Madonna Makes History With Tour Finale

UPDATE May 6, 2024 2:00 AM CDT

As predicted, Madonna's final concert of her Celebration Tour set a record, with 1.6 million people attending the free show on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach Saturday night. Though annual New Year's Eve concerts on the same beach have drawn larger crowds, per Live Nation, Madonna now holds the record for biggest-ever crowd for a "standalone" concert by any artist. That breaks a record previously held by the Rolling Stones, People reports. "Words cannot express my gratitude! To everyone involved!!" the Material Girl posted alongside a video of the massive crowd.

May 4, 2024 3:13 PM CDT

Madonna's Celebration Tour is not ending quietly. The finale Saturday night on Copacabana beach will be free, and Rio de Janeiro officials predict 1.5 million people will attend. The singer's website calls the show "a thank you to her fans for celebrating more than four decades of her music" during the tour, per the Hollywood Reporter. Madonna's biggest house so far was 130,000, for a 1987 show in Paris' Parc des Sceaux, per the AP. "It's a unique opportunity to see Madonna, who knows if she'll ever come back," said Alessandro Augusto, 53, who traveled about 1,500 miles for the concert.

Millions of people hit the beach every year for New Year's Eve fireworks, an event that also attracts muggers and thieves. During the concert, 3,200 military personnel will be deployed, and 1,500 civilian police officers will be on standby. Brazil's navy has inspected vessels in the area. Eighteen sound towers have been set up along the beach for the two-hour show. Fans have gathered in front of the beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel, where Madonna is staying, and danced on the sand during the sound check. Rosemary de Oliveira Bohrer, 69, said she goes there every day "to welcome my idol, my diva, my pop queen."

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Globo TV will broadcast the concert in Brazil, but there also are streaming possibilities. Viewers can watch on DirecTV and Sling with certain packages, per the Billboard, or by using a VPN and setting their IP address to Brazil. The concert is scheduled for 9:45pm Rio time, 8:45pm ET. Guinness World Records has the biggest free rock concert ever as a Rod Stewart show on the same beach on New Year's Eve 1994, which drew 4 million people, per the AP. (More Madonna stories.)