Madonna opened The Celebration Tour in London on Saturday (Oct. 14) night at the O2 Arena. Although the triumphant, hits-filled spectacle was mostly celebratory, the reliably outspoken pop star took a moment to address the war between Israel and Hamas-controlled Palestine before the night was over. No surprise there — when Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israeli soil left an eventual 1,300 people (primarily civilians) dead a week ago, she quickly condemned the attacks on Instagram. But clearly, even on the opening night of her tour, the escalating situation and ongoing violence is weighing heavily on her mind. 

“It breaks my heart watching what’s happening in Israel and Palestine,” she told the crowd. “It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, elderly people suffering. All of it is heartbreaking, okay? I’m sure you agree. Even though our hearts are broken, our spirits cannot be broken. Are you with me?” After the crowd clapped in approval, she continued. 

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, what can I do? I’m just one person.’ You feel hopeless. You feel helpless. What can we do? There’s a lot we can do. First and foremost, we can say, ‘I can make a difference because I individually can bring light into the world with my actions, with my words, each and every day.’ I’m sorry. This isn’t about lecturing you — but we are all together very powerful people. We can unite in a dark and evil way, or we can unite from a place of light and love. And if we all have that collective consciousness, we can change the world, and we can bring peace – not only to the Middle East, but to the whole world.”

That was far from the only serious moment during an otherwise jubilant evening. The Queen of Pop – whose tour kickoff was postponed due to a hospital stay after a “serious bacterial infection” in June – got candid about her brush with mortality during the evening, too. 

“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she stated bluntly at one point during the show. “I forgot five days of my life — or death, I didn’t really know where I was.” But Madonna said it was her family, ultimately, who pulled her through. “My children were there — and my children always save me every time.” Calling it her “secret” to survival, Madonna said she simply tells herself, “I have got to be there for my children – I have to survive for them.”

Four of her children were, in fact, on stage with her during the tour opener – all of them performing, too. When it comes to family, Madonna does indeed keep it together.

The producers of Israel’s Supernova Sukkot Gathering have released their first statement following the massacre of roughly 260 attendees at the festival in Re’im, Israel, last Saturday (Oct. 7).

The festival was hosting approximately 3,000 attendees, with the lineup focused on the electronic psytrance subgenre. At around 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists entered the site by truck, motorcycle, ATV and paraglider and immediately began killing festival attendees with machine guns and RPGs. A number of attendees were also taken hostage by Hamas. (While the exact number of hostages is unknown, two people close the festival put the number at around 150.)

Today (Oct. 14), Supernova Sukkot Gathering producer Tribe of Nova posted a statement (published in both Hebrew and English) to its Facebook page. In it, organizers state that they are “working hand in hand with security forces and authorities to help find answers and bring back all that those who can return to their families and friends.”

The statement also notes that members of the Nova Tribe team have been at the site of the attack over the past week, “searching for those located in the disaster area, or other locations, recovering equipment from the site and its surroundings and, above all, ensuring the security of Israel.”

The statement continues to say that “at this moment, our production team is focused on providing the right and extensive emotional and mental support to everyone involved. This is the most important thing in this moment.”

Read the complete statement below.

Supernova Sukkot Gathering was the Israeli offshoot of the Paralello Universo festival, a psytrance festival launched in Brazil roughly 20 years ago.

Hamas attacked others areas in the region of the festival site, located near the Gaza border, on Oct. 7. Israeli has since retaliated with days of heavy bombing of Gaza, with the death toll of Palestinians rising.

Complete Statement From Nova Tribe:

“Our dear tribe of Nova, first and foremost, we want to convey our sincere and heartfelt condolences to all the families, friends, partners and couples who have lost their loved ones or have been affected by the tragic events that unfolded, following that magic night and that turned into an exceedingly heavy morning.

What was planned to be the happiest and largest electronic music festival of the Nova Tribe has turned into a scene of unspeakable tragedy, an inhumane war crime, an unprecedented violation of the most basic human values.

This is the epitome of pure and unbridled evil, the horrifying and senseless murder of countless innocent angels, whose only ‘crime’ was being Jewish and living in Israel.

It’s no wonder that these agents of darkness targets this joyous gathering of children of light, for their sole and singular purpose is to bring darkness upon the world. But we won’t let them do that!

We will keep fighting until we reach our objective adorned on our tribe’s flag: to spread light throughout the world, with the help of the holy people of Israel and the Nova Tribe.

Last Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, we were brutally attacked by hundreds of terrorists, heartless, ruthless and lacking any mercy. They murdered in cold blood hundreds of women and men, our beloved Tribe of Nova members, as well as numerous innocent Israeli civilians.

It was a heinous, terrifying, brutal massacre of innocent civilians from all over the country and the world, the best and most among us. This was [one of] the largest terrorist attack[s] in Israeli history. Taking the lives of 1,400 pure and innocent souls with over 150 remain [sic] missing, thousands left physically injured to varying degrees, and tens of thousands psychologically, emotionally and mentally broken. [Billboard editor’s note: While around 260 festival attendee deaths have been reported, CNN says that last weekend’s Hamas attacks overall killed more than 1,300 people.]

At this moment, our production team is focused on providing the right and extensive emotional and mental support to everyone involved. This is the most important thing in this moment.

We are working tirelessly, day and night, conducting search and rescue operations, helping identify the victims and updating their families. Searching for those located in the disaster area, or other locations, recovering equipment from the site and its surroundings and, above all, ensuring the security of Israel.

This is our sole goal, and we will stand behind it and fulfill it to the best of our abilities. We will not stop.

We are present at the disaster site and its vicinity day in and day out, working hand in hand with security forces and authorities to help find answers and bring back all that those who can return to their families and friends.

At the moment, this is our top priority. In the meantime, it’s essential for us to convey the following message: Our strength lies in our unity! We are in a war for our home, and it’s essential that we all come together, strengthen each other, and unite under one great, shining light to overcome this dark period as quickly as possible.

We send infinite love and a massive embrace to all Tribe of Nova members and all around Israeli civilians, the injured, the affected and the families of the deceased and the missing.

Wishing all of you to stay safe and that you take care of yourselves. We continue to pray that goodness and light will always prevail.

Wish wishes for a peaceful and safe week and good tidings for all of the people of Israel. Both in the land and across the world.”

Aaron Carter’s twin sister, Angel Carter, has revealed the final resting place of the late singer.

On Friday (Oct. 13), Angel took to social media to provide an update on her brother’s burial site. Her post included an image of a bronze plaque featuring a carved portrait of her brother.

“Aaron’s portrait was placed this morning at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills,” she captioned the photo on Instagram. “He adored his fans, and I know how much this would mean to him now having a final resting place where we could all celebrate his life.”

Angel added, “I invite you to visit, share your memories, and never forget who Aaron was deep down,” followed by a white heart and dove emoji.

Aaron, a former child star and brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, died in November 2022 at age 34, with a string of chart hits and TV credits to his name.

Earlier this year, Carter’s autopsy results were released by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, who ruled his death as accidental and revealed the late star drowned in his bathtub after taking a deadly combination of difluoroethane (the gas used in cans of compressed air) and alprazolam (the generic form of Xanax).

At the time of his younger brother’s death, Nick Carter posted an emotional and devastating memorial to him, writing, “My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed…God, Please take care of my baby brother.”

Other tributes honoring Carter poured in across social media from everyone from Hilary Duff — whom he dated briefly in the early 2000s — and New Kids on the Block to Paris Hilton, Christy Carlson Romano, Melissa Joan Hart and more. Controversy erupted among the onetime teen heartthrob’s fanbase when he was left out of the “In Memoriam” segment at the 2023 Grammy Awards just a few months later.

See Angel Carter’s post on Instagram below.