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More than 2 million people packed Copacabana beach on Saturday night for a free Lady Gaga concert, breaking a Rio de Janeiro record set last year by Madonna.
An estimated 2.1 million “Little Monsters” – as Lady Gaga’s fans are known – turned Rio’s beachside neighbourhood into “Gagacabana” for the largest show of the pop star’s career. The turnout topped Madonna’s free mega-show last year, which drew 1.6 million to the Brazilian city’s shores.
It was a moment of unadulterated joy for Brazil’s particularly dedicated fans, many of whom are too young to have seen Gaga during her last performance in the country 13 years ago. Anticipation was even higher as Gaga had cancelled a planned appearance in 2017 for medical reasons.
“She came,” the ecstatic crowd chanted as Gaga appeared on stage shortly after 10pm local time. The staunchest monstrinhos arrived before dawn and spent the day under the blazing sunshine to secure a spot near the stage.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 15 years,” said Ana Clara Salomão, a 26-year-old designer from São Paulo and self-professed Little Monster since the age of 11.
“There are no words to describe my levels of excitement, the joy that this is. It’s surreal,” she added, hiding behind a black veil and bugeye sunglasses.
People poured into Rio from all over Brazil and South America for the show, part of a series of promotional concerts the pop star is putting on before her next tour, The Mayhem Ball.
“I’ve been preparing the trip for months,” said Betina Faundes, a 40-year-old shopkeeper from Chile whose 18-year-old daughter Barbara Marin is a lifelong fan. “Gaga is life,” said Marin, who has tattoos referencing the artist’s songs inked on her forearms. “It’s like a religious thing.”
The atmosphere was part-frenzy, part-reverence during Gaga’s five-act “gothic opera”, which saw her cycle through her Coachella set list, interspersing tracks from her latest album, Mayhem, with hits from her early electro-dance pop years such as Paparazzi and Poker Face.
Nods to her Brazilian audience included a chorus of dancers wearing the country’s canary-yellow football shirt during How Bad Do U Want Me and an interpreter translating her emotional speech into Portuguese.
“Thank you for making history with me,” the 39-year-old told the adoring crowd. “The people of Brazil are the reason why I can shine.”
Little Monsters wearing extravagant outfits in homage to Gaga had overrun Rio in the days leading up to Saturday, infusing the city with an out-of-season carnival atmosphere. Hundreds of fans held vigil outside the Copacabana Hotel, where the singer had been staying since Tuesday, singing her latest songs at the top of their lungs and revelling in a shared sense of community.
“Gaga helped me climb out of a deep hole, so she’s very, very, very important in my life,” said Bella Donna, a 20-year-old drag queen from southern Brazil. “She’s fought hard and continues to fight today for the [LGBTQ+] cause, embracing people and making them understand that there’s no problem in being gay, lesbian, transgender or whatever, the world has to welcome us and respect us.”
When Lady Gaga started singing the LGBTQ+ anthem Born This Way, thousands of spectators held up rainbow-coloured fans, slicing them through the air in time to the music with a sharp snapping sound.
For Karolayne Araújo, Gaga’s universal appeal is what makes her so popular. “She manages to connect with everybody, she sings for everybody and embraces everybody,” said the 21-year-old student, who spent more than two hours on public transport to reach Copacabana from Rio’s working-class West Zone.
Although more affluent spectators watching the show from brightly lit beachside apartments served as a reminder of Brazil’s deep inequality, the free nature of the concert made it accessible to many who would otherwise never have the opportunity of seeing the superstar live.
“The fact that she’s playing for free is a dream come true,” said 19-year-old student Hugo Monteiro, who was sporting a pink cowboy hat. “To have an affordable show, for everyone to be able to feel the emotion of seeing Gaga live, makes it all the more beautiful.”
The concert, which city authorities expect will have injected 600m reais (£80m) into the local economy, is part of a project through which Rio plans to host a free music show of epic proportions every May for the next four years.
Madonna and Lady Gaga – whose climactic Bad Romance finale ended with heart-shaped fireworks exploding overhead – will be tough acts to follow. But for Monteiro, “there is no better place in the world to host free concerts”, because “we put on a show with the artist”.
