A pop opera in front of a huge delirious crowd on the iconic beach of Copacabana: Lady Gaga ignited Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, during a free mega-concert for his comeback in Brazil since 2012.
“Brazil, I missed you so much,” shouted the American popstar before singing one of its greatest successes, “poker facing”, on a monumental chessboard, one of the grandiose decorations of this two -hour show.
The 39 -year -old singer went on stage with twenty minutes late on the scheduled time, perched two meters high on the endless train of a scarlet dress which, by opening, revealed a vertical cage in which her dancers were hidden, for “Bloody Mary”.
Lady Gaga then chained with “Abracadabra”, one of the flagship titles of her latest album, “Mayhem”, launched in March.
In the middle of the song, she removed the red dress, revealing another that she wore below in the colors of Brazil: green, blue and yellow.
– Invasion of “small monsters” –
“I have dried up for several days of university to come here, Lady Gaga is everything for me, I have been a fan of her since 2008,” Walter Segundo, 23-year-old who arrived from Sao Luis, in the Brazilian state of Maranhao (northeast), nearly 3,000 kilometers from Rio.
Throughout the week, the “Little Monsters” (little monsters), affectionate nickname fans of the 39 -year -old American singer, flocked to the city famous for her carnival which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world.
The town hall of Rio said on X that 2.1 million people attended the concert in Copacabana, more than the 1.6 million for that of Madonna in the same place a year ago, even if these figures were disputed by certain specialists who deemed them exaggerated.
Municipal authorities, who also hope for economic benefits of more than $ 100 million, wish to perpetuate this free mega-concert tradition in May, in order to stimulate tourism during a period considered low season.
Mayor Eduardo Paes has already suggested that he intended to bring the Irish rock group U2, without specifying a date.
For the Lady Gaga concert on Saturday, an impressive security device was deployed, with more than 5,000 agents, drones and video surveillance cameras with facial recognition.
– End of a long wait –
The interpreter of “Bad Romance” was supposed to be one of the headliners of the Rock In Rio festival in 2017, but had been forced to cancel at the last minute for health reasons, which she did not fail to recall on Saturday.
“You expected me, you had to ask yourself why I took so long to come back, but I was healing, regaining strength (…) Now, I’m ready and I’m going to give everything for you,” she said, moved to tears, during a speech in the middle of the concert.
“Tonight we write the story,” she launched, while the public “Gaga, Eu te Amo” (Gaga, I love you in Portuguese).
And before “Born This Way”, the Pop diva wanted to salute in particular “the LGBTQ community in Brazil”, in which it has a large number of fans.
This title is the favorite of Alan Jones, who came from the State of Santa Catarina (South), inspiring a drawing which he was tattooed on the left arm.
“It is thanks to this song that I started to accept myself as I am,” says this hairdresser who will celebrate his 30th anniversary next week.
“The last time I came here, we were friends, but now we are from the same family,” said Lady Gaga, sitting on the piano before singing at the end of the “Shallow” concert, the film’s ballad “A Star is Born”, in which she was on the bill with Bradley Cooper.
And after the recall, the fans continued to sing for long minutes in cappella the refrain of “bad romance”.
