AOL Keyword: Madonna

By Stephen M. Silverman

03/30/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

America Online has struck an alliance with Ticketmaster to give its subscribers the first crack at buying tickets for the North American leg of Madonna's Drowned World Tour, her first concert tour in eight years, the online service has announced. (AOL is part of AOL Time Warner, as are PEOPLE and Madonna's record label subsidiary, Maverick.) New subscribers to AOL will be given a chance to purchase tickets on Sunday, while current members will be given a shot at a limited number of tickets on Monday. (AOL keyword: Madonna.) Tickets will not go on sale to other members of the public until a week later. The Web company is also promising its more than 28 million subscribers exclusive "online access to the performances, chats, and interviews." Meanwhile, while no stranger to controversy, Madonna has outraged German fans -- by NOT performing. Due to technical problems, says her concert manager, the Material Mom has had to cancel her June 5 and 6 concerts in Cologne, where she was to have opened her tour. She'll now kick it off in Barcelona June 9.