Madonna is reportedly facing a £300,000 (about R6.8 million) fine after she breached an ultra-strict show curfew on the second night of her world tour. The Queen of Pop, 65, was forced to cut her set short on Sunday night after technical issues hit her concert at London’s O2 Arena.
But The Sun has reported she still overran the 10.30 pm curfew by 30 minutes, which could land her with a £300,000 penalty. It said she didn’t make it on stage until 9 pm on Sunday after she performed a 140-minute set on Saturday night as she launched her much-anticipated ‘Celebration’ world tour, which was delayed after the singer was hit by a “serious bacterial infection” in the summer.
But on Sunday she didn’t make it on stage until 9 pm, with the concert ending at 11 pm amid warnings fans may miss the last Tube trains home.
Hits including ‘Like a Virgin’ and ‘Celebration’ were axed as a result, leaving concertgoers livid.
One of a flood of enraged ticket holders raged on social media: “How dare the b******s at the O2 cut Madonna short.” Curfew rules from the O2’s operators AEG and Transport for London include fines of £10,000 a minute for shows that overrun.
The Sun reported Greenwich Council said its midnight curfew was not broken, with a spokesperson telling the newspaper: “We do not intend to investigate.”
Madonna told fans on the first night of her tour she feared she “wouldn’t make it” after the hospitalization that sparked the shows being postponed.
The mom-of-six said at the sold-out concert while holding her guitar: “I didn’t think I would make it, and neither did my doctors.
“That’s why I woke up with all my children sitting around me.”
Rubbing her head as she recalled her health scare, she added: “I forgot five days of my life or my death, I don’t know where I was.
“But the angels were protecting me. And my children were there. And my children always save me, every time.
“If you want to know how I pulled through and survived, I thought, I have got to be there for my children. I have to survive for them.”
Madonna then played an acoustic version of the Gloria Gaynor track ‘I Will Survive’.
After recovering from her illness at home in New York, Madonna told fans she was rescheduling her world tour in October.
There had been reports that the singer had been exhausting herself in rehearsals for the shows, but before they were relaunched, she was reportedly in top health.
In other news – Liam Payne was banned from driving in the U.K. for six months
Liam Payne has been temporarily prohibited from driving following a speeding conviction handed down by U.K. courts, according to multiple reports.
The former One Direction star is banned from getting behind the wheel for six months by Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court in London as a result of a speeding incident that occurred in February, the BBC reported. Read More
