Concert History | Madonna at Jaz Beach — First Bank Wired $7.5 Million Before Financing Was Agreed

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On 25 September 2008, Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet concert at Jaz Beach turned a Budva tourism showcase into a test of who actually financed a touring spectacle.

The dated evidence is unusually concrete. A [Central Bank of Montenegro inspection report](https://www.occrp.org/documents/first-bank-first-family/madonna-1.pdf) identifies the performance at Jaz Beach, Budva, and records First Bank of Montenegro wiring US$4.3 million on 2 June and US$3.2 million on 3 June to Solo Agency’s London account—US$7.5 million in all. The examiners concluded that the bank initially financed the concert without a previously agreed financial structure or clearly allocated obligations.

The public story before the show looked different. A contemporaneous [AFP report carried by ABC](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-09-26/montenegro-prepares-for-madonnas-big-gig/522206) called Russian developer Mirax Group the general sponsor and put the event’s cost at about US$7 million. [OCCRP’s investigation](https://www.occrp.org/en/project/first-bank-first-family/paying-for-madonna-cheating-montenegrins), based on the inspection records, later reported that €4.3 million of First Bank’s outlay was reimbursed by Montenegro’s government and a publicly owned company. The place-based mechanism was financing: a beach outside a small resort city could enter a global arena tour because a bank advanced the artist-side payment before sponsors and public tourism bodies had settled the structure behind it.

The regulator’s report also connects ticketing to that financing. First Bank agreed to sell tickets for TOB CO for a five-percent commission, then converted the remaining exposure into a €3,788,737.93 six-month loan for organizing and realizing the concert. These are documented financial arrangements, not a finding here of criminal liability against an organizer.

The pin at 42.283300, 18.804440 marks the Jaz Beach shoreline-and-hinterland complex, not an undocumented 2008 stage position. [Wikidata’s beach coordinate](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3394898) and photographer Milica Buha’s independently embedded GPS position on the [cover image’s Commons record](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaz_Beach_01.jpg) are about 47 metres apart. The ±600-metre precision radius covers the long beach and event field.

Cover: Milica Buha, “Jaz Beach 01,” 31 May 2019, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. The photograph shows the cove, shoreline facilities and wooded hinterland; it does not depict Madonna, the 2008 stage or the concert audience.