Madonna tearfully leads a on-stage tribute and a minute's silence for the victims of the Paris attack

Madonna paid an emotional tribute to the victims of the Paris terrorist atrocities after admitting she nearly cancelled her performance out of respect for those who died and their families.

The American superstar was in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of her Rebel Heart tour when she addressed the crowd following Friday's attack, which left at least 129 people dead and many more injured.

But the tearful 57-year-old singer said she decided to carry on with Saturday's gig because she wanted to stand up to the barbaric terrorists, and not let them stop anyone doing 'what they love.'

In the video of the poignant speech uploaded to YouTube, she said: 'It has been very hard for me to get through the show until this point.

'So I need to take this moment to acknowledge the tragedy - the tragic killings, assassinations, and the senseless ending of precious life that occurred last night in Paris.

'Because, in many ways, I feel torn. Like, why are we up here dancing and having fun when people are crying over the loss of their loved ones?

'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. We will never let them.'

In her poignant speech, which was met with huge applause and cheering from the crowd, she urged the world to unite to bring about positive change in the face of terrorism across the globe.

'Because there is power in unity and I do believe that - as much as there is chaos and pain and senseless violence and terrorism that occurs around the world, not just in Paris,' she said.

'There is more goodness in this world. We are here to prove it.

'I was going to cancel my show tonight but I thought to myself: "Why should I give that to them?" Why should I allow them to stop me? And to stop us from enjoying freedom?"

'All of the places where people were killed were places where people were having fun, where people were enjoying themselves.

' Eating in restaurants, dancing, singing, watching a soccer match. These are freedoms that we take for granted, of course, and we must not - but they're freedoms that we deserve - we work hard, we deserve to have fun.

'And there is no one in this world that should have the right to stop us from doing what we love.'

The singer continued: 'Another important point that I want to make is that, yes, there are people who have no respect for human life and there are people that do atrocious, degrading, and unforgivable things to other human beings, but we will never, ever, ever change this world we live in if we do not change ourselves.

'The way we change the world is not to elect another president, not to kill a hundred more people - the way we change the world is we change the way we treat one another on a daily basis.

'In the simplest of ways. We must start treating every human being with dignity and respect.

The star, who said her Rebel Heart tour embodied the idea of celebrating life and standing up for our rights, added: 'Only love will change the world, but it's very hard to love unconditionally, and it's very hard to love that what we do not understand and that what is different to what we are, but we have to. Or this will go on and on forever.'

Wiping back the tears, Madonna then called on the crowd to join her in a minute's silence to remember the victims of the Paris attacks, before performing a poignant and pared-down version of her hit Like A Prayer.

She is one of many celebrities, including David Beckham, to speak out about the horror of the murderous assault on the French capital.