fans sue Madonna

Photo Credit: Chris Weger / CC by 2.0

Two concertgoers sue Madonna and Live Nation over starting her show two hours late, alleging breach of contract.

Madonna always said to express yourself — now two New York City concertgoers are expressing themselves by suing the superstar for starting her show two hours late.

Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden bought tickets for Madonna’s 8:30 PM show on December 13 for her Celebration Tour concert at the Barclays Center. Unfortunately, Madonna didn’t hit the stage until after 10:45 PM, according to the lawsuit.

“Confronted with limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs” when the show let out at 1 AM, Fellows and Hadden “had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day.”

The two men are suing Madonna, Live Nation, and the Barclays Center for “unconscionable, unfair, and/or deceptive trade practices,” in promising the public that the concert would begin at 8:30 PM while knowing the performance would not begin at the scheduled time, arguing breach of contract.

“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,” write attorneys for Fellows and Hadden, noting that Madonna’s concerts on December 14 and 16 (which the men did not attend) at the same venue also reportedly began two hours late.

“Based on the years-long history of Madonna arriving several hours late to prior concerts (and which conduct continued at concerts in other cities after the concerts at the Barclays Center, including concerts in Washington, DC, and Boston), Plaintiffs knew or should have known that the concerts would not start at 8:30 PM, and that Madonna would not take the stage until several hours after the start time, causing Plaintiffs and all Class Members to have to wait several hours,” the lawsuit continues.

The nature of the lawsuit might sound unusual, but this isn’t the first of its kind, even for Madonna. In 2019, during her Madame X tour, she was sued multiple times for starting concerts late.

Nate Hollander, a Florida man, sued Madonna and Live Nation in November that year, alleging they had moved a concert two hours later than it was originally scheduled, making it too late for him to attend. Just a month later, Hollander voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit.

During the same tour, two concertgoers in New York — Andrew Panos and Antonio Velotta — filed a similar suit to the one filed this week by Fellows and Hadden. The pair sued Madonna, Live Nation, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February 2020, alleging that the show started over two hours late. They reached an unspecified settlement in July 2020, with the lawsuit voluntarily dismissed.

The lawsuit filed this week seeks unspecified damages.