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Madonna under fire for antics during Australian tour

SYDNEY: Music icon Madonna has come under fire yet again for her stage antics during her first Australian tour in 23 years. While she was earlier criticised for breaking down during a performance, under the influence of alcohol, this time she was drawn the ire of fans for appearing late for a concert and pulling down the top of a teenage fan who went on stage with her.

The 57-year-old pop star frustrated patrons when she began a performance in Brisbane more than two hours late. “So many upset fans walked out,” wrote a concertgoer on Twitter. “If you can’t show up on time or sing live, it might not be worth the effort.”

Fans were further inconvenienced as public transport had stopped for the evening by the time Madonna’s late concert ended. At her next show in Brisbane, Madonna invited a 17-year-old female fan on stage and pulled on the young woman’s corset, an act which can theoretically be termed as sexual assault.



The singer jokingly said, “She’s the kind of girl you just want to slap ... and pull,” drawing gasps and cheers from the crowd and later a backlash on social media. “Exploiting young people, taking advantage of them and pulling a stunt like that is NOT OK,” fan Pauline Ryeland wrote on Facebook.

The teenager Josephine Georgiou, a barista and part-time model, later told the media in Brisbane that she was not upset by the incident. “Only I get to decide if I’m humiliated or not – why would people assume I am humiliated?” she was quoted as saying.

Madonna had responded to previous allegations of being drunk on stage. She took to Instagram and wrote that she “could never” do any shows “high or drunk.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2016.

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