Madonna's biggest concert turned Rio's Copacabana beach into a huge dance floor

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Madonna turned the sand in Rio de Janeiro into a giant dance floor Saturday night with a free concert on Copacabana Beach.

It was the final show of his first retrospective, The Celebration Tour, which began in London in October.

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The “Queen of Pop” opened the show in 1998 with the hit “Nothing Really Matters.” Whispering, densely packed, standing against the barriers, a great mood rose. Others held house parties in glitzy apartments and hotels overlooking the beach. Helicopters and drones flew by, and motorboats and sailboats anchored on the beach filled the bay.

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“Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world,” Madonna, 65, told the crowd. “This place is magical,” he added, pointing to the ocean view, the mountains and the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city.

Madonna performed her classic hits including Like A Virgin and Hung Up. For the intro to Like A Prayer, her head is completely covered in a black cape, and she's holding a rosary.

The star paid emotional tribute to “all the bright lights” lost to AIDS, singing “Live to Toll” as black-and-white photos of people who died from the disease flashed behind her.

Later, he was joined on the scene by Brazilian artists Anitta and Pablo Vittar.

Rio spent the last few days preparing for the performance.

About 1.6 million people attended the show, G1 reported, citing the tourism agency of Rio City Hall. This is 10 times more than Madonna's 1987 record of 130,000 visitors at Parc des Ecos in Paris. Madonna's official website called the show the biggest show of her four-decade career.

The last few days have been hectic. Fans gathered outside the beautiful, beachfront Copacabana Palace Hotel, where Madonna is staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star. They danced in the sand during a sound check on a stage set up in front of the hotel.

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Around noon on Saturday, fans gathered in front of the hotel. A man with a white beard read: “Welcome Madonna, you're the best, I love you.”

Balconies hang with flags emblazoned with the words “Madonna” against the backdrop of Copacabana's striking black-and-white wavy pavement pattern. The area was full of street vendors and concertgoers in themed t-shirts, sweating in the sun.

“Every day since Madonna came here, I come here to meet my idol, my diva, my pop princess,” said Rosemary de Oliveira Bohrer, 69, wearing a gold cone bra and black hat.

“It will be an unforgettable show in Copacabana,” said Oliveira Borer, a retired civil servant who lives in the area.

Eighteen sound towers were placed along the beach so that all participants could hear the hits. His two-hour show began at 10:37 p.m. local time, 50 minutes behind schedule.

In April, the mayor's office released a report that estimated the concert would inject 293 million reais ($57 million) into the local economy. Hotels in Copacabana are expected to reach 98 percent capacity, according to the Rio Hotel Association. Fans from all over Brazil, even Argentina and France, searched for Airbnbs over the weekend, the platform said in a statement. Rio International Airport has predicted an additional 170 flights from 27 destinations between May 1 and 6, the city hall said.

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Alessandro Augusto, 53, who flew in from the Brazilian state of Ceará, about 2,500 kilometers from Rio, said: “This is a unique opportunity to see Madonna, who knows she will be back.”

“You're welcome princess!” Read the Heineken ads plastered around town, the letters above a picture of an upside-down bottle cap that looks like a crown.

Heineken wasn't the only company looking to capitalize on the excitement. Bars and restaurants have prepared “Like a Virgin” cocktails. A downtown store known for selling carnival costumes has completely reinvented itself, filling its shelves with Madonna costumes, fans, headscarves and even underwear.

The organization of the mega-event was similar to New Year's Eve, when millions of people gathered for fireworks in Copacabana, local authorities said. The annual event often causes widespread theft and looting, and concerns have been raised that Madonna's show could have similar problems.

3,200 military personnel and 1,500 civilian police officers are expected in the Rio state security plan. Before the concert, the Brazilian Navy inspected the ships that wanted to be stationed at sea to continue the show.

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Before that, Copacabana Beach hosted several big concerts, including Rod Stewart's New Year's Eve show in 1994, which drew more than 4 million fans and became the largest free rock concert in history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Many of those spectators came to see Rio's fireworks, so the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported that Rio's military police reported a 2006 performance by the Rolling Stones that drew 1.2 million people to the sand. reported at the time.

Fan Ana Beatriz Soares, who was in Copacabana on Saturday, said Madonna has left her mark for decades.

“Madonna had to run so that today's pop artists could walk. That's why she's important because she's an inspiration to today's pop divas,” Soares said.

“And that was 40 years ago. Not 40 days, but 40 months. It's been 40 years,” he said.

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