Madonna makes ‘fire’ gaffe in wildfire-hit France

Madonna has been criticised for a social media post in which she described her performance at a gig in the South of France, which has been devastated by wildfires, as “fire”.

The 58-year-old star played a surprise set at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gala dinner and auction in Saint-Tropez on Wednesday (26Jul17).

The star-studded event attended by Leonardo, Kate Winslet, Tom Hanks, Jared Leto and Emma Stone, went ahead despite thousands of residents of the resort town having to flee their homes due to raging forest fires.

After the event the singer posted about the night on her Instagram page but her update was branded insensitive by her followers, as she captioned an image of her performing in front of a flaming backdrop, “Tonight in St. Tropez was fire!! (three fire emojis)”

One user posting under the name gemma__harris wrote, “Are you completely unaware of world events or is this supposed to be some sort of joke (sic). Either way both are not acceptable. Over 10,000 people have had to flee their homes due to blazing fires as you dance around on a stage. Have some compassion…!!!”

Another with the handle vivimodancer added, “What a fine clumsiness madonna (sic). Yes with more than 500 hectares of forest burning still part of the morons (sic). Saint-Tropez can only be on fire.”

The post also appeared on her Twitter account, where it also attracted angry comments from users.

According to Britain’s Sky News, French authorities have evacuated 12,000 people from the area and called in soldiers, firemen and civil security officials to extinguish the flames. At least 12 firefighters tackling the blazes have been injured.

Despite the fires devastating the area the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation event went ahead as planned, raising more than $30 million (£23.3 million) for the actor’s environmental charity. musicnews.com