Madonna’s management breaks silence on singer being SUED by fans for starting concerts hours late: ‘We intend to defend this case vigorously!’

Madonna’s management has responded to a lawsuit filed by two fans against the singer for starting her concerts in New York two hours late.

The pop icon, 65 — who last year was memorably three hours late for her December show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center — is accused of “false advertising” in the lawsuit filed by concertgoers Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden against her and concert promoter Live Nation.

The lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, focuses on all three nights Madonna showed up late to Barclays Center on December 13, 14 and 16 – with prosecutors claiming this shows scheduled to start at 8:30 PM ET didn’t start until 10:30 PM.

They claim the late start constitute a “deliberate exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive business practices.”

They also state that Madonna has a long history of not starting her concerts on time.

Now, her management and Live Nation have hit back at the lawsuit, tellingly TMZ: ‘Madonna has just completed and sold out her 2023 Celebration Tour in Europe – which received rave reviews.

“The shows began as planned in North America at Barclays in Brooklyn, with the exception of a technical issue during sound check on December 13. This caused a delay that was well documented in press reports at the time. We intend to vigorously defend this case.”

In their lawsuit, plaintiffs acknowledge that Madonna had health problems that caused the original concert dates to be postponed from July to December – but do not see that as an excuse for the evening delays. The star was struck by a life-threatening bacterial infection last year.

The fans say they were sent $155.90 and $292.50 for the tickets, respectively, and are suing for unspecified damages.

The star was criticized by fans last month during the first show of the US leg of her tour – when she turned up at 11pm – despite a start time of around 8.30pm.

Despite the delay, she put on a very raunchy show and wowed her fans as she performed her 45-song setlist, which highlighted her record-breaking 40-year career.

It was later explained that the delay was due to technical issues and had only been pushed back an hour when the opening act, DJ Honey Dijon, took the stage at 8:30 PM.

The Queen of Pop finally took the stage and started her show at 10:45 p.m

However, many fans of the music icon took to social media to complain about the wait for the Material Girl hitmaker to start her show.

The lawsuit obtained by TMZ focuses on all three nights when Madonna showed up late to Barclays Center on December 13, 14 and 16 – with plaintiffs stating that the shows scheduled to start at 8:30 PM ET were not until 10:30 PM Started: 30 P (pictured performance on December 14)

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‘The concert was supposed to start at 8:30 p.m. Madonna started at 11 p.m. The whole arena is singing bulls*** because of her late arrival. Great show but went way too late,” someone else wrote, adding that DJ Honey Dijon opened the show with “boring house music.”

‘2.30 late. I WANT A REFUND NOW,” another X user demanded.

“I love Madonna but it really sucks that she’s literally two hours late for her FIRST show in the US,” another tweeted.

A source said People That Madonna resolved “soundcheck issues that caused the schedule to be delayed by an hour” for her 14,000 fans and concertgoers.

Even though the doors still opened as scheduled at 7:30 PM so fans could enter the concert venue, the singer was still “soundchecking until they did to fix the issues.”

She then took the stage just an hour late, the insider points out.

In November 2019, a fan in Florida named Nate Hollander sued Madonna after the singer changed her set times for her December 17 performance in Miami Beach.

The star was criticized by fans last month during the first show of the US leg of her tour – when she turned up at 11pm – despite a start time of around 8.30pm (pictured with Julia Garner on December 14)

He explained in court documents that he had purchased three tickets for a December performance in August that was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m.

However, after she later changed her start times to 10:30 p.m., he claimed that this made the tickets much less valuable and he was denied a refund of the $1,024.95 he paid.

And in February 2020, the star was the subject of a class action lawsuit from Antonio Velotta and Andrew Panos, who claimed they waited hours after the advertised start time of her Madame X shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on September 21 and 1 October 2019. .