For the virtual duet of 4 Minutes, Madonna is dressed like a superhero with a Xena-like breastplate and red shoulder pads. For this part of the show, she's now wearing a wig that covers her forehead. She loses the shoulder pads before kicking into the rave performance of Like A Prayer and the breastplate follows right before the final song. Madonna finishes the show in black rave outfit, wearing funny glasses, inspired by one of her dancers. In 2009, Madonna and her dancers added a white glove for the finale, as part of the tribute to Michael Jackson.

Opening Acts:
Robyn appeared as a special guest for the opening act at the following concerts in 2008: Nice, Berlin, Zurich, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Seville, Valencia, Vienna, Budva & Athens.

Paul Oakenfold opened in London, all of the Latin America dates, and is opening all of the Europe 2009 shows.

Benny Benassi was the opening act at the Rome show.

Bob Sinclar was opening for Madonna in both Paris shows.

Madonna didn't have an officially scheduled opening act on the North American leg of the tour.


Guest Appearances:
International pop star and previous Madonna-collaborator Britney Spears features in the background video of Human Nature. She made a live appearance in the show in LA.

To visualize the collaborators during the 4 Minutes performance, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland appeared on video screens. However, Justin made a live appearance in the show in LA, while Timbaland was a guest at the show in Miami.

For Beat Goes On and Give It 2 Me, Hard Candy producer Pharrell Williams supported Madonna on the video screens. During the shows in New York City and Miami, Pharrell made a guest appearance. Kanye West also featured in the Beat Goes On video backdrop, even though Madonna had wanted him to make a guest appearance as well, he was unable to do so because he was on tour himself.

For the final shows in Israel, Madonna invited two special guests to join her on stage: her children Lola and Rocco. On both shows, Lola danced along on the Give It 2 Me finale. On the last show, she stunned the crowd by playing the piano during Devil Wouldn't Recognize You. Rocco was seen rockin' the stage during Oakenfold's opening set and he also joined DJ Enferno during his mother's Music performance.


Remarks:
Before the final two songs, Madonna introduced a new concept to her shows: she let the audience request one of her hits, which they could then sing along with her. While she chose Express Yourself herself for most of the European shows, sometimes replaced by Like A Virgin, she built in more variety in the North American shows. Check the diary for each specific song request. This request section was droped for the 2009 leg of the tour.

The only actual change in the 2008 setlist happened at the 4 shows in Buenos Aires where Madonna performed Don't Cry For Me Argentina as a medley with You Must Love Me.

Originally, Madonna rehearsed a guitar-driven version of Impressive Instant, mixed with Burning Up, as part of the Futuristic Rave segment, but then she replaced it with Like A Prayer.

For the 2009 leg, three songs on the setlist were replaced. Heartbeat had to make way for the classic Holiday, which included a tribute to late Michael Jackson. It was followed by a rock rendition of Dress You Up, instead of Borderline. Surprisingly, the only Confessions song Hung Up got kicked out in favour of Frozen, which received a dance make-over, featuring snippets of Open Your Heart.

The candy pattern backdrop during the opening number Candy Shop was replaced by Marilyn Minter's Green Pink Caviar in 2009.

Madonna changed up her costumes a few times on tour in 2008: she wore a pink outfit during the Old School segment in Berlin, Lisbon, the 2nd show of Paris and the 1st show of Toronto, while she had red-framed glasses in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Seville, Valencia & Vienna. Because of the rain on the 1st Rio De Janeiro show, Madonna changed the coat, the corset and the boots for the Gangsta Pimp and the Gypsy costumes. In 2009, Madonna sported red Louis Vuitton googles at the Manchester show and was forced to cover herself with a black coat and pants during several songs at the 2nd Oslo show because of heavy rain.