Some concertgoers made their displeasure known with Madonna yesterday night in Bucharest after she spoke out against the discrimination of Gypsies in eastern Europe during her Sticky & Sweet concert in Park Izvor.

Madonna paused in the two-hour concert in Bucharest to say that Gypsies, also known as Roma, were discriminated against in eastern Europe. She said that made her “sad” and nobody should be discriminated against.

“It’s been brought to my attention that there’s a lot of discrimination against Romani and Gypsies in general in eastern Europe, and that makes me very sad,” she told the crowd of 60,000. As she spoke, a vocal minority began booing her words. She did not acknowledge the jeers.

When she proclaimed, “We believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone!“, you can actually here people yelling “No!”, however the cheers of approving fans eventually drowned out the grumbling.

Roma musicians and a Roma dancer were featured in her show, held just yards from the giant palace of ex-communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Their performances were applauded by the crowd.

There are officially some 500,000 Roma in Romania, but the real number could be around 2 million. They face prejudice and discrimination in Romania and other east European nations.

From articles by the Associated Press and PopEater.

Video from perrymod‘s channel on YouTube.