Madonna took some time out of her most recent concert to address the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as well as the murder of a 6-year-old Muslim boy named Wadea Al-Fayoume in Chicago over the weekend.
During the third stop on her Celebration Tour in London on Tuesday night, Madonna called the recent attacks on Israelis and Palestinians “heartbreaking” and pleaded with the crowd not to “lose our humanity.”
“Nobody wants to see what’s happening,” Madonna told the O2 Arena. “I turn on social media, and I want to vomit. I see children being kidnapped, pulled off motorcycles, babies being decapitated, children at peace raves being shot and killed. What the fuck is going on in the world? How can human beings be so cruel to one another? It’s just getting worse. It frightens me.”
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“The children of the world belong to all of us, each and every one of them,” the 65-year-old said, paraphrasing quotes from James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. “I don’t care where they’re from, what their headdress is, what the color of their skin is, what their religion is. The children belong to us. And we are responsible for them.”
Madonna then spoke about the fatal stabbing of Al-Fayoume by his white landlord on Saturday, which authorities determined was a hate crime “due to [him] being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
“A six-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Chicago yesterday,” she said, referring to the murder on Saturday. “A hate crime, because he was Muslim.”
“We have to remember we are human beings here,” she said. “We cannot lose our humanity. Our hearts can be broken, but our spirit cannot. No one can break our spirit. And you might look at what’s going on in the world and say, ‘What the fuck?’ What can I do? I’m just one person. I’m helpless.’ No, you are not. Each and every one of you has the power and ability to turn light on in the world.”
The “Vogue” singer concluded before covering Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” “We are all candles. We can bring light to the world. If we turn enough light on, if we light enough candles, the collective consciousness of generosity and unity will change. No politicians, no laws, no sanctions, no land given or taken—we, with our consciousness, can change the fucking world.”
In 2019, Madonna performed in Tel Aviv for the 64th annual Eurovision Song Contest. She caused a stir for a moment in her set when two of her backup dancers, wearing the Palestinian and Israeli flags on their backs, respectively, embraced each other. The European Broadcasting Union said that element of Madonna’s performance wasn’t a part of the rehearsals and had not been approved by the music competition’s broadcasters.
The seven-time Grammy winner has also been a proponent of Kabbalah, a variety of Jewish mysticism. Immediately after the Oct0ber 7 Hamas attacks, Madonna expressed her condolences and frustration on Instagram for Israeli civilians and “innocent people in Palestine.”
