Madonna sued by fans after New York show started “over two hours late”

Madonna is facing a class action lawsuit which was filed by two fans after her concerts at New York City’s Barclays Center last year began “over two hours” later than scheduled.

Ticket buyers and presumed former fans Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden filed a complaint on Wednesday (January 17), which alleges that Madonna breached her contract with attending fans and also violated New York state laws by beginning her concert on December 13 at 10:30PM rather than the anticipated 8:30PM start.

As Billboard reports, attorneys for Fellows and Hadden say that the “defendants’ actions constitute not just a breach of their contracts with Plaintiffs and Class Members, but also a wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent representation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.”

The lawsuit goes on to level the same claims at Madonna’s shows in New York on December 14 and 16 – which are alleged to have started “over two hours late” as well. This, they say, was a breach of the agreement with ticket-holders and caused issues for concertgoers who “had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day”.

They also point out that the show’s eventual end at 1AM resulted in a situation where concert goers were faced with “limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs”, while some were even left “stranded in the middle of the night”.

Specifically, it says that Madonna has violated New York state’s General Business Law 149, which says that “Deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any business, trade or commerce or in the furnishing of any service in this state are hereby declared unlawful”.

The document goes on to explain that a failure to “provide notice to Plaintiffs and all Class Members that the concert would not start at 8:30PM” or provide fans with “the option of receiving a refund” constituted the violation of the law.

Madonna is named as a defendant in the case alongside Live Nation, MTours and the Barclays Center, but all parties are yet to respond.

The singer’s Celebration Tour kicked off in London last October, with Rolling Stone UK hailing it as “a crowd-pleasing spectacle to 20,000 fervent fans”.

More recently, she was also forced to apologise to fans during the Toronto date of her current tour, after she mistakenly welcomed the crowd with the greeting: “Are you ready, Boston?”