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Madonna Appeals For Fans To 'Put Your F**king Phones Down And Connect'

Tyler Jenke

The pop icon criticised fans' "persistent need" to document everything

Madonna
Madonna(Credit: Rafael Pavarotti)
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Madonna has become the latest artist to dip her toe into the contentious topic that is phones at concerts.

Appearing in New York City on Friday night for the premiere of her Confessions II – The Film, Variety reports that Madonna also took part in a Q&A with Anderson Cooper, who segued their conversation to that of phones.

While Cooper noted how all those in attendance had their phones locked in Yondr pouches, Madonna explained this was due to the fact that everyone seems to have a pervasive, “persistent need” to document everything.

While acknowledging it’s changed the way that we live and experience things, and that it’s now part of the status quo, Madonna explained that she remained defiant, adding, “I came to this earth to be a doer, not a watcher.”

Recalling how she performed alongside Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella, Madonna pointed to the disconcerting effect that looking out onto a sea of phones provides. “Put your fucking phones down and connect,” she urged.

Madonna is far from the first act to chastise those who use phones at events. While the likes of Jack White and The Saboteurs asked patrons to lock phones in pouches, so too have acts such as Tool and A Perfect Circle eject concert attendees who violated the request.

“You ever go to a play or a movie?” A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel asked in 2018. “If you’ve ever been to a play or a movie, it’s kind of similar: you don’t take out your phone and start filming, and let the people behind you stare into your screen.”

Additionally, Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood put out a request for fans to put their phones away, while Carpenter herself last year admitted she was toying with the idea of banning phones at her shows.

“I’ve grown up in the age of people having iPhones at shows,” Carpenter explained. “It unfortunately feels super normal to me. I can’t blame people for wanting to have memories.

The topic has become more prevalent in the past few weeks, with Billie Eillish offering her support for phones at gigs, while The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde went the other way, chastising “entitled” concertgoers who seem addicted to their devices.

“You can plaster a venue with signs requesting ‘NO CAMERAS’, but people don’t respect it,” she explained. “It’s as if people feel entitled, even though the artist clearly has asked them not to do it.”

While it remains to be seen whether or not a band on phones will be actively enforced by big names, it does make one wonder whether or not it would have prevented acts like Riley Green or Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes being hit with phones at their respective gigs recently.