Madonna breaks silence after hospitalization, promises fans she will return to the stage

Madonna made her first public comments after a stay in an intensive care unit that paused her tour, promising fans that dates at North American venues would be rescheduled.

"My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children," she said in a statement posted on her social media accounts on Monday. "My second thought was that I did not want to disappoint anyone who bought tickets for my tour."

Madonna announced the 35-city tour in January, with planned stops in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal scheduled for July and August. The Celebration Tour would then move to Europe in the fall.

But a bacterial infection forced the Grammy-winning pop starto pause the tour while she received treatment for a "serious bacterial infection," her manager, Guy Oseary, announced on Instagram in late June.

The tour will now proceed in Europe in October, Madonna said in her latest post.

"My focus now is my health and getting stronger and I assure you, I'll be back with you as soon as I can," she wrote.

Madonna recently joined Cher as the only two female artists to have songs hitthe Billboard Top 100 in five separatedecades.

The tour was designed to celebrate her decades of hits, such asOpen Your Heart,Vogueand Music.

The song Popular, acollaboration with Canadian singer-songwriterThe Weeknd and U.S. rapper Playboi Carti, debuted on the chart last month and is still in the top 100.