Holy shit. Someone just got fired.
While performing before a live audience at the Brit Awards in London this evening, Madonna was violently yanked down a flight of stairs by one of her backup dancers. She crashed to the ground several feet below and struggled to regain her composure.
The “Living for Love” hit maker was wearing a black Armani cape. The plan was for the backup dancer to pull the cape off to reveal a sparkly red getup underneath. But before doing so, Madonna was supposed to untie the strap around her neck.
Evidently the strap was too tight because when the backup grabbed the cape, he accidentally pulled Madonna down with it.
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But, just like the lyrics in her song, the Queen “carried on.” Ever the pro, she got up off the ground, took a deep breath, and kept on singing. (Though she was likely dying of embarrassment inside.)
Shortly afterward, she posted the following message to her Instagram page:
Long live the Queen!
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Madonna Couldn’t Care Less About You Ageist Haters
Madonna Steals The Grammys With Rousing Performance Of “Living For Love”
Giancarlo85
That’s happened to many musicians before. Juan Gabriel (Mexican performer who by the way is widely said to be gay, but that’s not confirmed or denied) had quite a accident where he fell of the stage while dancing. Glad to see Madonna is fine and didn’t sustain any injury.
Desert Boy
Madonna is 56 years old. No amount of Pilates, weight lifting, dieting and plastic surgery can change this fact.
That fall was easily 5 feet down. She’s very lucky she didn’t break an arm, or a leg or a hip.
Someone needs to tell her there’s nothing wrong with performing on a flat stage. Cher, Stevie Nicks, J-Lo, Diana Ross, Sade, Chrissie Hynde, and Annie Lennox, all stay on a flat stage when they perform live.
Madonna is too old to be teetering 5 feet above the main stage and have a cape yanked off her by a background dancer.
Giancarlo85
Here was the accident of the video I said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPXWpsuSI6k
Juan Gabriel was 55 years old in this video (now he’s 65). He did fracture his wrist I believe. Accidents can happen anywhere even on a flat stage.
I wonder if Mick Jagger ever had a stage accident… he’s done more concerts than any of them. He’s still running around from what I last saw in 2014… running all over the stage. But that guy is a freak of nature lol.
Uppity
@Desert Boy: Her diehard fans will vehemently disagree with you, but you are correct. There comes a time when you have to start minimising risk, and fans really aren’t going to notice the difference. She is not 26 anymore. I had that same feeling when, after she’d been twirled aloft by her dancers at the Grammys, they set her back down on her feet and she had that look of a middle-aged person after they’ve been on a trampoline; slightly not with it. There’s no shame in minimising risk.
cflekken
@Desert Boy: Ageism at its best. Madonna is in better shape than 99% of the women younger than her. Seriously, I can’t get over how ridiculously ignorant your statement is.
MarionPaige
more than falling, it seems more embarrassing if she was still “singing” while falling (meaning that she wasn’t really singing but lipsynching).
Desert Boy
@Uppity: I wasn’t dissing her. I think her silly stage antics will lead to a serious injury that could end her career permanently.
ScottOnEarth
@Desert Boy: Madonna isn’t too old for anything. You may have noticed that she never played by tired societal rules. My guess is she’s not about to start doing so now. The cape thing could have happened to anyone but few performers could have regained their composure as swiftly as Madonna.
MarionPaige
the upshot? If the FBI tags the dancer(s) who yanked that cape, we might finally find out where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.
dhmonarch89
dies on stage…hardly, although at a certain age, breaking a hip is possible.
odowd4sure
One word: Velcro, two words: life alert “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
TrueWords
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R2aW03pwL0
jar
This is the punchline of the story: Ever the pro, she got up off the ground, took a deep breath, and kept on singing. Yes, the tracks keep running- as Milli Vanilli, Freedom Williams, Ashley Simpson and countless others have learned. Welcome to the club, Madge.
Arcamenel
Satan was working through that back-up dancer.
Stache99
@odowd4sure: Comedy fail.
wade.l
Glad Madge is ok. I think perhaps it’s time she she got a bit of class. Maybe Madge could do a remake of that Cher Video “If I Could Turn Back Time”. But then again I doubt that they could find a cannon big enough to fit between those legs.
Tracy Pope
@MarionPaige: She wasn’t lip-syncing. She was singing. The video is available on other sites.
The “almost dies” part of this article headline is, at best, a bit of a stretch.
Her remarks in Rolling Stone about ageism is certainly proving true in this comment thread.
stanhope
@Giancarlo85: and you might add….big balls!
Tobi
Madge’s latest “look”, Patsy from AbFab.
demented
@ScottOnEarth: She is. Society is one thing, but her body is due to have osteoporosis any day now, which women are more likely to get if they spend many years with too low body fat and restricted diets. Her body don’t care about her defiance of society, it’s aging.
Bob LaBlah
The sad thing about high achievers is they don’t seem to understand “it’s time to slow down a bit”. Every now and then I get the notion that “I am going to look like I did when I was twenty” and go to the gym and work out accordingly. When I can’t get out of bed in about two or three days it is then I realize that I am closer to sixty than thirty.
Having a cape pulled off of her was not threatening. It was the preparations that went wrong. As for the five foot high stage, I think she needs to rethink that AND just how physical her act actually is. Ok, we know you are the Queen and Gaga was a Princess (and again, I saw WAS because she seems washed up now) but honey don’t break your neck over it. Your going to have grandkids soon so try to be around when they arrive.
Realitycheck
@demented:
Actually we are all different, and having the financial resources
Madge has access to the latest anti aging treatments.
More importantly nobody says anything about 68 years old Cher, so why is
Madonna getting all the poison?
Realitycheck
@Bob LaBlah:
Sales are the driving force, so why should Madonna stop when her last tour
made $305 millions? You don’t see Warren Buffet staying home because he
is old, we all want to work and make money for as long as we can, and
Madonna is nowhere as old as many other industry giants, for example how old
is Paul McCarty? Or Tony Bennet?
As far as working out, it takes a lots of dedications, and diet, and you can
have the body of a super hot man of your age and that is more then most
young guys have, it is all about discipline.
Giancarlo85
@stanhope: Jagger blows the ageism arguments out of the water. When I saw him last he was running so much and jumping around… Even the spotlight had trouble staying on him.
People are going to get on Madonnas case like they have done with the Stones, etc. But Madonna and the Rolling Stones sell all their tickets in packed shows every single time. Last I checked younger artists were cancelling concerts, like Rihanna for example.
By the way, Jagger is 72. Lets get real. I only hope I am in his shape when I am that age.
lykeitiz
How many of you b*tches could get back up after falling down 4 or 5 stairs…..backwards?? She actually completed her performance. The 20-something Gaga broke a hip on her last tour!
You don’t have to like Madonna, but if you don’t respect her determination, then you are exactly where you belong…..sitting down typing on a keyboard.
Giancarlo85
@Bob LaBlah: Not everyone is you. Jagger, Madonna, Cher… they all have the right to do what they want. If they want to keep it up, they’ll keep going. People have been telling the artists to quit for years. Not everyone sits on their pasty butt and gets fat and lazy. Mick gets up at like 7AM to do several hours of workout.
Or tell it to these guys:
http://mpora.com/articles/age-is-just-a-number#dQdaIjKeU6viOT6J.97
80 year old who scaled Everest, a 70 year old British surfer, a 60 year old snowboarder, a 60 year old skateboarder… I could go on. Over here in California, there is a guy who is 95 and still surfs.
The most you’re scaling is probably your couch for that big mac.
MarionPaige
what are the odds that Madonna would disclose an injury, if in fact she was injured? And, even without a technical fracture, it can still be very painful for a very long time to fall the way Madonna did.
Realitycheck
Just saw it and it was a smaller fall then I thought, she did seem a bit stiff for a while but like a Pro she went on and she received a huge ovation at the end of her performance……..
See for yourself.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn07uTphHx4&w=560&h=315%5D
Uppity
Madonna said herself she wasn’t hurt by the fall. So it wasn’t that heroic to get up and carry on. After all, what else was she going to do? Any tearful 12 year old in their school play gets up and keeps singing after falling over. Thousands of workers around the world fall over every day and get up and keep working for another nine hours, and some of them ARE actually hurt. They can’t afford not to carry on, and when they get home that night there’s no high-priced physical therapist on hand to massage their derriere. Put it in perspective, people.
MarionPaige
I just hope she didn’t lose the baby
yayjulian
@jar: the back track kept playing but she was live
yayjulian
I’m not a diehard madge fan but… She can do whatever she wants. Ageism be damned. She has enough money to buy new body parts if necessary to keep the show going. Also for all the naysayers, she had a back track but she was live.
o.codone
Apparently the Vatican is stepping up it’s efforts to snuff this old clown. Bravo ! I’ll have to drop another $20 in the collection basket next week. Can we finally get this done fellas?