RIO DE JANEIRO — Madonna will perform a free show 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 last few days preparing for the historic presentation of the “Queen of Pop”.
Rio City Hall said around 1.5 million spectators are expected, more than 10 times Madonna’s record attendance of 130,000 at Parc des Sceaux in Paris in 1987. Madonna’s official website has promoted the show as the greatest of all time in his four-decade career. .
It will be the last show of The Celebration Tour, his first retrospective that began in October in London.
In recent days, the buzz has been palpable. Fans gathered outside the imposing seaside Copacabana Palace hotel where Madonna is staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star. During the sound check on the stage in front of her hotel, they danced in the sand.
Around noon on Saturday, hundreds of fans gathered in front of the hotel. A man with a white beard carried a sign saying “Welcome Madonna, you are the best, I love you.”
Flags with ‘Madonna’ printed against a background of Copacabana’s iconic black and white sidewalk pattern hung from balconies. The area was filled with street vendors and concertgoers dressed in themed t-shirts, sweating in the scorching sun.
“Since Madonna arrived here, I come every day in this outfit to welcome my idol, my diva, my queen of pop,” said Rosemary de Oliveira Bohrer, 69, who was sporting a gold conical bra and a black cap.
“It will be an unforgettable show here in Copacabana,” said Oliveira Bohrer, a retired civil servant who lives in the region.
Eighteen sound towers were spread across 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 show will inject 293 million reais (US$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 and even Argentina and France sought out Airbnbs for the weekend, the platform said in a statement. And Rio’s international airport expects another 170 flights from May 1st to 6th, from 27 destinations, 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 came from the state of Ceará – approximately 2,500 km (1,555 miles) from Rio.
“Welcome Queen!” read the Heineken ads dotted around the city, the letters above an image of an upturned bottle cap resembling a crown. Heineken wasn’t the only company looking to cash in on the unrest, with bars and restaurants reportedly whipping up “Like a Virgin” cocktails, named after its 1984 hit. completely reinvented itself, stocking its shelves with Madonna-themed costumes, fans, fanny packs and even underwear.
The organization of the mega-event will be similar to New Year’s Eve, when millions of people gather in Copacabana for the world-famous fireworks display, local authorities said. This annual event often produces widespread robberies and assaults, and there has been some concern that such problems could occur at Madonna’s concert.
The security plan for the state of Rio foresees the presence of 3,200 military personnel and 1,500 civil police officers on standby. Before the show, the Brazilian Navy carried out inspections on vessels that wish to position themselves at sea to follow the show.
A number of major concerts have taken place on Copacabana beach before, including a Rod Stewart show on New Year’s Eve 1994 that attracted more than 4 million fans and was the biggest free rock concert in history, according to Guinness. World Records. Many spectators came to see Rio’s fireworks show, so a more apt comparison might be with the Rolling Stones in 2006, which saw 1.2 million people flock to the sand, according to the Rio Military Police cited by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo at the time. .
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