Madonna is set to perform on the iconic beach. (Getty)
Madonna is set to close her critically acclaimed Celebration Tour in the best way: with a free show on Copacabana Beach, Brazil, the Brazillian tourism board has confirmed.
Confirming the massive news, Visit Rio took to Instagram on 7 March to write: “It’s time to get ready! The Queen of Pop arrives in Rio de Janeiro for a free and historic show at Copacabana Beach.
“Madonna closes out The Celebration Tour here in Wonder City, marking her 40-year career with a show that promises to be her biggest yet.”
The tour on 4 May promises to close out her greatest hits tour or, as her musical director Stuart Price put it, “a documentary through her vast career”. Fans heading to the finale event — which has been dubbed by fans as “the ultimate beach party” — will be expecting to see the Queen of Pop atop her throne, hits in tow, attitude amped to the absolute max.
The show is likely to see millions of people turn up for the free event. In December, over 2 million people flocked to the beach to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Madonna last performed in the country in 2012, when she brought her ninth tour MDNA to three different stops there. However, her current world tour failed to acknowledge South American fans when she previously only announced dates in North America and Europe.
The show, sponsored by Brazilian bank Itaú, will celebrate Madonna’s landmark 40-year career and the bank’s 100th anniversary.
Her tour has been hailed as “a stunning salute to the Queen of Pop’s LGBTQ+ family” for highlighting the AIDS epidemic during the 80s and 90s through her tracks ‘Holiday’ and ‘Live To Tell’.
The latter song shows the faces of hundreds of people whose lives were claimed by the disease, including her friends Keith Haring and Martin Burgoyne, her dance teacher Christopher Flynn, and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
The singer has always been a fierce LGBTQ+ ally, having previously inserted a ‘Facts About AIDS’ pamphlet into her 1989 album Like A Prayer, and championing vilified queer artists like Sam Smith, with the singer always supporting those in the community.