Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Madonna booed in Bucharest for defending Gypsies
08.27.2009 1:30pm EDT
(Bucharest, Romania) Thousands of fans have booed pop star Madonna after she spoke out against the discrimination of Gypsies in eastern Europe during one of her concerts.
Madonna paused in the two-hour concert to say that Gypsies, also known as Roma, were discriminated against in eastern Europe. She said that made her “sad” and nobody should be discriminated against.Thousands in the crowd of 60,000 booed her. She did not react.
Roma musicians and a Roma dancer were featured in her show, held just yards from the giant palace of ex-communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Their performances were applauded by the crowd.
There are officially some 500,000 Roma in Romania, but the real number could be around 2 million. They face prejudice and discrimination in Romania and other east European nations.
She’s right and she doesn’t need those “fans” if they are bigots.
Geez…”We *love* your dancing, but we still want to discriminate against you!”
The full article goes on to say that she spoke out about discrimination against LGBTs, and that she was jeered even more for that.
God bless Madonna who has a consistent record of speaking out against ALL bigotry.
Good for Madonna! She’s still rockin’ it and speaking her mind.
I’m not saying this to be maudlin, and if it becomes so that is due to a lack of skill on my part.
People forget that there were other groups in the concentration camps besides Jews. Gypsies and homosexuals were there as well. In more than one location as US soldiers were freeing Jews from the camps following territorial capture they left or returned both gypsies and homosexuals to confinement in the camps. These groups were seen to be different and deserving of imprisonment both by locals and officially by US military policy.
I say this to try to get at how deeply rooted this problem appears to be.
As much as I agree with her stance against discrimination and bigotry, I find it difficult to not sympathize with the audience that booed her. They paid a lot of money to see a performer perform (and in Bucharest money isn’t always easy to come by). They did not pay money to have Madonna teach them Geometry, or push her religion, or to promote her cause – even if her cause is righteous. The automatic assumption is that the crowd booed her because they hate the Roma and when she spoke out they showed their hatred by booing. In fact, there is another view. Maybe the audience was not the lemmings portrayed by the Associated Press. Maybe they were just a little more sophisticated than that. Maybe they were booing the fact that they were paying Madonna for a job (i.e. to sing, dance, and prance about with reckless abandon in the company of gorgeous young men in whacky costumes) and she wasn’t doing her job. She was doing something else. She was standing on a soap box and promoting her agenda while the paying customers had to stand around and wait for her to get back to work. The issue wasn’t necessarily that she was standing behind the microphone and scolding the audience for discriminating against the Roma, the issue was that she was standing behind the microphone and doing something other than what she was paid to do. When I pay for a job, I want that job done. I don’t pay a man for a job and then feel satisfaction when he decides to take my money and then go do something else. Yeah, sure, rah rah rah for standing up against discrimination and all that – but she should do that on her own time not when she is on the clock and being paid to put on a show.
Anyone who has been to a Madonna concert knows that part of her performance, in addition to “singing, dancing, and prancing about with reckless abandon” is that Madonna engages her audience on relevant topical issues. The lyrics of many of her songs provoke thought on controversial topics. She also regularly incorporates her political and world views into her complete, sophisticated, entertaining, well choreographed concerts.
The audience in Romania was not booing Madonna for doing what she always does at concerts – promoting her world view through sophisticated song, dance and advocacy. This audience was booing Madonna precisely because they are bigoted against the Roma people. And as Sera Bellum aptly pointed out, Romania has a horrible record of assisting the Nazi’s with the genocide of the Roma people in WW2. Facts are facts Pinggle no matter how deftly you try to manipulate them.
Today in Romania, the Roma suffer the worst health conditions in the country, together with some of the worst health problems associated with the third world. Rates of both infectious and non-communicable diseases are high. The proportion of Roma living in poverty exceeds 75% in Romania.
Bravo Madonna for being yourself and speaking out in favor of equality, even when you face the scorn of ticket paying bigots.
Once again, Madonna makes me proud. (if only our politicians had her balls!)
I’m glad she spoke out about this. However, “Gypsy” is a slur against the Roma people…so I still can’t give her an A+ for bringing it up during her concert. But attention is now on the issue, and I suppose that’s what matters.
@Gerry Fisher: <>
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Think about Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey and hundreds more.
We were glad to pay them good money to entertain us, but they dared not try to drink from the wrong water fountain!
This report is malicious
I was there, and I booed to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si3L6rb5K2c
This is video made by me on this subject!!