Madonna Pushes Back Launch Of ‘Celebration Tour’ Following ICU Stay, Bacterial Infection  

Madonna
Madonna is pictured at the Pala Alpitour in Turin, Italy, during her “Rebel Heart World Tour” on Nov. 21, 2015 (Photo by Marco Piraccini/Archivio Marco Piraccini/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Update: Madonna has reportedly been discharged from the hospital and is back at her New York City home, according to a June 29 post from CNN that referred to “a source with knowledge of the matter.” Pollstar had previously reached out to manager Guy Oseary for comment but hadn’t heard back at press time.

Madonna’s highly anticipated “The Celebration Tour” – her first arena run in seven years – has been postponed because the superstar artist developed a “serious bacterial infection” over the weekend that led to a stay in the ICU. Manager Guy Oseary revealed the news in a post on his Instagram account that noted that Madonna is “still under medical care” but “a full recovery is expected.” The tour was supposed to start in a little over two weeks with a July 15 show at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.

Oseary posted: “On Saturday, June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU. Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected. At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour. We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.

The most recent post on Madonna’s Instagram is a June 20 carousel of photos that show the superstar getting ready for her tour with a caption titled  “The Calm Before The Storm……….”

The massive routing on “The Celebration Tour” was initially announced in January and then extended multiple times after selling out 36 shows and over 600,000 tickets. More than 40 dates are booked in North America July 15 through Oct. 8, followed by more than 25 dates in Europe Oct. 14 through Dec. 6 and another dozen dates booked in North America in December and January.

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. Plus, Madonna is scheduled to play two nights each at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, Dallas’ American Airlines Center, Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. 

Longtime promoter Arthur Fogel, President, Global Touring + Chairman, Concerts at Live Nation, oversees Madonna’s touring for Live Nation. Fogel mentioned “The Celebration Tour” during an interview for Impact 50 when talking about how his year was “action-packed with projects.”

Madonna’s last global tour, “The Madame X Tour,” was an underplay and ran through mostly theaters, where she performed multiple nights in 2019-20. Her most recent submission to Pollstar’s Boxoffice was an eight-show run at the Grand Rex in Paris that took place Feb. 22 through March 8, 2020, grossing nearly $5.2 million on 20,919 total tickets.

The most recent U.S. report was a six-night run at the Jackie Gleason Theater at the Fillmore in Miami Beach in December 2019 that grossed more than $3.7 million on 13,339 tickets.

Madonna’s last arena stop was the conclusion of the Asian and Oceania leg of her “Rebel Heart Tour,” with two shows at Sydney’s Qudos Arena (previously known as Allphones Arena at the time) March 19-20, 2016, grossing $6.05 million on 26,370 tickets. Madonna ranked No. 13 on Pollstar‘s 2016 Worldwide Tours chart with a gross of $82.2 milion.

Madonna is in the top echelon of touring artists and ranks No. 5 on the Top Touring Artists Of The Pollstar Era chart (based on data between July 1980 and July 2022) with a gross of $1,389,746,222.

She holds the record of the highest grossing tour for a woman with her “Sticky & Sweet Tour” (2008-2009) that grossed $419 million.