ABOVE: Madonna’s Madame X tour. Photo via Madonna’s Facebook page.
Madonna’s reputation for showing up starting her concerts late may finally be catching up with her.
The pop music icon is being sued by a fan who claims that tickets he purchased for an upcoming Miami concert are now worth significantly less than the $1,024.95 he paid for them.
The suit was filed on November 4 by Neal Hollander of Florida, who says he bought the tickets for the December 17 show when they went on sale in August. At the time of the sale, the concert’s starting time was listed as 8:30, but in October, the start time was pushed back to 10:30. Hollander asserts that the change in times is a breach of contract, and that the tickets have now “suffered an extreme loss of value” that makes reselling them “impossible.”
In the suit, he claims that he and other ticket holders who no longer want to attend because of the later start time have “suffered actual and consequential damages, including, but not limited to, loss of consideration paid and the devaluation of the ticket.”
News of the lawsuit comes in the midst of renewed fan backlash over the singer’s habitual tardiness. Last week, at the first Las Vegas show of her current “Madame X” tour, she was reportedly met with boos when she took the Caesar’s Palace stage at 12:30am — two hours after the already-late scheduled curtain time of 10:30pm.
Among other media outlets, TMZ reported that Madonna addressed the disgruntled concert audience by saying, “Here’s something you all need to understand … and that is, that the queen is never late.”
Madonna has a well-known tendency for starting shows late that dates back across her entire 40-year career – indeed, the singer’s representatives are using that history to answer complaints from angry concert-goers, reasoning that since she is known for being late, they should have expected it.
Nevertheless, multiple fans at last week’s delayed Caesar’s Palace show were not shy about expressing their anger, both from the audience and on social media. When Madonna posted a video on Twitter with the note saying, “Bringing the [fire emoji] to Vegas,” she was met with stern response from commenters, including one poster who said, “1.5 hours late. Indifferent-to-hostile audience. Juvenile attempts at humor met with audience silence. I’ve never seen anyone less in control of a room. Truly amateurish.”
The website Wonderwall reported that 500 refunds were issued before and during that Las Vegas show.
