Madonna nearly died four months ago, yet tonight the 65-year-old will launch a mammoth world tour in London… Now ALISON BOSHOFF reveals how she’s borrowing the stage tricks that kept Mick Jagger rocking into his 80s

Slipping into her London hotel, she cuts a small figure: the phalanx of man-mountain bodyguards surrounding the blonde, pig-tailed pop star only serves to make the 5ft 4 Madonna look even smaller.

But when she takes to the stage at the O2 tonight for the opening show of her 78-date international Celebration Tour, she hopes the audience will witness the denouement of her extraordinary four-decade career and a resounding expression of her cultural power.

She also wants to send a sharp rebuke to Taylor Swift and Beyonce, the two women many would describe as the most powerful in the industry right now, proving that no one – even singers with the commercial power of Tay and Bey – can hold a candle to jewelry at the original Queen of Pop.

But the question that worries insiders is, can she pull it off? A seven-month world tour would be a punishing prospect for any artist.

And Madonna – despite a quest for physical strength that has outlasted all her toyboy romances – is nevertheless 65 years old.

According to her musical director Stuart Price: ‘The person who will take the stage looks amazing, sounds amazing, performs amazing.’

But let’s not forget that we are just a few months after a worrying medical incident. At the end of June, just weeks before the tour was due to kick off in the US, Madonna had to be resuscitated after she became unresponsive at her home in New York.

Her team blamed a serious bacterial infection and the singer spent days in intensive care. She was only well enough to resume work on the program in mid-August.

I can reveal that not only has the tour been reimagined, but that the singer has sought inspiration from the unlikeliest of role models.

According to insiders, Madonna has become ‘obsessed’ with Sir Mick Jagger, another huge performing behemoth and one who makes her look like a mere whipper at 80.

Behind the scenes, I’m told, the frontman of The Rolling Stones, who has appeared in more than 2,000 concerts, is regularly quoted.

The trio of French choreographers known as La Horde, who are responsible for at least ten of the numbers in the show, say Madonna is upset by what she sees as society’s disapproval of older women portraying a sexy image and told them that no one directs. the same criticism of the eight-year-old Jagger.

They say: ‘Madonna disagrees with this way of thinking and believes it comes from age and prejudice.

‘Female artists are often subjected to harsher criticism based on their age, appearance and physical abilities compared to their male counterparts.’

Another source added: ‘She’s obsessed with how older people like Mick Jagger can do it. She thinks she has found a more intelligent way of performing and talks about muscle memory and training smarter.’

The truth, of course, is that Madonna’s trademark approach to touring – pushing herself to the absolute limit – is no longer an option. Something had to give.

I’m told that Madonna was strongly advised to postpone the tour after she fell ill. One source said: ‘She has been advised to rest and recover. I heard she was told it would be wise to take a year out.’

Madonna rejected the advice with a resounding ‘No’, but changes to the punishment schedule were made. Those around the singer have made sure there will be a medical team, including a doctor and three physiotherapists, accompanying her as she tours the world.

She will have up to six hours of physical therapy a day in a mobile gym that will travel with her – three hours before a concert and three after – to try to keep her moving.

No less than eight humidifiers will accompany her to every venue in all 15 countries included in the tour, to preserve and protect her voice. Rest days are also included in the timetable.

I’m told by one insider: ‘The choreography is arranged so that she doesn’t have to do the full dance routines. The show has been changed so that there is more going on around her.

‘It will still look like a very spectacular performance but there will be chances for her to rest. That’s what they usually do with artists who can’t dance.

‘She would love to push herself to do the full routines as planned, but it’s not going to be possible. She will deliver a performance that is more uptempo. Mick Jagger actually does that too — he’ll move really fast and then rest for a while.’

For those around her, there is a constant fear that she will sustain a new injury or more likely worsen one of her existing conditions.

The source said: ‘It doesn’t matter how you exercise or what doctors will give you to support you – like cortisone shots for the pain. On the last tour she already pushed herself to the limit and all she proved was that she has limits.’

Who could forget the shocking images of her hopping on stage on crutches, tears streaming down her face, during her Madame X tour in 2019? About 15 dates of that tour had to be canceled due to ‘overwhelming’ pain.

At one point, the singer said she was: ‘A broken doll held together with tape and glue. During my tour – I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I limp a lot – I was in more pain than I’ve ever been in my life.’

The following year, in 2020, she underwent a hip replacement and returned in true Madonna form as never before, declaring herself a ‘bionic woman’.

‘How do I stay in shape? It’s all in your head. It’s called will, it’s called no one’s going to stop me, and how I stay in shape, no one’s going to stop me. And how I stay in shape is that I don’t believe in limitations.’

One source explained her thinking this way: ‘The fact is she’s a dancer, that’s what she studied in college, and dancers don’t listen to doctors. They abuse and push their bodies to the limit, that’s what they do.’

For the past few weeks, Madonna has led her dancers in 12-hour training sessions — which have been a challenge, even for those fit and lithe young performers who could technically be her grandchildren.

As her lead dancer and close friend Loic Mabanza says: ‘She’s an animal. She trains like an athlete and is never the first to get tired.’

But why, with such a back catalog of hits – starting with Holiday in 1984 and including 13 number one singles such as Vogue and Like A Prayer – does she continue to push herself, seemingly to the brink of death, to re get on stage?

According to insiders, the buzzword echoing around the training studio is ‘legacy’.

Each performance will tell the story of Madonna’s life, and each performance will be an expression of her as an artist, fighting for her own liberation and empowerment.

As for which songs will be in the show, Erotica and Frozen were heard in rehearsals, which moved to the AO Arena in Manchester last weekend before final runs at the O2 in London.

Musical director Price says about 25 songs will be performed in their entirety and another 20 will be included in some form.

Bob The Drag Queen, who is her support throughout the tour, is believed to lip-sync to some medleys while Madonna has costume changes, aided by a 25-strong wardrobe department.

The stage is the largest for any tour and its centerpiece is a layered circular area. It will allow her to tell the story of her early years in New York, where she arrived after leaving her degree in dance at the University of Michigan, and features Uptown, Downtown, Midtown, East and West stages.

There will be a ‘Time Machine’ on stage in the form of an illuminated portal frame, suspended 30 feet from the ground, which will allow her to float across the stage into the auditorium during the performance.

Her team said yesterday it would ‘symbolise looking to the past, the present and to the future’.

More than 200 crew members are needed to get the show on the road, and each night 24 performers, all dancers and singers, will be on stage.

Not only that, but four of her children will appear on stage with her – perhaps the ultimate sign that Madonna is throwing her all into this tour. There is a lot riding on it.

Creatively speaking, it’s going to be the ultimate declaration of love for her loyal fans. In terms of image, it is also crucial that she pulls it off. It will be an eye opener for those who mock her age-defying looks and ask if she has passed her prime.

I’m told she especially wants to ‘show Beyonce how it’s done’ – and take her crown back from Queen Bey, who is also currently on tour, and this week joins Taylor Swift as her ‘plus one’ at the premiere of the Shake It Off singer’s Eras Tour film.

Then there is the matter of money. This massive world tour will gross more than $200m (£160m) – plus merchandise and the associated bump in streaming and sales. It will be a big payday for Madonna and her entire team.

For all those reasons, she found the idea of ​​getting back on the road right after her illness impossible to resist.

As she wrote in a telling statement on Instagram in July, shortly after recovering: ‘My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children. My second thought was that I don’t want to disappoint anyone who bought tickets for my tour.’

Her manager, Guy Oseary, underlined the priority the tour was when he said: ‘At this time we will have to suspend all commitments, which include the tour. We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and the rescheduled shows.’

A source said: ‘At her level of fame there is a level of pressure. So much rests on her being able to perform, which means you only get someone saying your plans are OK. You ask a doctor for something and you get it.’

Whether her big gamble pays off remains to be seen, and many remain skeptical. One senior music figure expressed doubt to me this week: ‘I don’t see how she can do it.’

Another added: ‘I don’t know how she manages to do this without seriously harming herself. It’s not a question of can she do one performance, but can she do almost 80, practically back to back?

‘Her ego is such that she believes she will dance through the pain and do it anyway. She fully believes in herself as an icon. She believes that she is invincible and she believes that she is 24 years old.’

We will all know the answer in a matter of hours.