Madonna Under Fire For Singling Out Fan In Wheelchair For Not Standing During Her LA Show

Madonna recently shaded a fan for sitting while she performed during her Celebration Tour in Los Angeles on Thursday. The songstress questioned why the fan was sitting down, only to find out they were in a wheelchair and couldn't stand.

The incident seemingly angered fans on social media, who called her out for her reply upon noticing she had misjudged the concertgoer.

The "Material Girl" singer took to the stage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Thursday as part of her "Celebration Tour" when she seemingly misjudged the concertgoer for sitting.

A video making the rounds online showed her singling out the fan when she noticed they didn't join the cheering crowd before realizing they were seated in a wheelchair.

"What are you doing sitting down over there? What are you getting sitting down?" Madonna quizzed as she walked to the edge of the stage to hear the fan out.

She then realized the fan was in a wheelchair and couldn't stand, giving an apology by saying, "Oh, OK. Politically incorrect. Sorry about that. I'm glad you are here."

Although the legendary singer offered an apology to the concertgoer, many fans on social media weren't happy about the incident and called her out, saying she didn't apologize well.

"Maam, there are 100 reasons why someone might sit- and all of them are valid," one fan wrote, as another noted that Madonna "didn't apologize well enough."

"She was too quick to judge but too slow to say sorry? That apology ain't cutting it for me," a third fan noted, adding that the singer would "have to do better than that."

"That is a sad apology! What the heck? Refund them their ticket!!" one user demanded.

Netizens also said that fans should be able to sit at concerts if they want, regardless of whether they use a wheelchair.

"At her age, she should have known better than to do this," a person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Another dissatisfied fan commented, "So people can't sit when they choose to? Leave them alone! They paid to be there, not to be bossed about and babysat."

"Disability is not always evident. It shouldn't matter if they were in a wheelchair or not," one individual argued.

"That is exactly why performers shouldn't concern themselves with if someone is sitting or not," another echoed.

The 65-year-old singer is revealing more details about her hospitalization from a severe bacterial infection she suffered last year that sidelined her for months.

As she performed at the Kia Forum, Madonna showed her resilience during a reflective moment on stage as she shared the first words she uttered.

"This show every night is not really so hard on me physically. It's hard on me emotionally because I'm really telling you the story of my life. My heart is on my sleeve," she said, per People. "I've fallen off a lot of horses and broken a lot of bones ... but nothing can stop me."

Speaking about her health scare, the singer called it a "near-death experience" and revealed the "first word" she said was "No" when she woke up from an induced coma after four days.

"I'm pretty sure that was God saying to me, 'Do you want to come? Want to come up with me? No,'" she continued as the audience laughed.

She went on to praise one of her doctors who was present at the show, noting how instrumental he was in her recovery.

"I would call in every other day and ask [my doctor] why I didn't have any energy, when was my energy going to come back? When was I going to feel like myself again? When can I go on tour again?" she said. "All he would say is, 'Go outside in the sun'... It was so hard for me to walk from my house to the backyard and sit in the sun. I know that sounds insane, but it was difficult."

Madonna also recounted a conversation she had with her manager, Guy Oseary, while she was in the hospital.

"He said, 'Well, when do you think you want to go back on tour?' I took the oxygen out of my nose. I looked at him, and I said, 'In two f------ months!" the singer said. "I just said it. Sometimes you just have to say s--- [and] put it out in the universe. And it happens."

Madonna kicked off her performance on Monday in LA as part of a five-leg show in the 18,000-seat arena. Her tour has been running since October 2023 and concludes on April 26 in Mexico City.