Lady Gaga puts on her biggest-ever show for free on Rio’s Copacabana Beach
Lady Gaga has performed in front of an estimated 2.1 million people at a free show on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach.
Some 500,000 tourists travelled to watch the concert, which was paid for by the city in an attempt to boost the struggling economy.
Saturday night’s two-hour show, which marked Gaga’s biggest ever, marked the first time she had played in Brazil since 2012, having cancelled an appearance at the Rock in Rio festival in 2017 over health issues.
Gaga, who released her seventh studio album, Mayhem, in March, opened with a dramatic, operatic edition of her 2011 track Bloody Mary, before launching into Abracadabra, one of her most recent hits.
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
“Brazil! I missed you. I missed you so much,” she exclaimed, before launching into Poker Face, one of her biggest hits.
The American pop star drew in a similar crowd to Madonna’s in May last year, who performed at the same beach, which is transformed into an enormous dance floor for the shows.
Addressing the crowd in English and through a Portuguese translator, Gaga became emotional as she said: “I’m so honoured to be here with you tonight.
Gaga addresses the crowd. Pic: Reuters
Gaga seen performing on giant screens set up across the beach. Pic: Reuters
“Tonight we’re making history, but no one makes history alone. Without all of you, the incredible people of Brazil, I wouldn’t have this moment. Thank you for making history with me.
“The people of Brazil are the reason I get to shine today. But of all the things I can thank you for, the one I most am grateful for is this: that you waited for me. You waited more than 10 years for me.”
She said it took so long to come back because she was “healing” and “getting stronger”. The pop sensation cancelled many of her shows in 2017 and 2018 due to her fibromyalgia condition, which can cause pain and fatigue.
It is estimated Gaga’s show will have injected around 600 million reais (£79.9m) into the economy, nearly 30% more than Madonna’s show.
Pic: Reuters
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The large-scale free shows are set to continue annually until at least 2028, always taking place in May, which is considered the economy’s “low season”, according to the city’s government.
A hefty security plan was in place, including the presence of 3,300 military and 1,500 police officers, along with 400 military firefighters.
‘A dream come true’
Fans gather on the beach. Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
The city has been swarmed with Gaga fans since her arrival on Tuesday, with some even keeping vigil outside of the hotel she has been staying at.
Many arrived at the beach at the crack of dawn on Saturday to secure good spots on the beach, despite the show not starting until 9.45pm.
An aerial view shows fans gathering on Copacabana beach ahead of Lady Gaga’s arrival. Pic: Reuters
Ana Lara Folador, who attended with her sister, said it was “a dream come true”, and that Gaga had “really shaped a part of my personality, as a person and an artist”.
Ingrid Serrano, a 30-year-old engineer who made a cross-continent trip from Colombia to Brazil to attend the show, turned up in a T-shirt featuring Lady Gaga’s outlandish costumes over the years.
“I’ve been a 100% fan of Lady Gaga my whole life,” she said, adding the 39-year-old megastar represented “total freedom of expression – being who one wants without shame”.
A fan dons an unusual face mask. Pic: AP
A fan strikes a pose. Pic: AP
Matheus Silvestroni, 25, an aspiring DJ and a Gaga fan since the age of 12, endured an eight-hour bus ride from Sao Paulo for the show.
He said it was Gaga who had inspired him to embrace his sexuality and pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
“I was bullied because I was a fat, gay kid, so I was an easy target,” he said. “Gaga was very important because she sent a message that everything was okay with me, I wasn’t a freak, because I was ‘Born This Way’.”
Rio is known for holding massive open-air concerts, with Rod Stewart holding a Guinness World Record for the four million-strong crowd he drew to Copacabana Beach in 1994.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
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