When Madonna’s Celebration Tour opens at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday — after a three-month delay due to a health scare in June that led the Queen of Pop to be hospitalized for several days — it will reportedly feature more than 40 songs encompassing her 40-plus years of getting into the groove. Here are 20 tunes from four decades of dance-floor domination that we hope she gives a twirl.
1. “Substitute for Love/Drowned World”
What better way to begin her 40th anniversary concert than by diving into the raw, revealing emotions of the “Ray of Light” opener, on which M famously confessed, “I traded fame for love without a second thought.”
2. “Music”
Madonna’s last No. 1 single, which topped the charts in 2000, is the perfect electro-pop bop to show just how much she has made all kinds of people come together for four decades.
3. “Into the Groove”
This irresistible invitation to “get into the groove” — on this dance anthem from her 1985 movie “Desperately Seeking Susan” — has become a Madge manifesto for her entire career.
4. “Like a Virgin”
Madonna has reimagined her first No. 1 hit in so many different ways since it was released in 1984, when she was in her mid-20s. It would certainly be a full-circle moment for her to sing it now in her mid-60s.
5. “Live to Tell”
Just to show you how long she’s been around, Madonna was married to Sean Penn when this ballad was featured in his 1986 film “At Close Range.” And since then, she has most definitely lived to tell.
6. “What It Feels Like for a Girl”
This underappreciated single from 2001’s “Music” shows just how well Madonna transitioned from the Material Girl to the Maternal Girl.
7. “Ray of Light”
The heavenly title track of her Grammy-winning 1997 masterpiece captures the spiritual glow of Kabbalah Madonna.
8. “Hung Up”
Does it get any better than Madonna taking Abba to the club on this “Confessions of a Dance Floor” rave-up?
9. “I Don’t Search I Find”
In 2019, Madame X proved that she was still fierce in her 50s on this underground house banger.
10. “Justify My Love”
Probably the most radical single she could have released at the height of her pop superstardom, this 1991 chart-topper justified our love with the sleaziest of beats.
11. “Erotica”
We gotta bring Dita — M’s dominatrix alter ego — back for the Celebration Tour. Picking up where “Justify My Love” left off, this 1992 hit is your dirtiest fantasy set to music.
12. “Ghosttown”
Bringing some soulful introspection to 2015’s “Rebel Heart,” this captures the lived-in spirit of a woman who has outlived other ’80s icons such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Prince.
13. “Miles Away”
This single from 2008’s “Hard Candy” hinted at the problems Madge was having with her then-husband, director Guy Ritchie, when she was British by marriage. So the O2 Arena feels like a perfect moment to revisit this midtempo melancholia.
14. “La Isla Bonita”
One of Madonna’s favorite concert numbers over the years — a 1987 hit that was Latin pop before Latin pop was cool — it wouldn’t be a proper celebration without it.
15. “Express Yourself”
Respect must be paid to Madonna’s “Respect.”
16. “Nothing Fails”
As much as many hated on the folktronica of 2003’s “American Life,” this is a gospel-tinged triumph.
17. “Like a Prayer”
Her greatest single certainly must take us there again — 34 years after it went all the way to No. 1 in 1989.
18. “Vogue”
If “Like a Prayer” is Madonna’s greatest single, then “Vogue” is her most iconic one. Poses must be struck.
19. “Everybody”
The single that launched a legendary career back in October 1982 deserves its moment to get everybody up to dance and sing and, yes, do their thing.
20. “Holiday”
There would be no “Celebrate!” in the Celebration Tour without the 1983 breakthrough that became the prototype for a career full of dance anthems.
Madonna’s tour will officially kick off with four sold out shows in London this month. She’ll then perform across Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands throughout the remainder of 2023.
