Anyone who’s seen Madonna live in concert before will be aware she’s often been known to treat her stage times as a suggestion, rather than a promise.
This has certainly been the case on her ongoing Celebration Tour, where some dates have seen the Queen of Pop taking to the stage as late as two hours after her billed start time.
It’s now been reported that two Madonna fans are now taking action against the singer after attending her show at New York City’s Barclay Center last month.
Although the concert was advertised to begin at 8.30pm, it didn’t actually kick off until 10.45pm, meaning the two fans in question didn’t leave the venue until around 1am on a weeknight.
Because of this, they said in legal papers filed on Wednesday that they were “left stranded in the middle of the night” and had to grapple with “limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs.”
“In addition, many ticket holders who attended concerts on a weeknight had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit (via NBC News).
The two added that they “suffered actual harm” because of Madonna’s tardiness, including “annoyance, harassment, time, frustration and anger”.
Madonna, Live Nation and the Barclays Center venue are all named in the lawsuit, and are accused of “wanton [...] false advertising” due to Madonna being so much later than her advertised start time.
HuffPost UK has contacted Madonna’s representatives for comment.
According to The Guardian, Madonna previously faced two separate lawsuits of a similar nature due to the lateness on her Madame X tour, which began in 2019 and continued into 2020, though these were both later “voluntarily dismissed”.