In October 2005, Madonna performed "Hung Up", the lead single from her then-upcoming tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

[3] Following the album's release in November 2005, Madonna embarked on a promotional campaign and appeared on several European and American television programs, such as Wetten, dass..?, Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood.

[10] The tour was officially confirmed by Madonna on February 9, 2006, during a visit to The Ellen DeGeneres Show; she added, in another statement, that she wanted to "turn the world into one big dance floor".

For Madonna's outfit, which included a black top hat with a horse's tail, he took inspiration from a look worn by Romy Schneider in Luchino Visconti's 1973 film Ludwig.

The Bedouin act began with "Live to Tell"; Madonna sang suspended from a giant mirrored cross, wearing a crown of thorns, as a death toll of African AIDS victims counted down on the screen above her.

"Isaac" began with Yitzhak Sinwani playing the horn; then, a female dancer in an oversized Middle-Eastern burqa danced inside an enormous cage with the backdrops displaying sand dunes.

Afterwards, a video interlude depicting images of Adolf Hitler, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, Osama bin Laden, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and starving African children played on the screens.

The singer played electric guitar, decked out in a high-collared black leather jacket, and changed the song's line "Just go to Texas / Isn't that where they golf" to a derogatory term aimed at George W. Bush; the backdrops for the performance depicted the New York skyline.

For "Erotica", she stripped down the suit to reveal a white leotard with purple stripes; the song's remix featured lyrics from the original demo known as "You Thrill Me", and saw the singer and troupe dancing ballroom-style.

[34] Ben Wener from the Orange County Register reported that, "no one – but no one – stages elaborate eye-candy productions like Madonna", adding that the "highly impressive" Confessions Tour was "multimedia, cross-cultural preaching to the choir on a scale only U2 has reached lately".

[38] Brynn Mandel, from the Republican-American, noticed how, for two hours, "Madge kept her audience engaged, providing visual accompaniment as only she can to a list of hits, both recent and classic [...] only icons can deliver a show like this"; the author concluded by saying: "Though nothing less has come to be expected of the Material Girl, she once again proved herself not just a singer but an entertainer extraordinaire".

[40] Writing for PopMatters, Christian John Wikane concluded that, "even the most rabid anti-Madonna listener or cynical music lover would find elements of 'The Confessions Tour' impressive".

[41] The staff of the East Valley Tribune highlighted the singer's vocals, her "impeccable shape", and how "[Confessions] delivered on all sensory levels, [and] fans were not disappointed".

[42] According to Edna Gundersen from USA Today, "Madonna is as fit vocally as physically, effortlessly nailing tender passages or a demanding upper register after strenuous bump-and-grind workouts".

[19] The Boston Herald's Christopher John Treacy affirmed that, "although it's impossible to tell how much vocal management is going on during the more demanding, theatrical numbers, Madonna sounded rehearsed and on target" during the tour.

[46] Eric R. Danton, from the Hartford Courant, classified Confessions as a "club-friendly two-hour set, packed with throbbing beats and ethereal, trance-like vocals", but noted that the music was "almost incidental - it could have been piped in.

[44] Although Ben Wener praised the second segment, Bedouin, he was critical of what followed, concluding that only "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" and "Paradise (Not For Me)" evoked the "thought-provoking sentiments" from previous moments.

[35] Sandy Cohen from The Washington Post opined that Madonna "looked happiest when she was dancing, microphone at her side", and highlighted the numbers featuring Yitzhak Sinwani as the "most interesting".

Although she singled out the "lively and festive" songs of the Disco section, Cohen ended her review on a mixed note: "The production was so tightly choreographed, it left little room for spontaneity.

It was referred to as "impressive" and "spectacular" by Berlingske Tidende, while other reviewers had "high praise" for the show's opening and closing, but said it lost its energy in the middle, where the singer slipped into a "robotic and boring act".

Price also dismissed the singer's "attempts at being sexy [...] When she takes her top off, or shoves her hand inside her pants, I involuntarily think of the gran who gets her toes sucked in Little Britain".

[52][53] In 2024, Sal Cinquemani, writing for Billboard, named it Madonna's best concert tour: "[A] culmination of everything [she] had learned from Blond Ambition through Re-Invention, combining spectacle, drama and good ol' fashioned performance mojo.

[54] The tour's performance of "Live to Tell" (1986) faced strong reaction from religious groups, as it found Madonna wearing a crown of thorns while being raised on a mirrored cross, simulating a crucifixion; the backdrop screen flashed a running tally of the 12 million children in Africa orphaned by AIDS.

[60] A pastor from North Denver defended the "powerful and very reverent performance" which "calls the world to take notice that there are 12 million children who are currently orphaned"; he also applauded Madonna for "trying to wake us up to [...] care for those who are most often forgotten".

[62] Despite the controversy, critical reception towards the number ranged from lukewarm to negative; Leslie Gray Streeter, who gave the overall concert a positive review, opined that it "slowed down, in an unsatisfying way" in "preachy" performances such as "Live to Tell".

[27] Similarly, Greg Kot concluded that, "now that everyone from Kanye West to Madonna way back in the '80s has flirted with this particular brand of sacrilege, crucifixion just isn't what it used to be in the Shock and Awe department".

[64] While Chris Willman chastised Madonna for trying "to make like Bono" and "channel[ing] global suffering", Ed Gonzalez was doubtful of her "sincerity" and named "Live to Tell" the tour's "one serious moral lapse".

[67] The Daily Telegraph reported that, within the first four days of ticket sales, the singer had sold out 28 shows, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Paris and London.

[70] The Guardian then reported that tickets for the first two concerts at London's Wembley Arena had also sold out within ten minutes of going on sale; fans crashed the singer's website and queued outside the venue in order to get a purchase.

[77] On July 21, Access Hollywood reported that NBC would broadcast the concerts at London's Wembley Arena as the network's first special with the singer; executive Kevin Reilly said that "Madonna is one of the greatest artists of our time and never fails to generate excitement [...] this is going to be a big event for television".