Madonna got booed while performing to a packed crowd of 60,000+ fans in Bucharest, Romania when she paused during her two-hour show to say:

"It has been brought to my attention, that there is a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe - it made me feel very sad."

"We don't believe in discrimination, we believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone."

She got more boos she mentioned prejudice against homosexuals and others.

While Madonna is reported to have been surprised by the reaction, she did not acknowledge the crowd's reaction, carried on with the remainder of the show, held outside the palace of late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Madonna is currently on her worldwide "Sticky and Sweat" tour.

Sometimes, it can be deadly: In neighboring Hungary, six Roma have been killed and several wounded in a recent series of apparently racially motivated attacks targeting small countryside villages predominantly settled by Gypsies.

"There is generally widespread resentment against Gypsies in Eastern Europe. They have historically been the underdog," Radu Motoc, an official with the Soros Foundation Romania, said Thursday.

Roma, or Gypsies, are a nomadic ethnic group believed to have their roots in the Indian subcontinent. They live mostly in southern and eastern Europe, but hundreds of thousands have migrated west over the past few decades in search of jobs and better living conditions.

Romania has the largest number of Roma in the region. Some say the population could be as high as 2 million, although official data put it at 500,000.

Until the 19th century, Romanian Gypsies were slaves, and they've gotten a mixed response ever since: While discrimination is widespread, many East Europeans are enthusiastic about Gypsy music and dance, which they embrace as part of the region's cultural heritage.

That explains why the Roma musicians and a dancer who had briefly joined Madonna onstage got enthusiastic applause. And it also may explain why some in the crowd turned on Madonna when she paused during the two-hour show — a stop on her worldwide "Sticky and Sweet" tour — to touch on their plight.

Source: Associated Press

In June 2009, in a racist attack against the roma population in Belfast, men armed with bricks and bottles drove 100+ Romanian gypsies from their homes in Belfast, North Ireland.

In May 2007, Romania's president, Traian Basescu, apologised after he was heard calling a Romanian journalist a "stinky Gypsy" during a conversation with his wife.

Come on people stop the hate!