Madonna adds sixth and final UK date to ‘Celebration’ world tour
The pop superstar will round off 2023 at London's O2 on December 6
By Joe Goggins
Madonna has added a sixth and final UK date to her ‘Celebration’ world tour.
The pop icon will play London’s O2 Arena on December 6, having sold out five nights at the venue in October. She is touring to mark four decades of hits. The best-selling female solo touring artist of all time, Madonna has sold out 36 nights on the tour so far across North America and Europe, with ticket sales topping 600,000.
Bob the Drag Queen will support on all dates. Earlier this month (January 19), Madonna reached out to fans via social media for help with pulling together the setlist, which is expected to be a greatest hits affair. “What song would you like to dance to at my show?” she asked her 2.8 million Twitter followers.
Some fans complained about the tour’s pricing on social media when the dates were announced, with the highest-price standard tickets at the O2 coming with a face value of more than £400. This does not appear to have been a barrier to selling out the arena, though, and now she will play one more night in North Greenwich for what is currently scheduled to be the final date of the European run. The North American dates will stretch into 2024. You can see the full UK schedule below.
Meanwhile, further details are emerging on the decision to scrap the planned Madonna biopic, which was due to be co-written and directed by the singer herself. Julia Garner of Ozark had been in line to play the lead in the film, tentatively titled Little Sparrow, but news of its cancellation by Universal emerged last week (January 24).
Now, a report in The U.S. Sun quotes an unnamed source as saying that the singer’s insistence on “near-total control” over the project had sunk it, along with the departure of Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, who had been in line to co-pen the script with Madonna. “From day one, the thing this movie needed was a strong hand on the wheel in addition to Madonna,” the source said. The hope in 2020 was that would be Diablo Cody.”
“But Diablo was only involved with helping to write the first draft and had to leave to tend to her other projects, as well as her duties as a mom,” they went on. “It was an uphill battle after she left, even though Madonna insisted on doing more writing herself. Madonna as co-screenwriter was always going to be a hurdle, but Madonna as director of the movie was probably a bridge too far in hindsight.”
Madonna, October 2023:
14 – London, The O2 Arena
15 – London, The O2 Arena
17 – London, The O2 Arena
18 – London, The O2 Arena
December 2023:
5 – London, The O2 Arena
6 – London, The O2 Arena