Madonna announces secret show in Melbourne next week ahead of her first Australian tour since 1993

QUEEN of pop Madonna will make up for her long absence from Australia with an intimate, secret show for her diehard fans.

LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 25: Singer Madonna arrives at the Marquee Nightclub at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to host an after party for her Rebel Heart Tour concert stop on October 25, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for ABA)

MADONNA has announced an intimate club show — featuring her unexpected stand-up comedy work as well as music — in Melbourne next week.

The superstar will play the Forum next Thursday March 10.

The venue holds only 1500 people, tiny by Madonna’s standards.

The club show, Tears of a Clown is an exclusive free fan show that will fuse “music, art and comedy”.

Madonna said in a statement “I wanted to do something special for Australia because you have been so patient and waited so long. The Tears of a Clown show will make its debut on March 10. Performance art, comedy, story telling and music of course! Especially for my Rebel Heart fans down under!”

The free tickets will only be available through Madonna’s fan club but if you’re rushing to join, bad luck, entrants have to have been members before March 1 this year.

You have to be over 18 and post a photo of yourself excited about Madonna’s return to Australia for the first time in 23 years on your social media accounts.

More details are at madonna.com

Tour partner Telstra are also offering free tickets to customers at telstra.com/music.

Madonna had teased Australian fans by stating on stage in Macau last month that she would do a secret show down under. She also joked it might be a stand up comedy show she’d called Tears of a Clown. It turns out she was not joking about the joking.

Madonna performed a stand up routine on Jimmy Fallon’s US talk show last year, with mixed reactions.

The singer has hinted at several club shows during the Rebel Heart world tour, but none have happened yet.

Fans are also hoping one of the Australian shows may be filmed for DVD release — she filmed her Sydney shows on 1993’s The Girlie Show for, at the time, a VHS release.

Madge is coming down under ... finally. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images for ABA.

Madonna plays Burning Up in China. Picture: AP Photo/Kin Cheung.

Madonna plays her first ever shows in New Zealand tomorrow and Sunday.

She will play Rod Laver Arena on March 12 and 13. Madonna then plays Brisbane Entertainment Centre on March 16 and 17 before winding up her Australian visit — and the entire Rebel Heart world tour — with shows at Sydney’s Allphones Arena on March 19 and 20.

Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour has received rave reviews around the world and has already grossed over $100 million.

The tour obviously features much of last year’s No. 1 album Rebel Heart as well as Madonna classics including Material Girl, Burning Up, Deeper and Deeper, True Blue, Like a Virgin, Dress You Up, Into the Groove, Lucky Star, Music and Holiday.

Meanwhile Madonna fans are now wondering if the singer will get any local celebrities on stage during new song Unapologetic Bitch.

Molly and Madonna reunited in 1993.

Madonna wears a Kylie shirt in 2000.

Overseas the likes of Amy Schumer, Idris Elba, Graham Norton, Stella McCartney and Katy Perry have been spanked by Madonna on stage during the song.

With Kylie Minogue in Australia this week for a corporate show, fans are hoping the Australian singer may be around long enough to finally share a stage with Madonna.

Speaking to News Corp last year, Madonna had a few options.

“Is Kylie gonna be there? If she’s in Australia at one of my shows she’d be great. Or Molly Meldrum. He’d be good. He definitely deserves a spanking.”

Meldrum was Madonna’s first champion in the international media, playing 1983’s Burning Up video on Countdown when the singer was still unknown. The song eventually reached No. 13 in Australia, its highest chart position anywhere in the world.

Countdown also heavily promoted 1984’s Holiday, with the song becoming a Top 5 hit in Australia before anywhere else in the world.

Meldrum and Madonna have remained friends since then, with their first meeting re-enacted in the Molly miniseries last month, with Madonna played by Jactina Stapleton.

Originally published as Madonna announces secret show in Melbourne next week ahead of her first Australian tour since 1993