dancers dressed as her younger self; dancers wearing Madonna masks and recreating looks from her past – she says. “I keep her with me always she’s always in my heart”. The mega-hit Holiday ends abruptly and poignantly with all the dancers falling at her feet before she steps into her portal, a time-travelling suspended frame that rises high above the stage as she delivers a heartfelt and emotional rendition of her 1986 ballad, Live to Tell.

All around are giant screens projecting the faces of those lost to AIDS, many of whom were her friends. Images of Keith Haring and Christopher Flynn amongst many others make for a sobering moment as the number of faces multiplies and increases highlighting the devastating loss of so many bright lights.

Upping the pace we are next transported to the ballroom for Vogue, a homage to this massive song’s heritage and an opportunity for Madonna to bring a guest “ballroom bitch” onstage in the form of actor Charlie Hunnam. So far on the tour, other guests have included Jean Paul Gaultier, Donatella Versace, her children Rocco and Lourdes and her best friend Debi Mazar.

Part of the stage then becomes a giant raised video cube on top of which Madonna writhes around to the Bjork-penned Bedtime Story before she once again steps into her portal taking to the air to perform Sasha’s remix of Ray of Light with multiple lasers beaming across the huge arena. This act ends with Madonna in a flowing black gown performing Rain. Michael Jackson is honoured with a mash-up of his hit Billie Jean and Madonna’s Like a Virgin, which harks back to the 1985 Virgin Tour. For the show’s finale Madonna is joined onstage by an army of herself each wearing a different iconic look as she performs Bitch I’m Madonna, which then segues into Give Me All Your Lovin’ and Celebration. She then lowers her veil over her face and descends beneath the stage and, just like that, the show is over. However, the story isn’t finished I believe that Madonna has more to add…

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

Setlist: Nothing Really Matters |Everybody | Into The Groove | Causing a Commotion | Burning Up | Open Your Heart | Holiday |Live To Tell | Like a Prayer | Living For Love | Erotica | Justify My Love | Fever | Hung Up | Bad Girl | Vogue | Human Nature | Crazy For You | Die Another Day | Don’t Tell Me | Mother and Father | I Will Survive | La Isla Bonita | Don’t Cry For Me Argentina | Bedtime Story | Ray Of Light | Rain | Billie Jean vs Like A Virgin | Bitch I’m Madonna | Celebration.

Follow Madonna: website , Facebook , X , Instagram

Words by Martin Mathews, you can find more at his Author  profile and Twitter

All photos © Paul Grace. For more of Paul’s writing and photos go to his  archive . Paul is on  Facebook ,  Twitter ,  Instagram  and his websites are  www.paulgrace- eventphotos.co.uk  &  www.pgrace.co.uk .

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I saw her during the first leg at the O2, all I can think is you’ve seen a different show because the backing-track, mimed performance I saw always abysmal.

I think you’re a jealous hater who couldnt even afford a ticket, most likely a threatened jealous Kylie stan, she of the tacky soapstar fame whos just played a few dates in some dodgy backwater 2000 seat venue in Vegas. This show was incredible, most likely your ‘fave’ will be copying it as i type, like shes always done. Madonna you see pioneered this art form and now, she just elevated it. Way beyond the heights of mediocrity such as Kylie Minogue and her limited onstage talents.

Stay bitter

It was an incredible, truly so wonderful concert and I too loved every brilliant moment. M has never looked or sounded better. Just perfection!

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Madonna Celebrates Four Decades of Hits With Career-Spanning Spectacle

After a health-related delay, the pop superstar launched her Celebration Tour in London with a performance devoted to her full catalog of hits.

By Derrick Bryson Taylor and Ben Sisario

Derrick Bryson Taylor reported from London, and Ben Sisario from New York.

They wore pearls with crucifixes, lace gloves, tulle skirts and body-sculpting corsets. Some even crimped their hair and drew on fake beauty moles, while others wore simple white T-shirts with only the letter M on the back. Spanning generations, the concertgoers arriving at the O2 Arena in London used Saturday night as an opportunity to dress in their favorite Madonna era, even if that was decades before they were born.

Madonna, 65, is on the road for the first time since 2020 with her global Celebration Tour, a stage spectacle touching on more than 40 of her hits across four decades. The show opened at the O2, a 20,000-capacity arena, three months after its planned first date, following a health scare for the pop icon. In June, Madonna was hospitalized shortly before the tour’s scheduled debut in Canada. At the time, her manager said she had a “ serious bacterial infection ” that resulted in the singer staying in an intensive care unit for several days.

Madonna swore that the tour — her first devoted to her full catalog of hits, rather than to a specific album release — would go on. In recent weeks, she has filled her Instagram account with tantalizing , and very on-brand, images from rehearsals, showing her dressed in a lacy black bustier, practicing onstage steps and resting her fishnet-clad knees .

Fans waited out a 30-minute delay before Madonna arrived onstage in London, opening with a medley of hits before acknowledging the challenges that had led to the moment. “How did I make it this far? Because of you,” she said, adding, “But I will take a bit of credit, too.”

It was clear from the beginning that this concert would be as much a journey through Madonna’s career as it would a bona fide dance party. Set on an elaborate stage that jutted out into the audience, several hanging retractable screens showed images of the singer. At other times, they displayed powerful portraits, as when she launched into “Live to Tell” and the screens displayed images of Freddie Mercury, Arthur Ashe and more people who died from AIDS.

For more than two hours, with the help of her dancers and some of her six children, Madonna blazed through her catalog of songs, singing several hits like “Holiday,” “Like a Prayer,” “Hung Up,” “Ray of Light” and “Bad Girl.” Her costumes were sexy, religious and futuristic.

Though the show had been in the works for months, it was not without technical difficulties. Early on, Madonna paused the show so the sound could be reset. She entertained the audience during the delay by speaking at length about her rise to stardom while technicians worked behind the scenes. Later in the show, between songs, Madonna expressed concern for those affected by violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip. “It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, elderly people suffering, all of it is heartbreaking,” she said. “Even though our hearts are broken, our spirits cannot be broken.”

Madonna also reflected on her health struggles this year. “I forgot five days of my life, or my death,” she said. “I don’t really know where I was, but the angels were protecting me.

“If you want to know my secret, and you want to know how I pull through and how I survive, I thought, ‘I’ve got to be there for my children. I have to survive for them,’” she said. She then led the crowd in a singalong of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

The 24 performers onstage notably did not include a live band: Stuart Price, the tour’s musical director, told the BBC that “the original recordings are our stars.” The stage, which encompasses 4,400 square feet, was designed to echo Manhattan neighborhoods, as well as the wedding cake from Madonna’s 1984 MTV Video Music Awards performance of “Like a Virgin.” During the show, she is swept across the venue in a square-framed box 30 feet off the ground.

Carla Nobre, 38, of Nottingham said that seeing Madonna in concert had been on her bucket list, but that she had been disappointed with the performance.“There was too much talking,” she said.

Jenni Purple, 54, from the southern coast of England said the concert, which was her first time seeing Madonna live, had been “absolutely incredible.” “I loved all the medleys, I loved the costumes, I loved all the dances,” she said with a broad smile. “Everything was just mind-blowing.”

In the past, Madonna’s tours have been news-making events tied as much to her latest music as to her cycle of stylistic reinventions. But Celebration is essentially the pop superstar’s Eras Tour , as Taylor Swift has styled her latest outing: a staged romp through decades of hit songs and signature looks, giving fans a chance to relive her career as a stages-of-life experience. (Seventeen of Madonna’s previous costumes were recreated for the tour, and some of the merchandise for sale includes replicas from past treks.)

With her Virgin Tour in 1985, Madonna introduced herself as a punk-glam dance star whose every crucifix pendant or flap of denim was zealously adopted by fans. Who’s That Girl (1987) and Blond Ambition (1990) grew increasingly elaborate as Madonna pushed the fashion envelope with looks like Jean Paul Gaultier’s memorable cone bra and set the bar for bold, imaginative pop megatours. The Girlie Show (1993), in which Madonna appeared as a dominatrix, was the accompaniment to a period of daringly explicit material like her “Sex” book and “Justify My Love” video, which was banned from MTV.

After an eight-year absence from the road, Drowned World (2001) reintroduced Madonna as a new mother, an electro-pop heroine and an acolyte of kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. In more recent years, her Confessions Tour (2006) cast her in late-70s disco style, and Rebel Heart (2015-16) found her playing guitar, in addition to executing the complex choreography for which she is known. Her most recent tour, Madame X, which was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, saw Madonna looking to reinvent her stage performance once again in a more intimate, almost cabaret form, mostly eschewing arenas for spaces like the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

For Madonna, the 78-date Celebration Tour is a chance to assert her star power in a year when live music has been dominated by Swift and Beyoncé — women who, like Madonna before them, have used talent and deep media savvy to remake pop stardom in their own image. In July, Beyoncé acknowledged the debt, when Madonna, making one of her first public appearances after her hospitalization, attended Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in New Jersey. “Big shout-out to the queen,” Beyoncé called out during a performance of the “Queens Remix” of her song “Break My Soul,” which blends in Madonna’s 1990 smash “Vogue” — another hit that mined, and honored, gay dance culture of that period.

Madonna returned the acknowledgment on Saturday, playing a bit of the same remix during an interstitial moment.

When Madonna’s latest tour was announced in January, it immediately became one of the year’s big-ticket events — and yielded a micro-flood of hot takes about the singer’s age. But the tour appears to be far from sold out; Ticketmaster still shows many seats available at some major venues like Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where Madonna will start the North American leg of the tour with three shows in December.

Back in 2009, Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour set box-office records when it sold more than $400 million in tickets. Since then, the economics of live music have exploded; Beyoncé has already well exceeded that amount with her Renaissance shows, and Swift may well sell close to $2 billion in tickets by the time her Eras Tour is completed.

Legacy has clearly been on Madonna’s mind lately. Last month, the 1989 Pepsi commercial that introduced her song “Like a Prayer” — before it was pulled amid outrage over its music video, which featured an interracial kiss and the singer dancing in front of burning crosses — was finally aired again during the MTV Video Music Awards.

Madonna, who had been paid $5 million for the promotion — and kept the money — said on social media : “So began my illustrious career as an artist refusing to compromise my artistic integrity.” She added, “Thank you @pepsi for finally realizing the genius of our collaboration. Artists are here to disturb the peace.”

It was clearly on fans’ minds as well. Aisha and Maia Letamendia Moore, 17-year-old twins from southern England, near Brighton, wore looks that drew on the Vogue and Like a Virgin eras. “I think she’s such an influence,” Maia said. “She did so many things that were so controversial. She wasn’t scared to do it, she wasn’t scared what people would say.”

Others mentioned rumors that Celebration could be Madonna’s last tour. Helen Dawson, 47, who said she first saw Madonna during the Who’s That Girl Tour in 1987, would abide no such thought. “Never, she won’t give up,” Ms. Dawson said. “This is just a new celebration, a new era.”

Derrick Bryson Taylor is a general assignment reporter. He previously worked at The New York Post’s PageSix.com and Essence magazine. More about Derrick Bryson Taylor

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

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'Show-Stopping Spectacle' Or 'Lacking A Little Punch'? What The Critics Are Saying About Madonna's Tour

Contributor

Madonna is finally back where she belongs, taking to the stage over the weekend to kick off her highly-anticipated Celebration Tour.

The 35-city tour was announced earlier this year, but the Queen of Pop was forced to delay the start of it due to a serious bacterial infection that landed her in hospital for several days back in June.

But Madonna was on fine form as she began her show at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night, where she played to 20,000 fans, and also spoke candidly her recent health scare .

Taking fans through her 40-year career, her set list included her most recognisable hits such as Into The Hollywood Groove, Holiday and Like A Prayer.

In addition, her children joined her on staged, Estere was voguing whilst her son David played the guitar.

OKAY ESTERE IS GIVING!!! MADONNA I LIVE FOR THIS BALLROOM SCENE YOU HAVE IN THE CELEBRATION TOUR! pic.twitter.com/lzGWdNwzJ4 — amri🐝 (@saintslaurentz) October 15, 2023

Madonna’s son, David Banda, paying homage to the Late Prince during Opening Night of #TheCelebrationTour . London, Oct. 14, 2023. pic.twitter.com/Hxv6kxesqm — Drew S. (@DrewSrivanlop) October 15, 2023

The general consensus from critics so far has largely been positive, but they have honed in on some pain points – h ere’s what they all had to say...

Guardian (4/5 stars)

“[...] You could argue that the show loses its sense of narrative thread – you’d be hard-pushed to describe a segue that jams together Human Nature, Crazy for You and Justify My Love with readings from the Book of Revelation as anything other than puzzling – but what it lacks in clarity, it makes up for with its setlist.

“You could see the Celebration tour as a capitulation, an artist in her 60s finally admitting her history is what really matters. Equally, you could view it as Madonna playing to her strengths: as Like a Virgin and Ray of Light boom out over the O2, those strengths seem very strong indeed.”

Evening Standard (4/5 stars)

“Though the narrative of the show, a journey through Madonna’s life, started out strong, it weakened and became more confused as time went on. Technical difficulties early on also forced Madonna to muddle her way through a prolonged bout of stand-up for almost ten minutes.

“Still, it frankly wouldn’t be a proper Madonna show without a few surprise jokes about trading sexual favours for hot showers early in her career, nor a couple of musical curveballs. Forty years at the top of pop, and she’s still unpredictable as ever.”

“The concert was billed as Madonna’s first-ever greatest hits set and, on that front, it did not disappoint.

“Not every moment was so successful. The Bjork-penned Bedtime Stories felt superfluous, and did we really need a second version of Justify My Love (the obscure Beast Within remix, which quotes extensively from the Book of Revelations) when songs like Express Yourself and Frozen were discarded as snippets? The narrative, too, began to meander. After a strong autobiographical structure in the opening act, later sequences were hard to decipher.”

Independent 5/5 stars

“The O2’s sound system failed during the song, but the hitch – which the singer shrugged off – only added to the vintage vibe.

“The show’s high point arrives courtesy of an achingly beautiful rendition of 1986’s Live to Tell, during which Madonna floats above our heads as the screens fill with images of the many talented gay men lost to the Aids epidemic.”

“Tonight, the Madonna show goes on and, after that early hitch, it simply doesn’t stop, laying on spectacle after spectacle and show-stopper after show-stopper. With so many stages, set-ups and costume changes, you could probably catch this gig half a dozen times and still not spot everything (and many of this crowd, teetering on the brink of delirium ever since the Madonna pop-up store opened in the adjoining mall this morning, seem set to do just that).

“This show is proof that there is no such thing as too much Madonna. True, the lack of a live band occasionally makes things lack a little punch.”

Rolling Stone

“For all of the genius production masterminded tonight by her creative director, the renowned producer Stuart Price, there are sections of the show that feel overwrought and, at one point, entirely misguided.

“The overwrought comes in a bizarre video interlude of The Beast Within, which sees flames engulf the stage and Madonna’s dancers looking like they’ve come straight from the set of Dune 2. It’s an undeniable spectacle, but it feels overlong.

“Here’s a true icon who, for the most part at least, is determined to show that her throne as the Queen of Pop remains roundly intact. A celebration, well and truly delivered.”

Daily Mail 4/5 stars

“If this show has a problem it’s that it’s rather too long, too self-indulgent – and has too many pretentious interludes...”

Madonna’s Celebration Tour continues at The O2 on Wednesday.

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Life might be a mystery – but there’s no question Madonna is the true Queen of Pop as Celebration Tour kicks off

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‘I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around.’

Not many stars can say they’ve been at the top of their game for the best part of 40 years, churning out hit after hit and redefining what it means to be a pioneer at every turn.

But then again, there’s only one Madonna .

Last night, the 65-year-old Queen of Pop kicked off her spectacular Celebration Tour concert , just months after suffering a serious health scare that left her questioning if she’d even ‘make it’.

Her own mortality was clearly at the forefront of her mind during the night , as she revealed that one day during her health woes, she’d woken up surrounded by all of her six children.

However, Madonna truly is the epitome of a phoenix rising from adversity, as she sung her heart out and brought an atmosphere of unadulterated joy to London’s O2 that made us feel as though we’d reached the pearly gates of music heaven itself.

Given Madonna’s tour is literally named Celebration, fans knew that they were in store for a night filled with Madge’s biggest hits – and in that regard, she didn’t disappoint.

RuPaul’s Drag Race star Bob the Drag Queen began the proceedings, sauntering through the hyped crowd on the lower level of the arena dressed in a luxurious Marie Antoinette-esque ensemble, passing Madonna lookalikes left, right and centre.

Having gracefully ascended the stage, Bob announced: ‘It’s not just a show. This is not just a concert. This is not just a party. It’s a celebration!’

And then, the moment everyone had been waiting for, as an ethereal Madonna emerged through the smoke a mere 20 minutes late, a wind machine blowing her hair and her billowing black gown as she sang Nothing Really Matters like an angel.

We can’t lie – there were tears in our eyes.

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The beginning of the concert played like a stage production, transporting audience members back to 1980s New York to the early years of Madonna’s career with archival footage, pictures and colourfully-clothed dancers.

The star launched into lively renditions of Everybody and Into The Groove, bouncing around the stage despite wearing a support on her left knee.

However, minutes after the concert kicked off, the popstar suffered a snag, revealing that a technical issue meant that they had to wait for the sound to be restored.

Ever the pro, the singer played off the mishap expertly, turning the show into An Evening With Madonna as she spoke to her fans as though she was in an intimate bar, rather than in an arena in front of thousands on the first night of a 78-stop world tour.

‘It’s so good to be back London. And I’m pretty damn surprised I made it this far. And I mean that on so many levels. Do you get my gist? So many levels. How did I make it this far? Because. Of. You,’ she told her adoring, cheering fans while pointing at them.

‘I’m going to take a little bit of credit too. Anyways, nice to see you again. So nice to have me back, right?’

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Finally, the tech aces did their thing, and Madonna was back in business, giving flashes of her twenty-something self as she skipped down the stage, belting out Open Your Heart and bringing stellar group choreography to Holiday with her entourage of dancers.

One of the most moving moments of the entire concert came during the 1986 track Live To Tell, as Madonna stood on a platform that was levitated high up in the air, as black and white photos of people who sadly died during the Aids crisis were projected onto large banners.

The star beautifully and effortlessly weaved powerful messages into the performance throughout the night, calling out homophobia and transphobia, sharing her support for Black Lives Matter and expressing her heartbreak over those suffering as a result of the war between Hamas and Israel.

‘There’s a lot of really crazy things happening in the world that are so, so painful to witness. All of us are suffering, watching what’s happening in Israel and Palestine. It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, elderly people suffering, all of it is heartbreaking. I’m sure you agree,’ she said.

‘Even though our hearts are broken, our spirits cannot be broken. Are you with me?’

Madonna’s fans were certainly with her in every respect, from the important messages she had to share about the world’s suffering to celebrating her incredible legacy.

A snippet of Madonna’s collaboration with Sam Smith, Vulgar, opened up for her 1989 hit Like A Prayer, before she quickly changed into a boxing outfit with Marilyn Monroe-esque hair for Erotica.

As part of the storytelling format of her Celebration concert, there was a dancer with an unnerving-looking plasticky face who was supposed to represent her in her younger years, showing up at various points of the show dressed in some of Madonna’s most iconic looks.

The dancer appeared at one point in the iconic Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra corset while lounging on a bed, as Madonna joined them to simulate a passionate night of love.

The multi-Grammy Award winner stuck close to her roots, continuing to promote bold and beautiful sexuality as she has always done since the start of her stardom, breaking down barriers and taboos when it comes to both women and age.

In signature Madonna fashion, she locked lips with several of her dancers on the night, while also proving she trusted them wholeheartedly as she danced with them blindfolded for the start of her 2005 floor-filler Hung Up.

Given the magnitude of the Celebration Tour opening night, the popstar decided to make it a fabulous family affair, bringing out several of her children on stage – including daughter Lourdes, who was celebrating her 27th birthday that same day.

One of the most magnificent highlights of the night – which we were waiting for with eager anticipation – was Vogue, which began with the dancers showcasing stunning looks on a rotating stage, as Madonna’s 11-year-old daughter Estere DJed at the centre.

As Bob the Drag Queen compèred a runway, Madonna sat with Lourdes on the end of a catwalk holding up placards to judge the dancers’ struts… before Estere absolutely stole the show with her Voguing skills, blowing all of us away.

Her 17-year-old daughter Mercy James stunned on the ivories as she played on the piano for Bad Girl, while 18-year-old David Banda also strummed on the guitar.

Going through the decades, Madonna donned a cowboy hat for her 2000s era, singing Don’t Tell Me and Mother and Father, before harking back to her critically-acclaimed performance in the 1996 film Evita with a rendition of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.

After donning a bejewelled, futuristic bodysuit and long blonde wig while soaring back up in the air, Madonna paid homage to the close relationship that she had with Michael Jackson, as silhouetted dancers were projected onto a banner as their 1980s-selves.

Michael’s Billie Jean rang out around the stadium, before the track transitioned into Madonna’s Like a Virgin, and the message: ‘Never can say goodbye’ appeared on the screens, 14 years after he died aged 50 in 2009.

Two hours seemed to speed by as the night drew to a close just after 11pm, ending with an exuberant mash-up of Celebration and Music.

Surrounded by dancers dressed in some of her most unforgettable looks, Madonna’s energy never faltered from start to finish, as she ended on a high note while wearing an electric blue corset and a long white veil.

Perhaps surprisingly, there was no encore for the star, leaving audience members in a state of startled wonderment as Madonna disappeared from the stage and the lights abruptly came back on, bringing us all back to reality.

For just a few hours, we were utterly absorbed in Madonna’s world of unbridled empowerment.

If we were to take away one lasting message from her Celebration spectacle, it would be this – there’s no stopping her enduring reign as the undisputed Queen of Pop.

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If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Madonna forced to stop Celebration tour opening night after malfunction

MORE : Months after a worrying health scare, defiant Madonna is back with her Celebration Tour: a look at her net worth and career

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• The Celebration Tour

The Celebration Tour By The Numbers

by MadonnaTribe · October 13, 2023

On the eve of the opening night of Madonna ’s highly anticipated new tour tomorrow night at the O2 Arena in London, Live Nation released a juicy breakdown of The Celebration Tour by the numbers.

The most thrilling part is about what fans should expect the Madonna stage to be like: covering a surface of 4,400 square ft / 410 mq, The Celebration Tour stage is the largest for any of her tours and the ispiration for its design come from the grid of the Manhattan Island in New York City.

The mysterious maps from the online ticket vendors have been analized in-depth by the fans in the past months and we know learn that the set up will include five different stages: Uptown , Downtown , Midtown , East and West .

We will have to wait until tomorrow night to find out what the illuminated portal frame that transports Madonna 30 foot / 9  meters off the ground around the arena looks like. It is designed to act as a time machine that symbolizes looking into the past, present and towards the future and will allow her to move at 1.5 foot / 45 centimeters per second, 80 foot / 24 meters across and 130 foot / 40 meters down the length of the arena .

As many of you have guessed, the three-layered circular stage that you find where the traditional main stage would be is a nod to the wedding cake of Madonna’s original VMA performance.

3600 square ft / 334 mq of projection imagery make this the most amount of video ever used in a Madonna show.

The catwalks have a combined lenght of 230 foot / 76 meters and will get Madonna 105 foot / 32 meters far into the venue.

Madonna worked with Lewis James as the Creative Director for The Celebration Tour . The press release also confirms Jamie King as the show director – at his eigth tour with Madonna and the return of Stuart Price as the musical director for the fourth time. Bob The Drag Quee n is indeed part of the show – not simply a support act – and twenty-four onstage performers will also be joined by four of Madonna’s children. Last but not least, seventeen archived costumes have been recreated for the show.

Here is The Celebration Tour by the numbers:

• 4 Decades of unstoppable hits – prepare to dance your ass off!
• 13th Culture shaping tour.
• 1 Extraordinary drag queen.
• 8th Tour partnering with director Jamie King.
• 24 Onstage performers.
• 1 Stuart Price reunion.
• 4,400 square ft. of stage, the largest for any Madonna tour. Inspired by the grid of Manhattan with Uptown, Downtown, Midtown, East and West stages.
• 8 Humidifiers in Madonna’s dressing room.1 Bottle of MDNA Rose Mist Spray in each quick-change space.
• 3 Traveling mobile gyms.
• 15 Countries.
• 50 Merch items including vintage recreations of iconic items from previous tours such as the Blond Ambition Bomber Jacket.
• 45 Wardrobe trunks.
• 1 Queen sized Madonna flag outside the O2 (naturally).
• 6 Sold out nights in London.
• 3 Layered circular stage where the traditional main stage would be, inspired by the wedding cake of Madonna’s original VMA performance.
• 3 Physical therapists.
• 4 of Madonna’s children on stage.
• 40 Pairs of boxing gloves.
• 230 Ft. of combined length of catwalk that gets Madonna 105ft far into the venue.
• 14 Spotlights for Madonna and over 600 intelligent lights to light the stage and arena with over 8800 lighting cues.
• 17 Archived costumes recreated.
• 4 Rehearsal venues.
• 80 Tons of production equipment.
• 330 Million albums sold, still the best-selling female artist of all time.
• 3600 Square ft. of projection imagery to the show. The most amount of video ever used in a Madonna show.
• 200+ Traveling crew – 25 in the costume department alone.
• 30 Ft. off the ground Madonna is transported around the arena in an illuminated portal frame that acts as a time machine allowing her to move at 1.5ft per second, 80ft across and 130ft down the length of the arena designed to symbolize looking into the past, present and towards the future.
• 3700 Amps of show power.

…and only ONE Madonna .

Tags: Madonna The Celebration Tour

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Madonna The Celebration Tour Setlist in Full 2023: Songs for concert at London The O2 Arena

Madonna's The Celebration Tour is among the year's most eagerly anticipated live shows - here's everything you need to know about the tour as it hits the UK, Europe and North America.

Madonna 's The Celebration Tour kicked off at London's The O2 Arena on October 14 2023 as the first of six dates at the venue. Four will take place in October, followed by another two in early December after Madonna has criss-crossed Europe.

The tour was originally due to kick off in Toronto in July, but the singer was forced to postpone its launch after being hospitalised with a "serious bacterial infection" .

When the tour was announced in January, it was billed as "Madonna's artistic journey through four decades" and a show that "pays respect to the city of New York where her career in music began". The pop icon said at the time: "I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for."

Given that Madonna has 72 UK Top 40 hits to choose from – including 63 UK Top 10s and 13 UK Number 1s – assembling a setlist was no mean feat. Little wonder she has recruited Stuart Price, the co-producer of her chart-topping 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor , as part of her musical crew.

With the Celebration Tour now in full swing, here's the setlist in full. 

Madonna: The Celebration Tour 2023 setlist in full

1. nothing really matters, 2. everybody, 3. into the groove, 4. burning up, 5. open your heart, 7. live to tell, 8. like a prayer, 10. justify my love, 11. fever (cover), 12. hung up, 13. bad girl, 15. human nature, 16. crazy for you, 17. die another day, 18. don't tell me, 19. mother and father, 20. little star, 21. i will survive (cover), 22. la isla bonita, 23. don't cry for me argentina , 24. bedtime story, 25. ray of light, 27. bitch i'm madonna, 28. celebration, read more: 65 incredible madonna chart facts, feats and trivia, what are madonna's uk tour dates.

October 14 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 15 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 17 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 18 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England December 5 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England December 6 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England

What are Madonna's European tour dates?

October 14 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 15 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 17 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 18 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England October 21, 2023 - Sportpaleis, Antwerp, Belgium October 22, 2023 - Sportpaleis, Antwerp, Belgium October 25, 2023 - Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark     October 26, 2023 - Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark         October 28, 2023 - Tele2 Arena, Stockholm, Sweden     November 1, 2023 - Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain     November 2, 2023 - Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain         November 6, 2023 - Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal     November 7, 2023 - Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal November 12, 2023 - Accor Arena, Paris, France     November 13, 2023 - Accor Arena, Paris, France         November 15, 2023 - Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany November 16, 2023 - Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany         November 19, 2023 - Accor Arena, Paris, France     November 20, 2023 - Accor Arena, Paris, France     November 23, 2023 - Mediolanum Forum, Milan, Italy       November 25, 2023 - Mediolanum Forum, Milan, Italy          November 28, 2023 - Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin, Germany     November 29, 2023 - Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin, Germany         December 1, 2023 - Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands     December 2, 2023 - Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands December 5 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England December 6 2023 - The O2 Arena, London, England

Who is Madonna's support act Bob the Drag Queen?

Bob the Drag Queen – also known as Christopher Delmar Caldwell – is an American drag performer, comedian, TV star and LGBTQ+ activist.  He won the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and co-hosted three seasons of the drag-themed reality show We're Here.

Can I get tickets for Madonna The Celebration Tour?

Tickets for the UK dates in London are nearly all sold out but you can get your hands on any remaining UK tickets here (affiliate link*)

If you're looking to see her perform in Europe or North America there are a few still available.

Where can I buy Madonna The Celebration Tour merch?

You can pick up tour merch from the designated official stands at London's The O2 Arena. If previous Madonna tours are anything to go on, prices are unlikely to be anywhere close to rock-bottom.

*This article contains affiliate links, if you purchase tickets through these links we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

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Fantastic show, but she had to cut Sorry, Oh Father and another song because of the technical issues at the start of Open Your Heart, otherwise the show wouldn't have finished by the 11pm curfew.

What is the point in calling this article the 'setlist in full' when you don't actually tell us a single track that we can expect? Just ask the cleaner to write for you, they couldn't do a worse job. 

Edit:- Some surprising omissions, equally some surprising inclusions. Would have expected to see Material Girl and Frozen. Masterpiece is easily in my top 5 favourites, it is criminal that it never did better.

and what better way to greet the one and ONLY undisputed Queen of Pop with her very own Royal Standard Flag...

https://metro.co.uk/2023/10/11/madonna-gets-epic-royal-nod-as-celebration-tour-kicks-off-in-london-19645591/

"The Queen of Pop kicks off her Celebration tour at the 02 on Saturday and to mark the 65-year-old’s arrival in the capital the world-famous venue has created a Madonna-themed flag much like the Royal Standard flag.

The Royal Standard flag is flown at full mast whenever King Charles III is in residence at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle and Madonna’s flag will let everyone in London know she’s in town.

Made by the royal family’s very own flagmakers, Madonna’s flag will stay up throughout her five headline shows, in which the A-lister will belt out four decades of her biggest hits.

Steve Sayer, vice president and general manager at the O2, said of the idea: ‘The arrival of Madonna and The Celebration Tour in London is arguably the biggest UK event in pop music this year.

‘Madonna has been at the forefront of the genre and part of pop culture for four decades, and we’re very proud that this hotly anticipated tour kicks off right here at The O2. This Royal Standard flag feels like a fitting tribute to pop royalty, and the perfect way to kick off six incredible shows."

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Madonna, 65, is sued for ‘forcing’ fan to watch sex acts on stage during her Celebration concert

Lawsuit claims that concertgoers should have been warned about content of 65-year-old star’s show, article bookmarked.

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Madonna has been sued by a fan who claims he was “forced” to watch simulated sexual acts on stage during the singer’s “Celebration” tour in Los Angeles.

Justen Lipeles filed a lawsuit in a California court, claiming that he should have been warned about the content of the 65-year-old star’s show before attending the concert.

He alleges that neither he nor other concertgoers knew what to expect ahead of the show on 7 March 2024 at the Kia Forum, according to TMZ .

The lawsuit states that the concert started more than an hour and a half late, Madonna was lip-syncing during parts of the show and the air conditioning was turned off, creating an uncomfortable environment for the audience, which resulted in some people becoming physically ill.

He alleges that the singer asked for the air conditioning to be turned off and told people to strip down to beat the heat.

On the sexual acts, the plaintiff asserts that he and others were subjected to “pornography without warning” and “forced to watch topless women on stage simulating sex acts.”

“Forcing consumers to wait hours in hot, uncomfortable arenas and subjecting them to pornography without warning is demonstrative of Madonna ’s flippant disrespect for her fans,” the suit stated, according to The Blast.

He’s suing Madonna for breach of written contract, negligent misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false advertising, negligence/negligent infliction of emotional distress and unfair competition.

The Independent has contacted the Lipeles Law Group for more information about the case.

The plaintiff is asking for a refund for his tickets and/or profits from the show. He’s also seeking a jury trial in the case.

Madonna was previously sued in New York earlier this year for starting a Brooklyn concert late.

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Madonna's Tour by the Numbers: 4 Kids, 8 Humidifiers, 3 Traveling Gyms and More Surprising Revelations

The pop superstar is set to kick off her highly anticipated Celebration Tour Saturday at the O2 Arena in London

Melody Chiu is an Executive Editor at PEOPLE overseeing music, events and emerging content. She has been with the brand since 2009, editing, writing and reporting across all entertainment verticals. She has written cover stories on Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Melissa McCarthy, Blake Shelton, Jordan Turpin and Sandra Oh. The Los Angeles native graduated from the University of Southern California and has appeared on Extra! , The Talk, Access Hollywood and Good Morning America .

Ethan Miller/Getty

The Queen of Pop is going all out for her Celebration Tour .

After postponing the kickoff of her highly anticipated string of shows earlier this year, Madonna, 65, is taking London by storm this weekend with six sold-out performances at the O2 Arena.

According to a press release, the superstar will be joined onstage by four of her children — likely David Banda, 18, who's often danced in her shows, Mercy, 17, and twins Stella and Estere, 11 — when she takes the stage to perform 40-plus songs.

The show, which sees Madonna reuniting with longtime collaborators Stuart Price and Jamie King, is expected to cover four decades of her career, which got its start in New York City.

Paying homage to her early days, the singer's stages will be split into Uptown, Downtown, Midtown, East and West "grids."

Known for her iconic fashion , the star will be wearing 17 looks inspired by her archived costumes — and 25 of her 200-plus traveling crew will be from the costume department alone.

According to the release, she will be traveling with three mobile gyms, eight humidifiers in her dressing room and three physical therapists for the run of her shows.

Last month, a source told PEOPLE exclusively Madonna was focused on her tour after a health scare and hospitalization earlier this summer.

"She's so happy to be back onstage and  is feeling strong . She's working closely with her longtime collaborators, Jamie King and Stuart Price, to put the final touches on the show," said the insider of the "ambitious tour."

Following her London shows, Madonna will be making stops in Copenhagen, Barcelona, Paris and more before wrapping up 2023 with shows in Brooklyn and Washington back in the States.

"I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for," she said in a press release when the Celebration Tour was initially announced in January.

Below is the Celebration Tour by the numbers:

• 4 decades of Madonna's greatest hits for her 13th tour
• 1 extraordinary drag queen
• 8th tour partnering with director Jamie King
• 24 onstage performers
• 1 Stuart Price reunion
• 4,400 sq. ft. of stage — the largest of her tours
• 1 bottle of MDNA Rose Mist Spray in each quick-change space
• 3 traveling mobile gyms
• 15 countries
• 50 merch items, including vintage recreations of iconic items from previous tours (like her Blond Ambition bomber jacket)
• 45 wardrobe trunks
• 1 Queen-sized Madonna flag outside the O2
• 3 layered circular stages inspired by the wedding cake from Madonna's VMA performance
• 3 physical therapists
• 40 pairs of boxing globes
• 230 ft. of combined length of catwalk that gets Madonna 105 ft. into the venue
• 14 spotlights and over 600 intelligent lights to light the stage and arena with over 8,800 lighting cues
• 17 archived costumes recreated
• 4 rehearsal venues
• 80 tons of production equipment
• 330 million albums sold
• 3,600 sq. ft. of projection imagery
• 200-plus traveling crew — including 25 in the costume department alone
• 30 ft. off the ground Madonna will be transported around the arena
• 3,700 amps of show power

Related Articles

Madonna kicks off Celebration Tour with nonstop hits, performance from her daughter

Madonna officially kicked off her Celebration World Tour in London over the weekend, wowing fans with a litany of hits and memorable surprises.

Among the highlights of the show at O2 Arena on Saturday was when the pop icon sang a snippet of "Little Star," which she dedicated to her daughter Lourdes Leon, who celebrated her 27th birthday on opening night.

Leon appeared alongside Madonna's 11-year-old daughter Estere, who impressed the crowd when she vogued onstage.

Madonna and Leon both looked on proudly as Estere moved across the stage.

Many of the Queen of Pop's most beloved songs were included in the set list, from "Into the Groove" to "Open Your Heart" to "Vogue," as well as "Live to Tell," "Like a Prayer," "Ray of Light" and "Holiday."

Variety noted that she threw some snippets of other artists' songs into the mix, including Sam Smith and Kim Petras' "Unholy" and Prince's "Let's Go Crazy." She also performed a cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and did a mashup of her late friend Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and her own hit "Like a Virgin."

Madonna highlighted the controversy she's caused in her career by showing news headlines and video montages throughout the evening, according to Variety. The video screens also paid tribute to friends she'd lost to AIDS, and she offered a plea for peace in the Middle East. At various times, she "flew" over the crowd in an illuminated "portal" that took her through different eras in her career.

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The Celebration World Tour continues with two more sold out shows at London's O2 Arena on Oct. 17 and 18 before heading to Europe. It arrives in the U.S. in December, kicking off the North American leg of the tour with three shows at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Here's the full set list, according to Madonna's team:

• "Celebration Intro/Nothing Really Matters"
• "Everybody"
• "Into the Groove"
• "Burning Up"
• "Open Your Heart"
• "Holiday"
• "Live to Tell"
• "Like a Prayer"
• "Act of Living For Love/The 90's"
• "Erotica"/"Papa Don't Preach"
• "Justify My Love"/"Fever"
• "Hung Up on Tokischa"
• "Bad Girl"
• "Vogue" (Estere's Ball)
• "Human Nature"/"Crazy For You"
• "The Beast Within" (Interlude)
• "Die Another Day"
• "Don't Tell Me"
• "Mother and Father"
• "I Will Survive"/"La Isla Bonita"/"Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
• "I Don't Search I Find" (Interlude)
• "Bedtime Story"
• "Ray of Light"
• "Rain"
• "Billie Jean" vs. "Like A Virgin"
• "Give Me All Your Luvin'/B**** I'm Madonna"

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Madonna sued for "pornography without warning" and for "deceptively" marketing her world tour

This is the second lawsuit leveled at the singer for her celebration world tour, by nardos haile.

Madonna 's Celebration world tour is at the center of yet another controversy.

According to People Magazine , in a class action lawsuit filed on Thursday, the singer is being sued by a fan who said Madonna subjected concertgoers to watch "pornography without warning." They are alleging claims of negligent misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and false advertising.

Moreover, the lawsuit claimed that during Madonna's March 7 concert in Los Angeles, there were "topless women on stage simulating sex acts," while detailing a concertgoing experience that was "hot" and "uncomfortable" due to the lack of air conditioning. The fan alleged that Madonna ordered the air conditioning to be turned off, and as a result of no air conditioning, he says he became physically ill because of the heat, Entertainment Weekly reported.

Throughout her career, Madonna has cultivated a sex-positivite persona. Her shows have included erotic dancing, suggestive touching and lap dances that would include singers such as Maluma and Ricky Martin, People said. Alongside Madonna, the plaintiff also has also named the entertainment company, Live Nation, owner of Ticketmaster for luring concertgoers into purchasing  "expensive tickets" and “purposely and deceptively” concealing information about the singer's show not starting on time as it was marketed.

The complaint stated that the show was marketed to start at 8:30 p.m. but Madonna didn't take the stage until after 10 p.m. However, when the singer eventually appeared on stage, the lawsuit claimed she was lip-syncing even though the concertgoers had paid for a live experience and performance.

"Forcing consumers to wait hours in hot, uncomfortable arenas and subjecting them to pornography without warning is demonstrative of Madonna's flippant disrespect for her fans," the complaint said. Madonna and her legal team have not yet responded to multiple requests to comment.

Madonna's alleged tardiness is also the reason for a previous lawsuit filed against the singer in January . Two concertgoers at one of her New York tour dates accused the singer of "unconscionable, unfair, and/or deceptive trade practices" for beginning her show at 10:30 p.m. instead of the marketed time of 8:30 p.m. At the time, Madonna's representatives said the show's delay was due to technical difficulties.

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Last month, Madonna's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that "no reasonable concertgoer — and certainly no Madonna fan — would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time."

Madonna's alleged sexual performances and tardiness are not the only controversial moments during her Celebration tour. In March, the singer called out an audience member sitting down during her show. In a video recorded by a concertgoer, the singer was heard yelling from the stage, "What are you doing sitting down?" to suggest that audience members should be standing and or dancing. She realized her mistake when she looked at the audience member who was in a wheelchair.

The singer said on stage, “Oh, OK. Politically incorrect, sorry about that. I’m glad you’re here." However, Madonna's actions was met with backlash. Criticisms online stated that her comments were "pure ableism & glaring privilege."

about Madonna

• The unreasonable, degrading expectations imposed on stars' bodies
• Did Madonna's "I'm gay" TikTok really mean what we think it means?
• Madonna at 60: From Material Girl to Golden Girl, on her own terms

Nardos Haile is a staff writer at Salon covering culture. She’s previously covered all things entertainment, music, fashion and celebrity culture at The Associated Press. She resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Related articles.

Madonna Fan Files Lawsuit Accusing Her of Exposing Concertgoers to 'Pornography Without Warning' at Shows

I n the class action suit, the fan claims Madonna and Live Nation "purposely and deceptively withheld" information about her concerts

• Madonna is being sued by another fan over her Celebration World Tour
• Justen Lipeles' lawsuit alleges that concertgoers were "forced to watch topless women" simulate "sexual acts" onstage, "subjecting them to pornography without warning"
• A rep for Madonna has not commented on the lawsuit

Madonna is being sued by a fan who claims he was "deceived" by her Celebration World Tour.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Justen Lipeles filed a class action suit against the “Hung Up” singer, 65, in California on Thursday, May 30, that alleges the Queen of Pop and her promoter Live Nation “lulled” concertgoers into buying “expensive tickets” to her Celebration Tour shows held in February and March that “purposely and deceptively” withheld information in its marketing.

The plaintiff in the court complaint claims Madonna and Live Nation failed to inform ticket purchasers that the singer’s scheduled shows at four California venues would not start on time “as promised,” instead having to wait until after 10 p.m. for concerts to begin.

Related: Madonna and Live Nation Plan to 'Vigorously' Defend Lawsuit Filed Against Them for Alleged Delayed Start Time

The filing also accuses the pop star of maintaining a “hot and uncomfortable temperature” during her performances, which the fan claims she “would lip-synch much of.”

Forum Entertainment, Kia Forum, Acrisure Arena, the Golden 1 Center and Chase Center were named in the lawsuit alongside Madonna and Live Nation.

The lawsuit also alleges that concertgoers were “forced to watch topless women” simulate “sexual acts” onstage during Madonna’s shows, “subjecting them to pornography without warning.” 

Throughout her career, Madonna has maintained a sex-positive environment, with shows including erotic dancing, some NSFW touching, and even lap dances, as evidenced with Maluma and Ricky Martin, most recently.

Related: Madonna's Final Celebration Tour Stop in Rio de Janeiro Draws Record-Breaking Audience of 1.6 Million

The May complaint against Madonna accuses the music icon of having engaged in “unfair, unlawful, deceptive business practices” that demonstrated her “flippant disrespect for her fans.”

Per the documents, plaintiffs are suing the "Like a Virgin" singer and the listed parties for unspecified damages for breach of written contract, negligent misrepresentation, emotional distress, unfair competition and false advertising.

A rep for Madonna has not commented on the lawsuit.

Related: Madonna Is Being Sued by Two Fans Claiming She Started Her Concert over 2 Hours Late

In January, Madonna was sued by two fans who accused her of starting another concert on her Celebration Tour late at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, claiming “false advertising” for beginning a scheduled 8:30 p.m. concert at 10:30 p.m. Live Nation was also named in the lawsuit.

Three months after the filing, Madonna’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss the two fans’ claims , claiming their accusations were not justified.  

"Nowhere did Defendants advertise that Madonna would take the stage at 8.30 p.m., and no reasonable concertgoer — and certainly no Madonna fan — would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time,” the star’s lawyers stated, per court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

The attorneys added, "Rather, a reasonable concertgoer would understand that the venue’s doors will open at or before the ticketed time, one or more opening acts may perform while attendees arrive and make their way to their seats and before the headline act takes the stage, and the headline act will take the stage later in the evening.”

Marcus Corwin, the two fans’ attorney, previously told PEOPLE that his clients would file a response to Madonna's motion to dismiss the lawsuit within 30 days. "We believe our response will address the issues raised in the MTD and that when the Court is fully briefed, we will be able to proceed with this action and obtain compensation for those ticket holders seeking refunds," he said.

After the January lawsuit, Live Nation issued a statement to PEOPLE, saying, "Madonna's just completed, sold out 2023 Celebration Tour in Europe received rave reviews. The shows opened in North America at Barclays in Brooklyn as planned, with the exception of a technical issue December 13th during soundcheck. This caused a delay that was well-documented in press reports at the time. We intend to defend this case vigorously.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People .

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Madonna Sued by Fan Over Accusations That Her Delayed Concert Was ‘Pornographic’

In the latest lawsuit over late starts to Madonna concerts, a California ticket buyer says he "felt like he was watching a pornographic film being made."

• By Bill Donahue

Bill Donahue

Madonna is facing another class action lawsuit over delayed concerts on her Celebration Tour, this time from a ticket buyer who also claims she forced fans to watch “pornography” during the show.

Like several previous cases, the new lawsuit claims that the Queen of Pop violated false advertising laws by taking the stage more than an hour later than expected, leaving fans to wait in an “uncomfortably hot” arena and get home later than expected.

Madonna Hits Back at Concert Delay Lawsuit, Says Fans Can’t Sue Over Needing to ‘Wake Up Early…

Trending on billboard.

“Forcing consumers to wait hours in hot, uncomfortable arenas and subjecting them to pornography without warning is demonstrative of Madonna’s flippant disrespect for her fans,” lawyers for the aggrieved fan wrote. “Plaintiff felt like he was watching a pornographic film being made.”

Madonna and promotor Live Nation are already facing similar cases in New York and Washington, D.C., over claims that late starts to her Celebration concerts broke the law. Both were filed as class actions, seeking to represent potentially thousands of other fans who also faced the alleged delays.

The New York case , focused on December shows at the Barclay Center, made headlines because it claimed the fans “had to get up early to go to work” the next day — a claim Madonna’s lawyers have since argued is not the kind of “cognizable injury” that can form the basis for a lawsuit. The D.C. case , targeting tour dates at the District’s Capital One Arena, added claims that the arena was “uncomfortably hot” and that she had lip-synched portions of the show.

In his new lawsuit, Lipeles echoed all of those claims about Madonna’s March 7 performance at the Kia Forum. He claims he paid more than $500 per ticket for a show that was supposed to start at 8:30 p.m. but that Madonna didn’t take the stage until after 10 p.m., leaving fans to wait in an arena that was overheated due to “Madonna’s requirement that venues not turn on air conditioning.”

Madonna Sued Again Over Delayed Concerts: ‘Total Disrespect For Her Fans’

“Plaintiff and members of the class were profusely sweating and became physically ill as a result of the heat,” his lawyers write. “When fans complained about the heat, Madonna unreasonably told them to take their clothes off.”

When the show finally did start, Lipeles claims, “it was apparent to plaintiff that Madonna was lip synching” during “most of the performance.” And he says he was given no warning that “there would be nudity and pornography on stage during Madonna’s concerts.”

In technical terms, the lawsuit accuses Madonna of breaching her contract with ticket buyers, negligent misrepresentation, false advertising and several other forms of legal wrongdoing under California law.

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• Gallagher, Liam
• June 6, 2024 Setlist

Liam Gallagher Setlist at The O2 Arena, London, England

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• Jun 01 2024 Utilita Arena Sheffield Sheffield, England Start time: 9:00 PM 9:00 PM
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