Madonna on Monday announced concerts across North America and Europe to support her new album, her first extensive shows since a high-grossing and controversy-filled global tour in 2012.
The pop superstar will start a 35-date tour to accompany her "Rebel Heart" album on August 29 in Miami, with concerts across North America as well as a show in Puerto Rico before she heads to Europe in November.
Madonna's last scheduled concert is on December 20 in Glasgow, but a statement from concert promoters said that she would soon announce additional dates in Asia and Australia.
If they go ahead, the concerts in Australia would be her first in more than two decades. She canceled dates in Australia in 2012 as part of her "MDNA" tour.
The "MDNA" tour -- in which Madonna played 88 shows across North America, Europe and Asia, as well as Latin America -- grossed more than $300 million.
It also generated frequent controversy, with the Material Girl using the platform to raise her voice on issues from gun control to gay rights and Europe's far right.
The announcement of the latest tour comes after the 56-year-old Material Girl prepares for the March 9 release of her 13th studio album, "Rebel Heart," in which her sound moves increasingly in a hip-hop direction.
Madonna abruptly released six songs from the album in December after early versions leaked online in what the singer described as "artistic rape" in comments on Instagram that she later deleted.
Madonna gave what may be a preview of her new tour at the Grammy Awards in February, where she dressed in a revealing red outfit reminiscent of a matador's as dancers pranced about in bull horns.
More recently, Madonna was in the spotlight as she fell at the Brit Awards and said she suffered whiplash. Madonna blamed the fall on her extravagant Armani cape.
Source: AFP