You’d think that after spending the bulk of her career breaking rules and stirring up controversy with her boundary-pushing work, such as her infamous coffee table book Sex, Madonna would know a thing or two about censorship.
But based on her reaction after one of her concerts was cut short, it seems like Madonna legitimately has no idea what it means or even the literal dictionary meaning of the word “censor.”
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So Madonna was performing at the London Palladium in the UK as part of her Madam X Tour and it was going swimmingly. That is until the clock hit 11pm, which is the venue’s curfew time, and the Palladium switched off all the lights and sound mid-concert.
Needless to say, Madonna wasn’t too pleased about getting cut-off mid-performance and took to Instagram to have an almighty whinge at the venue for apparently censoring her. Posting up an angry video of herselp chanting “motherf**king censorship,” the singer wrote in the caption:
“It was 5 minutes past our 11:00 curfew—-we had one more song to do and The Palladium decided to censor us by pulling.down the metal fire curtain that weighs 9 tons. Fortunately they stopped it half way and no one was hurt
“Many Thanks to the entire Audience who did not move and never left us.”
Look, I get that people hate getting cut off mid-way of doing something, especially a big concert, but this isn’t censorship, Madonna. This was just another case of you being late and not taking responsibility for it, which has been a recurring theme on this Madam X tour.
In case you need a refresher, Madonna, the definition of censorship is the suppression of banning of media and content that’s considered obscene, politically unacceptable or a security threat.
So when the Palladium pulled the power on you, Madonna, that wasn’t censorship in any way shape or form. That was them telling you that you’ve gone over your agreed-upon time slot so stop being goddamn late next time because people are trying to sleep and have work in the morning.
In response to Madonna’s Instagram post, the Palladium sighed wearily and issued out a statement denying that the fire curtain had been used, telling the BBC (via The Hollywood Reporter), “Contrary to a number of reports, at no point during last night’s performance did staff at The London Palladium pull down, or attempt to pull down, the Iron Fire Curtain.”
Here’s hoping Madonna will brush up on what “censorship” means and actually start her concerts on time going forward because this is just Causing A Commotion for the most ridiculous of reasons.
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