One of the suspects believed to be planning a thwarted terrorist attack at Lady Gaga‘s free Copacabana Beach concert in Brazil this past weekend has revealed their motives – find out more below.
The singer played the biggest show of her career, dubbed ‘Mayhem On The Beach’, at the venue on Saturday night (May 3). A crowd of over two million people gathered on the beach near the Belmond Copacabana Palace Hotel for her first Brazilian show since 2012.
On Sunday (May 4) the Civil Police of Rio De Janeiro State, in co-ordination with the Justice Ministry, said that they thwarted an attempted bomb attack on the show, and had arrested two people after the suspects had allegedly “recruited individuals, including minors, to carry out co-ordinated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails”.
Now, Brazilian authorities have shared new details of the foiled attack, reporting that a third suspect had been planning to execute a “satanist ritual by killing a child or baby” at the free concert. Per a CNN report, authorities claim the suspect believes Lady Gaga is a Satanist herself, and wanted to “respond in the same way”. The suspect was arrested and charged with terrorism and inducing crime.
He was just one of nine suspects investigated following the thwarted terrorist attack. Another suspect was arrested in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm, while more than a dozen search and seizure warrants have been carried out across the states of Rio De Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande Do Sul and São Paulo.
The police operation, dubbed Operation Fake Monster, was based on a tip from Rio De Janeiro’s state police intelligence, which had identified an online group that was encouraging violent behaviour among teenagers with the use of coded language and extremist symbolism.
Following reports of the foiled terrorist attack at the concert, Lady Gaga’s team responded by saying they “learned about this alleged threat via media reports” the morning after the show in a statement. Her team worked with authorities in the lead-up show, and that there were no communications between her team and the police before or during the show in regards to the threat.
Last year, Madonna took over the same venue in Brazil and performed a free show which marked the largest of her career to 1.6million people, and Gaga has now broken Madonna’s record for biggest standalone crowd in music history with an estimated 2.5million attendees.
Gaga released her new album ‘Mayhem’ in March and in a four-star review, NME wrote: “Ultimately, ‘Mayhem’ feels like a great Gaga album because it’s just so much fun. At times, it’s a bit like reconnecting with an old friend who makes sense even when they seem to be chatting nonsense. Seventeen years after she broke through with ‘Just Dance’, Lady Gaga remains pop’s foremost agent of impeccably crafted chaos.”
Meanwhile, news of Lady Gaga’s upcoming US tour was first shared last month, and included dates across the UK and Europe, as well as North America. This was later followed by details of an Australian tour.
Dubbed ‘The MAYHEM Ball’, the latest dates follow the singer gearing up to play her first live shows in Singapore in over a decade. Visit here for UK and European tickets.