The free concert on Saturday marked the end of her “Celebration Tour”. The first concert was in London last October.
The 65-year-old superstar started the ball with “Nothing Really Matters” from 1998. This is the first time the “Queen of Pop” has a retrospective tour, and she performs songs from her career spanning more than four decades.
– Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world, said Madonna, pointing to the view of the sea, the mountains and the statue of Christ on one of the city’s heights.
DANCE FLOOR: Madonna turned Rio beach into a huge dance floor. Photo: Bruna Prado / AP / NTB
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Ten times as many as before
It is the mayor’s office in the city that has estimated that 1.5 million people came to catch the concert. That is more than ten times as many as at Madonna’s previous record concert – when she played to 130,000 people in the Parc des. Sceaux in Paris in 1987.
18 towers with loudspeakers had been set up along the beach, so that everyone could catch Madonna’s hit parade. The concert lasted two hours and started just after 10.30pm local time on Saturday, almost 50 minutes behind schedule.
During a concert in Los Angeles, Madonna encouraged everyone to stand up. There was only one problem. Reporter: Jostein Sletten / Dagbladet
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A record of 4 million
It is far from the first time that large crowds have gathered on the famous beach to enjoy music. A New Year’s show with Rod Stewart in 1994 attracted over 4 million people – which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the largest free rock concert in history. Many of them probably came to see the New Year’s fireworks.
A more appropriate comparison is therefore the concert with the Rolling Stones in 2006, which brought together 1.2 million people.
