Madonna's tour postponed as singer hospitalized with serious infection

Madonna’s upcoming Celebration tour has been postponed after the singer was hospitalized with a “serious bacterial infection”, according to an Instagram post from her longtime manager Guy Oseary. The tour was scheduled to kick off in Vancouver on 15 July.

“On Saturday, June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU,” he wrote. “Her health is improving, however, she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected.

“At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour.

“We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

The 35-city global tour was supposed to be an ambitious retrospective for the 64-year-old singer, celebrating “her unmatched catalog of music from the past 40-plus years”, according to an announcement.

The tour was set to stop in such US cities as Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles before an 11-date European leg, eventually wrapping up in North America in January 2024.

“I am excited to explore as many songs as possible to give my fans the show they have been waiting for,” Madonna said in the tour’s announcement video.

The announcement of the tour in January preceded news that a planned biopic about the pop singer, in development since 2020 with Universal Pictures, had been scrapped. The ill-fated film, which made headlines for its allegedly grueling audition process, was to be directed by Madonna herself and star Ozark’s Julia Garner.

In late 2020, the singer underwent hip replacement surgery after sustaining an injury on her Madame X tour.

“Let me be really honest with you – I used to be, like, a fitness/workout maniac,” she said at the time, according to Extra. “You probably know that right? … During my [2019 Madame X] tour – I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but I’m limping a lot – I was in more pain than I’ve ever been in in my life. I’m a bionic woman – I had hip replacement surgery.

“So, how do I stay in shape? It’s all in your head … It’s called will, it’s called no one’s going to stop me, and how I stay in shape is no one’s going to stop me. And how I stay in shape is I don’t believe in limitations.”