14 DAY TRIAL // The other week, as she was performing on her Sticky & Sweet tour in Bucharest, Romania, Madonna managed to get herself booed for cutting her set and addressing a 60,000-strong crowd on the issue of discrimination. In a statement released over the weekend to gossip blogger Perez Hilton, the singer’s rep says her intention was not to offend Romanians and Eastern Europeans in general, but only to follow her heart.
According to Madonna’s words on the Romanian stage, Eastern Europe (and Romania) still has serious problems with discrimination, especially towards minorities such as is the case of the Gypsies. In her “speech,” the singer pled for more tolerance by pointing out that just being different was never good enough a reason to hate and discriminate. Either because they did not appreciate being lectured or because the issue was addressed by someone who clearly had little knowledge of it, the Romanian public chose to disagree.
Yet, the singer’s heart was in the right place, her rep is now saying. “Madonna has been touring with a phenomenal troupe of Roma musicians who made her aware of the discrimination toward them in several countries so she felt compelled to make a brief statement.” the publicist explains. Therefore, she did not wish to offend in any way or come across as out of line. On the contrary, Madonna only wanted to use her position as a public figure to draw attention on an issue that personally upset her, in hopes that, one day, people would start paying heed to her words.
“It has been brought to my attention, that there is a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe – it made me feel very sad. We don’t believe in discrimination, we believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone.” Madonna said during the show in Romania. As also noted above, ever since news of the public booing her broke in the international media, fans and music lovers in general have not been able to reach an agreement as to the star’s stand on the matter.
While many believe that what Madonna did was the right thing, since she helped raise awareness on the issue by speaking up about it during a concert, there are also those who believe she shouldn’t mix politics with entertaining, let alone when she is not entirely familiar with the problem. At the end of the day, it is perhaps nothing but a matter of personal beliefs.