Madonna extends Sticky & Sweet tour but not in North America

The touring industry is ebullient since Madonna has extended her Sticky & Sweet Tour for a second year, something she has never done. Madonna will perform 24-25 European concerts this summer beginning July 4 in London, ENG and the last one booked so far is on August 20 in Ljubljana, SLO. Paul Oakenfold is the opening act on all of the extended tour dates.

Sixteen concert dates have been released, and the London concert is the only repeat market from last year. The rest of the tour will include appearances in cities she has never performed in before, such as Werchter, BEL; Marseille, FRA; Hamburg, GER; Oslo, NOR; Helsinki, FIN; Tallinn, EST; and Ljubljana, SLO; as well as stops in Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria.

She has booked a few cities that she has not performed in for more than 15 years, inculding Madrid, SPA; Gothenburg, SWE; and Munich, GER. Shows are to be announced for Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Romania and Serbia.

Arthur Fogel, Live Nation's Chairman of Global Music and CEO of Global Touring/Artist Nation, advised TicketNews that there is "no chance for a North American extension of the tour."

"This is a first for me," Madonna said in a statement. "I've never extended a tour before. I'm excited to be going back on the road, visiting places I've never been and returning to places I love."

In 2008, the Sticky & Sweet Tour was seen by 2.35 million fans in 58 cities and grossed about $282 million. The tour boasted record-breaking ticket sales everywhere, including 650,000 tickets sold in her series of South American dates; 72,000 tickets at Zurich's Dubendorf Airfield -- the largest audience ever assembled for a show in Switzerland; 75,000 tickets in London and four sell outs in New York's Madison Square Garden (60,364 tickets).

"This new run of dates will further solidify Madonna's position as one of the top selling touring artists of all time," added Fogel, the tour producer.

And despite reports in the Australian media that four concerts are scheduled for an September/October outing Down Under, Fogel said that there is no validity to the reports. Madonna has only toured Australia once -- back in 1993.

Madonna itinerary:
(Dates are subject to change.)