A Very Late and Very Intimate Evening with the Queen of Pop
After being a fan since I heard “Vogue” for the first time at age 6, I finally saw Madonna in concert this past Sunday. Her intimate and very, very late show was full of surprises, technical wizardry, confounding contradictions, surprise guests, and ended with my husband getting a fist bump from the Queen of Pop herself.
Explaining Madonna’s Persistent Success as a Touring Artist
Despite the fact that she is no longer the Billboard chart-dominating trendsetter that she was at the height of her fame three decades ago, Madonna’s status as one of the most successful and influential forces in pop music history is largely undisputed. I have written about her astonishing musical legacy before (click here to read), but I barely touched on her unfathomable success and influence as a live act. Now that I have fulfilled a lifelong goal of seeing her perform live, I can dive a bit deeper into that legacy.
Madonna’s first ten concert tours (1985’s The Virgin Tour through 2015/2016’s Rebel Heart Tour) included 592 performances, grossed over $1.3 billion (unadjusted for inflation), and sold over 12 million tickets. She is the third highest grossing live music performer in history behind only The Rolling Stones and U2 (which also makes her the highest grossing female and highest grossing solo artist of all…
