Madonna took a moment during her concert in Los Angeles to speak to her fans about her “near-death experience” last year that left her in a medically induced coma for four days.
Back in June 2023, Madonna was forced to put her Celebration tour on hold after a serious bacterial infection hospitalized her in the intensive care unit for several days. The pop star was eventually able to make a full recovery, though, and launched the trek a few months later in October.
During her show last night, Madonna reflected on her 40 year career, and the bumps and bruises she’s picked up along the way: “I have a titanium hip,” she quipped. “The list goes on and on, but nothing can stop me.” (She then proceeded to sing a bit of her Music track “Don’t Tell Me.”)
But last summer’s “surprise,” as Madonna put it, was different. “It’s called a near-death experience, and I’m not kidding, it was pretty scary. Obviously, I didn’t know for four days because I was in an induced coma, but when I woke up, the first word I said was, ‘No.’ Anyway, that’s what my assistant tells me.”
Madonna went on to share her theory behind why she awoke with that word: “I’m pretty sure that God was saying to me, ‘You want to come with? You want to come with us, wanna go this way?’ And I said, ‘No!’”
As it turned out, one of Madonna’s doctors was in the audience that night, too. She thanked him for putting up with “so many irritating phone calls from me when I was sick this summer and literally couldn’t walk from my bed to the toilet.” She remembered asking him every day when her energy would return, when she would start to feel like herself again, and when would she be able to go on tour? Her doctor’s advice was to go outside and sit in the sun, but even that was tough.
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“I know that sounds insane, but it was difficult,” she recalled, adding: “I didn’t know when I could get up again and when I could be myself again… It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control. And that was my lesson to let go.”
The North American leg of Madonna’s Celebration will continue through the early spring, wrapping with a five-night stand in Mexico City in late April