Madonna
It attracts 1.6 million fans to a free concert in Rio
Madonna played the biggest concert of her career in Rio.
© Dilson Silva / BACKGRID
Madonna has ended her world tour. Finally, the singer delivered a superlative concert in Rio de Janeiro.
The “Queen of Pop” Madonna (65) has been touring the globe with her “The Celebration Tour” since October. On Saturday (May 4th), the tour marking her 40th career anniversary concluded with a free concert in Rio de Janeiro. For the global star it was the biggest concert of his career. As “AP News” reports, according to the Rio tourist office, 1.6 million people attended the performance on the famous Copacabana Beach.
At around 11 p.m. local time, Madonna entered the 800 square meter coastal stage in all black. She greeted her hundreds of thousands of fans with the words: “Here we are, Rio, the most beautiful place in the world!” This was followed by a two-hour stage show with their greatest hits. Some of Madonna’s children were also present on stage at times.
Criticism of the concert
According to her production company, Madonna and her 200-strong team traveled to Brazil on three planes on Monday – with 270 tons of stage equipment in their luggage. According to the city, around 3,000 emergency services were involved in “Operation Madonna”.
However, the concert caused criticism because, according to media reports, around 60 million reals (almost eleven million euros) in taxpayers’ money were spent on the free performance on the beach. Madonna’s fee alone costs 17 million reals. The city administration justified these costs with expected revenues of around 293 million reals due to the influx of tourists. The streets in Rio de Janeiro were already partially blocked by arriving fans on Friday.
Madonna is one of the greatest pop phenomena of all time. With over 300 million records sold, the 65-year-old is the best-selling artist ever. She gave her biggest live concert to date in 1987 in front of 130,000 fans in Paris.