Gerrard Kaonga
A fan in a wheelchair at a Madonna concert has spoken out after the pop star accidentally called her out during a show for not standing up.
A video of the 65-year-old at one of her show as part of her Celebration Tour went viral after she approached a member of the crowd to ask why they were 'sitting down over there'.
In the clip, the singer can be heard asking: "What are you doing sitting down over there?"
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Madonna then walked to the edge of the stage to hear what the audience member was saying.
Learning that they were sat down because they were a wheelchair-user, an embarrassed Madonna said: "Oh, okay. Politically incorrect. Sorry about that."
"I'm glad you're here," she added.
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Despite the swift apology, the music star still faced plenty of flack for the incident on social media.
One person wrote on Reddit: "Even if that person wasn't in a wheelchair, maybe just having bad knees or whatever, how tf is that anybody's business?"
"Girl, bye. People are paying good money to see you, don’t disrespect them like that," fumed another.
Sharing their own experiences, another person said: "I went to a concert a couple of months after going through surgery and chemo and couldn’t stand the whole time. I would’ve been mortified to be called out like this.
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"Disability is not always evident. It shouldn’t matter if they were in a wheelchair or not."
However Vanessa Gorman, who has been using a wheelchair after an car accident in 1999 left her paraplegic, has since spoken out and defended the pop star.
Speaking to TMZ, Vanessa said that she was shocked by the initial callout as her wheelchair is bright pink and thought Madonna would see it clearly.
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She remarked that she didn’t even think the 'Like a Virgin' singer was talking about her, but when it became clear she was kind of star struck.
Completely understandable to be honest.
She did respond that she instead replied her love for the singer.
Gorman also said she doesn’t believe Madonna was trying to be mean and quickly owned up to her mistake and apologised into the mic so that everyone could hear it.
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She added: "Some people are in wheelchairs and can stand -- she had no idea I was paralyzed."
Gorman said after the incident she went on to enjoy the rest of the concert so no harm done in the grand scheme of things.
UNILAD has contacted Madonna's reps for comment.