Madonna kicks off tour

U.S. singer Madonna performs on the opening night of her "Sticky & Sweet" tour at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff August 23, 2008. Madonna kicks off her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday, the latest test of her enduring appeal just a week after her 50th birthday. [Agencies]

She did a playful take on her variegated career, mocking dancers dressed as her previous incarnations - including the "Material Girl" and "Blonde Ambition" - before they sank into the stage to the tune of "She's Not Me." Madonna finished off the concert with her thumping "Give it 2 Me" from her new urban-inspired album, "Hard Candy."

If the world's top-selling female recording artist is still writhing, shaking and shimmying with the best of them, her personal life has recently been unsettled. Earlier this summer her brother Christopher Ciccone published a gossipy memoir and she has faced speculation about her relationship with New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez and rumours her marriage to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie is on the rocks - which she hotly denies.

Madonna's tour was eagerly anticipated in Britain, where the pop superstar has made her home and fans weren't disappointed.

"We enjoyed it to the max," said Ruth Henson, 24, of London.

"Madonna, considering she's now 50, is so fit. She did a really good job."

Following Cardiff's opening concert, "Sticky and Sweet" moves across Europe, hitting London's Wembley Stadium on Sept. 11 and Paris on Sept. 20. From there, it goes to North America in October before wrapping up Dec. 18 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It is Madonna's first tour since striking a deal with concert promoter Live Nation Inc. worth an estimated $120 million over 10 years. The partnership gives Live Nation a stake of future music and music-related business she generates, including touring, merchandising and albums. Madonna's last tour was her 2006 "Confessions" - in which she staged a mock crucifixion only a few kilometres from the Vatican.