Before Madonna, Copacabana already had the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz and record audiences with Rod Stewart; remember international shows | Madonna in Rio

Organizers of the Madonna show are expecting around 1.5 million people on Copacabana Beach for the pop star’s performance on Saturday (4). The audience would be the same as another megashow, from almost 20 years ago: the Rolling Stones.

But it was on New Year’s Eve 1994 that another international band broke an all-time audience record. Between 3.5 and 4.2 million people spent New Year’s Eve on the waterfront to see Rod Stewart – a fact that took the show into the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest free show in history.

Remember below the biggest international shows in Copacabana:

In ‘Fantástico’, in 2023, Rod Stewart recalled record attendance and expulsion from Copacabana Palace for playing football in the bedroom

The English star performed for around 3.5 million people on New Year’s Eve in 1994, in a show considered to date the biggest audience of all time by the Guinness Book, the book of records – in fact, Guinness cites 4.2 million peoplebut part of the public would be present on the beach for the New Year’s party.

Stewart sang big hits from his solo career, such as “Maggie May” and “Baby Jane”, and from his time in The Faces, such as “Stay with me”.

In “Fantástico”, last year, he recalled the record attendance and the day he was expelled from the Copacabana Palace after playing football in his room (see the report above).

Lenny Kravitz’s first time in Rio was special, in a show on Copacabana beach in celebration of the city’s 440th anniversary.

It is estimated that the singer drew an audience of around 300 thousand to 600 thousand people.

In one of the most iconic shows in Rio’s history, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and company sent the audience into a frenzy with classics such as “Start me up”, “Brown sugar” and “Satisfaction”.

The audience was 1.5 million people – the same expected this year with Madonna. The stage was also connected by a catwalk to the Copacabana Palace, where the stars stayed.

In 2012, Rio received a Stevie Wonder concert with Gilberto Gil as one of its Christmas presents.

The duo sang for more than four hours in a free show. Accompanied by the crowd, they sang for more than four hours and treated the audience to the traditional Christmas songs “Happy Holidays” and “Noite Feliz”.

Used to playing to large audiences, the American made the beach his living room, and in the company of his children, played a selection of hits, such as “I just called to say I love you”, “My cherie amour”, as well as “Garota de Ipanema”, “Samba de uma Nota Só” and “We are the world”.

The organizers’ expectation was that 500,000 people would watch the show, but there was no official estimate.