Madonna made a faux pas at a recent Celebration Tour stop near L.A.
During her show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Thursday (March 9), the Queen of Pop accidentally called out a fan in a wheelchair for sitting during her performance.
“What are you doing sitting down over there? What are you getting sitting down?” Madonna asked the concert-goer, before walking to the edge of the stage to get a closer look.
The pop icon then quickly apologized after realizing her embarrassing mistake. “Oh, okay. Politically incorrect. Sorry about that,” she said after seeing that the person was in a wheelchair. “I’m glad you are here.”
Fan-captured footage of the cringeworthy moment quickly circulated online, causing backlash from many social media onlookers.
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“Does it matter if they’re sitting or standing? they paid for the ticket and took the time to be there? Isn’t that enough???” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), adding a shrugging emoji.
“Lots of people need to sit down who don’t use wheelchairs, too. This is honestly just gross, ableist behavior,” another X user wrote. “Appreciate that the person purchased a ticket and came to see you!”
Madonna launched a five-night stand at the Kia Forum on Monday (March 4). The singer’s Celebration Tour is a career-spanning look back on her hits, personal struggles, pop culture impact and enduring influence.
During the opening night of her L.A. stretch, the 65-year-old superstar revealed that the severe bacterial infection she suffered in June 2023 –which led to her hospitalization and the postponement of her current trek — at one point made it nearly impossible for her to move around.
“This summer I had a surprise,” she told the crowd, holding a cowboy hat in one hand and gripping a guitar in the other. “It’s called a near-death experience.”
