Last night, Madonna, 57, performed her second stadium show in Brisbane after hundreds of peeved fans walked out of her first one when she was hours late.
She was reportedly two-and-a-half hours late, again, stumbled around on stage as if drunk, and most controversially, pulled down a fan’s top, exposing her breast.
“She’s the kind of girl that you just want to slap on the ass and pull…” she said pulling down the woman’s top.
“Oh shit. I didn’t, I didn’t. I’m sorry, sexual harassment,” she said, wrapping an arm around the woman. “You can do the same to me,” she added.
To be fair, it looked as though Madonna didn’t actually mean to pull down the woman’s top — and the woman herself didn’t look particularly concerned.
In fact, she told 3AW’s Peter Ford she was “thrilled and proud” about the whole thing.
Watch the incident here… post continues after video.
However, the critics have been damning; we are witnessing the end of Madonna, apparently.
Ever since Madonna’s first, incredibly late, wildly eccentric Tears of a Clown show in Melbourne, the headlines have been questioning whether she’s suffering some kind of breakdown.
Is she drinking? they speculate. She’s not coping with her son’s defection to live with his dad in London, they opine. She’s showing the strain from an exhausting eight-month world tour, they reckon.
Madonna’s behaviour has always been shocking, in a mainstream, commercialised way. There were the SEX book, the conical bras, the Britney and Christina pashes, the time she dropped the f-bomb 13 times in an interview with David Letterman, her banned Justify My Love video. Everything she’s done in Australia has been business as usual.
Despite this, fans are unhappy with the Madonna who is currently in Australia after a 23-year interval.
Brisbane fan Nick Sowden told the ABC that he waited for the Wednesday night show but ended up leaving before midnight.
“Most of the songs in that time were from the new album, which is pretty horrendous,” he said.
“As we were leaving, she mentioned something about her not being late but everyone being early. I thought that was a bit crude as people had paid good money to see her from jobs that they will need to be at this morning.
“She lip-synced a good amount of songs too. It wasn’t worth the wait.”
Watch Madonna clowning around before her Melbourne show… Post continues after video.
In anticipation of Madonna’s unexplained tardiness (she’s been hours late for every Australian show), her touring company Live Nation posted on Facebook before last night’s show.
“Madonna’s Rebel Heart performance will proceed this evening in Brisbane. Following a late start last night, fans should note, the timing for tonight’s performance may also be delayed,” the statement read.
“We encourage concert goers to keep this in consideration when making arrangements to get home safely.”
The last train from the stadium leaves just after midnight, leaving concert-goers without a means of public transport to get home.
Many fans, with the advanced warning, sought refunds on their tickets instead.
“It’s you people that get here early that’s the problem,” she told fans once she finally appeared on Wednesday night.
“Stay home, do your hair and makeup, have a tequila. Roll yourself a fat one … no, I don’t believe in that shit. Just come late and I won’t have to come early. We’ve got three more shows and we want to fix the problem.”
Whatever the problem is, it’s been plaguing Madonna’s whole tour. According to Fox News, she was two to three hours late for her shows in Atlanta, Nashville, and Louisville.
She’s vehemently denied being drunk on stage or using drugs.
Madonna winds up her epic tour in Sydney on Sunday.
Top Comments
Surely if a concert says it starts at a particular time it should start at that time, or very close to that, I don't think people mind waiting half an hour or even an hour if there is a supporting act first, because also a lot of concert goers do turn up late because they assume that the star will be late, but I think hours late is ridiculous.
Also the girl involved seemed to right the boob flashing off as a mistake by madonna, but it looked deliberate to me, particularly if accompanied with those words. Maybe it was all a set up for publicity with the girl in question as part of the act? But if the girl in question didn't know that was going to happen then that's completely wrong, whether or not she was ok with it after the fact. The problem is if she thinks it's no big deal it gives legitimacy to anyone else to do this, eg someone else gets this done to them and when they get upset the offender says, what's your problem you should be like that girl at the madonna concert she wasn't a whinger like you.
Though in some ways, despite all this, I do feel a little sorry for Madonna, as it seems that she may be falling apart at the seams a bit, maybe she should have a break to get her act together, then again none of that excuses her behaviour, and on the other hand maybe it's just sheer arrogance?
Holy shit - charge her! I don't know what with (assault, maybe?), but for the love of God what she did was illegal!