EXCLUSIVE: Is jealousy of Beyonce the real reason Madonna is ploughing ahead with mammoth 78-date world tour despite serious health fears – and advice to wait a YEAR to fully recover?
It’s still going ahead. In October, the ‘Celebration’ world tour kicks off in London.
From then, Madonna, who marked her 65th birthday in Portugal last week, will be on the road until April next year, playing 78 dates across the globe, concluding in Mexico City.
The burning question is: Can she possibly do it?
Little more than a month ago, the ageing songstress was rushed to hospital after being discovered unresponsive.
Said to be suffering septic shock from a severe bacterial infection, she was admitted to the ICU and allegedly revived with Narcan, a powerful drug commonly used to treat narcotic overdoses (though there is no suggestion that Madonna required it for that reason).
There was a point when her aides – and her children – thought she might not make it.
Soon afterwards she was seen, clearly still frail, walking very slowly through Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where she has a 13-bed $40 million townhouse.
It was promised that she was taking recovery seriously and ‘following doctor’s orders’, that she would not be rushing back to work.
And yet this week, we learned that plans are well advanced for Madonna’s fulsome return to the world stage.
It is still going ahead. In October, the Celebration world tour kicks off in London. From then, Madonna, who marked her 65th birthday in Portugal last week (pictured: with boyfriend), will be on the road until April next year, playing 78 dates across the globe.
The burning question is: Can she possibly do it? Little more than a month ago, the ageing songstress was rushed to hospital after being discovered unresponsive. It was promised that she was taking recovery seriously. And yet this week, we learned plans are well advanced for her fulsome return to the world stage. (Pictured: Madonna on stage in 1990).
Back from a raucous birthday bash in Lisbon with her latest young boyfriend – boxer Joshua Popper is 29 – she’s reported to have set up camp at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum, where she is pursuing a rigorous rehearsal schedule before heading to London at the end of September. (Opening night is October 14).
Along with her team of dancers and choreographer Damien Jalet, she is said to be working daily. Producer Jamie King, a long-time collaborator, is overseeing everything.
I’m told the shows – which were just two weeks away when she fell ill and were subsequently delayed – have been extensively re-worked to take account of Madonna’s fitness and stamina. The upshot is that she will do less dancing.
Nonetheless, that the tour is going ahead at all this year is being greeted in some quarters with open dismay.
One source with knowledge of her team exclusively told DailyMail.com: ‘She was advised not to do the tour and to recuperate. I heard that she was told it would be wise to take a year out. That was a hard “no” from Madonna.’
‘She fully believes in herself as an icon,’ the source added. ‘It’s all: “Bitch, I’m Madonna”. She believes she is invincible and that she is still 24 years old. Her ego is such that she believes she will dance through the pain and do it anyway.’
Such head-strong insistence is hardly surprising from a weathered pop diva, but this time it seems there are genuine fears for her health.
‘I don’t see how she can pull it off without doing herself serious harm,’ the source said. ‘It’s not a question of can she do one performance – but can she do nearly 80, virtually back-to-back. It would challenge someone in their twenties.’
A Madonna source told Page Six, however, that she is ‘extremely healthy’ and keen to get back to work – but won’t be punishing herself.
‘She’s focusing more on being the frontrunner rather than trying to keep up with the backing dancers,’ they said. ‘Her team’s main concern is ensuring that she’s healthy and can get through the tour from start to finish.’
That the tour is going ahead at all this year is being greeted by some with open dismay. One source with knowledge of her team exclusively told DailyMail.com: ‘She was advised not to do the tour. I heard that she was told it would be wise to take a year out.’
Such head-strong insistence is hardly surprising from a weathered pop diva, but this time it seems there are genuine fears for her health. ‘I don’t see how she can pull it off without doing herself serious harm,’ the source said.
There was always a lot riding on this tour.
In a bizarre January announcement video – during which Madonna inexplicably made out with married actor Jack Black – she revealed that, instead of promoting a new album, she would be plundering her back catalogue of ‘four decades of music’, hence ‘The Celebration Tour’.
It is her attempt, some say, to cement her status as an icon of the industry – on the scale of Cher and Diana Ross – who has stood the test of time.
And so, success is not optional for Madonna, who is prepared to pull out all the stops, including a still-vague plan to bring Britney Spears on stage during one or more of the planned Los Angeles performances.
Such a stunt would no doubt delight fans who recall the pair’s scandalous on-stage kiss at the 2003 VMAs – though whether Spears’s pending divorce has since complicated things remains to be seen.
The tour also represents something of a fightback for Madonna, whose perceived reluctance to accept the natural ageing process has come under increased ridicule of late.
Whether deserved or not, the star’s seeming obsession with the plastic surgeon’s knife, as well as her new-found predilection for bondage gear and wearing lingerie in public, has lent her an air of desperation in her advancing years.
I’m also told that the one-time Queen of Pop – well-known for her readiness to feud with other female singers – is desperate to show Beyonce, currently on a sold-out tour herself, ‘how it’s done’.
Then there’s the small matter of money.
Despite having stacked up a staggering $850 million fortune since she first burst onto the scene back in 1983, the ‘Material Girl’ singer is still said to be attracted to the prospect of a massive payday.
There was always a lot riding on this tour. It is her attempt, some say, to cement her status as an icon of the industry – on the scale of Cher and Diana Ross – who has stood the test of time. The tour also represents something of a fightback for Madonna, whose perceived reluctance to accept the natural ageing process has come under increased ridicule of late.
I’m also told that the one-time Queen of Pop, well-known for her readiness to feud with other female singers, is desperate to show Beyonce ‘how it is done’.
If all goes to plan, the Celebration Tour is set to gross $200 million in ticket sales alone – and then there’s the associated merchandising and expected bump in streaming of her old hits.
For all those reasons, then, Madonna clearly found the prospect of getting back on the road almost immediately after her near-fatal illness impossible to resist.
As she wrote in a statement on Instagram last month: ‘My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children. My second thought was that I did not want to disappoint anyone who bought tickets for my tour.’
Similarly, even as she lay gravely ill, Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary gave a clue as to where her commercial priorities lie.
‘At this time we will need to pause all commitments which includes the tour,’ he said in a statement following her hospitalization in late June. ‘We will share more details with you as soon as we have them including a new start date for the tour and the rescheduled shows.’
My source said: ‘At her level of fame there is a level of pressure. Such a lot rests on her being able to perform, which means that you just find someone who says that your plans are okay. You request [approval] from a physician and you get it.’
‘The choreography has been arranged so that she will not have to do full dance routines. It will still look like a very spectacular show but there will be chances for her to rest,’ the source went on. ‘It’s what they usually do with artists who cannot dance. Mick Jagger does this as well – he will move very fast and then rest for a time.’
However, the source added a note of caution: ‘Everyone is very worried that she will pick up a new injury or more likely aggravate one of her existing conditions.’
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Her ‘Madame X’ tour in 2021 ended with a flurry of cancellations – 14 in all – and Madonna in tears on stage suffering serious problems with her knees and hips. By the final shows she was was wearing knee supports and using a cane.
The source said: ‘Everyone is very worried that she will pick up a new injury or more likely aggravate one of her existing conditions.’
‘The pain I’m in right now is overwhelming and I must rest and follow doctor’s orders so I can come back stronger and better,’ she said in a statement at the time.
If only, sources say, she would seek such sensible advice now.
‘It doesn’t matter how you train or what doctors will give you to prop you up – like cortisone injections for the pain – she has proved that she has limits. This tour just feels like a terrible choice,’ my source said. ‘People worry that she is unpicking her legacy because she won’t accept that she’s only human.’
And how cruelly ironic that would be: by desperately pursuing a tour designed to shore up her reputation, she risks doing the exact opposite.
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