Thursday night in Paris, Madonna performed an intimate show for 2,700 of her biggest fans and left the stage after only 45 minutes.
The tickets, which ranged in price from 80 to 280 euros, were offered to members of her fan club and sold out in five minutes. After Madonna’s short set, the audience reportedly booed, threw bottles at the stage and chanted “Refund!” and “Slut!” Remember, these are members of her fan club! Here is some footage of the aftermath.
Madonna isn’t the first artist to draw the ire of the audience. Here are some notable stage walk-offs from the past few years.
In January of 2005, Ashlee Simpson performed her song “La La” during the halftime show at the Orange Bowl. This was just over two months after Simpson was famously caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live. Simpson did not lip-synch at the Orange Bowl, but maybe she should have. The 72,000 football fans acknowledged her performance with an overwhelming chorus of boos.
Kings of Leon cancelled the remainder of its 2011 summer tour after an onstage meltdown by lead singer Caleb Followill. While some have said that alcohol was behind the incident, the band claims exhaustion, heat and vocal problems were at fault. In the video below, Followill’s band members give a genuine apology to the Dallas fans in the aftermath of the incident.
In 1995, American indie rock band Pavement was on the Lollapalooza mainstage alongside acts like Sonic Youth, Hole and Cypress Hill. Everything was going hunky-dory until their show in West Virginia, when an overheated crowd started pelting the band with mud and rocks. Pavement toughed it out for a few minutes before mooning the audience and walking off the stage. The band takes credit for doing in the festival, though it continued for two more years before initially folding. The incident is documented in their 2002 film, Slow Century.
In a completely predictable incident, MySpace celebrity and supposed recording artist Tila Tequila was pelted with debris and human waste while performing at the 2010 Gathering of the Juggalos. The Insane Clown Posse event is not known for its sophisticated audience, and Tequila sustained numerous cuts and bruises. She stayed onstage behind a wall of security until a firecracker forced them to remove her. Yikes.
In 2007, Nickelback was chased from the stage in Portugal after a booing crowd began throwing rocks at the Canadian band. Lead singer Chad Kroeger stopped the show two songs into the set and asked the crowd if they were Nickelback fans, as though they had shown up to the wrong concert. After then being hit in the head with an object, Kroeger simply said, “See ya,” and led the band off the stage.
While performing at the 2008 V Festival in Toronto, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was allegedly assaulted by a spectator who managed to make it to the stage. The man reportedly pushed the completely unprepared Gallagher to the ground before being pulled away by security. While Oasis has been known to cut shows short, they returned to the stage a few minutes later and played another half dozen songs.
Related:
Radiohead to Madonna: A recent history of stage collapses
Your favourite misheard lyrics from Madonna, Elton John and more
Madonna to Blake Shelton: Image makeovers in pop music
posted by
Dave Shumka
on Jul 27, 2012