When Madonna stepped out onto the mammoth stage constructed on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach on Saturday night in a gleaming halo headpiece and black kimono, she was greeted by the largest live crowd of her four-decade career.
The free show, announced in late March, was a grand finale to the pop superstar’s latest world tour, which has delivered 80 performances since last October.
It was the culmination of days of Madonna-mania in the city, where talk of the singer, 65, was inescapable.
Updates about the concert, which was broadcast on the network Globo TV, dominated local media reports.
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The largest live crowd of Madonna’s four-decade career greeted her when she emerged on Saturday night onto the massive stage built on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach, wearing a black kimono and a shimmering halo headpiece.
The pop star’s most recent world tour, which has included 80 performances since last October, culminated in this free event, which was first announced in late March. Riotur, the municipality’s tourism department, estimated that 11.6 million people flooded onto the 24.4-mile stretch of sand on Saturday that had been transformed into a roughly $12 million playground surrounding the 8,700-square-foot stage. Without ticket data, it can be challenging to estimate concert crowd sizes.
The 65-year-old singer’s popularity had been the talk of the city for days, and this was the culmination of it all. Stores and car stereos were overflowing with her songs. Supporters gathered outside her hotel and yelled her name. Local media reports were mostly updated with information about the concert, which was aired on the Globo TV network.
A turning point in Madonna’s career occurred with the spectacle in Rio de Janeiro: the triumph lap for her first stage retrospective, known as the Celebration Tour, where she relived her ascent to fame with a group of dancers, four of her six children, and an elaborate wardrobe recalling some of her most iconic looks.
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