Tours

During her time as a recording artist, madonna has embarked on several concert tours, to promote her albums, and her music soundtracks, she has also done a few promo tours, which included of small performances in usually small venues. She embarked on her very first concert tour, The Virgin Tour on 1985, where she was on the road from April 10 to June 11. Despite not doing very well with the critics, the tour was extremely successful with the fans and financially earning almost over $5 Million. It took 2 years for Madonna to tour again, in 1987 she once again hit the road with her Who's That Girl World Tour, which went to places such as Japan and Europe, unlike The virgin Tour which only visited North America. This time the critics were generous with Madonna and the tour was both a critical and financial success. It was not until 3 years later, 1990 when Madonna embarked in which would be considered her most controversial tour ever, the Blond Ambition World Tour. Following the controversy of the Like a Prayer music video controversy, which the Batican found insulting and blasphemous, Madonna decided to spice things up for this concert in which she simulated masturbation during the performance of Like a Virgin. The performance was so controversial that during her concerts in Toronto the police threatened to arrest her unless she removed the masturbation sequence. A similar thing happened in Italy in where, the Pope called for a boycott. Despite this the tour was a success, Rolling Stone proclaimed it "The Best Tour of 1990".

In 1993, she embarked on her The Girlie Show World Tour, which took her to Australia and Latin America for the first time. Like its predecessor, it was a highly controversial tour due to its high sexually provocative style. Uproar was caused when Madonna, during one of the shows rubbed the Puertorrican national flag between her legs. The tour also included a Marlene Dietrich inspired performance of "Like a Virgin".

8 years and 3 albums happened before Madonna could tour again. in 2001 she was back on the staged again with the Drowned World Tour, which eventually became one of the highest grossing most successful tours of 2001. Unlike her previous tours the show this time featured the use of backdrop screen and harnesses, in the show Madonna played the guitar, dressed up as a geisha and did amazing martial-arts while flying across the stage. A lot of fans were a little disappointed due to the excessive use of new material and not many classics (she only performed "Holiday" and "La Isla Bonita"), but the reviews were generally positive.

In 2004, after the release of her American Life album, Madonna toured once again, this time with the Re-Invention World Tour, which by that time became Madonna's highest grossing tour with almost $125 million. The Re-Invention Tour received positive review and fans were glad to see Madonna perform some of her classic hits. Madonna's next two 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. This feat was surpassed in 2008 with the Sticky & Sweet Tour, which went on to become the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist, and the second highest-grossing tour of all time, with approximately US $408 million in ticket sales. Both Confessions and Sticky & Sweet Tour had been planned to visit Australia, but were cancelled at the last moment, making Girlie Show as Madonna's last tour there to date.

Year	Title	Duration	Number of Concerts	Supporting album(s)
	The Virgin Tour	April 10, 1985 – June 11, 1985	40	Madonna Like a Virgin
	The Virgin Tour was Madonna's debut concert tour, the tour only visited North America despite having gathered tons of fans in places such as Europe and Japan. Critically the tour was panned but was well received by fans and went to earn almost $5 million.
	Who's That Girl World Tour	June 14, 1987 – September 6, 1987	37	True Blue Who's That Girl
	The Who's That Girl World Tour was Madonna's second concert tour and first World Tour. The tour visited places such as Europe, Japan and North America. Unlike its predecessor the tour was met with positive reviews from critics who admired Madonna's showmanship and sense of style. It earned $20 million.
	Blond Ambition World Tour	April 13, 1990 – August 5, 1990	57	Like A Prayer I'm Breathless
	The Blond Ambition World Tour was Madonna's third concert tour and second worldwide tour. It was a very controversial tour due to its juxtaposition of religious imagery and sexuality. Despite the controversy, the tour was praised by the critics. In 1991 it was edited into a documentary titles Truth or Dare, which was highly successful as well.
	The Girlie Show World Tour	September 25, 1993 - December 19, 1993	39	Erotica
	The Girlie Show World Tour was Madonna's fourth concert tour. Like the Blond Ambition Tour it was highly controversial due to its sexual nature, but managed to do well both critically and financially. Madonna got the inspiration for the name of tour from a painting by Edward Hopper called "Girlie Show". The tour managed to gross a total of $70 million.
	Drowned World Tour	June 9, 2001 - September 15, 2001	47	Music Ray of Light Bedtime Stories
	The Drowned World Tour was Madonna's fifth concert tour. It was her first concert tour in 8 years following The Girlie Show. Despite its lack of classic Madonna songs, the tour received positive reviews and eventually became one of the highest grossing tours of 2001 grossing approximately $75 million.
	Re-Invention World Tour	May 24, 2004 -September 14, 2004	56	American Life
	The Re-Invention World Tour was Madonna's sixth concert tour, following the Drowned World in 2001. Earning critical acclaim, Re-invention was also the highest grossing tour of 2004 earning $125 million. The tour was chronicled in the documentary I'm Going To Tell you a Secret.
	Confessions Tour	May 21, 2006 – September 21, 2006	60	Confessions on a Dance Floor
	The Confessions Tour was Madonna's seventh concert tour. Tickets were sold almost as soon as dates and venues were announced, it received acclaim from fans and critics alike. It eventually went on to become the highest grossing concert tour by a female artist. Controversy arose when Madonna performed "Live To Tell" hanging from a cross.
	Sticky & Sweet Tour	August 23, 2008 – September 2, 2009	85	Hard Candy
	The Sticky & Sweet Tour was Madonna's 8th world wide concert tour. It was her first concert with Live Nation and it is also her most successful tour to date. After her 2008 leg was finished the tour had become the highest grossing tour by a solo artist, earning $282 million. Madonna broke this record after her 2009 European leg was finished earning approximately $408 million, making it also the second highest grossing tour of all time and the highest grossing tour by a solo artist.