Madonna last set foot on Australian shores 23 years ago. So what’s a bit more of a delay on the night?



The demands for refunds and puns on the “mad” in her name on social media, however, would suggest that some fans, at least, are not prepared to let her Madgesty get away with keeping them waiting for nearly three hours.

The close-to-capacity crowd at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night was told that the scheduled 9pm start had been pushed back to 10.30pm – at the earliest. Madonna finally appeared on stage at 11.22pm, joking that she was “hardly ever late”.

“It’s you people that get here early that’s the problem,” she said. “Stay home, do your hair and makeup, have a tequila. Roll yourself a fat one … no, I don’t believe in that shit.

“Just come late and I won’t have to come early. We’ve got three more shows and we want to fix the problem.”

Publicist Live Nation has said in a statement that Madonna’s second Brisbane show could also be delayed on Thursday. “Following a late start last night, fans should note, the timing for tonight’s performance may also be delayed.

“We encourage concert goers to keep this in consideration when making arrangements to get home safely.”

Fiona Lakin of Live Entertainment said it was a “fairly common occurrence that Madonna is on-stage late”. As a result ticket holders had been told by Ticketek before the shows in Brisbane and Melbourne that it was “highly likely” the shows would finish after midnight.

Nathanael Cooper of the Brisbane Times, who called the delay “breathtakingly arrogant”, ran the numbers in his morning-after write-up:

Madonna kept her fans waiting three hours for those who took the door time as gospel, two hours for those who figured there would be some kind of support, and 44 minutes for those who listened to the centre announcements saying she would take to the stage no earlier than 10.30pm.

Public transport to the entertainment centre, in the outer suburb of Boondall, stopped shortly after midnight, an hour before the concert ended. Some attendees were reportedly given refunds.

Harvey Lister, the chairman and chief executive of AEG Ogden – which manages the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and the Allphones Arena in Sydney, where Madonna is performing this weekend – said the delay had “absolutely nothing” to do with the venue.

“I personally view tardiness as more evil than all the 7 deadly sins combined,” said another tweet directed at Madonna. “It’s appalling.”



The funniest thing is, y'all think Madonna cares you have work in the morning... 🙊 — Josh Daveta (@JoshDaveta) March 16, 2016

Australian Associated Press reports that the “increasingly frustrated” crowd had “resorted to Mexican waves and chanting” but was “eating from the palm of [Madonna’s] hand from the moment she appeared on stage in a metal cage”.



Even Cooper conceded that, when Madonna did “eventually grace the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with her presence, what she offered was pretty decent”.

So even though she left us waiting until 11:20pm, Madonna still knows how to entertain and put on an amazing show pic.twitter.com/sRrvno7uaj — Thomas Bleach (@ThomasBleach) March 16, 2016

Spectacular dancing & music?



The Last Supper staged as an ode to cunnilingus?



An entire town outraged by Diva behaviour?



Classic #Madonna — Christian Perrin (@BirdlyBoy) March 16, 2016

Madonna’s final shows in Australia are on Saturday and Sunday at the Allphones Arena in Sydney. Both performances will be filmed and a few fans – her “Unapologetic Bitches”, as Madonna calls them – will be chosen to join her on stage.



The Sydney dates mark the end of Madonna’s seven-month Rebel Heart world tour, in which she has performed more than 80 shows in more than 20 countries.

Last week, fans waited four hours in the rain for her intimate, one-off Tears of a Clown show last week at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne.

It could be argued from her patchy track record of touring Australia that fans are lucky to have seen her at all. She last performed in Australia in 1993, subsequently cancelling the Australian legs of both her Confessions tour in 2006 and the Sticky and Sweet tour in 2008. In 2012 she said she would feel like an “irresponsible parent” if she extended her MDNA world tour to include Australia.

In December she announced that she would be slicing six days off this tour, rescheduling her Brisbane show dates to allow for three nights off.

In June last year, when the Australian dates were announced, Guardian Australia’s Bridie Jabour expressed scepticism she would come to the country at all, having been disappointed too many times before: “Next we will be told she is ‘suffering from exhaustion’ when she is supposed to be hitting our shores in March.”

Madonna is by no means the only superstar who has kept crowds waiting, with Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Guns N’ Roses among the acts to have notoriously delayed start times for their shows.