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Madonna will be giving away a free concrete on Copacabana Beach on Saturday night, transforming its vast expanse of sand into a huge dance floor. This comes after Rio de Janeiro spent the past few days preparing for the ‘Queen of Pop”s historic performance.
Rio City Hall said about 1.5 million spectators were expected, more than 10 times more than Madonna’s record attendance of 130,000 at the Parc des Sceaux in Paris in 1987. Madonna’s official website showed the show as the biggest of his four-decade career. .
This will be the last performance of The Celebration Tour, his first retrospective which began in October in London.
In recent days, the buzz has been palpable. Fans gathered outside the majestic beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel, where Madonna is staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star. During the soundcheck on the stage in front of his hotel, they danced on the sand.
“Since Madonna came here, I come every day with this outfit to welcome my idol, my diva, my queen of pop,” said Rosemary de Oliveira Bohrer, 69, who wore a gold cone bra and a black cap. .
“It will be an unforgettable spectacle here in Copacabana,” said Oliveira Bohrer, a retired civil servant who lives in the area.
-Eighteen sound towers were spread out along the beach to ensure all attendees could hear the hits. His two-hour show is scheduled to begin at 9:45 p.m. local time.
City Hall produced a report in April estimating that the concert would inject 293 million reais ($57 million) into the local economy. Hotel capacity is expected to reach 98% in Copacabana, according to Rio’s hotel association. Fans from all over Brazil, but also from Argentina and France, searched for Airbnbs for the weekend, the platform said in a press release. And Rio International Airport is planning 170 additional flights from May 1 to 6, from 27 destinations, the city hall said in a statement.
“It’s a unique opportunity to see Madonna, who knows if she will ever come back,” said Alessandro Augusto, 53, who arrived from the state of Ceara, about 2,500 km from Rio.
“Welcome Queen!” read the Heineken advertisements plastered all over town, the lettering above an image of an upturned bottle cap resembling a crown. Heineken wasn’t the only company looking to cash in on the craze: bars and restaurants reportedly made “Like a Virgin” cocktails, named after his 1984 hit. A downtown store famous for selling carnival clothing, has completely reinvented itself, filling its shelves with Madonna-themed costumes, fans, fanny packs and even underwear.
The organization of the mega-event will be similar to that of New Year’s Eve, when millions of people gather in Copacabana for the world-famous fireworks display, local authorities said. The annual event often results in widespread thefts and assaults, and some fear similar problems could arise during Madonna’s show.
The Rio state security plan provides for the presence of 3,200 soldiers and 1,500 civilian police on standby. Before the concert, the Brazilian navy carried out inspections of ships wishing to position themselves at sea to follow the show.
A number of major concerts have previously taken place on Copacabana Beach, including Rod Stewart’s New Year’s Eve show in 1994 which attracted over 4 million fans and was the largest free rock concert in the world. history, according to Guinness World Records. Many spectators had come to see the Rio fireworks display, so a more apt comparison might be the Rolling Stones in 2006, which saw 1.2 million people crowd the sand, Rio military police cited by the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo at the time. .
