The pop superstar performed a final date on her global trek marking four decades of hits: a set on Copacabana Beach before the largest live crowd of her career.
When Madonna stepped onto the mammoth stage erected on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach on Saturday night, adorned in a gleaming halo headpiece and black kimono, she was welcomed by the largest live crowd of her four-decade career. The free show, announced in late March, served as the grand finale to the pop superstar’s latest world tour, comprising 80 performances since last October. While concert crowd sizes can be challenging to estimate without ticket data, Riotur, the municipality’s tourism department, approximated that 1.6 million people flooded onto the 2.4-mile stretch of sand on Saturday.
The beach had been transformed into a roughly $12 million playground surrounding the 8,700-square-foot stage. This marked the culmination of days of Madonna-mania in the city, with the 65-year-old singer's presence felt everywhere. Her songs echoed from stores and car stereos, fans gathered outside her hotel chanting her name, and updates about the concert, broadcast on the network Globo TV, dominated local media reports.
The spectacle in Rio marked a significant milestone in Madonna’s career: it was the victory lap for her first stage retrospective, the Celebration Tour. During the tour, she chronicled her rise to stardom, performing hits like “Into the Groove,” “Like a Prayer,” and “Ray of Light” alongside a cadre of dancers, four of her six children, and a wardrobe of elaborate costumes reminiscent of some of her most memorable looks.
