Madonna sued over late concert start time

Fed up Madonna fans, tired of waiting on her concerts to start, have sued the singer after her New York City shows last month began hours late. 

Madonna's Celebration tour concerts at Barclays Center were scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m., but the pop icon "did not take the stage until after 10:30 p.m. on all three nights," according to the suit filed Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court. Plaintiffs Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, who attended the Dec. 13 show, said they wouldn't have purchased tickets if they'd known the concert would start and end so late. 

They're also suing the Barclays Center and Live Nation for "wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices."

The suit notes Madonna's history of late concert starts. In 2012, a Madonna concert in Miami didn't start until around 11:30 p.m. The singer's Melbourne concert in 2016 started more than four hours late while her Brisbane show that same year was delayed by two hours.

Wednesday's lawsuit over Madonna's late start times also isn't the first of its kind. In 2019, a Florida fan sued over a delay, alleging the original 8:30 p.m. start time of a show at the Fillmore Miami Beach was changed to 10:30 p.m. 

"There's something that you all need to understand," Madonna said during a Las Vegas concert that year. "And that is, that a queen is never late."

The plaintiffs in the latest suit are expressing themselves about Madonna's timeliness. 

"By the time of the concerts' announcements, 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 suit alleges. 

The plaintiffs in Wednesday's suit allege that, unlike the 2019 Florida show, there was no advance notice of the late start, leaving concertgoers hung up waiting for the December show to start. Most attendees left after 1 a.m., the suit claims, which meant there were limited options for public transportation and ride-sharing. 

"In addition, many ticketholders who attended concerts on a weeknight had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day," the suit reads.

The plaintiffs are suing for unspecified damages.

Late start times didn't end in New York. Earlier this month, Madonna took the stage around 10:15 p.m. during a Boston Celebration tour performance, nearly two hours after the scheduled start. 

The tour itself also got a late start, although that was a result of Madonna being hospitalized for a bacterial infection. 

CBS News has reached out to Madonna, Barclays and Live Nation for comment. 

In:
• Madonna

Aliza Chasan

Aliza Chasan is a digital producer at 60 Minutes and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.

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