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Billboard Magazine: Confessions Tour Sets Record!

Madonna's 'Confessions' Tour Sets Record
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/..._id=1003154128

Madonna will wrap her Confessions tour tomorrow (Sept. 21) at the Tokyo Dome as the top-grossing tour ever by a female artist. Although final numbers are not all in, tour producer Arthur Fogel puts the tally at $193.7 million from 60 shows that drew nearly 1.2 million in paid attendance.

That gross narrowly puts Madonna over Cher's benchmark of $192.5 million.However, it took Cher an endurance-testing 273 shows between June 2002 and April 2005 to reach that mark on her marathon Farewell tour.

Madonna's Confessions tour followed the same model of the $125 million-grossing Re-Invention tour in 2004 and the $75 million-grossing Drowned World tour in 2001.

Rather than visit 100 global markets a la mega acts like the Rolling Stones and U2, Madonna opted to play multiple nights in a limited number of major international locales. The strategy has led to a staggering $400 million in ticket sales in just six years.

source: Ray Waddell, Billboard Magazine