Madonna while “Celebration Tour” performs the greatest hits from his career spanning over 40 years. In this more nostalgic segment of the concert, he sings the song “Live to Tell” from 1986, and the audience is shown photos of the artists, as well as ordinary people who died after fighting AIDS.
During a concert in Sacramento, a photograph came into view of the audience Luther Vandross, the legendary singer who died in 2005. The problem is that his death was not related to AIDS at all. The artist’s family decided to react immediately and ask Madonna not to show his photo during the concert.
“Luther Vandross died in 2005 from complications following a stroke he suffered two years earlier,” a spokesman for Vandross’ estate told Page Six. However, he admitted that he appreciated Madonna’s gesture to honor the dead during the concert. “(…) however, Luther was NEVER diagnosed with AIDS or HIV,” he continues.
It is not known how this unexpected failure occurred. “We are unsure where she or her production team received false medical information claiming otherwise,” the spokesperson said. “We are currently in contact with her team to remove Luther Vandross from the tribute,” he admitted. After comments from the star’s relatives, the 65-year-old “queen of pop” decided to comply with the requests.
Let us recall that for years there were rumors about the sexual orientation of the singer, who died in 2005, and in the 1980s, Vandross himself went to court with one of the British magazines after suggesting that his sudden loss of almost forty kilograms was related to suffering from AIDS. In 2017, his friend Patti LaBelle confessed in an interview that Luther Vandross was gay, but he never wanted to come out for fear of the reaction of the world and his fans.