Madonna got through a “difficult” performance over the weekend through the power of “Prayer.”
The music legend gave an emotional speech during her Stockholm concert on Saturday, sharing sadness and outrage about the terror attacks that claimed the lives of more than 120 people in Paris the night before.
Other high-profile acts like U2 and Foo Fighters did opt to either postpone or scrap scheduled tour stops in light of the devastation, but the Material Girl decided to continue on with her Rebel Heart show instead.
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“I was going to cancel my show tonight,” the 57-year-old icon told the crowd. “But then I thought, ‘Why should I give that to them? Why should I allow them to stop me, and to stop us, from enjoying freedom?'”
Madonna delivered a stirring and personal six-minute message on her reaction to the massacre in the French capital, admitting her choice to perform amidst the aftermath wasn’t an easy one.
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“I need to take this moment to acknowledge the tragedy, the tragic killings, assassinations, and the senseless endings of precious life that occurred last night in Paris,” she began. “It’s disturbed me all day, and it’s been really hard, actually, to get through the show because in many ways I feel torn. Like, why am I up here dancing and having fun when people are crying over the loss of their loved ones?”
She continued, urging the audience to rally together and help defy the perpetrators.
“However, that is exactly what these people want to do,” she said. “They want to shut us up, they want to silence us, and we won’t let them. We will never let them, because there is power in unity and I do believe that as much chaos and pain and senseless violence and terrorism that occurs around this world, not just in Paris, as much as that does occur there is still more goodness in this world. We are here to prove it.”
The superstar then asked for a moment of silence to honor the victims before performing an acoustic version of her classic track “Like a Prayer,” wiping away tears as she launched into the song.
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"Thank you Stockholm! Tonight's show was difficult but there was so much love in this arena it made me feel like we were…
Posted by Madonna on Sunday, November 15, 2015
“Tonight’s show was difficult,” Madonnna posted to her Facebook page following the concert, captioning a photo of the stage lit up with the Rebel Heart tour logo. “But there was so much love in this arena it made me feel like we were turning darkness into light.”
— Erin Biglow
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