People Are Criticizing Madonna For 'Exploiting' 11-Year-Old Daughter With On-Stage Performance During Her 'Celebration' Tour

Madonna Celebration Tour London O2 Arena
Madonna Celebration Tour London O2 Arena

Blue Ivy isn’t the only celebrity child to get on stage with their mom this year, as a few of Madonna‘s children also joined her on stage during her highly-anticipated Celebration Tour which kicked off earlier this month. The retrospective tour highlights her super-impressive career which has spanned over four decades, and will conclude on April 24th, 2024, at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, Mexico.

Madonna’s children were very much involved on day one of the Celebration Tour at the O2 in London on Saturday, October 14th, as 17-year-old daughter Chifundo ‘Mercy’ James took to the stage to play the piano during the instrumental to her mom’s iconic hit “Bad Girl,” while 18-year-old son David played guitar during part of “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Mother and Father.”

However, it was 11-year-old daughter Estere who got the most attention, as she was seen busting some very impressive dance moves while 27-year-old daughter Lourdes was sitting on the stage ‘judging’ the performance, in homage to the underground ballroom scene. While we *love* how Madonna got a lot of the family involved in the tour, not everyone felt the same way!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Page Six (@pagesix)

Madonna Faces Criticism For Having 11-Year-Old Daughter Dance On Stage

Social media was rife with comments from unimpressed people, with the comments section of an October 16th Page Six Instagram post featuring a video of Estere dancing (or Vogueing, more accurately) featuring a *lot* of negative remarks. Estere was dressed in a yellow and black skin-tight catsuit and black over-the-knee heeled boots, which many people also took issue with.

“Inappropriate, sick, pedophilic and exploitative. A child in over the knee fetish high heels, dancing in a sexualized manner is disgusting,” slammed one person. “11 year old? Wow not cute,” commented another, which many others seemed to agree with. “I agree, it’s disgusting and inappropriate for an 11 year old to be winding and grinding on stage. Let kids be kids,” replied another, although another said, “There was no winding or grinding, you sound ridiculous.”

Several people noted that Estere's dancing was reminiscent of the iconic Vogue dance moves which Madonna made famous in the 80s, with one fan chiming in: "She's not grinding. It's literally voguing. Are y'all ok?"

Other people did also come to Madonna and Estere's defense, with one person saying, "So sad you are jealous of an 11 year old," followed by the crying laughing emoji, and another adding, "It’s dance. It’s an art. Stop making something it isn’t and stop sexualizing a child."

However, the negative comments still continued. "Does no one care that this CHILD is 11 years old?? Inappropriate!" exclaimed another person in the comments. "Child services? Where are you?" remarked another, as someone else said: "They really be grooming those kids sad."

"That poor kid," said another person, while another said, "Not loving this for an 11 year old," and another added, "11 year olds should not be dancing like this." Madonna is used to diving the internet; and day one of her Celebration Tour certainly did just that!