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Her free concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach was not disrupted. The police said a group had planned to attack it with improvised explosives.
May 5, 2025, 12:23 a.m. ET
The police in Brazil said on Sunday that they had foiled a plot to detonate explosives at a Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro, an event that, by some estimates, drew more than two million people.
Rio de Janeiro’s civil police made the announcement a day after Lady Gaga’s free concert on Copacabana Beach. The show proceeded without disruption, and a representative for the pop star later told The Associated Press that she had learned about the threat from news media reports.
The police said the group behind the foiled plot had been recruiting would-be participants, including teenagers, to carry out attacks with improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails. It said the group’s targets included children, adolescents and members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
The group’s leader was arrested in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm, and a teenager was arrested for storing child pornography, the police said in the announcement. It was not immediately clear if either person had been charged.
Representatives for Lady Gaga, a vocal supporter of L.G.B.T.Q. rights, did not respond to an inquiry on Sunday night.
Her show over the weekend was part of Rio de Janeiro’s strategy of attracting major acts to play enormous free concerts on Copacabana Beach. Madonna played one last year.
Jack Nicas contributed reporting.
Mike Ives is a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the world.
