Madonna to perform free ‘historic’ Copacabana beach concert in Brazil

Singer-performer Madonna.

Pop superstar Madonna will hold a concert on the sandy shores of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, the companies behind the event confirmed on Friday.

"Brazil, I'm coming soon," the Material Girl and Vogue singer said in a video released earlier this week by local lender Itau Unibanco.

More details about Madonna's concert will come out in a press conference on Monday, according to an invitation sent to journalists on Friday by Itau and Dutch beermaker Heineken, which has a large presence in Brazil.

Rio de Janeiro’s official tourism office, Visit Rio, also told Brazilians to “get ready” for “a free and historic” show with Madonna at Copacabana Beach, adding the singer has chosen the city to wrap her international Celebration Tour.

The show, which is being paid for by the Brazilian bank Itaú, is said to be a celebration of Madonna’s 40-year career and the bank’s 100th anniversary.

Madonna last performed in Brazil in 2012, bringing her ninth concert tour, MDNA, to three different cities in the country.

Last year, after the multi-Grammy-winning artist announced she would go on a world tour to celebrate her 40-year career, fans in South America couldn’t hide their disappointment when it was announced the 80-stop tour would only include cities in North America and Europe.

But according to Brazilian media, that likely changed after the “Express Yourself” singer signed a multi-million-dollar contract to create and star in a television ad for Itaú. Directed by Madonna’s longtime collaborator Jonas Åkerlund, who directed the singer’s Grammy-winning video “Ray of Light” in 1989, the 60-second film centres around the bank’s “Made of Future” anniversary theme and earned the 65-year-old mother of six a reported $12.5 million.

The local hotel industry cheered the reports of Madonna's Copacabana concert, which could easily give Madonna her largest crowd ever and beat her previous record — when 130,000 fans saw her second music tour, Who’s That Girl, in Paris in 1987.

"New Year's Eve has come early," Rio hotel union head Alfredo Lopes said in an interview, explaining that hotel occupation in the most tourist-heavy parts of the city could hit 100 per cent ahead of the concert.

Columnist Lauro Jardim from the newspaper O Globo said this month that the concert was scheduled for May 4, a date not yet confirmed by authorities or the 65-year-old singer.

Past free concerts at Copacabana, drawing up to millions of fans, have included the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and Lenny Kravitz.

Madonna kicked off her "Celebration" tour last October.