- Written by Helen Bushby
- Culture correspondent
Image source, Getty Images
Court documents say fans “would not have paid for the tickets” if they had known the show would end so late
Two Madonna fans have filed a lawsuit against the American singer after she was more than two hours late to a concert last month in New York, according to court documents.
They state that the show was supposed to start at 20:30 EST on all three nights, but in each case it did not start until after 22:30, ending around 01:00.
The case says they “would not have paid for the tickets” if they had known they would end so late.
The BBC asked Madonna, Live Nation and Barclays Center for comment.
“Many ticket holders who attended concerts on a weeknight had to wake up early to go to work and/or attend to their family responsibilities the next day,” states the case, brought by Michael Fellows and Jonathan Haden.
They are suing the Barclays Center promoter Live Nation for “false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive business practices.”
Mr Fellows and Mr Hadden attended the show on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, but legal documents indicate that other nights at the same venue, on December 14 and 16, also started more than two hours late.
“Defendants failed to provide any notice to ticket holders that the concerts would begin significantly later than the start time printed on the ticket and as advertised, resulting in ticket holders waiting for hours,” the document states.
Image source, Getty Images
The show featured dozens of dancers but no band, with many songs reconstructed from the original tapes
The court papers also say that Madonna “has a long history of arriving and starting her concerts late, sometimes several hours late,” citing as examples “her 2016 Rebel Heart Tour, the 2019-2020 Madame Madonna regularly started her concerts more than two hours late.
The plaintiffs are suing for unspecified damages.
This is not the first time that fans have objected to the singer being late for her shows. In 2019, a fan filed a lawsuit over the delay of an American show, but he voluntarily rejected the case a month later. According to ABC News.
In the same year, Madonna obtained She shared a live post of herself on stageShe told fans: “There's something you all need to understand. The Queen is never late.”
Madonna's sold-out Celebration Tour was the most successful show including over 40 songs of her career, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her single, Holiday, which was played in venues including the US, Canada and Europe.
The singer suffered a health crisis last summer, after she was found unconscious in her apartment in New York last June, and was taken to the hospital where she received treatment for a serious bacterial infection.
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