On December 16, Madonna performed at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and during the acoustic portion of the show, she shared with fans just how ill she was when she landed in the ICU with a bacterial infection last summer.
From the stage, Madonna thanked “one very important woman” — her friend Shavawn — who she says discovered her passed out on her bathroom floor and “dragged me to the hospital.” Madonna added that she eventually woke up in the ICU after being in an induced coma for 48 hours. She said that during that time, the only voice she heard was that of her Kabbalah teacher, who said, “Squeeze my hand.”
Noting that when she woke up she saw all six of her children around her, Madonna joked, “By the way, I had to almost die to get all my kids in one room.”
The Queen of Pop repeatedly emphasized that she doesn’t take her success and the fact that she’s had a 40-year career for granted — “except maybe for a few years in the ’90s.”
Madonna’s discussion was a lead-in to her performing Gloria Gaynor‘s “I Will Survive” on acoustic guitar.
As previously reported, Madonna’s medical emergency caused her to push the start of her Celebration tour back to October. The first North American date was December 13. During the December 13 and 16 shows in Brooklyn, Madonna performed her song “I Love New York” as a tribute to the city where she got her start.
Madonna’s next tour stop is December 18 in Washington, D.C.
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