Madonna kicked off her Celebration Show tour in London on Saturday, as she well and truly reclaimed her crown as the Queen of Pop with her very saucy show.
The songstress, 65, who had been forced to reschedule her concerts after a bacterial infection sent her to the ICU, left fans in awe as she belted out no less than 45 songs – encompassing her four decades of chart-topping hits.
As well as her own tracks she also paid tribute to Michael Jackson, singing his classic tune Billy Jean, and Beyonce‘s 2022 smash Break My Soul.
Madonna, who has six children, made the tour a family affair and was joined on stage by daughters Chifundo ‘Mercy’ James, 17, Estre, 10 and eldest Lourdes, 27.
And while the set list may change as the tour progresses, here are all the hits Madonna performed on her opening night.
Queen: Madonna kicked off her Celebration Show tour in London on Saturday, as she well and truly reclaimed her crown as the Queen of Pop with her very saucy show
X-rated: And while the set list may change as the tour progresses, here are all the hits Madonna performed on her opening night
The hitmaker openedthe show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters, looking incredible in a long dramatic black gown with billowing sleeves and silver halo style crown.
She then paid tribute to her early career with songs from the late 80’s first Everybody and the 2003 remix Into The Grove, renamed Into The Hollywood Groove, featuring Missy Elliott.
These tracks were then followed swiftly by Burning Up, Open Your Heart as well as iconic banger Holiday and Live To Tell.
Never one to disappoint the tour featured much to cause controversy with religious iconography and dancers dressed in rubber as Madonna.
Madge then moved into her more racier songs with a mash up of Like A Prayer, Unholy and Act of Contraction before Erotica, Justify My Love and Fever.
Barely stopping to catch her breath she went on to dip her toe into some of her more recent releases with 2022’s Hung Up on Tokischa, before blowing the roof off with the original Hung Up, which sample’s ABBA’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’.
The choice was made to then to once again dive into the back catalogue with daughter Mercy playing a haunting instrumental of Bad Girls on the Grand Piano as her mother sang.
Talented: Madonna, who has six children, was also joined on stage by daughters Chifundo ‘Mercy’ James, 17, Estre, 10 and eldest Lourdes, 27
Iconic: And while the set list may change as the tour progresses, here are all the hits Madonna performed on her opening night
In her element: Madonna opens the show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters, looking incredible in a long dramatic black gown with billowing sleeves and silver halo style crown
Show stopper: Never one to disappoint the tour featured much to cause controversy with religious iconography and dancers dressed in rubber as Madonna
Then daughter Estere strutted down the runway to a mashup of dance floor favourite Vogue and Human Nature.
Madonna also paid tribute to her movie career singing her James Bond hit Die Another Day and Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from 1996’s Evita.
Making sure not to disappoint some of her biggest fans the agleess beauty also include Ray Of Light, La Isla Bonita, before surprising many with Disco classic, made famous by Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive.
Madonna then ended the lengthy show with songs that would no doubt keep the audience on their feet and dancing out of the arena.
With Bitch I’m Madonna, Give Me All Your Luvin and ending in epic style with Celebration and Music.
While the Queen Of Pop brought all the pomp and circumstance on stage, delivering many of her biggest hits from her 40-plus year career, the very first performance was not without its glitches.
The show came to a screeching halt after just the fourth song, which was her hit Burning Up, when technical problems with the sound surfaced.
Being the consummate pro, the singer-songwriter took control of the situation and announced her crew would have to ‘press the reset button’.
The hits: The Queen Of Pop delivered many of her biggest hits dating back to her self-titled first studio album Madonna (1983) that features Everybody, Burning Up and Holiday
Performance: The show then dived back into the back catalogue with daughter Mercy playing a haunting instrumental of Bad Girls on the Grand Piano
Respect: As well as her own tracks she also paid tribute to Michael Jackson , singing his classic tune Billy Jean, and Beyonce ‘s 2022 smash Break My Soul
‘This is exactly what you don’t want to happen on your opening night, so this wasn’t planned, I’m sorry,’ the pop superstar told the fans, according to Metro.
With time to kill, Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone) proceeded to entertain the audience with stories of her youth, as a means keep the show from descending into chaos.
She recalled how difficult life had become while playing in her first band, described her situation as being ‘broke and hungry and making zero cash’, but she was still optimistic and could ‘see the future.’
Trying to keep the crowd from becoming restless, she asked the thousands in attendance with enthusiasm: ‘Am I imagining this? Oh my God, it is so good to be back London.’
The Holiday singer added: ‘I’m pretty damned surprised that I made it this far and I mean that on so many levels. How did I make it this far? Because of you. I’m going to take a bit of credit too.’
Cowgirl: The staging featured numerous themes and even featured a Country and Western section
Classic: Madonna then ended the lengthy show with songs that would no doubt keep the audience on their feet and dancing out of the arena
The Bay City, Michigan native recalled battling anorexia right after she made the move to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in modern dance, according to Mirror.
It turns out, during that time, money was scarce so she resorted to finding men that could help with her basic daily needs.
When I was broke I had no money to take a bath or a shower so I would actually date men who had showers and bathrooms,’ she confessed to her fans. ‘I’d date them and if I thought they were cute I’d surreptitiously work into the chat – so you live alone and they’d say yes.’
Once it was made clear the man did in fact live alone, the singer-songwriter would get right to the point.
‘Do you have a bathroom and shower?’ she continued during opening night of The Celebration Tour. ‘And they’d nod and look at me like I was a crazy person. And I’d say let’s get dinner.’
Showing her sense of humor, she added, ‘Blow jobs for showers! We all have to struggle to make ends meet right? You know what I’m taking about?’
