Madonna Hit With ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuit for Starting Concerts Late
The class-action lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for the singer’s alleged breach of contract with ticket holders.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation
Two Madonna concertgoers are suing the “Queen of Pop” for her “unfair” tardiness at a December concert in New York, a class-action federal lawsuit filed Thursday states.
The Brooklyn federal lawsuit filed by concertgoers Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden alleges that Madonna was over two hours late for her Dec. 13 Celebration Tour concert at the Barclays Center. The delayed concert, which was set to begin at 8:30 p.m., meant that ticket holders left the venue after 1:00 a.m. “with limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs at that late hour.”
Madonna was also tardy to her two subsequent concerts at the same venue and patrons were not provided any notice of the delay, despite their expensive tickets noting an 8:30 p.m. start time, the lawsuit states. Additionally, the suit notes that attendees of the weeknight show “had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day.”
The lawsuit, which is demanding a jury trial and unspecified damages for the breach of contract, also names Live Nation and Barclays Center. Reps for Madonna, Live Nation, and Barclays did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Madonna had demonstrated flippant difficulty in ensuring a timely or complete performance, and Defendants were aware that any statement as to a start time for a show constituted, at best, optimistic speculation,” the lawsuit states. “In addition, Madonna was also several hours late starting her Celebration Tour concerts in other cities subsequent to the Barclays Center concerts in December 2023, including her later concerts in Boston and Washington, D.C.”
Los Angeles entertainment attorney Tre Lovell, however, believes the lawsuit against the pop icon is “frivolous.”
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“If we are living in a material world, we are also living in a world of terms and conditions,” Lovell said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Every time a customer buys concert tickets, they are required to acknowledge they read the terms and conditions for the purchase. These terms often address when refunds are allowed and they have disclaimers, limitations of liability and releases to cover instances like what occurred with Madonna.”
He added that the concertgoers who filed the lawsuit against Madonna are now facing an uphill battle on a difficult case because of the terms they agreed to when they bought the ticket.
Camron Dowlatshahi, another L.A. entertainment lawyer, agreed that this case will be difficult because it will be hard to quantify the damages against Fellows and Hadden.
“What are the damages for someone having to wake up with less sleep, which is what the plaintiffs in this lawsuit against Madonna are claiming?” Dowlatshahi asked. “The cost of filing a lawsuit compared to the very minimal damages the plaintiffs are saying they suffered doesn’t make sense.”
While it is not uncommon for pop stars to start their acts late, the lawsuit also notes that “Madonna has a long history of arriving and starting her concerts late, sometimes several hours late.” It alleges that the “Material Girl” star was late throughout her 2016 Rebel Heart Tour and her Madame X Tour three years later.
In 2019, a Florida fan filed a lawsuit against Madonna and Live Nation over her delayed start on the Madame X show at the Fillmore Miami Beach, arguing that the tardiness was a breach of contract. (The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed a month later.) A similar lawsuit was also filed in 2020 by two New York Madonna concert attendees, but it was voluntarily dismissed a few months later after reaching an unspecified settlement.
Madonna seemed to address the claims of her tardiness at a 2019 Las Vegas show, telling the crowd, “There’s something that you all need to understand. And that is, that a queen is never late.”
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