Music icon Madonna has booked out an ENTIRE five star Manchester hotel as she undertakes top secret rehearsals in the city for her new tour.
The Queen of Pop has also booked out Manchester's AO Arena over the past week to prepare for her eagerly-anticipated Celebration tour, which will debut at London's O2 Arena on Saturday night.
She has been undertaking top secret rehearsals for the full show with her cast and crew inside the vast music arena space. The new tour is billed as a celebration of her entire 40-year pop career.
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And her base during the stay has been the luxurious Stock Exchange Hotel on Norfolk Street in the city centre. Her team have taken over the entire 40-room hotel space - including the acclaimed basement bar Sterling - over recent days.
The hotel is owned by ex-Manchester United footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, and features a host of luxurious suites starting from £400 a night. But the most lavish is the penthouse suite The House, with prices from £1,750 per night.
The suite has played host to an array of visiting VIPs in recent years, including Ed Sheeran who booked it out during his last tour when visiting Manchester.
It's not hard to see why the plush suite is a home-from-home for superstars. The suite boasts three bedrooms and its own enormous roof terrace, offering spectacular views across the city centre.
The House has its own private entrance and its own gym, as well as custom-built furniture, 60-inch flat screen TVs, a fully fitted kitchen, en suite bathrooms and its own dining room. There's enough space that you could comfortably start a kick-about with your fellow tenants or guests.
Although, if rumours are to be believed, Madonna's exercise of choice has been biking - with a fleet of Peloton bikes said to have been seen taken into the Stock Exchange Hotel this week.
She has been pictured heading to and from the hotel, which is based inside Manchester's historic former Stock Exchange, after epic eight-hour rehearsals at the arena. At the weekend she was pictured in a bright red hoody, black blouson jacket and a golden cup as she headed out with her security team.
Then, on Monday night, she was pictured in a casual ensemble of black woolly jumper with boho web-print design. She teamed it with cargo pants and large black platform moon boots.
Despite the late hour, she wore dark shades as she was guided into the plush Manchester hotel. She still looked effortlessly glam though, with her blonde hair swept back and with black nail polish on her fingers.
Her crew have been holed up at the Stock Exchange Hotel over the weekend and into the start of this week. It is known as one of Manchester's top rated hotels, and has won a series of awards since first opening to the public in 2019.
As word spread that she has been based there, it has been causing a commotion with fans - who have dashed to try and get photos of her there.
Madonna's extended stay in Manchester has been to ensure everything is just pefect for the opening night of her tour. She is said to have wanted to do full rehearsals in an arena setting - hence coming up to Manchester ahead of London.
Her world tour had to be rescheduled in the summer after she was hospitalised in June with a serious bacterial infection, forcing her to spend several worrying days in ICU.
When Madonna was discharged from hospital she worked on her recovery at her home in New York, surrounded by her children Lourdes Leon, 26, Rocco Ritchie, 23, David Banda, 18, Mercy James, 17, and 11-year-old twins Stella and Estere.
Following her health scare, Madonna was forced to postpone the start of her Celebration world tour, which marks 40 years since her debut self-titled album was released.
It is now set to restart here in the UK for four huge sold out nights at London's O2 Arena. When the show was first announced it sparked feverish excitement among fans - although here in Manchester there was dismay that there were no dates in the city.
After four nights in London, she will head on to Antwerp in Belgium before heading out across Europe and then the world for a mammoth 78-date tour.
The new Celebration tour is expected to see Madonna reprise some of her biggest hits - with fans already speculating on their "dream" setlists. Likely to be amid the mix will be her worldwide hits like Music, Like a Prayer, Material Girl, Frozen and Ray of Light.
It is thought Madonna chose to set up base in Manchester due to the O2 Arena in London being unavailable for an early fit-out of her tour with other gigs taking place there this week. Manchester's AO Arena, meanwhile, is not due to host its next gig until tomorrow night (October 12) with the arrival of comeback pop icons S Club.
No doubt Madonna will be happy to make way for the Reach for the Stars hitmakers.
Both the Stock Exchange Hotel and the AO Arena have declined to comment on their A list guest here in the city over recent days.
Madonna is not the first superstar to book out an entire hotel when visiting Greater Manchester. Fellow American pop icon Taylor Swift famously booked out the entire five-star Lowry Hotel in Salford when she toured here in 2018.
