Pop icon Madonna’s latest response to a legal dispute was as bold and unapologetic as her decades-long career.
The music legend found herself in the center of a lawsuit, not because of copyright infringement or trademark disputes, but for keeping her fans waiting at a concert in December 2023.
Madonna’s attorneys said the plaintiffs’ complaints of having to “get up early to go to work” in the morning after the concert do not make up a legal “injury.” The singer's legal team also asked the federal judge to dismiss the class action lawsuit submitted by the disgruntled fans.
Disgruntled fans filed a lawsuit after they were made to wait a couple of hours for Madonna to show up on stage
Image credits: Madonna
Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, who attended the Hung Up singer’s concert in December, had filed the class-action lawsuit after they said they were made to wait a couple of hours to finally see Madonna show up on stage.
The enraged fans said the shows were falsely advertised, as the time mentioned on their tickets was 8:30 p.m. However, the hitmaker only showed up on stage at around 10:30 p.m.
Madonna appearing on stage fashionably late was a “wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices,” Michael and Jonathan said in the lawsuit.
The pop legend's attorneys said having to "get up early to go to work" the next day cannot be grounds for suing
The two concertgoers argued in their lawsuit that the fans were left with “limited public transportation, limited ridesharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs” because the show only concluded at 1 a.m., leaving some people “stranded in the middle of the night.”
“Defendants failed to provide any notice to the ticketholders that the concerts would start much later than the start time printed on the ticket and as advertise[d],” added the concertgoers.
In their petition for the dismissal of the lawsuit, Madonna's defense team argued against the validity of the complaint and said fans got their money’s worth from the concert.
“Nowhere did Defendants advertise that Madonna would take the stage at 8.30 p.m., and no reasonable concertgoers — and certainly no Madonna fan — would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time,” stated Madonna’s attorneys.
Fans paid for a Madonna show and got the Madonna show they wanted, the hitmaker's attorneys argued
Image credits: Madonna
“Rather, a reasonable concertgoer would understand that the venue’s doors will open at or before the ticketed time, one or more opening acts may perform while attendees arrive and make their way to their seats and before the headline act takes the stage, and the headline act will take the stage later in the evening,” they added.
If you came for a Madonna show, you got a Madonna show, the main argument made by the artist’s legal team states.
The lawsuit does not allege “Madonna’s performance was subpar, that her performance was worth less than what they paid, or that they left the concert before watching her entire performance,” her attorneys said.
