Pop diva Madonna performed for approximately 2 million people on Brazil on Saturday.
Click To buy “Reggae By The Numbers”
The concert which is the final stop for her ‘Celebration Tour’ happened at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, with crowds filling inside and outside the venue.
Massive crowd out to see Madonna tonight in Copacabana Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. pic.twitter.com/L4rb5q7Qo0
— WMV (@worldmusicviews) May 5, 2024
The Queen of Pop is generously gave away free tickets to her Brazilian fans on a first-come, first-served basis and the show dubbed “Madonna In Brazil” was also streamed live on Globo, a local Brazilian channel. While Globo isn’t accessible on U.S. television, international fans were album to catch the action via Sling’s international package, which includes Globo in its channel lineup.
Among the songs she performed was Break My Soul (Queens Remix)/Vogue, a version of Beyonce’s Break My Soul.
Madonna performed "BREAK MY SOUL (QUEENS REMIX)/Vogue" for about 2 MILLION people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 🇧🇷! 👑👑pic.twitter.com/8Q6TRuXLuo
— Beyoncé Press. (@beyoncepress) May 5, 2024
She also brought out Brazilian star Anitta as a final judge to participate in an onstage orgy at the Live Nation promoted event.
madonna brings out anitta as the last judge of the celebration tour pic.twitter.com/2qkgJw6FCv
— popculture (@notgwendalupe) May 5, 2024
Initially there was uncertainty surrounding Madonna taking her Celebration Tour to the Latin country as far back as November due to technical hurdles according to Billboard.
“At the time, we pondered: Why not have her record the phrase ‘Brazil, I’m coming soon’ as a bonus for the commercial?” recalls Pedro Smith, Head of Strategic Brand Relations at Itaú, Latin America’s largest bank, featuring Madonna in its centenary campaign. “If she agreed, it would signal her interest in making the show happen. Well, she recorded the message, but we still lacked a plan to use it!”
As the clock ticked, the bank had to pull strings to make it happen. But time was running out.
“The day after the shoot, we attended her Paris show and realized adapting the structure for a large crowd like we wanted would be challenging. Guy Oseary [Madonna’s manager] poured cold water on our hopes,” Smith shares.
Enter Luiz Oscar Niemeyer from Bonus Track, a pivotal figure in the process. Niemeyer, a legend in Brazil’s concert market, known for orchestrating historic events like Paul McCartney’s record-breaking Maracanã concert in 1993 and The Rolling Stones’ iconic performance on Copacabana Beach.
With two major players – the region’s biggest bank with ties to Madonna and an experienced producer accustomed to handling A-listers – fate intervened.
“I’d attempted to bring Madonna in 2006, to no avail, and I’d been in talks with Live Nation, the force behind the Celebration Tour. But last year, Madonna’s health setback postponed the tour,” Niemeyer, or “LON” as he’s known, explains.
By late 2023, Madonna was back, Niemeyer was recovering from his own health ordeal, and negotiations surged forward.
“We formed a tight-knit task force with Niemeyer, exchanging information to make the show a reality, given Itaú’s contract with Madonna and Bonus Track’s ties to Live Nation,” Smith shares. “Weekends, late nights – Luiz Oscar and I were in meetings with international teams.”
Ensuring the show met Madonna’s global production standards, adapted for a larger venue, and handling sponsorships, broadcasting, and technicalities, was no small feat. But leaks preceding the official announcement didn’t derail negotiations.
From the outset, the plan was for the Princesinha do Mar show to conclude the Celebration Tour as “a special treat for Brazilian fans,” Niemeyer emphasizes. “It was the perfect choice – a Saturday, with a midweek holiday, allowing more people to experience the city.”
Rode Stewart has the record for largest concert of all time in 1994 when 4.2 million people showed up at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
Madonna In Brazil is now the 5th biggest concert of all time behind Jean Michael Jarre’s Bastille Day Concert on Paris France on July 14 1990 when 2.5 million attended.
