Madonna launches 'Celebration' tour after health scare delay: 'I didn't think I was going to make it'

Madonna took the stage in London on Saturday in the long-awaited debut of her surprisingly poignant new 'Celebration' world tour, which had been delayed after she suffered a serious health scare during the summer.

In the opening night at the O2 Arena, the singer - who turned 65 in August - delivered a show that was at times more somber than celebratory, with tributes to some of the late icons with whom she ascended to stardom, like Prince, Michael Jackson and Sinead O'Connor.

The "Like a Virgin" performer also addressed her health troubles, saying it had been "a crazy year for me."

"I didn't think I was going to make it, neither did my doctors. That's why I woke up with all of my children sitting around me," she said.

Madonna battled a bacterial infection in June that caused her to cancel the first leg of the "Celebration" tour in North America.

"I forgot five days of my life - or my death. I don't really know where I was," she added, going on to thank her children for saving her, as they do "every time."

"If you want to know my secret, and you want to know how I pulled through and how I survive, I thought, 'I've got to be there for my children. I have to survive for them,'" she said.