It happens every time Madonna goes on tour. Almost immediately, there are articles that claim the tour is a flop and Madonna’s career is about to end.
Just before Madonna launched her 2008 Sticky and Sweet Tour, the most successful one ever by a solo artist, they targeted the tour and said it was ruining Madonna’s deal with Live Nation . Just before Madonna went on her MDNA Tour in 2012, they — once again — declared the tour was flopping . Only a couple days after tickets went on sale in 2015 for the Rebel Heart Tour, they tried the same trick .
A look through ticket availability at Ticketmaster (and a conversation with them earlier in the day) proves most of the shows are nearly sold out (especially in New York City), and Madonna will likely play to full houses on just about every stop. Now that primary tickets are selling well, the critics are trying to use the secondary market as the reason Madonna is flopping and even saying that her future depends on the Rebel Heart Tour. As Billboard noted last year, when the same cynics were calling Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s 50,000 seat-per-night sellout tour a flop, judging a tour’s success by secondary ticket sales is completely misguided.
“Regarding the latter, to pass judgment on the success of any tour by the number of tickets available on the secondary market is misguided. Those tickets have already been sold, at least once.”
Still, most shows have 500 or less tickets available in authorized secondary markets when looking through Ticketmaster . This amount of tickets is far less than what Taylor Swift or U2 recently had available, though both artists did have more shows scheduled. If scalpers lose money, Madonna gets the last laugh.
The Rebel Heart Tour kicks off Wednesday night for a sold-out show in Montreal. Fans who were standing by the doors listening to the second-to-last dress rehearsal confirm that Madonna is bringing back such fan favorites as “Material Girl,” “Dress You Up,” “True Blue,” “Vogue,” “Holiday,” “Burning Up,” “Like a Virgin,” and “Deeper and Deeper.” Those who have tickets to Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour are in for a real treat.
[Photo by Michael Tran / FilmMagic for Getty Images]
