On Tuesday, April 9, Madonna brought her Celebration Tour to Miami, Florida, where the iconic singer paid tribute to the survivors of the 2016 mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub. 

Since Madonna kicked off her Celebration Tour in London in October of 2023, the singer has heavily featured LGBTQ+ performers in her act, including Bob the Drag Queen, winner of Season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

While the tour often celebrates queer joy with segments like a ballroom runway performance to her song ‘Vogue’, a bevy of drag performers, and a host of LGBTQ+ celebrity guests like Ricky Martin, Diplo, and more, it similarly pays tribute to the LGBTQ+ community in more sentimental ways. 

The tour notably featured a tribute to LGBTQ+ historical figures who lost their lives to AIDS, including Madonna’s personal friends like Keith Haring, Martin Burgoyne, Christopher Flynn, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Most recently, the singer paid tribute to the victims and survivors of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting at her Miami tour date on April 9. 

The attack is remembered as one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history, claiming the lives of 49 LGBTQ+ individuals, many of whom were queer people of colour, and leaving many more wounded.

Madonna invited survivors of the shooting to join her on stage as she spoke to the audience about the impact of the devastating shooting. “I want to draw attention to that moment because nightclubs and music and dance are what bring us together,” the singer said.

“They shouldn’t be places or things that we do that bring us sadness and tragedy and murder and death and pain and suffering and trauma. But unfortunately, human beings are still stuck in some kind of rut.

Madonna gave an emotional tribute to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting Victims at her final #CelebrationTour show in #Miami last night.

👉https://t.co/yYZuNeBJuq#Madonna #TheCelebrationTour #MadonnaCelebrationTourpic.twitter.com/qn0S26ZyTK

— Madonna Fan – TheCelebrationTour ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 (@NewMadonna1) April 10, 2024

“I will always stand for the gays, always, because the gays have always stood for me,” Madonna continued, before referring to the Pulse shooting as “the worst terror attack since 9/11”.

The “Material Girl” singer continued: “I make dance music. My job is to bring people together, to make people dance, to make people happy, to not judge. This s**t is not supposed to happen. Don’t forget about it. 

“When are we gonna learn? That’s a rhetorical question, but I’m telling you we all take part in this — you know why? Because we all judge each other. We think we’re so elevated, we think we’ve seen it all, we’ve done it all, but even I speak evil to other people. Even I judge.

“We’re all guilty of discrimination in one way or another, therefore we are, on a global level, contributing to these crimes of hate. Therefore, I ask you all to remember your responsibility, and I ask you all to remember you have the ability to shine light in the world and to make a difference.”

Surrounded by the survivors of the Pulse shooting as she spoke, Madonna began to cry as she asked the crowd to light up the arena with their phone torches and concluded: “Light up this room, so we are all reminded that their lives were not taken in vain, and that we are reminded that every one of us has the ability to shine our light on each other and share it with the world, share it with out friends, share it with out families, share it with our loved ones, share it with the people who don’t understand, share it with the people we think are our enemies because at the end of the day, we don’t have any f**king enemies! We are our own enemies. Please remember that.”

Madonna’s touching tribute to the survivors and victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting comes just weeks before the superstar wraps up her Celebration Tour with a free concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 4, 2024.