Sticky & Sweet – By The Numbers

LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" turned out to be one for the record books (shocker, we know) after winding down in Tel Aviv on September 2nd.

Overall, the tour grossed $408 million, making it the second highest grossing tour ever, and the highest grossing tour for a solo artist, a record that was held by Madonna for her 2006 Confessions tour, which grossed a paltry $194 million.

According to the tour's producer, Live Nation, the 85-date tour drew more than 3.5 million fans in 32 different nations grossing $408 million. This set a number of attendance records, including Zurich, Switzerland, where she drew 72,000. Her show in Gothenburg, Sweden was seen by 119,000 fans, and broke the record for highest grossing multiple shows in the country's history.

In Helsinki, Finland, "Sticky & Sweet" sold more than 85,000 tickets, making it the biggest single show by an artist in history for all of Scandinavia. Other ticket sales highlights on the tour included stops in Buenos Aires, Argentina (256,000), Santiago, Chile (146,000), Sao Paulo, Brazil (203,000), Tallinn, Estonia (72,000), Warsaw, Poland (79,000), Bucharest, Romania (69,000), and Sofia, Bulgaria (54,000).

The tour was not without tribulations and Madge was forced to scrap a date in Slovenia, citing "unforeseen logistical difficulties", while local newsies were reporting that only 7,000 tickets to the 63,000-seat arena in Ljubljana had been sold, a charge which Live Nation disputed.

A gig planned for Prague drew angry protests from thousands of Czechs who were rumpled about the choice of an open-air venue for the concert, the first time it had been used for such a purpose, and concerned that it would lead to excessive noise, mess and debris. Hungary also proved to be less than welcoming for the performer and she was loudly booed at a concert after voicing her support of the nation's Romani population.

Despite these incidents, Live Nation must be happy with the results of the tour, which was Madonna's first since signing a 10-year, $120 million multi-rights deal with the promoter last year. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers