Madonna uttered one powerful word after waking from ‘near-death experience’
Madonna called out a concertgoer for sitting – they were in a wheelchair. (Getty)
Queen of Pop Madonna has shared more details on how she felt following her “near-death experience” last June.
Speaking on Monday (4 March) on night one of five at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum arena as part of her ongoing, critically-acclaimed Celebration Tour, Madonna explained that being in an “induced coma” was a “pretty scary” experience.
In June, the 65-year-old “Vogue” singer was hospitalised with a “serious bacterial infection” after being found unresponsive in her New York City apartment.
As a result, the start of her Celebration Tour was pushed back to October, having initially been scheduled to begin in Canada in July.
“It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control,” she told the crowd in LA, which included physician Dr David Agus and other medical professionals who assisted her recovery following the incident.
“I have fallen off a lot of horses and broken a lot of bones. I have a titanium hip. I mean, the list goes on and on, but nothing can stop me,” she added, pausing to break into a brief acapella version of her 2000 top five hit, “Don’t Tell Me”.
“This summer I had a surprise. It’s called, um, a near-death experience. Yes, and I’m not kidding. It was pretty scary. Obviously, I didn’t know for four days, because I was in an induced coma,” she said.
Then, the superstar shared the first word that she uttered upon waking up, several days after she was admitted to the ICU.
“When I woke up, the first word I said was ‘No.’ Anyway, that’s what my assistant tells me,” she shared.
“And I’m pretty sure that God was saying to me, ‘Do you wanna come with us? You wanna come with me? You wanna go this way?’ And I said, ‘No. No. No!”
She then took a moment to thank the “patient and kind” Dr Agus and his team, admitting that she put the doctor through “many entertaining phone calls” in which she questioned him relentlessly on when she’d feel better.
“When I was sick this summer and I literally couldn’t walk from my bed to the toilet, I would call him every other day and ask him why I didn’t have any energy. When was my energy gonna come back? When was I gonna feel myself again? When could I go back on tour again,” she told the crowd.
Madonna has previously shared that her first thought after waking up from her coma was of her mother, who died of cancer in 1963, and of her children, who she was petrified she would “leave behind”.
After making a full recovery, the pop star began her Celebration Tour in London in October.
The show has since been recognised as a tribute to her LGBTQ+ fans, featuring a celebration of ballroom culture, a section dedicated to those who died during the AIDS crisis, and Drag Race star Bob The Drag Queen on hosting duties.
In the near six months that the show has been on the road, it’s seen a number of controversial and iconic moments, all of which have only solidified Madonna’s legacy as an entertainment legend.
Earlier this year, she made an expert recovery after falling off a chair while performing, and she recently clapped back at two concert-goers who have attempted to sue the star after she arrived on stage late.
She’s welcomed a host of famous faces to the stage to judge the ballroom section of the show, or simply to get off with her – including rapper Tokischa, model Julia Fox, TV host Andy Cohen, and Drag Race stars Trinity The Tuck, Miz Cracker, Symone and more.
