American singer Madonna has performed on twelve concert tours, twenty one-off concerts, nine benefit concerts, three music festivals, and two sport events. Madonna has been nicknamed by some publications as the "Queen of Concerts" or "Queen of Touring", recognizing her "years-deep involvement in the touring game" and stage shows. Previously breaking records for the highest-grossing female touring artist according to Billboard Boxscore and Pollstar, Madonna currently remains in the top ten of the highest-grossing live touring acts of all time. According to Billboard Boxscore, Madonna grossed over $1.5 billion over a dozen global tours.
Her 1985 debut concert tour, the Virgin Tour, was held in North America only and went on to collect more than US$5 million. In 1987 she performed on the worldwide Who's That Girl World Tour, which visited Europe, North America and Japan, and earned $25 million. The Paris stop received an audience of 130,000 fans which was the largest paying concert audience by a female artist at the time and is still the largest crowd of any concert in French history. In 1990, she embarked on the Blond Ambition World Tour, which was dubbed the "Greatest Concert of the 1990s" by Rolling Stone. BBC credited the tour with "invent[ing] the modern, multi-media pop spectacle". A review in Time by Sam Buckley said: "Madonna, once the Harlow harlot and now a perky harlequin, is the greatest show-off on earth."
Madonna did not tour again until the Drowned World Tour in 2001. She played the guitar and her costumes included a punkish tartan kilt and a geisha kimono. Critical response was favorable but the setlist received mixed reviews. She grossed more than US$75 million with summer sold-out shows and eventually played in front of 730,000 people throughout North America and Europe. She followed this up with the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. Madonna was inspired to create the tour after taking part in an art installation called X-STaTIC PRo=CeSS, directed by photographer Steven Klein. Billboard awarded Madonna the "Backstage Pass Award" in recognition of having the top-grossing tour of the year, with ticket sales of nearly US$125 million.
Madonna's next tours broke world records, with the 2006 Confessions Tour grossing over US$194.7 million, becoming the highest-grossing tour ever for a female artist at that time. She also became the first performer to be inducted into the Wembley Arena Square of Fame in 2006. This feat was surpassed in 2008 with the Sticky & Sweet Tour, which at the time, became the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist, and the second highest-grossing tour of all time, with approximately US$411 million in ticket sales. In 2012, the MDNA Tour was completed as the tenth highest-grossing tour of all time with US$305 million, the second highest among female artists at the time, only behind the Sticky & Sweet Tour. Her 2015–16 Rebel Heart Tour was an all-arena tour which grossed $169.8 million from 1.045 million attendance. Her Madame X Tour marked her first series of concerts in theaters since 1985,
The Celebration Tour, which acted as Madonna's first retrospective show, became one of the world's fastest-selling concert tours. Billboard reported the tour to have grossed over $225.4 million from an audience of 1.1 million. The final concert, a free concert in Rio de Janeiro, drew a crowd of over 1.6 million people, which became Madonna's largest crowd of her career and set records for the largest audience ever for a stand-alone concert and the largest all-time crowd for a female artist. Madonna has embarked on several promotional concerts to promote her studio albums, as well as performing award shows and benefit concerts like Live Aid (1985), Live 8 (2005) and Live Earth (2007). In 2012, she headlined the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show, which at that time was the most-watched halftime show in history. She also co-headlined the 2026 FIFA World Cup final halftime show.
Concert tours Title Date Associated album(s) Shows Gross Gross in 2026 Attendance – June 11, 1985 MadonnaLike a Virgin 40 $ 400,000 Who's That Girl World Tour – September 6, 1987 True BlueWho's That Girl 38 $ 1,317,663 Blond Ambition World Tour – August 5, 1990 Like a PrayerI'm Breathless 57 $ 2,000,000 – December 19, 1993 Erotica 39 $ 1,279,123 Drowned World Tour – September 15, 2001 Ray of LightMusic 47 $ Re-Invention World Tour – September 14, 2004 American Life 56 $ Confessions Tour – September 21, 2006 Confessions on a Dance Floor 60 $ Sticky & Sweet Tour – September 2, 2009 Hard Candy 85 $ – December 22, 2012 MDNA 88 $ Rebel Heart Tour – March 20, 2016 Rebel Heart 82 $ Madame X Tour – March 8, 2020 Madame X 75 $ The Celebration Tour – May 4, 2024 81 $ Total $ $
One-off concerts DateEventCityVenuePerformed song(s) October 13, 1983 Madonna promotional show London Camden Palace February 14, 1998 Ray of Light promotional show New York City Roxy NYC November 5, 2000 Music promotional show Roseland Ballroom November 29, 2000 Music promotional show London Brixton Academy April 22, 2003 Madonna: On Stage and on the Record New York City MTV Studios April 23, 2003 American Life promotional show Tower Records April 30, 2003 Absolut Madonna Cologne RTL Studio May 9, 2003 American Life promotional show London HMV Oxford Circus November 15, 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor promotional show KOKO November 19, 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor promotional show G-A-Y December 7, 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor promotional show Tokyo Studio Coast April 30, 2008 Hard Candy promotional show New York City Roseland Ballroom May 6, 2008 Hard Candy promotional show Paris Olympia March 10, 2016 Madonna: Tears of a Clown Melbourne Forum Theatre November 7, 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign concertNew York City Washington Square Park May 7, 2018 Met Gala Metropolitan Museum of Art June 30, 2019 Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC Pier 97, Hudson River Park April 30, 2022 Medallo en el Mapa (Maluma hometown concert)Medellín Estadio Atanasio Girardot June 24, 2022 NYC Pride MarchNew York CityTerminal 5 June 4, 2026 Grindr Pride Month PartyThe Square in Times Square
Benefit concerts DateEventCityPerformed song(s) July 13, 1985Live AidPhiladelphia April 27, 1998 Rock for the Rainforest New York City January 16, 2005 Tsunami Aid "Imagine" July 2, 2005 Live 8 London November 18, 2005 Children in Need 2005 July 7, 2007 Live Earth January 22, 2010 Hope for Haiti Now New York City "Like a Prayer"December 2, 2016Madonna: Tears of a Clown(Raising Malawi Gala)Miami July 26, 2017Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation GalaSaint-Tropez
Music festivals DateEventCityPerformed song(s) February 22, 1995Sanremo Music Festival Sanremo "Take a Bow" (with Babyface) February 24, 1998Sanremo Music Festival Sanremo "Frozen" April 30, 2006 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Indio May 10, 2008 BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend Maidstone March 25, 2012 Ultra Music FestivalMiami"Girl Gone Wild" (as a guest during Avicii's act) April 12, 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Indio May 18, 2019 Eurovision Song Contest Tel Aviv April 17, 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts FestivalIndio
Sport events Date Event City VenuePerformed song(s) February 5, 2012 Super Bowl XLVI halftime show Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium July 19, 2026 2026 FIFA World Cup final halftime showEast RutherfordMetLife Stadium "Music"
See also List of performances on Top of the Pops List of most-watched television broadcasts List of most-attended concert tours List of most-attended concerts List of highest-grossing live music artists List of highest-grossing concert tours List of highest-grossing concert tours by women
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External links Madonna.com > Tours > Archives