Madonna draws ire from Poland over concert date

Protesters have demanded authorities cancel the Warsaw concert, and urged people to stay away because it falls on August 1, one of the most solemn days in the Polish calendar.

Sixty-eight years ago on August 1 Poland's underground army launched the Warsaw Uprising, a heroic but ultimately futile attempt to rest the Polish capital from Nazi hands. The battle claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, left Warsaw a shattered and lifeless ruin, and its commemoration is a source of intense national pride in Poland.

Madonna's decision to perform on the Uprising's anniversary, along with her reputation for using religious imagery during her concerts, has left some in Poland in fuming.

One Catholic group claims 50,000 have signed a pledge not to see Madonna, and posters advertising the concert have been defaced with the underground army's symbol. Catholic protesters have also held special masses and prayer meetings in an attempt to stop the "blasphemous show".

"Veteran organisations, patriots and Catholic movements are outraged by the concert held by Madonna Louise Ciccone on August 1," said Stanislaw Pieta, an opposition MP with the conservative Law and Justice Party who has been at the forefront of a campaign to have the concert cancelled. He added that the decision to choose the date "was not accidental but an antireligious and anti-Polish provocation." On Fronda.pl, a Catholic website, three exorcists wrote that during a Madonna concert "we are witnessing the desecration of the cross and a profanation of the holy sacrament".

The Warsaw controversy comes as the latest blow to the 53-year-old singer's tour. In France fans booed one her shows after she appeared for just 45 minutes, and she angered far-Right supporters with a video showing Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, with a swastika on her head.

In an atte! mpt to a ppease patriotic sentiment in Poland a short documentary film on the Warsaw Uprising will be shown to the audience before the start of the concert.