Brazil: Lady Gaga’s Concert Likely To Raise BRL600Mln In Rio

By Bruno de Freitas Moura

US pop star Lady Gaga’s visit to Rio de Janeiro is expected to generate BRL 600 million for the city’s economy. The free concert is slated to take place on May 3, when 1.6 million people should gather on the sands of Copacabana Beach.

Of these, 240 thousand people should be tourists—80 percent international, 20 percent Brazilian. The estimates are part of a study carried out by city authorities and Rio’s tourism agency Riotur.

The holiday effect

As the concert takes place on a Saturday two days after Labor Day (May 1, Thursday), the city estimates that international tourists will spend an average of four days in the city, and Brazilians three days. International tourists should spend an average of BRL 590.40 a day. Brazilian ones, in turn, are likely to spend BRL 515.84. Rio residents, who do not have to pay for accommodation, should spend BRL 133.60 a day.

This extended period is believed to explain why the economic movement should exceed by 27.5 percent the BRL 469.4 million impact generated by singer Madonna, who performed on the same beach on May 4 last year. At the time, the audience was also reported to have totaled 1.6 million people.

The city has pledged to hold a free concert in Copacabana every May until at least 2028. The municipal secretary for Economic Development, Osmar Lima, noted that the annual event changes the way the month is experienced.

“It gets the city moving in a month that used to be considered low season, with full hotels and higher spending in bars and restaurants and in commerce, generating jobs and income for the people,” he argued.

A multiplier

Lady Gaga’s megashow will be sponsored by private companies with the support of the state and city governments.

The survey shows that, when Madonna’s concert took place, in May 2024, the collection of the tax on services, a municipal tax, surged by 13.8 percent, already discounting inflation.

Activities related to tourism, events, entertainment, transportation, the airport and road sector, and artistic activities saw an increase in revenue of BRL 7.3 million from May 2023 (BRL 52.5M) to May 2024 (BRL 59.8M).

Rio is also expected to gain from exposure in the international media. The event organizers say that, just the announcement of the concert alone the estimated free publicity in the global media was approximately BRL 280 million, a figure that is expected to exceed BRL 1 billion with the concert itself. For Madonna’s concert, the estimated value was BRL 1.4 billion.

In the view of Riotur President Bernardo Fellows, the attraction reinforces Rio’s capacity to host major events.

“It’s another opportunity to showcase Rio’s international tourist potential,” he said.

Little monsters

In February, as soon as the concert was confirmed, the US singer posted a message on social media.

“It’s a great honor to be asked to sing for Rio—for my whole career the fans in Brazil have been part of the lifeblood of the little monsters,” she wrote.