Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | January 19, 2024
On Wednesday, December 13, Madonna took her Celebration Tour to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The concert was marketed as starting at 8:30 pm. Unfortunately for fans, Madge didn’t take the stage until 10:30 pm. And, yeah, that sucks. Nobody wants to stand around and wait that long. That said, it’s not unexpected. Rock stars aren’t known for their punctuality, it takes a while to get thousands of audience members into their seats, and venues like giving concertgoers extra time to buy merch and drinks. Money, baybay!
But for two Madonna fans, the late start time wasn’t just annoying; it was downright negligent. On Wednesday, concertgoers Michael Fellows and Jonathan Haddon filed a lawsuit against the Queen of Pop, Live Nation, and Barclays Center. The plaintiffs say that Madonna’s tardiness is a “wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.”
In the suit, Michael and Jonathan claim that, by the time the concert let out after 1:00 am, they were “confronted with limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs.” Not to mention the fact that it was a school night: the pair “had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day.”
Even though Michael and Jonathan weren’t at the December 14 and 16 concerts at Barclays Center, they cite the similarly delayed start times. The suit also makes note of Madge’s “long history of arriving and starting her concerts late” (remember that time she cried “Censorship!” when the London Palladium cut her sound and lights after their curfew?). It goes on to allege that Madonna’s actions “constitute not just a breach of their contracts, but also a wanton exercise in false advertising” and “negligent misrepresentation.”
This isn’t even the first time 65-year-old Madonna has been sued for her delayed concerts. In November 2019, a Miami fan filed a class action suit against her for starting her Madame X show two hours behind schedule. That same month, Madonna informed another crowd that, actually, “a queen is never late”:
F. A.C.T.S. 👑 ……………….. #madamextheatre #thecolosseum pic.twitter.com/QBV99f1Y3I
— Madonna (@Madonna) November 9, 2019
My advice to Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden? Don’t even think about going to see Lauryn Hill.
