Lawsuit against Madonna over late concert start times dismissed

NME

The two Madonna fans who sued the singer over the delayed start time of her ‘Celebration Tour’ show in New York have voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit.

Plaintiffs Michael Fellows and Jason Alvarez gave notice of their dismissal with prejudice, which means that their claims cannot be tried again (via Rolling Stone).

• READ MORE: Madonna live in London: pop queen grapples with her legacy

In a letter filed yesterday (Wednesday June 19), Jeff Warshafsky – who was representing both Madonna and Live Nation in the case – said that the dismissal “was not the result of any settlement” between the parties.

He added that Madonna and the promoter “do not agree with plaintiffs’ position that each party should bear its own fees and costs” as the dismissal notice initially stated. He pointed toward their legal expenses, including “filing two motions to dismiss” and opposing the false settlement notice that the court recently spiked.

Warshafsky wrote: “Defendants believe that this action was a frivolous strike suit designed to force them to incur legal expenses.

“Plaintiffs have now abandoned this lawsuit when it became clear that this approach would not result in a settlement payment and that they would need to oppose defendants’ motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint.”

The plaintiffs first filed the suit against Madonna in January, after attending one of her shows at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn the previous month (December 13). The concert started at 10:30pm – two hours later than the advertised time of 8:30pm.

In the introduction of the lawsuit, it claimed 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”.

Extending the accusations to Madonna’s concerts at the same venue on December 14 and 16 – which allegedly also began “over two hours late” – the attorneys claimed that the concerts’ stipulated 8:30pm start time as represented on the tickets was “material to Plaintiffs’ agreement to purchase the tickets”.

It said Madonna’s failure to satisfy the expectations of this start time had caused legal damage to concertgoers who “had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day”.

In April, the Queen Of Pop’s lawyers asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit. They wrote in a filing: “Plaintiffs speculate that ticketholders who left the venue after 1am might have had trouble getting a ride home or might have needed to wake up early the next day for work. That is not a cognizable injury.”

Additionally, the motion claimed that one of the plaintiffs had “raved” about the show in a social media post, calling it “incredible as always”.

In response to the original suit, Madonna’s representatives and Live Nation issued a joint statement, expressing their intentions to “defend this case vigorously”. Per Billboard, the parties attributed the delay to a technical difficulty experienced during the soundcheck for the December 13 date.

The singer’s legal team later characterised the lawsuit as a “harassment campaign”, and asked a judge to strike out the settlement notice that had been filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer. The judge agreed to this request.

Another suit was filed in Washington D.C. in April, and saw three fans claim that Madonna broke the law by arriving on stage two hours late at a pair of gigs at the Capital One Arena in December 2023. Lawyers for the concertgoers wrote: “Forcing consumers to wait hours for her performance in a hot, uncomfortable arena is demonstrative of Madonna’s arrogant and total disrespect for her fans.”

The star and Live Nation’s lawyers argued that “no reasonable concertgoers – and certainly no Madonna fan – would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time”.

Madonna is also facing a lawsuit from a fan who has claimed that he and others were “forced” to watch sex acts while at her shows. The ‘Like A Prayer’ artist has not publicly commented on the filing.

In 2019, a fan in Florida claimed in a lawsuit that the singer’s lateness on her ‘Madame X’ tour constituted a breach of contract. A lawsuit was then filed by two concertgoers in 2020. Both lawsuits were later voluntarily dismissed, per The Guardian.

The ‘Celebration Tour’ concluded last month when Madonna played the biggest show of her career to 1.6million people at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It marked the largest-ever standalone concert for any artist.

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