Madonna plays biggest-ever show to 1.6 million fans
Madonna delivered the biggest concert of her career on Saturday night (4 May) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
An estimated 1.6 million people attended the free show at Copacabana Beach, where the 65-year-old wrapped up her Celebration Tour.
The star performed for over two hours, delivering a 26-song setlist featuring guest appearances from two Brazilian musicians – Anitta joined for ‘Vogue’, while Pabllo Vittar guested on the tour debut of ‘Music’.
The concert, promoted by Bonus Track in partnership with Live Nation, was The Queen of Pop’s first gig in Brazil since 2012 and was the only South American date of the tour.
No tickets were required for the event, with fans granted entry on a first-come-first-serve basis on the day of the performance.
The star performed for over two hours, delivering a 26-song setlist featuring guest appearances
According to Reuters, many attendees had waited for hours or even days to secure a good spot, while others watched from boats or beachfront apartments. The show was also broadcast live on Brazilian free-to-air television network TV Globo.
The event was presented by financial services company Itaú, and sponsored by the City of Rio de Janeiro, the State Government of Rio de Janeiro and Heineken, with support from Deezer.
Before Saturday night, Madonna’s best-attended show was a performance at Parc de Sceaux in Paris, France on 1987’s Who’s That Girl World Tour, which drew 131,100 concertgoers.
Copacabana Beach is renowned for mega concerts by artists such as The Rolling Stones in 2006 and Rod Stewart, who broke the world record for the most-attended concert of all time when he performed there in front of 4.2 million people in 1994.
Madonna launched The Celebration Tour in London last October with the first of six sold-out nights at The O2. Its European leg grossed $77.5 million from 429,000 ticket sales, according to Billboard Boxscore.
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Madonna confirms rearranged North America tour
The North American leg of Madonna’s Celebration Tour has been rescheduled and will now take place immediately following the originally announced UK and Europe dates.
The pop icon, who turns 65 today, was forced to postpone her 40-plus date run in the US, Canada and Mexico earlier this year after being hospitalised with a serious bacterial infection.
Announced in January, the tour was extended multiple times after selling out 36 shows and shifting over 600,000 tickets. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of her breakout single Holiday, the singer is due to perform music spanning her entire career, from 1983’s self-titled debut album to 2019’s Madame X in her first tour since 2020.
The global outing was originally due to start in Vancouver in July, but will now begin at The O2 in London on 14 October, followed by shows across Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
“Madonna regrets the inconvenience to fans and hopes to make it up to those markets in the future”
The North American leg will kick off on 13 December at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Tickets for the previously scheduled shows will be honoured on the new dates, except Los Angeles and one date in New York due to a venue change. Due to scheduling conflicts, concerts in Tulsa, Nashville, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix have been cancelled.
“Madonna regrets the inconvenience to fans and hopes to make it up to those markets in the future,” says promoter Live Nation.
In New York, fans holding tickets to the previously scheduled Madison Square Garden concert on 27 August will have an exclusive opportunity to purchase tickets to the newly added Barclays Center performance on Saturday 16 December. In Los Angeles, fans holding tickets to the shows previously scheduled at Crypto.com Arena and Kia Forum will also have an opportunity to purchase tickets to the new Kia Forum dates prior to the public onsale.
Tickets for the original shows will be automatically refunded to the original purchaser, with Ticketmaster providing all affected fans with a dedicated link and a unique code based on the quality of their previous seat locations to purchase tickets to the new dates.
The tour is currently slated to wrap up with two nights in Mexico City at Palacio De Los Deportes from 20-21 April 2024.
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