Madonna's Stage Collapses In France, Killing One And Injuring Eight

Reports are breaking that a crane collapsed as Madonnas stage was being assembled for her July 19th Sticky & Sweet concert at Velodrome Stadium in France. The fire department stated that the stage

One person was killed Thursday (July 16) when a stage being built for Sunday's Madonna concert in Marseille, France, collapsed. The Associated Press reported that in addition to one death, six workers were injured in the accident.

According to reports, the stage for the singer's Sticky and Sweet show at the 60,000-capacity Stade Vélodrome fell apart while under construction around 5:15 p.m. local time (11:15 a.m. ET), with two of the workers suffering serious injuries and all six of those hurt taken to local hospitals. At press time, authorities did not know what caused the accident.

Madonna issued the following statement about the collapse, according to TMZ: "I am devastated to have just received this tragic news. My prayers go out to those who were injured and their families along with my deepest sympathy to all those affected by this heartbreaking news."

BBC News reported that Marseille city councilor Maurice Di Nocera said the frame of the stage "started shaking and collapsing" before the accident.

The concert has been canceled in the wake of the collapse. The stage that the singer has been taking around the world for the past year includes a giant revolving platform with an oversize silver and black throne, a DJ deck, a JumboTron screen on which Britney Spears makes her nightly virtual cameo and multi-level risers on which Madonna jumps rope and spars in a mini boxing ring.

The back of the stage is two-tiered, and the front of the stage at the end of the catwalk is a square with a circle in it that rises up and spins around. The catwalk comes into play most prominently in the show when Madonna is wheeled out in an ornate white antique car for the virtual Kanye West duet "Beat Goes On," riding in the vehicle from the back of the stage out onto the turntable in the audience and then spinning around 180 degrees and riding back to the main stage. Hydraulics lift it up and move it around.

A number of large, moving screens serve as the background during the show, as well as smaller ones on wheels that the singer dances with during a virtual duet with Justin Timberlake on "Four Minutes."

The British worker was among two people who suffered serious injuries, Marseille's central fire department said. Madonna said she was "devastated".

The accident happened at the 60,000-seater Stade Velodrome sports arena, home of the Olympique de Marseille football club. The concert, scheduled to take place on Sunday as part of Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet tour, has been cancelled.



Around 50 technicians were working on the rigging and up to a dozen of them were underneath the stage when it collapsed. The roof was being lifted into place by four cranes when it became unbalanced, toppling one of the cranes which crashed into the structure below, according to witnesses.

A dozen ambulances, fire crews and rescue teams with sniffer dogs pulled victims from the wreckage.
“There were a lot of open fractures and injuries. It was a messy sight,” one rescue worker said.
The person killed was a 53-year-old French citizen. A Briton and an American suffered serious injuries, the Marseille fire service said, adding that some of the other victims were from France and the Comoros islands.



Madonna said in a statement: "I am devastated to have just received this tragic news. My prayers go out to those who were injured and their families along with my deepest sympathy to all those affected by this heartbreaking news."

The Foreign Office could not confirm details. A spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident in Marseille. We are urgently looking into it and will offer consular assistance to any British national involved.”