Madonna suggests she’s late to her concerts because she’s praying.
In a rare interview with the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, Madonna opened up about the challenges of maintaining her spiritual life amid the demands of touring and performing.
“By continuing to have a spiritual practice, a spiritual life. By continuing to study, like, [it] always pulls you back to center,” she said at the 29-minute mark in the video linked above.
When Shetty asked whether she was able to keep that up during a tour or while working on an album, Madonna replied, “Absolutely,” without hesitation before explaining that her commitment to prayer and spirituality often created friction behind the scenes.
“I drove everyone crazy,” she explained. “My manager was like, 'Why can't we have shows on this night?' or 'Why are you late?' Because I'm praying ... [I] pray before every show, but people who are focused on making money are definitely not focused on spiritual life. You have to have your feet in both worlds, and I sit.”
She also addressed the frequent criticism she receives for being late.
“I get a lot of shit for being late,” the Queen of Pop said. “Honestly, it's really hard to balance being a parent, having work, having a spiritual life. You're constantly juggling. There’s not a lot of time to rest. And if people don’t recognize that, then they’re just going to look at you in a very 1%, like, superficial way and go, ‘You’re late.' It’s like, ‘But you don’t understand what I was doing before I became late.'”
Last January, two fans filed a class action lawsuit against Madonna and Live Nation after two New York City fans claimed they were harmed when her Celebration Tour concerts in Brooklyn started over two hours late in 2023.
Madonna’s legal team argued that the complaint, where the fans said they “had to get up early to go to work,” does not qualify as a legitimate legal “injury.”
The plaintiffs claimed they expected the concerts to begin promptly and “would not have paid for their tickets had they known that the concerts would start after 10:30 p.m.”
“Plaintiffs speculate that ticketholders who left the venue after 1 a.m. might have had trouble getting a ride home or might have needed to wake up early the next day for work,” wrote Madonna’s lawyers, per Billboard. “That is not a cognizable injury.”
The singer’s lawyers added one of the plaintiffs “raved” about the concert on social media, calling it “incredible, as always!” on his Facebook page.
“Nowhere did Defendants advertise that Madonna would take the stage at 8.30 p.m., and no reasonable concertgoer—and certainly no Madonna fan—would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time,” her lawyers wrote. “Rather, a reasonable concertgoer would understand that the venue’s doors will open at or before the ticketed time, one or more opening acts may perform while attendees arrive and make their way to their seats and before the headline act takes the stage, and the headline act will take the stage later in the evening.”
The case was dropped last June, with Madonna’s attorneys insisting they did not reach any kind of settlement.
The “Material Girl” also faced two other similar lawsuits: one in Washington DC, which alleged delays and lip-syncing in an “uncomfortably hot” arena, and another filed last August in which the plaintiff described her Los Angeles concert as unexpectedly “pornographic.” These cases were filed as class actions.
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