Madonna Sued for Starting Concert 2 Hours Late

Madonna is being sued by two fans who say she and the event organizers lied about the start time of her New York City concert. The plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, have filed a lawsuit accusing the "Vogue" singer and Live Nation, as well as Barclays Center, of engaging in "unconscionable, unfair and/or deceptive trade practices."  

Fellows and Hadden, who attended a show during Madonna's Brooklyn leg of her Celebration Tour on Dec. 13, said that they were disappointed when the performance, which described the start time as 8:30 p.m., actually didn't see the singer take the stage until "between 10:45 p.m. and 11:00 p.m." 

They say the shows at Barclays Center on Dec. 14 and Dec. 16 started more than two hours late, and they were not informed beforehand of the concert tour's delayed start. 

As a result of the alleged two-hour delay, according to court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight, the two men, both New York residents, argue that the concert did not end until after 1 a.m., leading them to encounter issues with l"imited public transportation, limited ride-sharing," and/or increased costs for both public and private transportation.

Fellows and Henderson also claimed that since the concert occurred on a weeknight, they were required to get up early to take care of their work and family responsibilities the next day on fewer hours of sleep as a result of the alleged delay in the concert. 

The two fans contended that the singer has a "long history of arriving and starting her concerts late, sometimes several hours late" across a number of her previous tours. They said this problem was apparent on both the 2016 Rebel Heart Tour and the 2019-2020 Madame X Tour.

Madonna's alleged tardiness, the pair claimed, constitutes "false advertising" and "negligent misrepresentation." In their lawsuit, they are seeking "damages, statutory damages, treble damages, exemplary damages, costs and attorneys' fees," including a trial by jury. 

The lawsuit comes only months after Madonna announced that the Celebration Tour would return to the road in October after being postponed following her summer hospitalization. After kicking off three sold-out shows at the O2 in London, the Celebration Tour moved to North America with the Dec. 13 show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which is the show attended by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.