Madonna breaks tour records

Madonna's controversial Confessions tour is the biggest grossing tour ever by a female artist, the US magazine Billboard reports.Cher previously held the top spot with a total of $192.5 million generated from her Farewell tour extravaganza.But Madonna's latest tour is said to have narrowly pipped that with $193.7 million, although final figures have yet to come in.Her tour manager Arthur Fogel told Billboard: "Madonna has yet again delivered an incredible show for her fans, and the success of the tour is the ultimate statement."She absolutely belongs at number one."Her concerts have attracted 1.2 million people worldwide, in spite of condemnation of the singer from religious groups in a number of countries for arriving on stage suspended from a giant glittery silver cross with a crown of thorns on her head.The Vatican accused her of coming "close to blasphemy" for the sequence and in Germany prosecutors warned that she had breached the country's insulting religious beliefs law. In 2004 her Reinvention tour amassed $125 million while her Drowned tour grossed $75 million.