Madonna has now become the only woman ever to have six tours that grossed over $100 million each at the box office.
The 65-year-old’s Celebration Tour, which was delayed because of her life-threatening health crisis last year, turned out to be a thunderous financial triumph.
Her run of 80 live concerts sold 1.1 million tickets to the tune of $225.4 million in revenue, per the tally by Billboard Boxscore.
After opening at the O2 Arena in London last October, the tour whirled around the globe before concluding this past Saturday with a free performance held at the world-renowned Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro.
Besides Madonna, the only other acts to have six tours gross $100 million plus are The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and The Eagles.
Madonna has become the only woman ever to have six tours gross over $100 million each at the box office; pictured at the final performance of her Celebration Tour last weekend
Her Celebration Tour whirled around the globe before concluding this past Saturday with a free performance held at the world-renowned Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro (pictured)
The only other acts to have six tours gross $100 million plus are The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and The Eagles; Bruce pictured last year on a tour that surpassed $100 million
Her latest concert run is Madonna’s highest-grossing tour since her MDNA Tour sold 2.2 million tickets for a gross of $305.2 million in 2012.
The Material Girl’s most lucrative tour of all time was the Sticky & Sweet Tour in 2008 and 2009, which sold 3.5 million tickets for a $407.7 million gross.
Madonna welcomed an estimated 1.6 million people to her free concert in Rio De Janeiro over the weekend – a record for a female artist.
In spite of the wear and tear of a grueling seven months on tour, Madonna soldiered through her grand finale with the help of a knee brace.
Her current tour kicked off at the 02 Arena in London this past October after being postponed because of her shocking ICU stay that June.
In November, during at the Accor Arena in Paris, Madonna finally revealed that she suffered lung and kidney failure during her life-threatening health scare.
‘I was infected with some bacteria that nobody knows about. And there is a 40% mortality rate,’ she said, according to The Sun.
The Celebration Tour was meant to begin in mid-July with a North American leg that would sweep through over 20 cities in the United States and Canada.
Madonna welcomed an estimated 1.6 million people to her free concert in Rio De Janeiro over the weekend (pictured) – a record for a female artist
In spite of the wear and tear of a grueling seven months on tour, Madonna soldiered through her grand finale with the help of a knee brace
However, that leg had to be delayed after Madonna’s health took a sudden downturn that struck terror into the hearts of her global fanbase.
She was confined to the ICU for several days after contracting what her manager announced was a ‘serious bacterial infection.’
A report in Radar Online sensationally alleged that she suffered acute septic shock and was revived with Narcan, which is typically used to treat overdoses.
Onstage in Paris in November, she said: ‘I was in the hospital. I was in the ICU. My lungs weren’t working, I wasn’t breathing on my own.’
She went on: ‘My kidneys were failing. I was infected with some bacteria that nobody knows about. And there is a 40% mortality rate.’
Madonna recalled: ‘When I woke up I saw all my children around me and I thought this is what will save me. My children will save me. It’s not me who saved them.’
Guy Oseary, who has been her manager since 2005 and was her business partner before that, raced to her bedside when her health plummeted.
‘My manager came to me and he was weeping next to me. I came home from the hospital two weeks later, and nobody knew when I would get better. “He was like ‘do you want to go back on the road? Do you want your tour to happen?”‘ said Madonna.
Her latest concert run is Madonna’s highest-grossing tour since her MDNA Tour (pictured) sold 2.2 million tickets for a gross of $305.2 million in 2012.
The Material Girl’s most lucrative tour of all time was the Sticky & Sweet Tour (pictured) in 2008 and 2009, which sold 3.5 million tickets for a $407.7 million gross
‘I was breathing oxygen through a cannula through my nose, I could barely get out of bed to walk to the bathroom and I said ‘give me two weeks to think about it.’
She reflected: ‘You know, I think of myself as Wonder Woman. I think I can overcome anything, anything but this time I could bring the will.’
Madonna added: ‘I didn’t have the strength. I had no energy, it was taken from me. So the two weeks went by and I still had barely any energy. I could drink espressos, four Red Bulls. Nothing woke me up. I had no life force.’
However her ‘children saved me,’ the Express Yourself singer reiterated. ‘They made me keep going and I recovered faster than most people would.’
Over the course of her tour, she has warmed the hearts of her fans by being repeatedly joined onstage by her four younger children.
The pop superstar adopted David Banda, 18, Mercy James, 18, and her 16-year-old twin girls Stella and Estere from Namibia.
Along with the four children she brought home from Africa, Madonna also has two older children whom she welcomed biologically.
She and a fitness trainer called Carlos Leon share a 27-year-old daughter called Lola, who has followed her mother’s footsteps into the music business.
Madge then had Rocco, 23, with her film director husband Guy Ritchie, whom she was married to from 2000 through 2008.
