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Madonna fans vented their anger after the singer ended a special intimate show at Paris Olympia after just 45 minutes.

Madonna said she had “a special affinity with France” as she opened the last minute concert, but drew boos from many disappointed fans.

Some had camped outside the Olympia club since Wednesday in anticipation of the show.

The 2,000 tickets sold out in minutes, with fans paying between $125-$320 and some changing hands for up to $1,600.

Madonna was also criticized for talking about politics instead of singing, after revealing she had a message for France’s extreme right-wing leader Marine Le Pen.

France’s National Front is threatening to sue the star for using an image of Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her forehead at a concert earlier this month.

Madonna fans vented their anger after the singer ended a special intimate show at Paris Olympia after just 45 minutes

Madonna fans vented their anger after the singer ended a special intimate show at Paris Olympia after just 45 minutes

“I know that I have made a certain Marine Le Pen very angry with me,” Madonna told fans.

“It’s not my intention to make enemies. It’s my intention to promote tolerance,” she continued.

Afterwards 33-year-old Guillaume Delaval complained: “She spoke for 15 minutes about tolerance, it’s not the UN here.”

Paris resident Allain Zambrana, 26, from Nicaragua, said he wanted to ask for his money back.

“I felt very frustrated because I camped out on the streets and then the show just ends like that.”

Several fans cried “refund!” as they realized Madonna had left the stage for good, with some audience members taking to Twitter to complain.

“We are singing <<shame on you>>,” explained Pierre from Belgium.

“Because she says she loves her fans but then she does this.”

Dutch fan Ellis Van Zoen, 22, agreed the show was “very short”, but added: “I’m torn – I thought it was a fantastic show and it was special. I don’t want to see fans yelling at her but I can understand why.”

Madonna also offered veiled criticism of the party’s anti-immigrant stance, as she paid homage to a France which she said had once “opened its arms to minorities”.

“We are entering some very scary times in the world,” she told the crowd.

“People are afraid, and what happens when people are afraid? They say <<get out! You’re the reason. You’re the problem. You’re to blame>>.”

Madonna, 53, who performed in an array of outfits including a black leather pencil skirt and French beret, also paid tribute to several French artists.

The event was also streamed live on YouTube, where separate footage showed fans chanting and booing while throwing empty bottles and cups onto the stage after the singer had left.

Madonna is due to perform in France again on 21 August, in Nice.

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Madonna has spoken about an image used during her current MDNA tour which showed a swastika imposed onto the face of French politician Marine Le Pen.

The controversial symbol was included in a video accompanying the song Nobody Knows Me, as she performed in Paris.

It showed the face of Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front party, with a swastika on her forehead.

Interviewed for a Brazilian TV channel, Madonna said all images used were chosen “purposefully”.

“That film that was created is about the intolerance that we human beings have for one another and how much we judge people before knowing them,” she said.

Madonna has spoken about an image used during her current MDNA tour which showed a swastika imposed onto the face of French politician Marine Le Pen

Madonna has spoken about an image used during her current MDNA tour which showed a swastika imposed onto the face of French politician Marine Le Pen

France’s National Front party (FN) said it planned to sue the US singer following the use of the image at her concert in the Stade de France on 14 July.

The video had already appeared earlier in Madonna’s 30-nation MDNA world tour, sparking a warning from Marine Le Pen that she was considering legal action.

FN vice-president Florian Philippot said the party could not accept “such an odious comparison”.

But Madonna refused to edit the video and, speaking before her concert in Brazil, the singer said “all images in the video were chosen purposefully”.

“There seems to be a growing intolerance around the world. In Greece, France, everywhere people are trying to kick out all the immigrants, make people cover up and not show what their religious affiliation is.”

“Think about what’s going on in Russia towards the gay community,” she said.

“I’m calling attention to that intolerance and asking people to pay attention, to wake up to see how we are just creating more chaos in the world.”

Displaying the swastika image has not been the only controversy on Madonna’s MDNA tour.

During her show in Edinburgh on 21 July, Madonna defied warnings not to brandish a gun during her performance following the recent shootings at a cinema screening of Batman in Colorado.

Madonna said she believed it is an artist’s responsibility to call attention to world events “and to help bring people together”.

“Art is there to track what’s going on in the world, to make social commentary,” she said.

 

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Russian opera singer Yevgeny Nikitin has pulled out of a star role at this year’s Bayreuth Festival in Germany following publicity about a swastika tattoo.

Yevgeny Nikitin was to have debuted in the lead role of a new production of the Flying Dutchman opera on Wednesday.

He said the tattoos were a mistake of his youth, but had to quit because the German media drew attention to them.

The Nazi past is a sensitive issue for the festival, which only shows operas by composer Richard Wagner.

Baritone Yevgeny Nikitin has pulled out of this year's Bayreuth Festival in Germany following publicity about a swastika tattoo

Baritone Yevgeny Nikitin has pulled out of this year's Bayreuth Festival in Germany following publicity about a swastika tattoo

Richard Wagner’s daughter-in-law, Winifred Wagner, who headed the festival under Nazi rule, was a strong admirer of Adolf Hitler. Richard Wagner himself often expressed anti-Semitic views in his writings.

An avid Richard Wagner fan, Adolf Hitler was a frequent guest at the festival and helped fund it during his dictatorship.

“I was not aware of the extent of the irritation and offence these signs and symbols would cause, particularly in Bayreuth given the context of the festival’s history,” Yevgeny Nikitin was quoted as saying by the DPA news agency.

“I had them done in my youth. It was a big mistake and I wish I’d never done it,” he added.

The tattoo shows a swastika, with another image superimposed, according to German media reports.

The controversy was sparked when a culture programme on German ZDF television mentioned the tattoos in a report on baritone Yevgeny Nikitin, 38, on Friday.

“They were just part of our underground culture,” he told the programme.

The singer decided to resign after organizers confronted him about the images, a statement on the festival’s website said.

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French far-right National Front is to sue Madonna after an image at the singer’s concert in Paris showed party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika imposed on her face.

National Front vice-president Florian Philippot said the party could not accept “such an odious comparison”.

The image, in a video accompanying the song Nobody Knows Me, was followed by another resembling Adolf Hitler.

Madonna was performing at the Stade de France in a Paris suburb on Saturday.

National Front is to sue Madonna after showing Marine Le Pen with a swastika during her concert in Paris

National Front is to sue Madonna after showing Marine Le Pen with a swastika during her concert in Paris

Florian Philippot said the lawsuit would be filed this week.

The video had already appeared earlier in Madonna’s 30-nation MDNA world tour, sparking a warning from Marine Le Pen that she was considering legal action.

Florian Philippot said: “This is just another provocation in Madonna’s world tour so that people will talk about her.

“Marine Le Pen will defend not only her own honor but her supporters and the millions of National Front voters.”

Marine Le Pen won 18% of the vote in the first round of France’s presidential election and has tried to remove extremist elements and crack down on anti-Semitism.

However, the National Front won only two seats in the 577-member National Assembly in last month’s general election.

Madonna is due to perform in France again on 21 August, in Nice.

 

Madonna was today threatened with legal action and accused of being an ageing self-publicist after she depicted Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s National Front, as a Nazi during a concert in Israel.

An image of Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead appeared on a giant screen at the singer’s concert in Tel Aviv, Israel on Thursday.

Marine Le Pen has threatened to sue Madonna if she repeats the stunt when her tour reaches France in July.

The politician said: “We understand how old singers who need to get people talking about them go to such extremes.”

Asked if she was likely to sue, Marine Le Pen, 43, said: “If she does that in France, we’ll be waiting.”

Madonna, who will turn 54 in August, is due in France next month, when she will appear at the Stade de France in Paris and then in Nice on the Riviera.

Madonna was today threatened with legal action and accused of being an ageing self-publicist after she depicted Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s National Front, as a Nazi during a concert in Israel

Madonna was today threatened with legal action and accused of being an ageing self-publicist after she depicted Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s National Front, as a Nazi during a concert in Israel

Other sources in the National Front, which has frequently been linked with anti-Semitism and racism, said Madonna had offended all of its members.

“We are not a Nazi party, and object to being depicted as such,” said a source in the party, which won a fifth of the popular vote during the first round of presidential elections in April.

“If you accuse the National Front of being anti-Semitic and racist then you accuse a fifth of the French people of being anti-Semitic and racist.

“If Madonna repeats this slur in France then she will certainly be taken to court.”

Wallerand de Saint-Just, the National Front’s lawyer, confirmed he was looking into the possibility of legal action.

Marine Le Pen pledged to reform the party after taking over the leadership from her notorious father, Jean-Marie Le Pen last year.

He is a convicted racist and anti-Semite who has in the past denied that the Nazi Holocaust actually took place during World War II.

Despite this, Jean-Marie Le Pen came runner-up in the French presidential election in 2002, proving that he had widespread support.

Marine Le Pen has toned down the party’s extremist views, but regularly pledges to limit Muslim immigration, and to clamp down on Islamic culture in France.

Madonna’s depiction of Marine Le Pen appeared as she performed her song Nobody Knows Me in Tel Aviv last Thursday.

Madonna is well known for her provocative acts, and is currently dating a Frenchman called Brahim Zaibat who has a North African Muslim immigrant background.

Marine Le Pen won just under 18% of votes in the presidential election and is currently standing to become an MP in France’s National Assembly.