[M X]

Madonna was reportedly booed during her Sticky & Sweet tour in Bucharest, Romania on Wednesday for telling fans to fight discrimination against gays and gypsies, the Romanian Times reports:

"She told them: 'I've never been to Romania before and I am happy to be here. But I found out that there is a lot of discrimination against gypsies in Eastern Europe and that makes me very sad, especially because we believe in acceptance, gypsies, homosexuals, people that are different. Everyone must be treated the same, don't forget that!' But instead of the applause she expected fans jeered and booed the statement. There are over 500,000 gypsies officially registered in Romania but the real numbers are expected to be much more as many have not declared their ethnicity in a country where they face widespread discrimination. They are Romania's most socially and economically disadvantaged minority, with high illiteracy levels."

Gays in Romania face violence from nationalist and ultra-orthodox groups. In recent years, marchers at gay rights rallies in Bucharest have been met by hundreds of protesters who hurl stones, eggs, tomatoes, and trash at them in an effort to break up the marches.

Madonna's remarks reportedly happened during a performance of "La Isla Bonita". YouTube clips, most of which begin while the performance is underway, show no evidence of displeasure from the audience, though she may have made the remarks at the beginning of the song.

[LemonJam]

Erm, aren't the gays a large fanbase of Madonna? lol

[Harry!]

Heard this, Dobut she will go there again [says the queen of controversail]

[M X]

BUT 500, 000 GYPSIES?? Isn't that like the whole population of Romania?

[Harry!]

Originally posted by MichaelSpears
BUT 500, 000 GYPSIES?? Isn't that like the whole population of Romania?

Population of Romania 21,504,442

[Vladimir]

Originally posted by MichaelSpears
BUT 500, 000 GYPSIES?? Isn't that like the whole population of Romania?

Of course not. Romania has a population of 20,000,000.


In Serbia live about 200,000 gypsies.

[Braden]

that's harsh !

[Vladimir]

Well, that's her fault.

[Harry!]

She has done these messages before and had a good reaction ''Dedicate this song to the pope''. Maybe Romania is a strict country.

[M X]

20mil peeps in Romania? WOW.

Yay for Romania but it's bad that they discriminate against gay people and gypsies.

[Mrluvaluva]

Youtube video

Seems a bit of a mixed reaction.

[Lauren]

I think she needs to get off her high horse to be perfectly honest. How frigging egocentric, walking into someone elses country and questioning their culture. Oh yeah, Madonna says we should change our ways - lets do it. Madonna, darling, you're a singer and performer, not a diplomat.

[Harry!]

Originally posted by Lauren
I think she needs to get off her high horse to be perfectly honest. How frigging egocentric, walking into someone elses country and questioning their culture. Oh yeah, Madonna says we should change our ways - lets do it. Madonna, darling, you're a singer and performer, not a diplomat.

Without her personality Madonna would never been here today. Not this famous. Nothing.

[Lauren]

Originally posted by Harry.

Without her personality Madonna would never been here today. Not this famous. Nothing.

It's not a personality, it's being an interfering idiot. She knows nothing about the country.

[Harry!]

Originally posted by Lauren

It's not a personality, it's being an interfering idiot. She knows nothing about the country.

I know Madonna's opinion WILL NOT change the country. But it shows that she cares about people and shows a interest in the coulture of the country.

[BBUK4LYFE]

Gypsies are what?

[HalfwitFTW]

I think it is a good thing she did

Nothing can change if people stay quiet and just push things under the carpet, acting like they are not there.

Change only happens when people speak up and bring issues out into the open.

Good on her for using her fame to raise awareness.

[Vladimir]

Originally posted by Lauren
I think she needs to get off her high horse to be perfectly honest. How frigging egocentric, walking into someone elses country and questioning their culture. Oh yeah, Madonna says we should change our ways - lets do it. Madonna, darling, you're a singer and performer, not a diplomat.

Exactly.

[Harry!]

Originally posted by HalfwitFTW
I think it is a good thing she did

Nothing can change if people stay quiet and just push things under the carpet, acting like they are not there.

Change only happens when people speak up and bring issues out into the open.

Good on her for using her fame to raise awareness.

Like she does with Malawi and all her docs she has made over there. Good point made.

[camaleon]

Originally posted by Lauren

It's not a personality, it's being an interfering idiot. She knows nothing about the country.

I agree with the above

[Lewis.]

Meh. She was probably told to say it anyway

[Harry!]

Madonna explains Gipsy comments

Madonna has said she was “compelled” to comment on the discrimination of Romany Gypsies while on stage in Romania, despite being booed by fans.

The 51-year-old was jeered by the audience in Bucharest after saying the discrimination “made me feel very sad”.

Publicist Liz Rosenberg said Madonna made the comments after being made aware of the prejudice towards Romany people in eastern Europe.

The star uses a group of Roma musicians on her Sticky and Sweet tour.

Madonna paused during her two-hour show to say: “It has been brought to my attention, that there is a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe – it made me feel very sad.”

“We don’t believe in discrimination, we believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone.”

The star then received more boos when she mentioned prejudice against homosexuals and others.

Rosenberg said Madonna had told her there were cheers as well as jeers from the 60,000-strong crowd.

“Madonna has been touring with a phenomenal troupe of Roma musicians who made her aware of the discrimination toward them in several countries so she felt compelled to make a brief statement,” she added.

Concert goer Ionut Dinu, 23, said: “I jeered her because it seemed false what she was telling us. What business does she have telling us these things?”

Romania has the largest number of Roma in eastern Europe.

Nearly half of Europe’s estimated 12 million Roma claimed to have suffered an act of discrimination over the past 12 months, according to a recent report by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.

The agency says Roma face “overt discrimination” in housing, health care and education.

source: bbc

[M X]

Harry don't bring Malawi into this. Madonna traffics children.

[Harry!]

[rquote=2501638&tid=143999&author=MichaelSpears]Harry don't bring Malawi into this. Madonna traffics children.[/rquote]

She has 'adopted' two children because she cares about Malawi children. Not kidnaps them like the child capture form chitty chitty bang bang.

[M X]

She's doing it because she has the money and is able to. Mercy had a family who cared about her, and took care of her. Her Grandmother and uncle were very capable of looking after her. That little girl was taken out of a very simple lifestyle into airports and stadiums, and hotels.. she will have no clue what's going on. She's got the paparazzi constantly on to her, she's only a baby.