Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career.
“Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd.
The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm 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.
Photo: AP
Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show.
Lady Gaga performed her classic hits, including Poker Face and Alejandro, switching between an array of dresses, including one with the colors of the Brazilian flag.
Some fans — many of them young — arrived on the beach at the crack of dawn to secure a good spot, armed with snacks and drinks. They spent the day under a blazing sun, while others perched in trees, determined to get a panoramic view.
“Today is the best day of my life,” said Manoela Dobes, a 27-year-old designer who was wearing a dress plastered with a photograph from when she met Lady Gaga in the US in 2019.
“It’s surreal to be here,” Dobes said.
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 next month.
“It brings activity to the city during what was previously considered the low season — filling hotels and increasing spending in bars, restaurants, and retail, generating jobs and income for the population,” Rio Secretary of Economic Development Osmar Lima said in a statement.
Rio City Hall in a recent report said that the show should inject at least 600 million reais (US$106 million) into Rio’s economy.
Similar concerts are scheduled to take place every year in May at least until 2028.
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 City Hall said in a statement on Friday.
Ingrid Serrano, a 30-year-old engineer, made a cross-continent trip from Colombia to Brazil to attend the show.
“I’ve been a 100 percent fan of Lady Gaga my whole life,” said Serrano, who was wearing a T-shirt featuring Lady Gaga’s outlandish costumes over the years.
For her, the mega-star represents “total freedom of expression — being who one wants without shame.”
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. That was the biggest free rock concert in history, according to Guinness World Records.
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