Madonna is honouring the survivors and victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida.
The music icon paused her Celebration tour concert in Miami on Tuesday night (Wednesday in Australia) to call attention to the over 100 survivors and victims’ family members that she invited to the show, making a powerful speech to urge people to “remember that you have the ability to shine light in the world and to make a difference.”
“Nightclubs, music and dance are what bring us together,” Madonna said, according to footage posted to social media from the concert.
Watch the video above.
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“They shouldn’t be places or things that we do that bring us sadness and tragedy and murder and death and pain and suffering and trauma,” she continued.
“But unfortunately, human beings are still stuck in some kind of a rut.”
In June 2016, an American-born man who’d pledged allegiance to ISIS gunned down 49 people at Pulse, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando, and injured more 50 people.
Authorities at the time said it was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation’s worst terror attack since 9/11.
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At her show this week, Madonna went on to say that “people getting together to dance in a club that is inclusive, full of love – it was Latin night, people were dancing for Latin music – and some motherf—er came in there with two guns and just starts shooting at people.”
“I’m very emotional about this,” she said, her voice cracking. “My job is to bring you together, to make people dance, to make people happy, to not judge. This s–t is not supposed to happen.”
The Vogue singer named a number of the survivors in the audience and mentioned their harrowing survival stories.
“When are we going to learn?” she asked.
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Madonna then prompted her concertgoers to turn their cell phone lights on to “light up this room so that we are all reminded that their lives were not taken in vain and that we are reminded that each and every one of us have the ability to shine our own light on each other.”
With her acoustic guitar slung around her, she began to sing an emotional rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive as the audience cheered and sang along. She transitioned into singing her 1986 hit La Isla Bonita and snippet of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, which was featured in the Madonna-starring 1996 movie Evita.
At the end of the medley, Madonna, along with her audience, collectively chanted, “no fear.”
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This is not the first time the Ray of Light hitmaker has spoken out about gun violence and gun control.
In 2019, for her album Madame X, Madonna released a harrowing music video for her song God Control, which was directly inspired by the tragedy in Orlando.
On her official YouTube page for the song, she wrote, “This is your wake up call. Gun violence disproportionately affects children, teenagers and the marginalised in our communities. Honour the victims and demand GUN CONTROL. NOW. Volunteer, stand up, donate, reach out. Wake up and insist on common-sense gun safety legislation. Innocent lives depend on it.”
Madonna heads to Austin, Texas for her next Celebration tour show on Sunday (Monday in Australia).
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