Welcome back, Your Madgesty! Four months after Madonna nearly died, the Queen of Pop kicks off a 78-date world tour in front of sell-out crowd at London’s O2

Madonna pulled off the thought of the impossible last night as she kicked off her Celebration world tour nearly four months after she nearly died.

The Queen of Pop kicked off her 78 dates with the first of four concerts at London’s O2, where her children Lourdes, Rocco, David and Mercy were sold out.

And it was an extremely impressive production, with a cast of more than 200 – 25 of them in the costume department alone.

Sources close to the 65-year-old singer said they were relieved to finally get the show off the ground. Madonna was devastated that doctors forced her to cancel a planned North American leg that was due to start on July 15 after she was found unresponsive in her New York apartment in late June.

The leg failure gave Madonna nearly three months to recover from what was described as a serious bacterial infection. But it also gave her time, her team says, to make the European gigs – starting with London – “amazing”.

Madonna on the first night of her ‘Celebration’ tour at the O2 Arena in London

And it was a hugely impressive production, with a cast of more than 200 – 25 of them in the costume department alone

She finally took the stage at 8.45pm to greet the fans, who greeted her with screams, hollers and poster-waving.

The Michigan-born star, known as Madge, arrived in Britain earlier this month.

Luckily, she was the picture of health three days ago when she left Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs’ five-star Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester, which she rented out in its entirety while she was training in the city. She also signed lots of autographs as she made her way to London.

Her excitement was there for all to see again yesterday when she told her 19 million Instagram followers that she arrived at the O2 Arena, on the banks of the Thames at around 1pm.

She then posted a picture of a flag raised in her honor at the venue, where she will perform four concerts before touring much of Western Europe and returning to the O2 for two more shows in December. Her postponed American concerts begin in New York a week after that.

It was around 8.45pm when she finally took the stage and greeted the fans, who greeted her with screams, squeals and lots of poster waving – knowing how lucky they were to be the first people to see the tour that was originally scheduled to kick off in Vancouver. Despite her collapse, there were few signs Madonna was taking things lightly. To get in the best possible shape, she brought along several personal trainers, along with three mobile gyms.

And the hard work soon paid off, with Madge determined to push herself harder than ever on a tour celebrating her career with 17 of her iconic outfits and around 40 of her hits including Like A Prayer, Ray Of Light and Holiday – her first UK hit in 1984.

The show also included archival footage and pre-recorded footage spanning her five decades in show business

But apart from an exciting night for her fans, it was also an emotional one. The show used archival footage and pre-recorded footage spanning five decades in show business to create what was described as a ‘documentary’ of her performing career.

Narrowing down her hit list to around 25 songs was a challenge, according to Maddie’s music director Stuart Price.

“It was a big challenge,” he said. “In two hours, can you get it all in? It’s difficult. But every great moment she had, we used it.’ Another 20 songs are interspersed to serve as ‘bridges’ between other numbers or during outfit changes.

Speaking about how badly Madonna wanted to give fans an “amazing” show, Mr Price said: “Madonna has very high expectations of how much effort people will put into something. It’s very uncompromising – but she’s equally hard on herself.

“So when she took a break, that break created an opportunity to further improve the show.”

“And I’m sure the opportunity (for her) to focus on is to be 100 percent well received.”