Madonna has revealed the first word she said after waking up from a “near death experience” in the hospital last year.
The pop star faced a life-threatening health episode in June after battling a “serious bacterial infection” that led to her being admitted to the ICU.
Her relatives revealed that they were were initially “preparing for the worst” when she became unwell.
She has since made a full recovery, but was forced to postpone her US shows on ‘The Celebration Tour’ last year and instead began the trek in Europe.
Opening the first of five performances at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Monday (March 4), Madonna recalled how she “literally couldn’t walk from my bed to the toilet” during her illness.
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She thanked a “very special man” in the audience, her doctor David Agus. “I would call him every other day and ask him why I didn’t have any energy, when my energy was going to come back, when was I going to feel myself again, when could I go back on tour again.
“All he would say is, ‘Go outside in the sun, you need vitamin D, and your kidneys will keep working’.”
She went on to recall waking up from the coma, and the first words she spoke.
“I didn’t know for four days because I was in an induced coma, but when I woke up, the first word I said was, ‘No’,” she said, according to her assistant.
“And I’m pretty sure God was saying to me, ‘You want to come with us? You want to come with me? You want to go this way?’ And I said, ‘No, no’.”
“I didn’t know when I could get up again and when I could be myself again,” she added. “It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control. That was my lesson to let go.”
Last month, Madonna unveiled a new and final date on her global tour due to fan demand.
A third and final show in Miami will now take place on April 9, 2024, at Kaseya Center, bringing the tour to 80 dates total.
Reviewing the ‘Celebration’ tour in London, NME awarded the show five stars, writing that it was the “emotional moments that make this show truly special”.
It added: “The whole thing is a thrilling reminder that Madonna isn’t just a pop star, but also a cultural force who genuinely changed the world by chafing against what society expects from women in the public eye. That’s something worth celebrating in the dazzling, dynamic and at times slightly discombobulating way she presents it here. Really, you wouldn’t have her any other way.”