RIO DE JANEIRO — Lady Gaga’s massive free concert on Copacabana Beach, a sweaty, joyous spectacle that drew over 2 million fans on May 3, 2025, was nearly the target of a chilling bomb plot, Brazilian authorities revealed. The pop icon, belting out hits like “Poker Face” and “Bloody Mary” to a sea of screaming Little Monsters, had no clue about the threat until media reports broke the news the next morning, her spokesperson said.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, working with Brazil’s Justice Ministry, uncovered a scheme orchestrated by a group peddling hate speech and radicalizing teenagers online. The plotters, posing as part of Gaga’s devoted fanbase, aimed to detonate improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails during the show. Their goal? Notoriety on social media, with a twisted focus on targeting the LGBTQ+ community, kids, and teens, police said. Two suspects were nabbed: a man in Rio Grande do Sul, tagged as the ringleader, arrested for illegal firearm possession, and a teenager in Rio detained for storing child pornography. Authorities executed over a dozen search warrants across four states, seizing phones and electronics, though no bombs or weapons were reported found.
Gaga’s team, blindsided by the news, insisted there were no red flags before or during the concert. The singer, draped in a Brazilian flag-inspired dress for part of her set, worked closely with law enforcement to ensure safety, her spokesperson noted. Rio’s security was ironclad, with 3,300 military personnel, 1,500 police officers, and 400 firefighters on the scene. The show went off without a hitch, a historic night that smashed attendance records for a female artist, topping Madonna’s 1.6 million at the same venue last year.
Police kept the plot under wraps during the event to avoid sparking panic among the 2.5 million revelers, a crowd so massive it rivaled Rod Stewart’s 1994 New Year’s Eve gig at Copacabana. The Justice Ministry’s Cyber Operations Lab, tipped off by Rio police intelligence, tracked the group’s digital trail, uncovering coded messages and extremist symbols used to recruit minors for the attack. One suspect, raided in Macaé near Rio, allegedly claimed Gaga was a “Satanist” and planned a “religious” response, authorities said.
Gaga, who hadn’t performed in Brazil since 2012, poured her heart into the show, part of her Mayhem tour. “You waited for more than 10 years for me,” she told the crowd, her voice cracking as she clutched a Brazilian flag. On Instagram the next day, she gushed about the “pride and joy” of singing for Brazil, calling the night “historical” without mentioning the thwarted threat. The concert, bankrolled by Rio’s City Hall to boost the economy, drew 500,000 tourists and injected an estimated $106 million into the city.
Authorities continue to investigate the suspects’ exact roles and whether others were involved. The operation, dubbed “Fake Monster” in a nod to Gaga’s fanbase, exposed a dark underbelly of online extremism targeting vulnerable youth. For now, the singer’s team remains focused on the tour’s next stop in Singapore, leaving Rio’s sandy stage behind—but not its echoes of resilience.