Madonna Resuming Sticky & Sweet Tour

NASHVILLE (Billboard) – Madonna will crank up her Sticky & Sweet tour again this summer with about 25 more shows in the U.K. and Europe. The initial trek wrapped December 21 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The final leg of the tour -- already the top-grossing tour ever by a female or solo artist -- will start in London at the O2 Arena on July 4. Madonna also will play the Manchester (U.K.) Evening News Arena. The rest of the shows on the tour will be at stadiums in European markets that Madonna has never played or hasn't played in several years, according to tour producer Arthur Fogel, chairman of global music for Live Nation. The complete route and list of venues will be released Friday (January 30).

Adding another leg to a tour is a highly unusual move for Madonna. "It absolutely has not happened in the four tours I've been involved with," Fogel told Billboard.com. "There has been talk (of extending) during each one, but it has never come to be. But with this one, she loves the show, she's had a great time and she's excited about playing new markets."

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The extension will take Sticky & Sweet to around 80 shows, and boost it well into the top five grossing tours of all time. Despite the more than six-month break, the tour will feature the same production and performers as in 2008.

The Sticky & Sweet tour was the first under a 10-year multi-rights agreement between Madonna and Live Nation, valued in some reports at about $120 million.

Reuters/Billboard

Madonna, AC/DC And The Year's Highest-Grossing Pop Acts

Madonna leads our annual list of pop's highest-grossing acts.

It's official: Madonna tops Calendar's Ultimate Top 10, our annual survey combining sales of concert tickets, albums and digital downloads to measure which acts were most popular with the broadest swath of music lovers.

Madonna

Madonna was the No. 1 concert attraction in North America during the year, according to Pollstar, the concert-tracking magazine, and she enjoyed album sales to the tune of $12.5 million in addition to downloads of $2.3 million.

For the year, there's also a total split between Nielsen SoundScan's ranking of the 10 biggest-selling performers of 2008 and Pollstar's Top 10 highest-grossing North American concert tours.

In recent years the Pollstar and SoundScan rosters have veered away from one another. Typically, classic-rock acts that appeal to well-heeled baby boomers rake in the most money at box offices, while hot but still developing pop, R&B and hip-hop artists sell more albums.

Kenny Chesney

The highest any Top 10 SoundScan act finished in Pollstar's 2008 ranking was No. 13, where the Jonas Brothers (No. 7 among album sellers) landed after playing to 1.3 million fans last year.

Concert revenue hit $4.2 billion in 2008, according to Pollstar, a 7% rise over the previous year, even though the number of tickets sold was down. An 8.4% increase in average ticket prices was behind the rise, figures that are "astounding considering the economic environment in which they were generated," Pollstar Editor Gary Bongiovanni said.

The road is still where artists tend to make the most money. Only three of the Nielsen SoundScan biggest-selling artists of 2008 -- AC/DC, Coldplay and the Jonas Brothers -- make the Ultimate Top 10, even folding in their revenue from digital track sales, which we began including in the Ultimate Top 10 ranking last year.

Celine Dion

The best example? Taylor Swift sold more albums than any other act last year: 4 million, giving her $52 million in revenue from album sales using $13 as the average price of a CD. But she placed No. 12 in the Ultimate Top 10 calculations because she played only a handful of concerts as a headliner. She spent most of the year as a supporting act on Rascal Flatts' tour.

That leaves the upper reaches of the Ultimate Top 10 to the veterans, and no one outperformed Madonna, whose combined income of $120 million is a drop from the previous year's winner, the Police, which logged $140.7 million.

AC/DC

In fact, Madonna's total is the lowest for a No. 1 since the Ultimate Top 10 began in 1997, when the Rolling Stones posted $100 million on concert ticket and album sales. The record belongs to 'N Sync, which earned $212.9 million in 2000 at the height of teen pop.

Source: latimes.com

Madonna On Track To Set Record With Sticky & Sweet Tour

Singer is three weeks away from finishing the highest-grossing tour by a female or solo artist.

By Gil Kaufman

Madonna has a lot of records under her sequin-studded belt. Now she can add another. With the Mexico/South American dates on her Sticky & Sweet Tour wrapping up in three weeks, Madonna is on track to take in about $282 million from the jaunt, which would give her the crown for the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist or solo artist, Reuters reports.

The 28 dates on the North American leg of the tour -- which came amid the turmoil of the singer's separation and subsequent divorce from filmmaker Guy Ritchie -- grossed around $91.5 million, with the concert being seen by almost 550,000. That leg of the tour wrapped up last Wednesday with a show in front of 50,000 fans at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. On Saturday and Sunday, the tour hit Mexico City, where, coincidentally, the man Madonna is rumored to be dating, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, was in town to teach local children how to swing a bat, according to >The Associated Press.

Before the South American dates, Madonna had already grossed around $207.5 million between the North American and European shows on the tour, according to Reuters. The run wraps up with a three-night stand in Sao Paulo, Brazil, beginning December 18.

Despite her massive expected take, Madonna still has a long way to go before she catches up to the undisputed top touring act of all time, the Rolling Stones, whose A Bigger Bang tour from 2005-2007 grossed more than $558 million.

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Madonna tour grosses $91.5 million

NASHVILLE (Billboard) – The 28 dates on Madonna's just-concluded North American jaunt grossed about $91.5 million and moved about 550,000 tickets, according to tour producer Arthur Fogel, chairman of global music for Live Nation.

The venerable performer wrapped the North American leg of her Sticky & Sweet tour Wednesday in front of 50,000 people at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. She then headed to Mexico City for shows Saturday and Sunday.

Counting her European run, Madonna is at about $207.5 million in ticket sales and on a pace to hit about $282 million when the Mexico/South America leg of the tour wraps. That would make Sticky & Sweet the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist or solo artist.

The tour, supporting her album "Hard Candy," concludes with three nights December 18-21 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Reuters/Billboard

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A-Rod in Mexico City on same weekend as Madonna

MEXICO CITY – New York Yankees third-baseman Alex Rodriguez appeared in Mexico City on the same weekend as Madonna — a turn of events he called "very good."

The 33-year-old baseball star spent two hours Sunday teaching kids to bat at a new sports center built on a landfill in the poor suburb of Nezahualcoyotl.

Pop star Madonna meanwhile prepared to perform for a sold-out second night in the capital as part of her "Sticky & Sweet" tour.

When asked what he thought about being in the sprawling capital at the same time as Madonna, Rodriguez said it was "very good," without elaborating.

Rodriguez and his wife divorced in September, months after he made tabloid headlines for a rumored, but denied, dalliance with Madonna.

Less than four weeks later, Madonna and filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie announced their own split after nearly eight years of marriage.

Rodriguez, known by fans as "A-Rod," was invited to inaugurate the sports center by Mexico's richest man, Carlos Slim, whose Telmex Foundation sponsored its construction. The site includes two baseball diamonds and 25 soccer fields.

"It's a pleasure to talk about baseball, to talk about the importance of keeping children off the streets, out of drugs and out of all the bad things that there are in this life," the New York City-born Rodriguez said in Spanish.

It wasn't immediately known if Rodriguez and Madonna met while in Mexico City.

Mariah, Madonna And Me: The Top 10 Turkeys Of 2008, In Bigger Than The Sound

In celebration of Thanksgiving, we reflect on the biggest disappointments of the year.

By James Montgomery

If there's been one unifying theme to 2008, it's that there really are no sure things. No one — not even his label — expected to sell a million copies of Tha Carter III in a week. Everyone suspected Usher's Here I Stand would be a massive blockbuster. As you probably know by now, only one of those statements actually proved to be true.

So, in celebration of Thanksgiving, and to the year that was (or, more specifically, wasn't), I've written a list of the year's 10 biggest turkeys. These are albums and artists that disappointed commercially, critically or — more often than not — both. Misfires. Miscalculations. Missteps from the usually surefooted. In the following weeks, I'll also be writing my annual Best Songs and Albums of 2008 lists, but I figured I'd get the ugly stuff out of the way first.

Oh, and a special note — this isn't a list of actual turkeys. Because then this one would totally come in at #1. Anyway, if you're angered by what's below, feel free to drop me a line at BTTS@MTVStaff.com ... and now, let's talk turkey (wow, sorry).

10. Simple Plan
Raise your hand if you're aware they released an album this year. Well, they did ... a self-titled stinker on which they attempted to reinvent themselves as a serious-minded rock outfit with broken dreams and heavy hearts (you know, despite a back catalog that includes albums called No Pads, No Helmets ... Just Balls and Still Not Getting Any ... ). The buzz was bad on this one from the very beginning, as frontman Pierre Bouvier touted several "very synthy, very beat-oriented" songs they were working on with Timbaland prote'ge' Nate "Danjahandz" Hills. Then the album's release date got pushed back from December to February, and finally, to add insult to injury, when SP premiered the (unintentionally hilarious) album cover, fan reaction was so negative that they were forced to scrap the idea and just go with a simple black-and-white job. Not surprisingly, the album stiffed, debuting at #14 on the Billboard charts, then dropping quickly into oblivion.

9. The Pussycat Dolls
A brief recap of the past 12 months in PCD Land: Lead singer Nicole Scherzinger spends the first half of the year promoting a solo album that never sees the light of day. Carmit Bachar (a.k.a. "the scary one") leaves the group in March to start a solo career. She is never heard from again. In September, PCD release Doll Domination, an album so full of Scherzinger retreads, touch-ups and water damage that it should've come with a complimentary Carfax report. Their label spends the remainder of the year hastily flinging singles from the album against the wall, hoping one will stick. Ultimately, none do, and to date, Doll Domination has sold less that 167,000 copies in the U.S. Scherzinger would finally admit that "some" of the songs on the PCD album were, in fact, intended for her failed solo album, which she promises will be out in 2009 as a companion piece to Domination. You have been warned.

8. Weezer
There is a very good chance Rivers Cuomo has gone insane. That's about the only way to describe what happened to Weezer in 2008. From the inexplicable cover of their Red Album (on which Cuomo looks like a nerdier version of Bruno Kirby in "City Slickers") to the inexplicable video for "Troublemaker" (in which Cuomo dresses like a Cholo and rocks a neck tattoo), it's been an annus terribilis for the rockers, who now resemble their sweater-clad glory days in name only. Barely. All those transgressions would've been forgiven, however, if Red were any good — sadly, it's not. And die-hard Weezer fans seem to agree with me. Not only have I not been able to find one person who will give the album any more than "eh, it's better than Maladroit," but it' sold only 375,000 copies to date ... a far cry from 2005's Make Believe, which moved more than 1.2 million units.

7. Jessica Simpson
Simpson kicked off 2008 by cursing the Cowboys and ended it being cursed by them. In January, she drew the ire of many a 'Boys fan when she and boyfriend Tony Romo (who just so happens to also be the Cowboys' starting QB) took a trip to Mexico while the team was supposedly preparing for an upcoming playoff game against the New York Giants. The Cowboys lost, and many — including players and members of the media — mentioned the trip as the reason Romo looked less-than-sharp in the game. In July, she decided that a country-music makeover was just what she needed to revive her stalled career, and she premiered her first single, "Come on Over," on her Web site. That same month, she made an appearance at the Country Thunder USA festival in Wisconsin, where she was booed off the stage. One concertgoer summed it up best, telling "Access Hollywood": "Just because she's dating Tony Romo, it doesn't make her country. ... She doesn't fit in with country, and I'll have to drink a lot of beer to sit through her concert."

6. Usher
Sure, his Here I Stand album debuted at #1 and eventually went platinum, but it didn't go nine times platinum like its predecessor, the massive Confessions, did. Couple that with the lack of follow-up singles, the messy "you're fired, just kidding, you're rehired!" game he played with mom-ager Jonnetta Patton and the bizarre tirade he launched into during a May 28 appearance on "TRL," in which he ripped into fans and shattered the unintentional-comedy scale by shouting, "My wife is not 40 years old!" into the camera, and 2008 was one to forget for Ush. And let's not even get into his harebrained attempt to re-establish himself as a sex symbol with his ladies-only One Night Stand Tour — which, as it turned out, anyone could attend, though many probably didn't want to.

5. Danity Kane
Diddy's girls did plenty right in 2008: Their sophomore album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts in March, and the single "Damaged" made a splash both on the Hot 100 and as a digital download. But in October, things started to go really wrong. First, Aubrey O'Day — who had spent much of the past few months boasting about her breasts and posing for demure photo shoots like this one — was kicked out of the group by Diddy. He booted O'Day's BFF, D. Woods, too. Diddy has insisted that DK will continue on as a trio, which means the group now consists of three girls who could casually be described as "the plain one, the (other) blond one and the one who dates the guy in Day26."

4. Panic at the Disco
Really, these guys deserved better. And believe me, they'll get it when I write my "Best Albums of 2008" column in a few weeks. But for right now, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the colossal tanking of their Pretty. Odd. album, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard albums chart back in April but quickly disappeared from the public consciousness within a few months. Of course, all the warning signs were there: the writing sessions in a cabin, the subsequent scrapping of everything from those sessions, the dropping of the exclamation point from their name. But in the end, Panic fell victim to the same trap that befalls many a rock act with: A) a young fanbase, and B) something to prove — they changed the formula up too much, overshot just about everyone and are now crashing back to Earth. This is not to say ambition is a bad thing (it isn't) or that Pretty. Odd. isn't good (it is), but I'd be willing to bet that in five years, it'll also serve as the prime example of what happens to up-and-coming bands who get a little too big for their britches.

3. Madonna
As if the cover of Madge's Hard Candy album wasn't terrifying enough, consider the sentiment contained within that album: Here is Madonna, one of the 20th century's greatest icons, reduced to chasing trends and looking (and sounding) for the very first time like a 50-year-old mother of three. A blatant attempt to cash in on the "urban" market (check the collabos with Timbaland and Pharrell!), Candy doesn't have a single moment that doesn't recall a better one by Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado or even — gasp! — Britney, which made me feel rather sad for Maddy. On top of that, Candy hasn't exactly burned up the charts, selling selling just over 670K here in the U.S. Of course, all that sympathy was quickly lost when she decided to name her tour "Sticky & Sweet," wore an unending stream of Wonka-esque top hats and began taking ham-fisted potshots at politicians from the stage. And then, to top things off, she divorced her husband and (allegedly) started dating New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, which sort of makes me wonder whether she's actually a terrible person. Had she started dating Kevin Youkilis, I would not even consider this.

2. Mariah Carey
It's difficult to think of an album that flopped harder in 2008 than Carey's E=MC2, which, given the fact that it's currently the sixth-best-selling album of the year, is saying something about just how impossibly high the expectations were. The long-in-the-works follow-up to her career-reviving The Emancipation of Mimi, it debuted at #1 and has sold nearly 1.2 million copies to date. But the fact remains that no one seems particularly excited about it — especially not Carey, who promoted it with a ho-hum interview on "Oprah" and a downright bizarre video for the first single "Touch My Body," which featured "30 Rock" actor Jack McBrayer wailing on a fake guitar, wearing a Viking helmet and parading around with a unicorn. As a follow-up, she married actor Nick Cannon and basically disappeared from public life. Neither of the three subsequent singles from the album did much of anything, and to date, E=MC2 has sold less than one-fifth of what Emancipation did. Oh, and her big year was topped off with the announcement that her much-discussed film "Tennessee" will not open in December but rather, in February. Always a good sign.

1. Me
Why? Well, here's a list of my 2008 highlights: Took countless potshots at Britney Spears. Insisted that her career was over despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Proposed that Soulja Boy Tell'em is a 21st-century Marcel Duchamp. Insulted a massive portion of Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus fans with a sappy column in late September. Royally pissed off tons of cougars when I suggested that David Cook was "the reason the rest of the world hates us." Offended Diddy on an episode of "FNMTV," then rather than standing up for myself, wrote a passive-aggressive column about it the following week. Drafted Brian Westbook over Adrian Peterson in not one, but two fantasy-football leagues. Spent two-thirds of the year telling anyone who would listen how much I disliked Panic at the Disco's Pretty. Odd. album, only to discover that it's actually pretty great. Made borderline racially insensitive comments in a story I wrote about Lollapalooza (prediction #6 if you aren't sure). Killed a man. Actually liked Coldplay's Viva la Vida album. Killed another man. Bought a car even though I don't really need one, thereby making my carbon footprint a carbon bootprint. Actually liked the Killers' Day & Age album. Actually really like Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy.

Madonna and A-Rod Get Mile High

by Gina Serpe and Ken Baker
Madonna's only four days removed from her quickie divorce from Guy Ritchie, but the Material Cougar doesn't seem to be wasting much time on the singles scene.

E! News has learned that the 50-year-old Queen of Pop enjoyed the cozy company of 33-year-old rumored boy-toy Alex Rodriguez during a late-night private flight Monday, with the keep-'em-guessing couple arriving in Miami in the wee hours this morning.

The duo departed from Atlanta Monday, shortly after Madonna completed the Georgia stop on her Sticky & Sweet Tour, and landed just before 2 a.m.

"They got right into an SUV and drove away," a source at Miami's Signature airport told E! News. "They didn't want anyone to see them."

Leave it to Madonna to ensure her flights of fancy include an actual flight.

Madonna, and presumably A-Rod, are expected to stay in Miami for a few days, shacking up in a secluded mansion.

The trip will combine both business and, one would assume, pleasure. The now two-time divorce'e is set to perform to a sellout crowd at Miami's Dolphin Stadium Wednesday night.
Source: eonline.com

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