RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Madonna will give a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning its vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor. It comes after Rio de Janeiro spent the last few days readying itself for the historic performance by the “Queen of Pop.”
Rio’s City Hall has said some 1.5 million spectators are anticipated, more than 10 times more than Madonna’s record attendance of 130,000 in Paris’ Parc des Sceaux in 1987. Madonna’s official website has been hyping the show as the biggest ever in her four-decade career.
It will be the last show of The Celebration Tour, her first retrospective which kicked off in October in London.
In recent days, the buzz has been palpable. Fans milled outside the stately, beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel, where Madonna is staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star. During the sound check on the stage that’s in front of her hotel, they danced on the sand.