Brazilian police arrest 2 in suspected plot to bomb Lady Gaga’s massive concert in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO — Police in Brazil said Sunday that two people have been arrested in connection with a suspected plot to detonate a bomb at a free Lady Gaga concert before a crowd of some 2.5 million fans at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, said authorities believed the suspects sought to target Brazil’s LGBTQ+ community at the Saturday night event.

“They were clearly saying that they were planning an attack at Lady Gaga’s concert motivated by sexual orientation,” Cury said at a news conference Sunday.

Rio Police Chief Luiz Lima said the group disseminated hate speech and violent content online “aimed at gaining notoriety in order to attract more viewers, more participants — most of them teenagers, many of them children.”

Even as Brazilian authorities said they arrested suspects in the hours before the show, the biggest of Lady Gaga’s career, the event went ahead without disruption, leading some to question the seriousness of the threat. Serious security concerns typically lead organizers to cancel such massive events, as happened with Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna last year.

Police said nothing about the alleged plot at the time in an effort to “avoid panic” and “the distortion of information,” authorities said.

A spokesperson for Lady Gaga said the pop star and her team “learned about this alleged threat via media reports this morning. Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks.”

The statement added: “Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.”

Security was tight at Saturday’s concert, with 5,200 military members and police officers deployed to the beach where fans were reveling in the pop singer’s classic hits such as “Born This Way,” which became something of an LGBTQ+ anthem after its 2011 release.

Authorities arrested two people in connection with the suspected plot — a man described as the group’s leader in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on illegal weapons possession charges and a teenager in Rio on child pornography charges. Police did not elaborate on their exact roles in the alleged plot or on how the group came to target Lady Gaga’s beach concert.

“Those involved were recruiting participants, including teenagers, to carry out integrated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” police said.

The Justice Ministry said that it determined the group posed a “risk to public order.” It said the group falsely presented itself online as “Little Monsters” — Lady Gaga’s nickname for her fans — in order to reach teenagers and lure them into “networks with violent and self-destructive content.”

During a series of raids on the homes of 15 suspects across several Brazilian states, authorities confiscated phones and other electronic devices. Even as police said they believed homemade bombs were intended for use in the planned attack, there was no mention of the raids turning up any weapons or explosive material.

Cury said one of the suspects whose home was raided in the city of Macaé, near Rio, “had a religious motivation” and “claimed the singer [Lady Gaga] was a Satanist.”

In an Instagram post, Lady Gaga said nothing of the suspected plot, but expressed gratitude for the enormous crowd.

“Nothing could prepare me for the feeling I had during last night’s show — the absolute pride and joy I felt singing for the people of Brazil,” she wrote. “The sight of the crowd during my opening songs took my breath away. Your heart shines so bright, your culture is so vibrant and special, I hope you know how grateful I am to have shared this historical moment with you.”

Her free beach concert stood out at a time of surging ticket prices for live music around the world as concertgoers pay budget-busting costs to see their favorite artists.

Rio has done this before. Last May, Madonna performed the finale to her latest world tour for some 1.6 million fans on the sprawling sands of Copacabana Beach.