Woman Gaga performs throughout her free live performance on Copacabana Seashore in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Might 3, 2025.
Silvia Izquierdo/AP
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Silvia Izquierdo/AP
RIO DE JANEIRO — Woman Gaga gave a free live performance Saturday evening in entrance of two million followers who poured onto Copacabana Seashore for the largest present of her profession.
“Tonight, we’re making historical past. (…) Thanks for making historical past with me,” Woman Gaga informed a screaming crowd.
The Mom Monster, as she is understood, kicked off the present at round 22:10 p.m. native time along with her 2011 music “Bloody Mary.” Cries of pleasure rose from the tightly-packed followers who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the huge stretch of sand.
Live performance organizers mentioned 2.1 million individuals attended the present.
Woman Gaga carried out her traditional hits, together with “Poker Face” and “Alejandro,” switching between an array of attire together with one with the colours of the Brazilian flag.
Some followers – a lot of them younger – arrived on the seaside on the first light to safe a great place, armed with snacks and drinks. They spent the day underneath a blazing solar, whereas others perched in timber, decided to get a panoramic view.
Followers cheer as they watch for the beginning of Woman Gaga’s free live performance on Copacabana seaside in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Might 3, 2025.
Bruna Prado/AP
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Bruna Prado/AP
“Immediately is one of the best day of my life,” mentioned Manoela Dobes, a 27-year-old designer who was carrying a gown plastered with {a photograph} from when she met Woman Gaga in the US in 2019. “It is surreal to be right here.”
Madonna additionally turned Copacabana Seashore into a large dance flooring final 12 months.
The massive-scale performances are a part of an effort led by Metropolis Corridor to spice up financial exercise after Carnival and New Years’ Eve festivities and the upcoming month-long Saint John’s Day celebrations in June.
“It brings exercise to the town throughout what was beforehand thought of the off-season – filling lodges and growing spending in bars, eating places, and retail, producing jobs and earnings for the inhabitants,” mentioned Osmar Lima, the town’s secretary of financial growth, in an announcement launched by Rio Metropolis Corridor’s tourism division final month.
Rio’s Metropolis Corridor mentioned in a latest report that the present ought to inject a minimum of 600 million reais (some $106 million) into Rio’s economic system.
Comparable concert events are scheduled to happen yearly in Might a minimum of till 2028.
Woman Gaga arrived in Rio within the early hours of Tuesday. Town has been alive with Gaga-mania since, because it geared as much as welcome the pop star for her first present within the nation since 2012. Rio’s metro workers danced to Woman Gaga’s 2008 hit music “LoveGame” and gave directions for Saturday in a video. A free exhibition celebrating her profession offered out.
Whereas the overwhelming majority of attendees had been from Rio, the occasion additionally attracted Brazilians from throughout the nation and worldwide guests.
Greater than 500,000 vacationers poured into the town within the days main as much as the present, greater than double the preliminary forecast, in accordance with knowledge from the native bus station and Tom Jobim airport, Rio’s Metropolis Corridor mentioned in an announcement on Friday.
Followers pack the shore of Copacabana seaside to look at Woman Gaga’s free live performance in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Might 3, 2025.
Bruna Prado/AP
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Bruna Prado/AP
Ingrid Serrano, a 30-year-old engineer, made a cross-continent journey from Colombia to Brazil to attend the present.
“I have been a 100% fan of Woman Gaga my complete life,” mentioned Serrano, who was carrying a T-shirt that includes Woman Gaga’s outlandish costumes through the years.
For her, the mega-star represents “complete freedom of expression – being who one desires with out disgrace.”
Rio officers have a historical past of organizing big concert events on Copacabana Seashore. Madonna’s present drew an estimated 1.6 million followers final 12 months, whereas 4 million individuals flooded onto the seaside for a 1994 New Yr’s Eve present by Rod Stewart in 1994. In accordance with Guinness World Information, that was the largest free rock live performance in historical past.
To make sure followers might hear the songs, sixteen sound towers had been unfold alongside the seaside.
Rio state’s safety plan included the presence of three,300 navy and 1,500 cops, and 400 navy firefighters.
Amongst these current had been Woman Gaga admirers who bear in mind their disappointment in 2017, when the artist canceled a efficiency scheduled in Rio on the final minute as a result of well being points.
Ricardo Filho, who has been a fan since childhood, mentioned it was well worth the wait.
“She’s one of the best artist on this planet,” the 25-year-old mentioned, as chants of “Gaga, I like you” in Portuguese rose from the group behind him.
