Celebrate Madonna!

May 10, 2024 7:47 AM

Madonna's free Brazil concert at Rio's Copacabana beach attracts more than 1.6 million fans. That's a lot of people. I wish I could see that. Oh, here! MADONNA THE CELEBRATION TOUR IN RIO FULL SHOW 04/05/24 HD [2h15m, ProShot]
posted by hippybear (18 comments total)

Oh excellent. I am going to be watching the shit out of this this weekend! Thanks!
posted by neon909 at 8:51 AM on May 10

thanks for this, they showed bits of this on TV here and it looked like a lot of people having a lot of fun.
posted by chavenet at 8:56 AM on May 10

1.6 million people. I can't wrap my head around that. Can the people in the back hear? Do the people in the front still have their hearing?
posted by bitslayer at 9:09 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]

They do amazing things with staggered speaker towers for big crowds like this, with the sound delay-timed so it amplifies what is coming from the front of the stage rather than competing with it. It's a fascinating technology. It's a far cry from the Dead's Wall Of Sound speaker stacks.
posted by hippybear at 9:14 AM on May 10 [4 favorites]

I'm impressed that she doesn't appear to be lip syncing. I'll take a few sour notes -- she's over 60, after all -- to hear her actually going for it.
posted by skullhead at 9:29 AM on May 10 [2 favorites]

65, and can still move pretty good too.
posted by MtDewd at 9:56 AM on May 10

I don’t have any strong opinions about Madonna either way, but I think this is just great. It makes me happy.



(A good friend of my mother’s was school librarian at Madonna’s high school when she was there. I asked Mom’s friend if she remembered Madonna and she said she did not. Then added with a slight look of disgust on her face: “But her brother never returned his books on time”).
posted by marxchivist at 10:51 AM on May 10 [8 favorites]

Maybe it's big-concert makeup, but voice aside I'm not sure I would have recognized her as Madonna right away.

That is an interesting acoustic version of Express Yourself.
posted by gottabefunky at 11:09 AM on May 10

That's pretty impressive -- she didn't have a band on stage, she was using mixes of her original recordings. So she sang this entire show in the original key for each song. Also, clever choreography has her pretty stationary much of the time with a lot of kinetic dancers around her. The entire thing is impressive, truly.

but voice aside I'm not sure I would have recognized her as Madonna right away

She's had a ton of work done, and honestly she's looking better now than maybe a year ago when she looked like a baby doll mask. I spent quite a bit of time thinking she looks more like Debby Harry now than anyone.
posted by hippybear at 11:13 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]

I'm picturing Madonna, after the performance in her hotel room, hands on hops having in the mirror, and blurting out, " Take that Miss. Taylor Swift!."
posted by Czjewel at 12:32 PM on May 10

That's crazy. Here in CO she played in a venue in the suburbs that going to be closing down soon since (among other reasons) public transportation rarely ran when shows let out. I'm positive Brazil just kept partying in the streets for a few days later and all the businesses didn't care since everyone was at the show as well anyways.
posted by alex_skazat at 12:36 PM on May 10

That was a fantastic version of Burnin Up (which was my absolute favorite when it came out). Love this!
posted by sundrop at 1:15 PM on May 10 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of the Stones playing Toronto in 2003 after SARS and Christ I’m old.
Edit: that was still only 500k people!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 2:10 PM on May 10

But where did they all go to the bathroom?
posted by y2karl at 5:40 PM on May 10

I keep searching to find out about the setup or the logistics or yes even the bathroom and food situation, but I'm not finding much. Maybe someone else can find it. I once did an event of around 1000 people and it involved a lot of planning. I'd love to know what exactly went into achieving this particular spectacle.
posted by hippybear at 5:46 PM on May 10

I also wonder about the unfathomable experience of what it is be a member of a crowd that size.
posted by y2karl at 5:49 PM on May 10

the unfathomable experience of what it is be a member of a crowd that size

I could see if you were in the middle of the middle of the crowd and needed a restroom insisting your friends come with you. Honestly, it's so spread out and there are no walls so it probably doesn't feel THAT intense, maybe?

I've been in concert crowd of 90,000+, but that's less than 10% of this crowd's size. That was in an enclosed space, a football stadium for one of U2's 360º Tour shows which were in the round with The Claw... but never anything truly approaching 100,000.

The moments when the entire crowd is singing... that must have felt AMAZING!
posted by hippybear at 6:09 PM on May 10

Did she show up 2 hours late, like the show I saw her at?
posted by Chuffy at 10:45 PM on May 10