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Madonna has spoken of her heartbreak at the suffering in the Middle East as she kicked off her latest tour in London, which had been postponed following a life-threatening illness.

The US superstar urged fans at the O2 Arena on Saturday night to unite in “light and love” to help bring peace against the backdrop of the current Israel-Hamas war.

The conflict, which was sparked by the militant group launching a deadly assault from Gaza on Israel, has claimed thousands of lives on both sides.

Pausing her show, the 65-year-old singer told the audience: “We all come from love and it’s important to know that right now because there’s a lot of really crazy things happening in the world that are so painful to witness.

“All of us are suffering watching what’s happening in Israel and Palestine.

“It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, elderly people suffering. All of it is heartbreaking.”

She added: “Even though our hearts are broken, our spirits cannot be broken…

“We are all together very powerful people. We can unite in the dark and evil or we can unite in a place of light and love.

“And if we all had that collective consciousness, we could change the world and we can bring peace – not only to the Middle East but all over the world.”

Madonna also praised her children for supporting her while she was ill earlier this year with a “serious bacterial infection” which saw her admitted to intensive care for several days and forced her to postpone the tour, which had been due to begin in Canada in July.

The singer said: “It was a crazy year for me as well and I didn’t think I was going to make it, neither did my doctors.

“I forgot five days of my life, or my death, I don’t really know where I was.

“But the angels were protecting me and my children were there, and my children always save me every time.”

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Madonna is the most successful female artist in UK chart history

She added that her secret to surviving was thinking “I’ve got to be there for my children” before she struck up the chords to I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.

During the show, the Queen of Pop treated the enthusiastic audience to an array of classic songs from her four-decade career, a host of extravagant outfits and a variety of theatrical stage set-ups.

She also ensured the first show of her new tour would be a family affair as a number of her six children took to the stage throughout the nearly two-and-a-half-hour performance.

Read more on Sky News:
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After opening with powerful renditions of Nothing Really Matters and Into The Groove, she asked the crowd: “Am I imagining this? Oh my God, it is so good to be back London.”

Madonna lived in London for several years while dating and married to film director Guy Ritchie.

She added: “I’m pretty damned surprised that I made it this far and I mean that on so many levels… How did I make it this far? Because of you. I’m going to take a bit of credit too.”

EUM20190616ESP10.JPG.CIUDAD DE M..XICO, Music/M..sica/Madonna.- Madonna, conocida como la "Reina del Pop", laza un nuevo material discogr..fico, el cual tiene como nombre "Madame X", con sonidos noventeros mezclados con una infinidad de ritmos, entre los que resaltan los latinos. Foto: Archivo Agencia EL UNIVERSAL/RDB.
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It is her first tour since her Madame X shows, which ended in 2020. Pic: AP

Madonna had to stop the performance briefly as she explained there was a problem with the sound and they had to “press the reset button”.

The singer apologised for the delay and admitted “this is exactly what you don’t want to happen on your opening night” but kept the crowd entertained by recalling anecdotes from her days in her first band when she was “broke and hungry and making zero cash”, confessing she would “date men who had showers and bathtubs” as she had no way to wash at the time.

After the sound issues were resolved, the singer made up for the wait by launching into lively versions of Open Your Heart and Holiday.

She also performed a rendition of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina draped in a Ukraine flag.

Madonna will perform three more sold-out dates in London before moving on to her European and North American legs.

It is her first tour since her Madame X shows, which ended in 2020.

Some of these performances were called off due to knee and hip injuries.

Madonna is the most successful female artist in UK chart history with 13 number-one hits.

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Christina Aguilera on bringing Burlesque to the stage and her rise to fame

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Christina Aguilera on bringing Burlesque to the stage and her rise to fame

Christina Aguilera has told Sky News it is “magical” to see her hit film Burlesque being brought to London’s West End – and also opened up about her rise to fame in the late 1990s.

The US star topped the US and UK charts with Genie In A Bottle in 1999, before finding an even bigger audience with her acclaimed album Stripped and hits including Dirrty, Beautiful and Fighter in the early 2000s.

Christina Aguilera is a producer for the stage adaptation of Burlesque. Pic: Hayden Coens @daydreamsmedia
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Christina Aguilera is a producer for the stage adaptation of Burlesque. Pic: Hayden Coens @daydreamsmedia

In 2010, she starred in Burlesque alongside Cher, Julianne Hough and Stanley Tucci, and now, 15 years later, is a producer for the stage version of the show alongside the film’s original director and writer, Steven Antin.

Speaking ahead of the show’s gala night, Aguilera told Sky News presenter Leah Boleto she has enjoyed taking a backseat and seeing the fresh interpretation of her character – a small-town girl turned into a star.

Christina Aguilera is a producer for the stage adaptation of Burlesque The Musical, on at London's Savoy Theatre. Pic: Pamela Raith
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Burlesque The Musical. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography

“It’s just so beautiful to see the talent that’s on this stage and to absorb it and appreciate the fresh takes on things,” she said. “I love actually taking a step back and a backseat… it’s beautiful to see the reinvention.

“When you’re in it, you focus on the choreography, all these different elements, that being able to take a backseat and being more of a visionary of the bigger picture, it’s really a special thing.”

Aguilera said she had been “blown away” by Jess Folley, who plays her character Ali in the show, and has fully embraced the “powerhouse vocals” as well as the vulnerability needed for the role.

“She just is doing such a magnificent, magnificent job and likewise inspires me as well,” she said.

Jess Folley stars in Burlesque The Musical. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography
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Jess Folley stars as Ali, the role originally played by Aguilera, in Burlesque The Musical. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography

Aguilera said she would love to see her film co-star Cher popping by to see the show in London.

“She’s always welcome to grace us with her incredible, iconic presence. And I’m just so grateful that I had the time to be with her. I mean, looking back, it’s just – did that even happen?”

Aguilera arrived on the scene at the same time as Britney Spears, at a time when young female pop stars were celebrated, sexualised and scrutinised.

After the success of her debut album, she took a different direction with Stripped – embracing her sexuality and famously taking on a less girlish image with chaps, a nose stud and black streaks in her hair for the Dirrty video, and opening up about her life and emotions through songs such as Fighter and Beautiful.

Christina Aguilera at the MTV Video Awards in New York in 2002. Pic: Star Max via AP Images
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Aguilera at the MTV Video Awards in New York in 2002. Pic: Star Max via AP Images

She also took on the patriarchy in Can’t Hold Us Down, a duet with Lil’ Kim, and performed on the hit cover of Lady Marmalade alongside Lil’ Kim, Maya and Pink for Moulin Rouge!

“I always want to stay true to authenticity,” she said. “And for me, with that first album it was wonderful to get my foot in the door…

“It’s important to me that I stepped out on my own and reflected all sides of me as a woman, embracing my sexuality and sensuality, and my body… Dirrty, I just loved those chaps and everything about that was just so fun and raw.”

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So would she do it all again, then? Or would she prefer to be an artist starting out now?

“The ’90s, it was a pretty special time in music. And it was a time when you could still like go to Virgin records or like wherever and look at the CDs, look at the packaging. And, you know, sometimes the authenticity is missed.”

However, the good thing about social media now is that it has given stars the means to tell their own stories, she adds. “You have an opportunity now to really present yourself in ways that it’s not just about the music, to become more the narrator in real time… this is what it is like, be your own voice rather than reading about yourself in an article.”

But still, she wouldn’t swap. “It has to stay where it was.”

Burlesque The Musical is showing at The Savoy theatre in London now

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Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show’s Theo, drowns in Costa Rica

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Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show's Theo, drowns in Costa Rica

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show character Theo, has drowned in Costa Rica, according to authorities.

The country’s Judicial Investigation Department said the 54-year-old actor drowned on Sunday afternoon off a beach on the Caribbean coast.

It is understood he was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when he was pulled underwater by a current.

“He was rescued by people on the beach,” according to the department’s early report, but emergency workers from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without any signs of life and he was taken to the morgue.

Warner was on holiday with his family at the time, according to US celebrity news site People.

The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992 on NBC in the US and is regarded as a groundbreaking show for its portrayal of a successful black middle-class family. It was also shown on Channel 4 in the UK at around the same time.

 Malcolm-Jamal Warner in September 2017
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Malcolm-Jamal Warner in September 2017. Pic: Reuters

Its star, Bill Cosby, played a doctor named Cliff Huxtable, with Warner in the role of Theo, his only son.

The NBC sitcom was the most popular show in America for much of its run between 1984 and 1992.

Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.

For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly-botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.

Warner ‘proud’ of show despite Cosby claims

The legacy of The Cosby Show has been tarnished after Cosby was jailed in 2018 following a conviction for sexual assault.

He was released in 2021 after his conviction was overturned.

Dozens of women had accused Cosby of sexual assault or rape before the trial.

Pic: Getty
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Warner, back centre, with the rest of the cast of The Cosby Show. Pic: Getty

Following his release from prison, Cosby was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was a teenager.

Warner told the Associated Press in 2015: “My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of colour on television and film… We’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”

In 2023, Warner told People in an interview: “I know I can speak for all the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are all still very proud of.”

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Malcolm-Jamal Warner, left, on stage with singer Stevie Wonder, centre, and Bill Cosby, at awards show in 2011. Pic: AP
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Warner (left) on stage with Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby at an awards show in 2011. Pic: AP

Warner wins a Grammy

Following his career on The Cosby Show, Warner later appeared on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the series on the UPN network from 1996 to 2000.

In the 2010s he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom Read Between The Lines.

He also had a role as OJ Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings in American Crime Story and was a series regular on Fox’s The Resident.

Films he has appeared in include the 2008 rom-com Fool’s Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

A poet and a musician, Warner won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for the song Jesus Children with Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway. He was also nominated for best spoken word poetry album for Hiding In Plain View.

Warner was married with a daughter, but chose to not publicly disclose their names.

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Danny Dyer on Mr Bigstuff, Oasis, and his surprising screensaver

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Danny Dyer on Mr Bigstuff, Oasis, and his surprising screensaver

From Human Traffic and The Business to his critically acclaimed performance in the raunchy TV adaptation of Rivals, via a stint as Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders, Danny Dyer has been on our screens for more than 30 years.

But it was his performance in the TV comedy Mr Bigstuff that earned him his first BAFTA win – and one of the ceremony’s biggest cheers from the audience – earlier this year.

Danny Dyer in Mr Bigstuff
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Danny Dyer as Lee Campbell in Mr Bigstuff

Now, he returns to his prize-winning role for the second series of the Sky show, which tells the story of two estranged brothers – Glen (played by creator Ryan Sampson), an anxious carpet salesman living his ideal suburban life with fiancee Kirsty (Harriet Webb), and Lee (played by Dyer), an alpha male who struts back into his brother’s life carrying their father’s ashes.

The Campbell brothers in the Bafta-winning series
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Ryan Sampson (right) created the series and stars alongside Dyer

Several EastEnders alumni feature, including Nitin Ganatra, Victoria Alcock and Linda Henry, who played Dyer’s on-screen mother, Shirley Carter.

Reflecting on some of Albert Square’s most famous characters and who would work well in Mr Bigstuff, Dyer says he would have loved to see the late June Brown, who played the chain-smoking hypochondriac Dot Cotton for 35 years, taking on a role.

“Absolute legend,” he says.

Sampson suggests the late Dame Barbara Windsor, who played the formidable Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell, but has a clear pitch if season three gets the green light.

“It could still be a possible, it would be amazing,” he says. “You want your Pat Butcher, don’t you? You want Pam St Clement. Why hasn’t she played a mafia boss yet? She’d be amazing. She’d be incredible at it.”

Danny Dyer in the press room after winning the Male Performance in a Comedy Programme Award for 'Mr Bigstuff' during the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, London. Picture date: Sunday May 11, 2025.
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Dyer at the BAFTAs earlier this year. Pic: PA

Dyer reveals his screensaver

After his long career on screen, Dyer is now enjoying playing a variety of roles alongside the Cockney geezer types that became his bread and butter in the early noughties.

His nuanced performance as awkward entrepreneur Freddie Jones in Rivals brought him praise from fans and critics alike, and Mr Bigstuff his BAFTA.

But Dyer always had range. After small TV roles in shows including The Bill and A Touch Of Frost, he grew close to the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter in 2000 after auditioning and earning the role of a waiter in his play Celebration at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, north London.

“I’ve got Harold Pinter as a screensaver on my phone,” he says. “I always feel that he’s sort of looking down on me or close to me, so I like to just feel that he’s around me.”

Dyer continued the role in Celebration both in the West End and on Broadway, with Pinter becoming his mentor in the process.

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In 2020, he presented a Sky Arts documentary, Danny Dyer On Pinter, which explored the life, career and impact of the playwright and screenwriter, who died in 2008.

He also has plans to develop a stage tribute to his friend, currently titled When Harry Met Danny.

Reflecting on his entry into the industry, he says theatre was quite inaccessible at the time, but Pinter opened it up to him.

“I think it’s even worse now, which I feel is a sad state of affairs,” he says. “I don’t know why that is. Everything’s become quite elite. All the elite f****** looking after themselves, so that needs to change.”

‘Love in the air’ at Oasis gig

But Pinter isn’t his only big influence – Dyer was one of the thousands of fans to see Oasis make their return to the stage in Cardiff earlier this month.

“It was really emotional seeing them come out,” he says. “There was a lot of love in the air, a lot of good energy.

“You know, there’s a lot of f****** shit going on. I think people, of my age as well, just want to jump around and sing them songs at the top of their lungs. So I’m still recovering, I’m not going to lie.”

Mr Bigstuff returns for season two on Thursday, on Sky Max and NOW

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