When Madonna took to the big stage constructed on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana seashore on Saturday night time, sporting a glittering headpiece and a black kimono, she was greeted by the most important dwell viewers of her four-decade profession.
The free present, introduced on the finish of March, was the grand finale of the pop star’s most up-to-date world tour, which has already featured 80 performances. since last October. With out ticket information, viewers sizes at reveals might be troublesome to evaluate; Riotur, town’s tourism division, estimated that 1.6 million folks flooded the two.4-mile stretch of sand on Saturday, which was reworked right into a roughly $12 million playground surrounding the 8,700-foot stage. squares.
It was the end result of days of Madonna-mania within the metropolis, the place conversations in regards to the 65-year-old singer have been inevitable. Her songs leaked from shops and automotive stereos. Followers gathered in entrance of the lodge and shouted her title. Updates in regards to the present, which was broadcast on TV Globo, dominated native media reviews.
The present in Rio was a milestone in Madonna’s profession: the victory lap in her first stage retrospective, known as the celebration tourduring which she chronicled her rise to stardom, performing hits like “Into the Groove,” “Like a Prayer” and “Ray of Mild” with a troupe of dancers, 4 of her six kids and a wardrobe of elaborate costumes that resembled a few of her most memorable seems.
“Right here we’re, essentially the most stunning place on the planet,” introduced Madonna in the beginning of the present, indicating the ocean and mountains round her. “That is magic.” Later, she expressed her gratitude to her Brazilian followers. “You have been at all times there for me,” she stated. “That flag: that inexperienced and yellow flag, I see it all over the place. I really feel it in my coronary heart.”
The Rio present of greater than two hours was near the Celebration present, with a number of exceptions: Madonna added her 2000 monitor “Music” to the set listing, rearranged as a samba with dwell drummers and a particular visitor, the Brazilian drag star Pablo. Vitar. “Reside to inform”, staged as a tribute to AIDS victims, included pictures of Brazilian musicians Cazuza and Renato Russo, and actress Sandra Bréa. For “Vogue”, Madonna appeared in a glowing gown within the colours of the Brazilian flag and was accompanied by the pop sensation Anitawho helped “choose” the opponents who walked the catwalk.
The present had longtime Madonna followers — a lot of whom got here wearing homage to their heroine, with conical bras and lace gloves — screaming and dancing alongside. Ernesto Magalhães, 42, adorned in Madonna’s “Materials Woman” period model of gown and boa whereas balancing on stilts, summed up the exuberant spirit of the event: “I have been a fan of Madonna since I used to be 8 years outdated; I couldn’t miss it.” Surya Rossi, a 31-year-old illustrator, determined to take a last-minute journey from Rio Claro, in São Paulo, after making preparations together with her cousin, and stayed at a pal’s home. “Madonna has been an incredible affect on me, each as a feminist and as an artist,” she stated. “Your empowering story and strategy encourage me.”
It was additionally a landmark second for dwell concert events around the globe. In a time of astronomical ticket prices and the rising manufacturing prices of main reveals, a free live performance that draws a crowd of this scale is extraordinarily uncommon, particularly in the US. The Coachella competition in California, the place three-day common admission prices about $500, attracts as much as 125,000 attendees per day. Musikfest, a free music competition in Pennsylvania, acquired practically 1.3 million guests in 11 days last year.
“Having a free present like this in recent times is comparatively extraordinary,” Katelyn Yount, competition director at AEG Presents, stated of Madonna’s closing present. The Hangout, an upcoming music competition on Alabama’s Gulf Coast that’s among the many annual occasions AEG produces, has a every day cap of about 40,000 attendees, who pay greater than $300 for a three-day move.
If a efficiency of this magnitude have been to be held wherever in 2024, it will probably be in Rio, the place authorities have expertise with big crowds. In 2006, round 1.5 million folks participated in a free occasion Rolling Stones concert on Copacabana seashore, Brazilian police and different authorities stated on the time. A fair bigger crowd is claimed to have gathered for a Rod Stewart live performance on New 12 months’s Eve in 1994.
The concept for the sprawling occasion happened two years in the past, when Luiz Guilherme Niemeyer, an government at Bonus Observe, a dwell leisure firm based mostly in Rio de Janeiro, approached Madonna’s managers after listening to about plans for the tour. The Rolling Stones’ 2006 live performance helped persuade him one thing like this was attainable, he stated.
Negotiations stalled till final yr, when a Madonna live performance in Mexico Metropolis was introduced – ticket dates for the Celebration Tour resulted in 5 nights on the Palacio de los Deportes – and Niemeyer resumed his efforts to persuade the star’s representatives pop and safe financing. .
“It was an bold mission for everybody, with the purpose of attracting the most important viewers of her profession, and I assumed that will assist me persuade her,” Niemeyer stated in an interview final week.
The live performance’s company sponsors embrace Brazilian financial institution Itaú and Heineken, and the federal government has additionally made a major funding.
The preparation for Madonna-palooza has consumed part of town in current days. Every week in the past, cargo planes transported round 270 tons of present materials, together with costumes and gymnasium tools, to town. Eighteen sound and video towers have been constructed alongside the seashore and, final Wednesday, 4,000 staff ready the stage in scorching warmth.
As this was Celebration’s solely present in South America – Madonna final toured there in 2012 – followers from throughout the continent gathered. Within the days main as much as the occasion, a Madonna impersonator, Izelene Cristina, danced to “La Isla Bonita” at a bus station whereas welcoming vacationers. She wouldn’t be attending the present as a result of pleasure over the famous person’s efficiency led to a flood of bookings.
“That’s the lifetime of an artist,” she stated. “You’re employed to maneuver and entertain folks.”
On Monday, Madonna and her tour crew of about 200 arrived in Rio, heading on to the French Riviera-inspired Copacabana Palace, the posh lodge close to the place the stage was constructed. Later within the week, crowds gathered as near the stage as attainable because the pop star crossed a specifically constructed walkway from the lodge to the stage to rehearse with a few of her dancers.
Social media was flooded with clips of Madonna singing songs together with the opener, “Nothing Actually Issues.” “Are you cheerful? Are you prepared?” she asked the crowd gathered at one point. The reply: wild applause. “OK, simply checking,” she replied.
At a press convention earlier than the live performance, officers mentioned the security considerations that may accompany a crowd of that measurement and the unpredictable climate on the coast. Final yr, Brazilian DJ Alok scheduled what was thought of the “present of the century” on Copacabana Seaside, however a storm prompted a part of the group to disperse and spectators have been met with rampant theftan issue that not less than some additionally confronted on Saturday night time.
Marco Andrade, a Rio police spokesman, advised reporters that the division deliberate to ship 3,200 officers to the Madonna live performance, in contrast with about 900 to the Alok occasion. He stated facial recognition expertise can be utilized in enforcement areas, in addition to drones to watch the group. On the finish, the viewers reached the ocean as effectively — a bunch of boats anchored within the waters near the occasion location.
The ambiance on the venue on Saturday night time was like a World Cup occasion, avenue carnival and New 12 months’s celebration mixed. Avenue distributors provided shirts, hats, cups and followers adorned with Madonna’s face and the colours of the rainbow, and a plethora of Brazilian cocktail barbecues, grilled cheeses, empanadas and caipirinhas have been obtainable. To fight the warmth, a firefighter on prime of a hearth truck launched a jet of water onto the group.
Because the present ended with a remix of her 2009 monitor “Celebration,” Madonna addressed the viewers for the final time: “Obrigada, Rio,” including “thanks,” the Portuguese equal. She smiled and dropped a Brazilian flag, threw a white veil over her head and went right down to the stage.
