Madonna Booed in Bucharest for Defending Gypsies and Gays

UPDATE: Watch the video below.

The Eastern European leg of Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour is not off to a good start. After getting death threats in Serbia due to her use of orthodox religious iconography, thousands of fans booed Madonna in Bucharest, Romania after she spoke out against discrimination against gays and the Roma, also known as gypsies, reports the Romanian Times.

"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."

The Huffingon Post reports "thousands of fans booed and jeered" the pop icon "who ... got even more boos when she mentioned discrimination against homosexuals."

Gays in Romania have been targeted by the violent neo-Nazi and ultra-nationalist fervor that has swept some parts of Eastern Europe. Marchers at Bucharest's gay rights rallies "have been met by hundreds of protesters who hurl stones, eggs, tomatoes, and trash at them in an effort to break up the marches." Meanwhile, in neighboring Hungary, six Roma were killed and several wounded in a recent "series of apparently racially motivated attacks."

Madonna reportedly made her remarks during a performance of "La Isla Bonita". Watch the booing and the performance, via Towleroad, WHEN YOU JUMP.

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Comments

[FREELEO]

You see what happens when you show up at an event and don't really know what you are going to see or hear? LOL It's Madonna! What did they expect? I respect her politics so much. Brava Madonna!

[Baltimore Femme]

Love Madonna and love the fact that she says what she believes!

[Chitown Kev]

Thank you, Madge!

[Dalton]

Love it, love it, love it!
Listen to her, she keeps on talking and doesnt stop!

[Chaz]

I love Madge because she has ALWAYS loved the gays. This is nothing new for the Queen of Pop. She is consistent in her support of the girls, not a fair-weathered hag. Work, Madonna.

[Mel Smith]

Perhaps Madonna did not know the type of people she was dealing with; the people at that concert were lunatics. It also shows me how prejudice Romanian people are.

[Jinca]

I think she knew, she just wanted to say it to their faces lol. Madonna does not shy away from sharing her opinions no matter who is listening and I love that about her.

[Kevin Perez]

Madonna at the age of 51 still causing this type of controversey! As for Homophobia and racism, it's Eastern Europe. It's pratically Neo-Nazi Heaven.

[James M]

This is a Madonna Concert. I thought there would be more gays in the audience then anyone. I guess it really is different on the other side of the world

[CC L'Afrique de Sud]

well i'll be damned! she is a very influential person and this?

come to SA i promise i'll applaud you madge!

[Jaganat]

While visiting Budapest and northern rural Hungary, I became familiar with the racism against the darker skinned Roma (or Gypsies), the violent attacks on Roma communties, and the wholesale criminalization of the Roma people. I felt connected to the Roma, and somehow Roma children and older folk seemed to relate to me in ways that other Hungarians didn't, in part because I am a black man with long dreadlocks (the Roma Youth I met loved Dancehall music). Some Roma artists and intellectuals have identified themselves as the historical "Niggas" of Europe (even after the arrival of neo-colonial African and Arab immigrants).

The Magyarsag Right Wing Nationalism has been on the rise in Hungary for a while now, like other Neo-fascist movements in other parts of Eastern Europe (Czech Rep., Slovak Rep., Ukraine, Poland, Russia, etc.)-- and the Roma have long suffered the hatred of the Europeans. They were one of the ethnic groups targeted by the Nazis during WWII, and 1/2 million died during the Holocaust along with 6 million Jews and 6 million Slavs, Homosexuals, differently-abled folk and Communists. Today they live in ghettos across Eastern Europe, and to a certain extent, Western Europe.

I hope Madonna stands up for the Palestinians when she visits Israel soon, like she did for the Roma; if she does, she'll get booed there too.