Madonna stepped off the stage after her Paris concert on Wednesday night and headed to another performance.
But unlike her sold-out show at the AccorHotels Arena, this one had just a small crowd of onlookers, swaying and snapping photos with their cell phones.
It started with an announcement the Material Girl sent to fans on Twitter, inviting them to the Place de la Republique, the site of a memorial to victims of the November 13 terrorist attacks.
It wasn’t long before a crowd gathered, and social media posts showed up featuring video and photographs of the singer belting out her own songs and other classics, such as John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
In an Instagram post, Madonna said she was singing “songs for peace” with her son David Banda and guitarist Monte Pittman.
Video and photos from the scene showed the singer standing in front of a makeshift memorial in the plaza honoring the victims of the Paris attacks.
At a concert in Stockholm, Sweden, after the Paris attacks, Madonna teared up as she explained why she’d decided to continue her “Rebel Heart Tour” in Europe.
“I feel torn, like why am I up here dancing and having fun when people are crying over the loss of their loved ones?” she said. “However, that is exactly what these people want to do. They want to shut us up. They want to silence us. And we won’t let them.”
That night, she led the crowd in a moment of silence before leading them in a rendition of her song “Like a Prayer.”
She sang the same song Wednesday night on the streets of Paris. Afterward, the singer blew kisses at the crowd and shouted out the word “peace.”