The Sticky & Sweet Tour was seen by a staggering 2,350,285 people in 58 cities!

The tour sold 650,000 tickets sold in her series of South American dates, 72,000 tickets at Zurich’s Dübendorf Airfield – the largest audience ever assembled for a show in Switzerland, 75,000 tickets in London and four sell out shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The tour received mass critical acclaim.  The Times wrote “In the premier league of song-and-dance spectaculars, the queen of pop remains unrivalled and undefeated.” The Independent commented: “The choreography, visuals and live talent were world class and mind-blowingly well executed, intelligent and witty.”

The concerts were so successful that Madonna has announced that the Sticky & Sweet Tour will embark on another series of live concerts.  Madonna’s 2009 Sticky & Sweet Tour will begin on 4th July in London and will see Madonna performing in places never before visited such as Werchter Belgium, Marseille France, Hamburg Germany, Oslo Norway, Helsinki Finland, Tallinn Estonia, Ljubljana Slovenia; as well as live concerts in Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. Additional appearances by Madonna will include return visits after more than 15 years to Madrid, Gothenburg and Munich.

“This is a first for me.  I’ve never extended a tour before. I’m excited to be going back on the road, visiting places I’ve never been and returning to places I love,” said Madonna – the Queen of Pop.

Special Guest for the Sticky & Sweet 2009 will be top dance music DJ, Paul Oakenfold. He is best known for his DJing and Cream club but has also remixed a wide variety of artists including Madonna, The Rolling Stones U2, Justin Timberlake, New Order, Massive Attack and Elvis Presley.

Viagogo will be the official ticketing partner on Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet 2009 summer tour concerts in the UK, Spain and France.

They will handle VIP packages and all premium concert tickets for Madonna’s European shows this summer, enabling safe and secure transactions for her fans for one of the most anticipated concert tours of the year. In addition fans will be able to resell their tickets through viagogo and, as always, all ticket trades are guaranteed.

She has often courted controversy along the way, something that has done her reputation no harm; and if the recent Rome show was anything to go by, she hasn’t finished yet!

According to reports she dedicated her 1984 hit song ‘Like A Virgin’ to the pope!  Madonna made a controversial and provocative announcement in front of 60,000 fans at Rome’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday (September 6) while on her current Sticky And Sweet Tour.

She said: “I dedicate this song to the pope, because I’m a child of God,” she said. “All of you are also children of God.”

You can buy Madonna tickets now.

This is not the first time Madonna has had a ‘run in’ with the head of the Catholic church.  In 1989 the Vatican condemned her promo video for the hit single ‘Like A Prayer’ which which featured burning crosses and the singer seducing a black Jesus!

Furthermore in a Madonna concert in 2006 she was condemned for staging a mock cricifixion, again in Rome.  The Vatican accused her of blasphemy.

The Sticky And Sweet Madonna tour is to promote her current album, ‘Hard Candy’, which is Madonna’s 11th studio album for Warner Bros.  The album entered the album charts at number 1 in 37 countries around the world.  ‘Hard Candy’ is also the most downloaded album in the USA and other countries.

Considering Madonna has been releasing albums since the early 1980’s, this is simply an amazing feat, and something I do not believe could be achieved by any other music artist.

The ‘Hard Candy’ album includes her recent single, ‘4 Minutes’, which was was co-written and co-produced by Madonna, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.

Madonna’s previous studio album, ‘Confessions On  A Dancefloor’, sold over 8.5 million copies.

Madonna is currently on the European leg of her ‘Sticky And Sweet Tour’.  You can still buy and sell tickets for the remaining Madonna concerts before she heads around the rest of the world.

The singer who’s single 4 Minutes went to number one yesterday will headline on the first day, May 10th of the two day festival.

Supporting Madonna will be The Fratellis, Robyn, Duffy, The Enemy, The Pigeon Detectives, Scouting For Girls, The Feeling and The Hoosiers.

Radio One listeners can register for tickets from today, by tuning into the station and listening out for regular announcements. Tickets will be allocated in favour of those living in Maidstone and surrounding areas.

Top female singing star Madonna has announced plans to release her forthcoming album Hard Candy, via mobile phone, a week before it hits the high street music stores.

The singer will make seven of the tracks from the album available to Vodafone customers from April 21st, while the CD will not be released to shops until April 28th.

In fact, Vodafone customers in Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium are already able to download her new single 4 Minutes, as from yesterday.

Madonna is believed to be the first artist to release an album via mobile phone prior to its general release.

Whatever will they think of next?

“That is what Madonna will always be” said Timberland, “The shot in the ass when we really need it!”

Timberlake who produced “Hard Candy” for Madonna then delighted the audience by saying “Nobody has got into the rock and roll hall of fame when they looked this damn fine.”

Although Madonna did not perform, Iggy Pop and The Stooges did covers of Burning Up and Ray of Light.

In a more poignant moment, sixties pop group The Dave Clark Five were introduced to the audience by Tom Hanks, days after singer Mike Smith passed away.

Others inducted last night were John Mellancamp and Leonard Cohen.