At her Udine gig, Madonna tearfully remembered the two men who lost their lives working to build her stage for her Marseilles show. In all, over 30 were injured during the construction tragedy. By all accounts, this has devastated Madonna, who was said to have spent an hour crying in her car after soundcheck in Udine. (This kind of mishap is relatively rare despite the grandiosity of her stage; fans I spoke with could only remember two other similar occasions where major injuries or worse had occurred in her 24 years of touring.)

My friend Giulio, who attended the show, said:

"She was nervous and tense and wouldn't sing any of the 'I'm not sorry!'s in 'Human Nature.' Then the warmth of the audience slowly got her to feel better. She said, 'Italians do it better!' three times. Before 'You Must Love Me,' she made a passionate speech and started crying FOR REAL. Guy O[seary, her manager,] in the pit filmed. Will surely put it online. Then she did the song in the most beautiful way ever. It began with sobbing, then got stronger. Audience absolutely silent, then started singing from the second verse with her and gave the warmest applause at the end.

"She later dedicated the show to the two dead workers and delivered a very intense 'Ray of Light.' She was upset and confused in 'Give It To Me.' Very touching. She truly was committed to bringing life, light and inspiration. Even though in a tragic situation, I feel blessed to have witnessed this show and to have been a part of it, receiving a lot and giving some back to her. Life is precious and beautiful."

Two videos of her speech and full text after the jump...

Madonna speaking in Udine July 16, 2009, prior to performing "You Must Love Me":

"All right...before I continue with the show, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and pay tribute to two people who lost their lives today. You may have heard of it, I don't know, if you haven't, um, when they were building my, my show in Marseille, where we're playing next, we don't know why but one of the cranes fell, a piece of the stage fell down, and two men lost their lives...which is quite tragic to me [crying]. [We're here, we're?] here to give life and to inspire life and, so, I feel so, so devastated to be, to be in any way associated with anyone's suffering. So let's all just take a moment to say a prayer for Charles Criscenzo and for Charlie Prow—two men who lost their lives today. And also, also our hearts go out to their families, to their loved ones, and please let's all just take a moment to appreciate life in general. Our own lives, the people around us, our families, our friends, our loved ones—we are all so blessed and so lucky to be alive."

No sound, but closeup.

Full sound.