Closing out her world tour, the Queen of Pop gave a free concert on Copacabana Beach on Saturday evening, transforming Rio de Janeiro’s vast expanse of sand into a huge dance floor filled with multitudes of fans.
An estimated 1.6 million people attended the show, G1 reported, citing Rio City Hall’s tourism agency. This figure is more than 10 times larger than Madonna’s record crowd of 130,000 at the Parc des Sceaux in Paris in 1987. Madonna’s official website announced that the show was the largest ever during her four-decade career. .
It was the final concert of the Celebration Tour, its first retrospective, which kicked off in October in London.
The “Queen of Pop” started the show with her 1998 hit “Nothing Really Matters.” Huge cheers rose from the buzzing, packed crowd pressing against the barriers.
Others held parties in brightly lit apartments and hotels overlooking the waterfront. Helicopters and drones flew overhead, while motorboats and sailboats anchored on the beach filled the bay.