The singer is suing the owner over a change in the terms of her lease, in particular a rule preventing her children or staff being at the property while she is absent.

Following her attempts to have the case heard in the civil court, a Manhattan judge compared her to a door-to-door salesman or a jailed crook.

Judge Gerald Lebovits told her lawyers: “Let’s say your client were a traveling salesperson or away in college or serving a brief period in jail, wouldn’t your client be as protected then as she is now going on tour and spending an inordinate amount of time in hotels.”

He said her case belongs in housing court with other New Yorkers, and not in the Manhattan Civil Court.

“There’s a landlord-tenant relationship between your client and the cooperative corporation and they could bring a housing court action to evict,” the judge added.

Madonna’s attorney, Stuart Shaw replied: “She has homes all around the world, she travels extensively, she has a house in California, she has a house in Europe. She goes on tours, she spends an inordinate amount of time in hotels, yet the places she calls home is 64th Street”.

The judge is due to issue a written decision in the coming weeks.