London:Three-and-a-half months after she was hospitalised with a bacterial infection that forced the cancellation of her 40th anniversary “Celebration” tour, Madonna returns on Saturday with the start of a 78-date tour.
At 65, the singer looks set to put her health woes behind her with a six-month-long tour of Europe and North America starting at London’s 02 Arena.
The tour will also take in the Accor Arena in Paris on November 12, 13, 19 and 20 and the Bell Center in Montreal on January 18 and 20, before winding up at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico on April 24.
The show promises to be a “documentary through her vast career” drawing on archive footage and studio recordings from the four decades since her breakthrough single “Holiday” in 1983, according to her musical director Stuart Price.
“A greatest hit doesn’t have to be a song. It can be a wardrobe, it can be a video, or a statement,” Price told the BBC in an interview.
Madonna spent several days in intensive care in New York after being found unconscious in her New York apartment in June.
But the singer was back and fighting fit after her health scare, Price said.
“The person that is going to take the stage looks incredible, sounds incredible, performs incredible,” he said.
The star’s hospital stay meant that the North American leg of the tour — originally due to begin on July 15 in Vancouver — had to be rescheduled with the European leg opening as planned on Saturday.
“My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children,” Madonna said in July in a social media post. “My second thought was that I did not want to disappoint anyone who bought tickets for my tour.
“My focus now is my health and getting stronger and I assure you, I’ll be back with you as soon as I can!” she added.