Madonna confronted her mortality head-on Monday night during a reflective moment at her first Celebration Tour show in Los Angeles.
The 65-year-old music icon paused her performance at the Kia Forum to reflect on her shocking health scare in June 2023, when she was rushed to a hospital after being found unconscious due to what was later determined to be a serious bacterial infection .
The singer was taken to intensive care and had to be intubated, later revealing that she was put into a medically induced coma as she fought for her life despite lung and kidney failure.
Despite her ‘near-death’ experience, Madonna remained defiant.
‘This show every night is not that physically demanding for me. It’s emotionally difficult for me because I’m really telling you the story of my life,” she told the audience, according to Just shocked. ‘My heart is on my sleeve. I’ve fallen off many horses and broken many bones… but nothing can stop me.’
Madonna, 65, said “nothing can stop me” at the Kia Forum in LA on Monday as she recalled her “near-death” health scare when she was rushed to intensive care and intubated in June 2023 after contracting a deadly bacterial had contracted an infection; pictured in October in London
Madonna performed the first LA stop of her Celebration Tour. She said the first word she spoke after waking from a medically induced coma was “No!”
Madonna then revealed the first word she allegedly said after waking from her four-day coma: “No!”
“I’m pretty sure God said to me, ‘Will you come? Will you come with me?’” To which she replied, “No!”
The Into The Groove singer revealed that one of the doctors who had cared for her through her health struggles was in the audience that night, and she recalled how he coached her through her difficult recovery period after she was discharged from hospital.
‘I called every other day and asked (my doctor) why I had no energy, when would my energy come back? When would I feel like myself again? When can I go on tour again?’ she remembered.
“All he said was, ‘Go out in the sun’… It was so hard for me to walk from my house to the backyard and sit in the sun. I know that sounds crazy, but it was hard,” she admitted. “It’s strange to finally not feel like I was in control, and that was my lesson… to let go.”
The singer (born Madonna Ciccone) credited her six children with getting her back on her feet and back in front of an adoring audience.
“My kids really helped me get through it because they worked so hard,” she said. ‘I didn’t want to let them down, so I set a date. And that date became a reality.’
During a previous tour in Brooklyn in December, the dance music pioneer joked that she “nearly had to die to get all my kids in one room.”
She shares 27-year-old daughter Lourdes with her ex-boyfriend and fitness trainer Carlos Leon and her 23-year-old son Rocco with her ex-husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie.
Madonna later adopted her son David Banda, 18; daughter Chifundo “Mercy” James, 18; and twin daughters Stella and Estere, 11.
‘I’m pretty sure it was God who said to me, ‘Will you come? Will you come with me?” To which she replied, ‘No!’; Monday in LA with comedian Eric André (L) for a photo
She revealed that a doctor who treated her was on the show on Monday. She said she would call him to ask when she would finally have more energy as she recovered, but he told her to just ‘Go outside in the sun’; seen in LA on Monday
She thanked her children for helping to speed her recovery; pictured in London in October
According to her, she suffered acute septic shock on June 24 Radaronlineand emergency responders were reportedly able to revive her along with Narcan.
The substance is traditionally used to treat people suffering from opioid overdose, but it can also help revive someone suffering from septic shock.
During her Brooklyn show, Madonna said her “lungs weren’t working” and “her kidneys were failing,” claiming there was a 40 percent chance she wouldn’t survive.
However, just a few days after being rushed to the hospital, she was on the road to recovery, and the pop icon now appears to be doing as well as ever.
