The news brought to you by MadonnaTribe in our exclusive previews over the past few weeks reached the newspapers today ahead of the kick off of the 2009 leg of the Sticky & Sweet Tour.

“Madonna will perform a special tribute to Michael Jackson during her London show Saturday at the venue where he was due to stage his farewell shows” the Inquirer reports, quoting an interview the Queen of Pop (who often says she doesn’t read newspapers, and hence can’t realize which ones usually trash her),had to The Sun, saying she was “terribly sad” about Jackson’s death and revealed she “used to love picking his brains about musical stuff”.

Madonna is playing London’s O2 Arena today and tomorrow and as our readers know will feature extracts from Jackson’s songs “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” plus pictures of the star, who died last week.

Madonna and her dancers will also wear single white gloves – one of Jackson’s most famous wardrobe accessories – during a finale of her hit “Give It 2 Me”.

“I am so terribly sad about Michael Jackson’s death,” Madonna said in the interview. “I don’t know what artist wasn’t inspired by him.

“To be able to do what he did at such an early age was unearthly, everybody grew up in awe of him. To work with him and become friends and hang out with him was exciting for me.

“I used to love picking his brains about musical stuff.”

Madonna said that before Jackson died, she had offered to do a duet with him at the O2 shows. “I don’t know what we could have done together, I could have carried his bags for him maybe,” she said.

From an article by inquirer.net.