Madonna’s Celebration Tour begins at London’s O2 Arena
bySian Watson Associated Press
October 14, 2023, 8:31 p.m.
FILE – Madonna appears at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York on May 4, 2019. Madonna kicks off her career Celebration Tour at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night, October 14, 2023, after suffering what her manager calls a “serious bacterial infection” that left several people in intensive care. This was his first performance since being admitted to the hospital. A few days before June. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Associated Press
London — Madonna kicked off her career-long Celebration Tour on Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena, where she spent several days in intensive care in June with what her manager called a “severe bacterial infection.” This was his first performance since.
“I’m on the road to recovery and incredibly grateful for all the blessings in my life,” the pop superstar wrote on Instagram this summer, shortly after news of his ICU stay broke. “I am now concentrating on my health and getting stronger. I assure you that I will be back as soon as possible.”
Madonna, 65, said on stage that it had been a “crazy year” that neither she nor her doctors thought she would get through. “She has to survive for her children,” she said, because her children encouraged her. The first night of her tour was also her daughter Lourdes Leon’s 27th birthday, and she joined her mother on stage.
Despite a brief technical glitch, the first day of the tour was a real celebration. Madonna performed songs from her extensive career, including her studio recordings and videos based on hits from four decades. The set list included iconic songs from “Like a Prayer” to “Holiday,” “Vogue” and “La Isla Bonita,” with songs like “Die Another Day” from the 2002 Bond film of the same name. It also included niche songs. .
During the show’s acoustic moment, Madonna spoke about the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
“Our hearts may be broken, but our spirits will not be broken,” she said, adding that she hoped for “a collective consciousness to change the world and bring peace.”
Madonna has rescheduled her North American tour, which was originally scheduled to start in Vancouver on July 15th and end in Las Vegas on October 8th. The leg currently begins on December 13th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and runs through April 24th, 2024, ending at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City.
