MADONNA TO GET BRAZIL “STICKY & SWEET” AS TOUR WRAPS UP

Madonna arrived in Brazil on Friday ahead of the final concerts of her worldwide “Sticky & Sweet Tour” that showed that, at age 50, she can still sell out top-notch venues.

She is to perform two concerts in Rio, on Sunday and Monday, before going to Brazil’s biggest city of Sao Paulo for gigs next week on December 18, 20 and 21. The concerts are the last in her four-month tour across Europe, North America and Latin America, which kicked off August 23 in Wales, Britain. In all she will have played 58shows that raked in more than 200 million dollars, according to Billboard magazine.

During her spin around the globe, she has had to oversee divorce proceedings handled by her lawyers. On November 21, a London court granted a provisional “quickie” divorce to Madonna — full name Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone — on the grounds her husband Ritchie had acted unreasonably. The court released a document in which Madonna stated that she and Ritchie, 40, had not lived together at the same address for six months.

A decree formally dissolving the marriage is expected by early January. Contradictory accounts in Britain’s tabloids over the bust-up said either that Madonna thought Ritchie was lazy, tight-fisted and preferred the pub to his family, or that Ritchie thought she was a control freak obsessed with her Kabbalah faith. It was also variously reported that Ritchie either received a lot of money from the split — or none at all.

Madonna is regarded as the world’s highest-earning female singer — Forbes.com put her at the top of its latest “cash queens of music” list with earnings of 72 million dollars between June 2006 and June 2007. The pair are reportedly fighting over whether their two sons should live in Britain or the United States — and over who gets them for Christmas.

Source: AFP.