Lady Gaga gave a free concert in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night in front of at least a million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach for the biggest show of her career. The Mother Monster, as she is known, kicked off the show at around 22:10 p.m. local time with her 2011 song “Bloody Mary.” Cries of joy rose from the tightly-packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Lady Gaga performed her classic hits, including “Poker Face” and “Alejandro,” switching between an array of dresses including one with the colours of the Brazilian flag. Madonna also turned Copacabana Beach into a massive dance floor last year.
The large-scale performances are part of an effort led by City Hall to boost economic activity after Carnival and New Years’ Eve festivities and the upcoming month-long Saint John’s Day celebrations in June. Rio’s City Hall said in a recent report that around 1.6 million people were expected to attend Lady Gaga’s concert and that the show should inject at least 600 million reais (some $106 million) into Rio’s economy. Similar concerts are scheduled to take place every year in May at least until 2028. Lady Gaga arrived in Rio in the early hours of Tuesday.
The city has been alive with Gaga-mania since, as it geared up to welcome the pop star for her first show in the country since 2012. Rio’s metro employees danced to Lady Gaga’s 2008 hit song “LoveGame” and gave instructions for Saturday in a video. A free exhibition celebrating her career sold out. While the vast majority of attendees were from Rio, the event also attracted Brazilians from across the country and international visitors.
More than 500,000 tourists poured into the city in the days leading up to the show, more than double the initial forecast, according to data from the local bus station and Tom Jobim airport, Rio’s City Hall said in a statement on Friday. Rio officials have a history of organizing huge concerts on Copacabana Beach. Madonna’s show drew an estimated 1.6 million fans last year, while 4 million people flooded onto the beach for a 1994 New Year’s Eve show by Rod Stewart in 1994.
According to Guinness World Records, that was the biggest free rock concert in history. To ensure fans could hear the songs, sixteen sound towers were spread along the beach. Rio state’s security plan included the presence of 3,300 military and 1,500 police officers, and 400 military firefighters.
