On March 9, 2024, Queen of Pop Madonna performed at a concert at Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. However, she is now earning controversy online after a fan-captured video of her went viral. In the footage, Madonna was seen calling out a fan for sitting down during her performance, before discovering they were in a wheelchair.
“What are you doing sitting down over there? What are you doing sitting down?”
However, soon, she walked towards the edge of the stage and realized after a closer look that the fan was wheelchair-bound, and apologized for her earlier remark, saying it was “politically incorrect.”
Regardless, the pop icon is now receiving backlash online, with netizens pointing out her behavior as unprecedented. One X user @Glendaragnarson commented under @CollinRugg’s post, who shared the clip on his account, noting:
“Madonna is someone who completely ruined her own legacy. Pathetic.”
“There are plenty of reasons someone might have to sit down”: Madonna triggers criticisms in the wake of viral fan in a wheelchair clip
On Thursday night, Madonna performed at a concert in Los Angeles where she accidentally berated a person in the audience twice for “sitting down.” Within a few seconds, she moved to the edge of the stage to get a better visual and figured out that the concertgoer was in a wheelchair. The pop star quickly backtracked and apologized upon realizing her blunder.
“Oh, okay. Politically incorrect. Sorry about that. I’m glad you are here.”
However, the moment was captured from afar by a member of the audience and later uploaded to TikTok. The footage is now garnering enough traction online, with social media users calling it cringeworthy, embarrassing, and seemingly ableist.
Many even pointed out that the blunder should not have occurred in the first place, while others claimed that her apology was not heartfelt.
So far, the Queen of Pop has not responded to the mass online outrage. Meanwhile, many on the internet pointed out that the concert took place in Vancouver on February 21, as it wasn’t clear initially when and where the incident happened, as per Fox News.
According to Billboard, Madonna performed at Kia Forum five nights in a row from March 5 to March 9, as part of her ongoing 80-day The Celebration Tour, which aims to recognize her career milestones, personal struggles, impact on pop culture, and more.
On Thursday night, when the blunder reportedly happened, Madonna for the first time invited fellow pop artist Kylie Minogue to join her on stage, as per Sky News. Together they performed a powerful rendition of Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head and Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. It was a celebration of International Women’s Day, as later pointed out by both artists on their respective social media accounts.
On her opening night, the Like a Prayer songstress told the audience that at one point during her recent health challenges, she was unable to move around for several days, after she suffered a bacterial infection in June 2023 for which she was hospitalized. She even called it a “near-death experience.”
In February 2024, the Hung Up singer-songwriter made headlines after she awkwardly fell off her chair onstage, and was dragged across it by a backup dancer, before she returned and continued to perform, as reported by Fox News.