Madonna signaled the end of her world tour by performing a free concert in Brazil to about 1.6 million fans Saturday.
The Guardian reported that millions of fans packed Copacabana beach, lining up on the vast stretch of sand, or watching from apartments and hotels overlooking the beach and from motorboats and sailboats anchored nearby.
According to the Guardian, the city's airport fielded an estimated 170 extra flights as fans from around the world flocked to the beach.
"Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world," Madonna, 65, told the crowd. "This place is magic."
The show is said to be Madonna's biggest-ever concert in her 40-year career.
The pop icon's "Celebration" tour has caused a sensation, but not all the attention has been related to her music.
Earlier this year it emerged that Madonna was facing a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court by Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, who said they bought tickets to a Dec. 13 show at Barclays Center as part of the tour, according to The Guardian.
Madonna was also forced to postpone dates for her tour last year after a severe health scare that led to her being intubated in an intensive care unit. She recalled the ordeal during a reflective moment onstage at the first of her five sold-out "Celebration World Tour" shows at Los Angeles' Kia Forum in March.
"This show every night is not really so hard on me physically. It's hard on me emotionally because I'm really telling you the story of my life. My heart is on my sleeve," she said, according to People. "I've fallen off a lot of horses and broken a lot of bones ... but nothing can stop me."
Madonna went on to reference her health scare, revealing that the "first word" she said was "No" when she woke up from the coma.
"I'm pretty sure that was God saying to me, Do you want to come? Want to come up with me? No," Madonna said.
She later recalled a conversation she had with her longtime manager, Guy Oseary, while in the hospital.
"He said, 'Well, when do you think you want to go back on tour?' I took the oxygen out of my nose. I looked at him, and I said, 'in two [expletive] months!" she said. "I just said it. Sometimes you just have to say [expletive] and put it out in the universe. And it happens."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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