Madonna kicked off her world turn in august style utmost night (August 23) by taking to the phase of Cardiff's [B}Millennium Stadium[/B] on a throne.
The vocalist, who turned 50 simply a few days agone, wore a sparkly mordant one-piece kit designed by Givenchy and was surrounded by dancers in top hats and tails for the start of the Sticky and Sweet 51-date tour.
Madonna's husband, film director Guy Ritchie, and children Lourdes, Rocco and David, were amongst those in the 40,000-strong interview - far from capacity for the massive venue.
During the evidence, Madonna was joined by Kanye West, Britney Spears and Pharrell Williams world Health Organization had all recorded special video spots.
Working through tracks from new album 'Hard Candy', she also plucked from her rich indorse catalogue.
'Vogue', 'Die Another Day', 'La Isla Bonita' and 'Into The Groove' were all dusted down for the arrange.
The show was divided up into four-spot parts - Pimp, Old School, Gypsy and Rave. The roof of the stadium was shut during the gig which involved 250 crew, £1m of jewellery, 16 dancers and eight costume changes.
Madonna's concluding full tour was in 2006 and became the highest-grossing by a female artist at the time, with tag sales of $195m (£105m).
Madonna takes the tour to mainland Europe, playing six shows starting on August 26 in Nice's Stade Charles Ehrmann before returning to the UK for a usher at Wembley Stadium on September 11.
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